OCAA Members,
Happy Holidays to everyone. As a reminder, we have Monday December 25, 2023, off work as a holiday. Also as indicated below, your leave provisions reset at the end of the fiscal year and not the calendar year. Per our new MOU, your bar fees and OCBA memberships are paid by the County. Please check with your individual offices and follow any necessary protocols to facilitate those payments. If you would like to join a specific section of OCBA, those expenses should be reimbursable through the EPRP program which is processed through OC Meter.
YEAR IN REVIEW
2023 was a very active year for OCAA. After months of negotiating, we achieved a new contract with raises and other benefits that have already gone into effect. OCAA also successfully won a PERB hearing against the County, personally represented dozens of members in numerous issues, and have implemented new plans to strengthen our organization in the future. We recently held elections and our 2024 Executive Board will be:
2024 OCAA Executive Board
Alternate Defender – Ben Russel
Child Support Services – Joshua Lee
County Counsel – Sarah Hendrickson
District Attorney – Vincent Marinaccio, Stephanie Caughlin, Nate Barrett,
Sarah Rahman, and Cyril Yu
Public Defender – Brian Fusco, Annie Rodriguez, and Amber Poston
We would like to give a special thanks to Josh Doddridge and Mallory Miller for their years of service on the Executive Board. Executive Board positions are non-paid and require hundreds of hours of work to protect the rights of all our members. Both Josh and Mallory served as PAC Board members as well which meant they volunteered even more time representing our membership and cultivating relationships. We all owe a debt of gratitude for all their hours spent and work performed. We thank you both Josh and Mallory for all their service on the Executive Board and welcome Brian and Stephanie.
REPORTING MCLE COMPLIANCE Attorneys with last names beginning with the letters H-M need to report their MCLE Compliance. Group 2 (H-M) Attorneys with last names beginning with H-M have a compliance period of 2/1/21-1/31/24 and have a deadline to report of February 1, 2024. Those Attorneys will be able to report their compliance between December 1, 2023, and February 1, 2024. Your MCLE Requirements can be found on the State Bar Website: (https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Attorneys/MCLE-CLE/Requirements)
USE YOUR TIME!
Finally, as a continued reminder please remember the following codes on your timecard reset at the end of the fiscal year which means it must be used no later than pay period #13 (May 31, 2023 to June 13, 2023). These provisions do not rollover.
- Attorney Unit Leave aka Snivel, formerly Attorney Leave with Pay. 24 hours a year available to Attorney III who are not on probationary status and Attorney IV and higher who were required to work hours substantially above the norm for an extended period of time (Pages ATT- 26-27 of MOU).
- Personal Business Leave Elapsed aka PBL, 40 hours a year which is taken out of your available sick leave which can be used for any purpose. You must have the necessary hours available in your sick leave to use this time. (Page ATT- 21 of MOU).
- School Conferences and Events (Parent Child School Leave Elapse) a parent, legal guardian, or grandparent who has custody of child enrolled in a California public or private school, kindergarten through grade 12, or in a licensed day care facility, may use up to 10 hours of PTOs to attend school conferences and events. Any activity that is sponsored, supervised, or approved by the school, school board, or child care facility is acceptable. (Page ATT- 22 of MOU)
- Leave for Attendance at Professional Conferences an employee may request three (3) days (24 hours) Leave with pay each fiscal year for attendance at professional conferences subject to the following conditions: (1) a request made in advance in the manner prescribed by the department; (2) the conference is job related; (3) Costs connected with the conference attendance, including registration, meals, transportation and/or lodging if any, are not provided under Article IV Section 13 of the MOU; and (4) the employee’s performance is standard or above. There are limits to this provision which are found in the MOU. (Pages ATT- 31 – 32).
- Vacation Payout (discretionary payout of either two separate increments of 60 hours each or a single payout of 120 hours from your vacation bank. As a reminder your vacation caps out at 480 hours. After 480 hours you stop accruing vacation time (Pages ATT- 36 – 37 of MOU).
For you convenience our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) can be found here: OCAA MOU