The NewYork Manager City - NYC MEA

1 Summer Managers Sue city Over Eliminationof Pay Raise and Vacation TimeBy Vanessa De SantisThe NYC MEA ExecutiveBoard has authorized fundingfor a suit brought against theMayor, the Comptroller, theChancellor and other high rankingofficials over a breach of contract,arguing that the city s decision tosubsidize a Paid Parental Leave( PPL ) benefit for managers byeliminating a pay raise and two daysof annual leave is discriminatory andarbitrary. The law suit was filed byMEA Counsel Stuart Salles in earlyMay. They did this without consulting us,they did not ask us, said animpassioned Mr. Eber at a well-attended press conference on objects to the way the PPL planis being funded whereby the mostsenior managers are going to losetwo vacation days in order to have30 days given to the few people whowill be taking the benefit each managers in the Mayoralagencies, the Comptroller's Officeand the Department of Educationare scheduled to lose the in , and other Cityemployees who have worked 15years or more, have been eligiblefor 27 days of annual leave since atleast 1986.

2 The pay raise of .47 %was previously granted by the cityand set to go in effect in 2017. PPLis available only upon the birth oradoption of a child by the than 5% of the managerialwork force has a child in any extended parental leave forcity workers is something the MEAsupports, according to MEAP resident Stu Eber. We think it s aterrific benefit we think it shouldbe across the board. Our concernis the Mayor s paymentmethodology, President Eber the MEA members aremanagers, they do not have theability to collectively bargain likeother city workers, who have unioncontracts. This makes themsusceptible to this kind of disregardfrom city leadership. They did not look for alternativemeans of funding this, Mr.

3 Eberemphasized. There are alternativemeans, including the New YorkFamily and Medical Leave Programscheduled to take effect in January2018. After being ignored, we hadno other choice but to file a lawsuit. The suit filed in the New York StateSupreme Court in the County of NewYork alleges that, The Mayor selimination of previously granted payraises and annul leave is arbitraryand capricious, a breach of contractand discriminates against olderworkers in violation of older workers rights. The MEA-funded suit is filed in thenames of MEA members WasylKinach, a Manager with the NYCC omptroller s Office, BarbaraMarkowitz, a Manager with the NYCD epartment of Health and MentalHygiene, Bonnie Donovan Williams,a Manager with the NYC Parks andRecreation Department, BernardOrlan, a Manager with the NYCD epartment of Education and DarrellSims, a Manager with the NYCD epartment of Housing,Preservation and suit is being brought againstdefendants NYC Mayor Bill deBlasio, Schools Chancellor CarmenFari a, NYC Comptroller ScottStringer and NYC CommissionersMitchell Silver, Mary Travis Bassettand Vicki Been.

4 The first court dateis set for some time in late July. We re hoping for a quickdetermination, said MEA CounselStuart President Stu Eber responds toquestions about Paid Parental Leaveat a press conference June RETIREESThe Retirees Page on our web siteis updated check in for news: S AND TREASURER S REPORTS efforts have increased ourmembership and therefore ourincome. According to Mr. Landas, in the mid1990 s the large public accountingfirms suggested that nonprofits havethree to six months of budgetedexpenses as reserves. That means theMEA s reserves of $200,000 representover three months of obligations. TheNYC MEA is 47 years old andcontinues to reflect sound Landas said that we establishedthe NYC MEA Career DevelopmentProgram, a 501 (c) (3) organization, in2013.

5 The CDP paid for $10,750 inscholarships and paid for the annualHoliday Scholarship Party at BatteryPark Gardens in 2015. The CDPended 2015 with a surplus of $8, revenues funded over $230,000in members services and the $312,000in salaries and fringe benefits for theExecutive Director and five office staffthat serve members every workingday. The elected officials of the MEAare unpaid. Treasurer Landas creditedthe continued fiscal stability to hispredecessor, Warren Lewis, and to the2015 Finance Committee that includesretirees Sam Borkow, Fred Sachs,Joseph Taffaro and Pat Toner. FormerTreasurer Warren Lewis six yeartenure ended in 2015. We salute for his outstanding contributionto the MEA, said Mr.

6 Landas. Creditalso goes to the collective efforts of theExecutive Board, the elected officersled by President Stu Eber and theMEA office under the leadership ofExecutive Director Linda Barnes. BENEFITSAND SEMINARS - TheOrganization Committee, under theleadership of Joel Fishelson,continues to plan, develop, implement,improve and monitor MEA members only benefits. The Voluntary InsuranceProgram is one such benefit that hasenhanced the MEA , this spring, we conducted threefinancial planning seminars. We arealways interested in hearing ourmembers feedback on our seminars and so far the responses have beenvery positive, said President ELECTIONS - MEA elections werecompleted in 2015.

7 President StuEber, Executive Vice President ShellyShulman and Director-at-Large CarolDavid were reelected. The new teammembers are Treasurer EdgarLandas, Recording Secretary SherriPorcu and Director-at-Large S REPORTMEA Treasurer Edward Landasreported surpluses for Calendar Years2014 and 2015. It will not be necessary to increaseour members dues for the foreseeablefuture, said Mr. Landas at the June 9 General Membership Meeting presenting the independent auditor sreview of the MEA s financialstatements for 2014 and annual financial audit conductedlast month by Gould, Kobrick &Schlapp, and showed a $35,723surplus in 2014 and a $93,403 surplusin 2015. We have increased our surpluses byover $235,000 since 2009, an averageof almost $40,000 a year, saidTreasurer Landas.

8 Our outreachPresident Stu Eber said that, It sbeen a busy year for the MEA! Ourmembers, along with our staff,challenged the city s method offunding the Mayor s Paid ParentalLeave benefit. We are now workingthrough the available legal channelsto make our members voices heardon this very important issue. Since theMayor, Comptroller and Chancellorrebuffed our request for a moratoriumon the give-backs, on May 9th ourlegal counsel Stuart Salles filed alawsuit along with an Article 78. Whilewe support Paid Parental Leave, wewant to see it implemented without theillegal, discriminatory, and mandatedgivebacks of the two days of annualleave and loss of the pay raiseimposed by the Mayor for 2017.

9 Aside from the potential courtroomdrama, here are the other key issueson the MEA docket:STRATEGIC PLAN - The ExecutiveBoard continues to implement ourStrategic Plan to move theorganization and our membersforward. We continue to prioritizepromoting from within, encourageagencies to promote managerialdiversity, address issues of salarycompensation and increasemembership. For calendar year 2015we enrolled 585 new members! Thatbrings our Association s total up toover 3000 managers. And we re The third installmentof the across-the-boardsalary increases approved by Mayorde Blasio will be issued September 1,2016. We remain proud of oursuccessful, collaborative discussionswith OLR to obtain this case you were unable to attend our June 9 General Membership Meeting, here are the highlights of thePresident s and Treasurer s annual reports:Pieces&BitsBy Linda A.

10 Barnes, NYC MEA Executive DirectorFirst Annual HEROES DinnerHonoring Four Outstanding ManagersBy Vanessa DeSantisManhattan borough President Gale Brewer and Mindy Tarlow, Director of theMayor s Office of Operations, present the HEROES Award to Joe MEA and the CareerDevelopment Program awarded fouroutstanding city managers at its firstannual HEROES dinner in LowerManhattan's Beekman Pub on idea to nominate and honormanagers for superlative work camefrom the desire to recognize leadersof city government while raisingmoney for the Career DevelopmentFund s scholarship program." city managers are rarely recognizedfor all we have done to make NewYork the greatest city in the world,"said Joel Fishelson, MEA's SeniorAdvisor, speaking to packed room ofcity workers and their President Stu Eber welcomedthe crowd and acknowledged severalguests, such as Gale Brewer, BoroughPresident of manhattan and MindyTarlow, Director of the Mayor's Officeof Operations.