Minutes - 20090602 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Metadata

Thumbnails

Annotations

the lack of merit raises is only putting the workforce beyond the 8% mark. Asking the employees to vie more while the citizens give up nothing on services and expect new projects to rise seems very unreasonable. The employees that serve the Citizens of Orange County should not be considered an expense but should be looked at as ASSETS! Our ASSETS should not be cut!" Debbie Smith read a prepared statement: "Good evening, I am Debbie Smith, speaking on behalf of the Employee Relations Consortium Pay and Benefits Committee. The ERC represents Orange County employees. We understand the current economic climate and understand all of us - the schools, the public and County employees - must give up something in the next fiscal year as a result of reducing the County budget. With this in mind, we support the pay and benefits component of the County Manager's recommended budget, which does not include a cost of living adjustment or an in- range increase and proposes suspending County 401(k) contributions in the next fiscal year. The hiring freeze and retirement incentive program recommended by the Manager will stretch our resources, and it will be necessary for us to work longer and harder to provide needed services to the residents of Orange County. Any additional cuts beyond what the Manager has recommended would place a greater burden on employees and interfere with our ability to provide these valuable services to the residents of Orange County. The Board has discussed reducing or suspending longevity pay. This cost saving measure would not be spread evenly among all employees. Approximately 40% of employees would lose this benefit while approximately 60% of employees would be unaffected, at least in the short term, by this proposal. Additionally, we feel employees who have been loyal to Orange County for ten or more years should be rewarded for their service. If the Board must consider further reductions to employee pay and benefits, we urge you to consider options that affect all employees and do not require one group to lose more than another. In closing, employees are a valuable asset to Orange County. Further cuts outside of the County Manager's recommended budget would not support that sentiment for current or future employees of Orange County. I thank you for the opportunity to be heard on behalf of the ERC and Orange County employees. We ask that you take our words into serious consideration as you work to accomplish this difficult task that is before you." Adriana Martinez read a prepared statement: "Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Adriana Martinez. I am the Director of Spanish for Fun, a 4-star child care center that serves as a More at Four pre-k site. With greater attention on the achievement gap between majority and minority children and children of wealth versus children of poverty, attention has been focused on the research evidence on the effectiveness of high quality early childhood education as a mechanism to level the playing field. Numerous longitudinal studies have found that children who attended high quality pre-kindergarten programs performed better in multiple dimensions. Studies have found those children are less likely to require special education services, are less likely to repeat a grade, perform higher on literacy and math tests, and are more likely to graduate from high school. A number of states are moving in the direction of universal pre-kindergarten, including Georgia, Florida, and Oklahoma. Oklahoma and Georgia will soon reach more than two-thirds