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The first Agency Professional Committee meeting between 1199 delegates and DP&CS will be held on February 16, 2012 at the 1199 union hall in Columbus, Ohio. In the meantime, a few important questions related to the canvass and recall process have arisen, and since the facts inherent to the questions are relevant to officers across the state, 1199 requested that the agency provide a written response to them. The questions and answers are reprinted below. While question number 3 is specific to Miami County, the response applies to problems the agency has had recalling officers to vacancies statewide.

1. When new Senior Officer positions are posted statewide, will former senior officers who bumped into regular PO spots have to re-apply for those positions, or as former Seniors, will they simply have the right to canvass into them (even though they're no longer technically Seniors)? Parole Officers who were bumped from Senior positions will not be eligible to canvass to available Senior assignments until they become Senior Parole Officers again through recall or Article 30 hiring.


2. It appears that DAS is taking an inordinately long time to process the personnel actions from the canvass. Is there anything DRC can do to speed up the process? There has been no hold up processing the personnel actions for canvassing. The process itself is time consuming, mostly because we have to post for 10 days and then process the "bids," but DAS is not holding up any personnel actions.


3. Is the Miami County position that wasn't bid on going to be filled through recall? (It sounds as though the position has been sitting vacant for a while, and the members are wondering when recall will begin.) If there is a candidate listed for recall, yes the Miami positions will be filled through recall. It is taking a very long time to receive a recall candidate (1 at a time) back to DRC Personnel from DAS. Once that occurs, Personnel has to exhaust a process of contacting the recall candidate, which includes calling and sending a certified letter. Again, one candidate at a time. This can be a time consuming process. This issue has been addressed with DAS. We were told they are currently processing layoffs for other agencies as well as our own and will send the requested lists as soon as they can. We want to fill these positions as soon as possible.


4. Do you have an update you can give us regarding the agency's budget given the issues from last fall? We have no news on how the economy and the State's budget will impact our operations beyond what was announced in March. DRC continues to monitor the budget and the various reorganization and cost savings initiatives put in place by the agency since March of 2011. This has been and will be a continuous process throughout the biennium. As we have said in previous APC meetings, we can make no promises moving forward about the budget's operational impact on us, but as of right now there are no planned cuts impacting APA operations or staff.

If you have questions or issues that should be discussed at the February APC meeting, please email them to an 1199 APA delegate in your region, or to the 1199 Administrative Organizer, Leah Davis, at ldavis@seiu1199.org.

Members of the State of Ohio Chapter,

Many of you have noticed that on your most recent check stub another 80 hours of CSD's has appeared. SEIU District 1199 contacted the Office of Collective Bargaining this morning and they have reassured us that this is an OAKS programming error.

Cost savings days are not available to be used and DAS is working with OAKS to correct the issue, and these CSD hours will be disappearing from your paycheck stub soon.

If anyone has any questions or concerns please feel free to contact your organizer.

On May 16, 2011, representatives of SEIU/District 1199 met with Senator Scott Oelslager to discuss the union's concerns with aspects of the House version of the state operating budget before the Senate Finance Committee. Senator Oelslager said he plans to offer amendments to the DP&CS budget cuts within the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections budget.

District 1199 has requested restoration of the funding within the GRF 503321 Line (Parole and Community Operations) of the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections Budget for FY 2012-13, and the reinstatement of the PSI and OBI writing responsibility to the Adult Parole Authority.

Senator Oelslager shares District 1199's concern that this budget item will have drastic, negative consequences for parole services in Ohio, and will continue to work with the union to draft an amendment that protects the safety of both parole officers and Ohio's citizens.

The amendments are currently being drafted and Senator Oelslager is working within his caucus to have this amendment added to the Senate's substitute budget bill.

Amendments to Ohio's State Budget were due to the Senate Finance Committee Chairman's office on Thursday, May 26 and the committee may vote on the budget as early as Tuesday, May 31. Later in the week, the full Senate will vote on the budget.

Please call your senator today! You can call 1.800.282.0253 or Click here to find your state senator and his/her email address.

Tell your Senator you are concerned that the state budget relies on proposals that hurt Ohio's ability to create jobs and deep cuts to education, human services and local governments will harm Ohio families. Ohio needs solutions beyond cuts to programs and services to make the state a great place to live and work.

When you call your senator, consider the following script:

We cannot balance the budget, create jobs and help families with spending cuts alone. We need revenue, like closing tax loopholes. In order to invest in the public structures businesses and families need high-quality education, a well-trained and healthy workforce, and excellent communities.

By Monday, April 18, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine must report his decision on the suitability of language for petitions to overturn Senate Bill 5.

If DeWine declines the petition language, the petition would have to be rewritten and resubmitted with another thousand signatures. All requirements can be found by clicking here.

Then opponents of SB5 will have until June 29 to file 231,149 valid signatures with the Ohio Secretary of State's office so the referendum to appear on the November ballot in Ohio.

To get involved, go to fightforafaireconomy.org

Plans have been announced to close Montgomery Pre-release by the end of the year and transfer all the staff to Dayton Correctional Institution.

Once this transfer is complete, Dayton Correctional will become a women's correctional facility with a double-bunking population. Dayton will remain a state-operated facility covered under the pre-existing collective bargaining agreements.

SEIU District 1199 was only just informed of this news today, Thursday, April 7 at 3:30 pm. As of this time, no layoff rationale has yet been received. See your organizer for more information.

Sisters and Brothers of the APA and ODRC Chapters of SEIU District 1199:

It has been brought to our attention that at recent town halls and various other meetings with members of APA/ODRC management, questions have been raised regarding the content of a conversation that took place on February 3, 2011 in DRC Director Gary Mohr's office. Attending that meeting from 1199 were Senior Executive Vice President Al Bacon, Public Division Coordinator Josh Norris, APA Delegate Jim Corrin and ODRC Executive Board member Carl Bridgeforth. Attendees from management included Director Mohr, Deputy Director Janes, Al Lazaroff and another member of Director Mohr's staff. During that meeting, our first with Mr. Mohr as director of the agency, we discussed his vision of potential changes to corrections and his intentions of what was to come. During that meeting Mr. Mohr was very clear that his top priority was to refocus the agency on unit management, a concept that he felt had erroneously been absent in the recent past. We specifically asked questions about the sale and/or privatization of any of the DRC institutions, or their components, as that was clearly one of our concerns and one that was on the forefront of the discussion since Mr. Mohr's appointment. Mr. Mohr stated that he was still working through the initial ideas of where cuts could be made, but that he was not pre-determined that any institution would be privatized or sold, and went on to state that he was examining where cost savings could be achieved, and that if something made sense to outsource he would consider it, but that he had no intention of privatizing any certain institution, and that no decisions had been made as of that date. He did encourage us to remind members of his upcoming meeting to explore cost savings measures submitted by employees.

The conversation then turned to the potential impact to APA. Jim Corrin began by describing the recent history of the number of parole officers steady decline in recent years and the increasingly unmanageable case load sizes. Mr. Corrin stated that the APA had gone from nearly 1000 parole officers 10 or so years ago to just under 500 currently and asked Director Mohr if the parole officers could expect any additional officers to help with the growing number of offenders and increasing case load sizes. Director Mohr responded that he did not anticipate that any additional parole officers would be hired any time soon due to the budget situation, but that he also did not foresee any decrease in the current number of parole officers, again Director Mohr stated that he DID NOT FORSEE ANY DECREASE IN THE CURRENT NUMBER OF PAROLE OFFICERS.

Since that time it has become evident that this statement from Director Mohr was less than forthright, and that he and his staff have chosen to dismiss and dispute the fact that he even made the statement. Just to set the record straight, it was said, by Director Mohr in front of 4 members of 1199, all of whom recall hearing the EXACT SAME THING. As to why members of the DRC staff have chosen to distort the truth or deny that this conversation took place is something that only they can answer, again we simply wanted to take this opportunity to set the record straight. It is very troubling that rather than admit that he made the statement and then changed his mind, Director Mohr and his staff have chosen to be disingenuous in regards to something as simple as a candid conversation amongst professionals.

It has also been brought to our attention that recently members of the DRC management staff have made allegations that 1199 was approached about potential negotiations to reduce or eliminate the possibility of layoffs of parole officers and that 1199 advised that we were not interested in negotiations. This is also 100% FALSE, to the contrary, 1199, during this exact same meeting, specifically told all in attendance, that if management did indeed discover that the current contract was an impediment to their future intentions and that negative impacts to 1199 members would result, to please approach us with their concerns and we would gladly sit down and discuss possible alternatives. The exact statement that was made was by Josh Norris was, "Do not let the contract be an impediment to future decisions, we are ALWAYS willing to discuss all available options." Obviously management has chosen to make unilateral decisions without accepting this invitation.

1199 has no reason to be misleading or to lend false hope to any of our members, we have never operated in that fashion and do our absolute best to insure that all information we receive, good or bad, is communicated to our membership FACTUALLY, and as quickly as possible. Please feel free to contact 1199 representatives with any questions or concerns you may have during these troubling and concerning times. Thanks.

In Solidarity,
Al Bacon SEIU Senior Executive Vice President
Josh Norris SEIU Public Division Coordinator