Lead court reporter Moira Evans, who has 34 years of experience, was there to back up Greene. So were all eight of the remaining court reporters. Evans told County Council they are working nights, weekends, holidays and even through vacations to transcribe testimony.
Jermaine Greene was a bit frustrated. Just four weeks ago, Human Services Director Sue Wandalowski falsely accused him of poaching two Human Services workers and actually asked Council to force them to accept a lower wage as a penalty for their desire to advance their careers. After being initially told there was no problem with his request, Green was told he had to wait because he was subverting the budget process.
"You see the proverbial hoop. I'm jumping through the hoop again," he complained. "First, I'm poaching. Now I'm subverting."
At last night's meeting, the McClure administration had a new reason to reject Greene's request. County Solicitor Missy Rudas told Council they needed the union to bless off on the salaries being proposed through a "Memorandum of Understanding" (MOU) with the County. Council Solicitor Chris Spadoni, however, said it was unnecessary to have one in place before the positions are approved.
Council member Tara Zrinski suggested Greene might want to wait until there's a MOU, Greene declined, and for good reason. When he wanted to increase salaries for underpaid and short-staffed juvenile justice workers, he had to wait over four months for a meeting with the union.
It appears that county unions, which exist to fight for competitive wages, are doing the opposite in Northampton County.
County Council spent a good 40 minutes discussing this matter, mostly to puish aside roadblocks set up by Zrinski. Most of this was unnecessary. Council member John Cusick summed things up: "There's no more core function than a court reporter. I don't know why we're even debating this."
Interestingly, after Greene was finished, the jail asked for another sergeant. Nobody in the administration suggested that the jail should wait until budget time.
This double standard was not lost on Council.
In other business that matters a great deal to county workers, Council did vote to get proposals for along-awaited pay study. They will be getting proposals for a performance review at Gracedale. And they endorsed pay increases to themselves, the Controller and Executive, starting at the next term of office.
I will fill you in with details on Monday.
15 comments:
Let's be clear it took too long berceuse Tara Zirinski kept repeating the script the administration gave her over and over again. She just made herself look silly. What is with McClure and the courts? The guy seems to have it out for them.
Maybe the incredibly wasteful boondoggle of a human services taj mahal can transcribe? Maybe Gracedale can transcribe? We make historically poor decisions on spending; then, we're unable to perform the core functions of county government. Nice work, Lamont. Far worse than disgraceful Glenn Reibman, the Jimmy Carter of Northampton County.
we have enough fake media we do not need anymore. Truth be told the fake media may be our worse problem because of their cover ups and lies. Just like you who only prints lies.
norco is nothing short of an unadulterated snafu. It is the voters fault. They keep electing execs that can't lead ants to a picnic (sort of like Bethlehem). Then when the so called leaders get entrenched they suddenly become all knowing and all seeing, though they are blind to their own inaptness.
Council is not much better, but they have two advantages. They out number the exec and they hold the purse strings.
Time for the people to wake up and force council and the exec to fix the mess that has been created over the years. It can only get worse and norco become even more dysfunctional.
Hey Bernie - crazy idea - would your deleting any comment with the word “fake” improve the quality of those comments remaining? The word is a trope and a cop out and it devalues the forum.
John, Comments like that one come from the fascist wing of the GOP, whose members have deluded themselves into thinking they are patriots. I published it so we all know they're out there.
"It appears that county unions, which exist to fight for competitive wages, are doing the opposite in Northampton County."
I don't know why you would say this other than to agitate people. Negotiations in NORCO are take it or leave it deals. This has been a problem for many administration's now and it is finally being shown. NORCO was the place to work, which is why I started here. The Unions are weak and the administration takes full advantage. The steps should be automatically given and then maybe people would stay for a career. However this is not cost effective so we have the revolving door.
I say this bc of the shitty wages that have existed far too long in this county. You say you are confronted with a "take it or leave it" approach. The answer is in your complaint. Leave it. Refuse to accept wages that are subpar. Start doing your job. From juvenile justice to civil division to court reporters and all across the board, the wages are too low. And frankly, it is CRIMINAL that it took four months to get a MOU for a wage INCREASE. You need to prove your worth or see many county employees decertify. Why should court reporters belong to a union that stands for a starting wage $10-12k lower than Lehigh? Why do you permit people to be screwed with sub$15 an hour jobs. You're ridiculously inept.
In this age of technology it's amazing to me that we are not taking advantage by using it. I'm sure someone would argue that it could be tampered with or have possible technical problems but people aren't fool proof either. The suggestion of a monitor for a device (perhaps 2 or more for dependability) sounds reasonable.
I don't know if that would require a change of the horrible law requiring 2 party consent with which the recorder and the person being recorded must both agree to be recorded, but considering the law only benefits those who lie it would be great to see it changed.
Take a look at arbitration awards Bernie. When we don't "take it", the emoyees lose in the wages. So it's basically take it or spend money in arbitration to get what was offered. County always wins.
That's a pathetic answer. Governments hate when unions go to arbitration bc the awards almost always go to the union. If you are losing at the arbitration level, it is for one of two reasons: (1) Your demands are so ridiculous that no reasonable person can grant an award in your favor: or (2) You are making shitty presentations.
I suspect the latter. Now I'm going to take a wild leap here and guess you are a CO or a Deputy, where starting salaries are at least arguably in line with what is being paid elsewhere. But I am not talking about your unions, which are quite vocal and active and actually very much needed. I have no beef with you. I am talking about the ridiculous number of bargaining units that do NOTHING for the people they represent. Those courtroom monitors, incidentally, are under $15 an hour. That's ridiculous. Custodians are under $15, and that's ridiculous. People starting in the civil and criminal divisions are under $15. Where are the damn unions? Management tells me that they are never interested in negotiating for people at the bottom. That is absolutely wrong. Those are the very people to whom they have the greatest obligation. The court reporters are unionized. Where has their union been while they fall behind other counties in wages?
It is beyond time to decertify some of these useless unions bc they do nothing for the employee but collect dues.
You guys need to get your shit together and make better cases in arbitration or recognize that some demands are simply ridiculous. It's pretty bad when you lose in arbitration, where you should almost always prevail.
Great wok Bernie, you figured out what I do for a living. I don't disagree with some of what your saying. A physical agility standard is great. As far as demands, they are not out of line. We come in and start at the first step then stay there or close to it. Look at the actual numbers. I will have to work 20 to 30 years to get top pay. I think it's the same at the sheriff's department as well. The jail and sheriff's are held to much higher standards then other departments so that definitely should justify higher pay. I would love an hour of paid gym time since I have to constantly work doubles in order to make a decent living for my family.
I am adamantly against automated court reporting. It is already common knowledge that judges will edit the court report when “approving” the official record for release. The conversation goes something like this “Court reporter, I did not say x. I said y. Please make the correction” and the court reporter does. Using this method, judges have an opportunity to edit the record prior to release to the public or to an individual making an appeal. If we have an automated process, who is the human who makes an ethical decision when put in such a position. Judges cannot be trusted to handle this on their own.
Look at annon 9:27, The McClure gang is going right after the judges. Wow, hitting below the belt.
Digital court reporting technology is here, and has been for years. Across the river, the Supreme Court of NJ has implemented it statewide for probably a decade. Pa could look at other courts to see how it works. During a trial, a "read back" is as simple as rewinding the recording and playing it back...in seconds. No need for a transcriber to find their notes, etc. Court reporters could be hired to transcribe a hearing when it's requested. They shouldn't be overwhelmed with transcript requests from the digital audio files because they won't be typing away during court...court smart records it all. The 1900s are long gone. Time to get up to speed with technology.
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