2024 Sloan Sakai CALPELRA Sessions

Sloan Sakai is pleased to provide a preview for our eight sessions at this week’s CALPELRA conference. Read below for details regarding the times, locations, topics, and presenters!

PERB Annual Update

A long-time Conference highlight, this session provides a comprehensive update of the year’s most important PERB cases, court decisions, and key new laws affecting public sector labor relations. This session puts the year’s cases and legislation in context and provides practical advice to help you negotiate successfully in the coming year while avoiding unfair labor practices.

Rules of Engagement: A Union/Management Dialogue on Successful Skelly Strategies

This pre-disciplinary Skelly hearing process session is practical, comprehensive, and entertaining, and has consistently received high marks from attendees in prior years. The program will provide insight and guidance about the pre-disciplinary processes that management must follow when administering serious disciplinary action. Refined and updated from the highly rated Skelly session the presenters gave last year, this workshop will add a new chapter to the discipline saga of a fictionalized unionized public sector manager as he heads into yet another Skelly meeting because of continued misconduct in the workplace. The video of this latest Skelly hearing and the accompanying Skelly notice handout will set the scene for a comprehensive discussion of Skelly’s pre-disciplinary requirements; as well as a lively point/counterpoint exchange between management and union counsel. Also included is a module on how to both avoid implicit bias and foster DEI in the disciplinary/Skelly process.

Elevating Your Negotiations Game: Practical Techniques in Costing Proposals

In times of challenging budgets, competing priorities, and increasing costs, accurately assessing and understanding the financial implications of bargaining proposals becomes increasingly crucial. This session aims to equip attendees with practical techniques for costing proposals effectively, including both annualized and ongoing cost impacts, enabling them to make informed decisions that balance fiscal responsibility with the demands at the bargaining table.

How to Play on an Uneven Field: Strategies for Strike Preparation and Management

California experienced the most labor strikes in the country in 2023. Therefore, the specter of strikes looms large, presenting significant challenges for agencies, employees, and the communities they serve. This session will provide attendees with practical insights and actionable strategies for preparing for and managing strikes. Drawing on real-world examples and expert guidance, participants will gain a deep understanding of the key considerations, legal requirements, and tactical approaches involved in strike preparation and management.

Striking Differences: Panel on How PERB, Employers & Unions Manage Strikes (and Each Other)

In recent years PERB has been aggressively protecting union rights in bargaining. Public employers often feel as if they are bargaining against both a union and PERB, and any mistake can and will be costly. This session will explore the most common mistakes made by public employers during bargaining and provide strategies for avoiding them. Special attention will be given to getting to impasse and strategies for concession bargaining.

Nothing to Hide: Public Agency Executives Play by Different Rules Under the Brown Act

Hiring and firing executives and setting their compensation can be both sensitive and difficult. The Brown Act balances the requirement that a public agency conduct its business transparently against the confidentiality of personnel decisions, even for top executives. This session will explain the requirements and limitations of the Brown Act related to closed session executive employee discussions and provide attendees with the knowledge to prepare proper agenda descriptions; hold closed and open session discussions; approve hiring and firing; and evaluate and pay public agency executives.

Calling Balls and Strikes: How to Become an Arbitrator or Mediator

We all have our “go to” arbitrators and mediators. But those individuals are retiring at a fast rate. Where is the next generation of arbitrators and mediators? It can be you! This panel will discuss what it takes to become an arbitrator or mediator, how to break into the business, and how to prepare your career now for a future as an arbitrator or mediator.

The Pen is Mightier Than the Discipline: Why Words (or Lack Thereof) Matter

When public agencies elect to discipline an employee, the initial Notice of Intent to Discipline and subsequent Final Notice of Discipline set out the narrative as to why the agency is taking such action and the specific grounds upon which it is based. Oftentimes, however, these narratives not only lack appropriate facts, history, or substance, but also the desired result can drive the writing in a manner that fails to support the proposed discipline (as opposed to the other way around). Inadequate notices can cause significant problems in arbitration and other appeals. In this session, Union Counsel Sean Currin, Employer Counsel Steve Shaw, and City Attorney David Nefouse provide tips, guidance, stories, and suggestions on how to best craft effective writing to support the proposed discipline. Offering three distinct perspectives, this session will both educate public employers and provide clarification on issues that frequently arise in matters of discipline.