GCEA Director’s Meeting March 2025
GCEA BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
The regular meeting of the Board of Directors was held on March 19, 2025, in person in the Perkins Room and via Teams. Meeting was called to order by Sean Toro, President at 12:14 pm. Roll was called. Guests in attendance: Anna Osborne, CEA and Greg Asaturian, GCEA
FINANCE REPORT:
The February Profit and Loss report was reviewed by the Finance committee and approved via email. The report will be distributed with approved March Minutes.
MINUTES APPROVAL:
February Meeting Minutes were approved via voting buttons. Please post in your department if you have not already done so.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT:
• Human Resources has decided to eliminate positions within the city. Any movement from HR needs to be reviewed by the GCEA to make sure that the position eliminations do not conflict with our MOU.
• The Civil Service Commission is supposed to send their report to the GCEA for approval prior to submitting it to council. The GCEA has not received the report in a timely manner. Paula Adams, HR Director, has stated that going forward the GCEA will have five (5) business days to review any changes prior to being submitted.
• Meeting on March 19, 2025, with HR and City Manager regarding the city transitioning the medical premium changes to a calendar year schedule from the fiscal year. It is currently June 1 to May 30th of every year.
• Salary Survey will be discussed with HR and City Manager as well.
o Some salaries are currently being adjusted. One board member has had his salary adjusted however HR could not explain how they arrived at the new salary. Explanation received, “it’s complicated”. Sean will discuss this response with HR in the scheduled meeting.
o HR needs to clarify how they evaluate, adjust and certify positions.
• Need to recruit additional directors for the board. If anyone would like to share ideas on how to recruit members and grow our board, email Sean.
VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT:
• Patty Mundo stated she will be unavailable the week of March 24 – 28 due to a work conference.
• Every director needs to serve on at least one (1) committee per our board pledge. If you are not currently serving, contact the office and see which committees need assistance.
• Reviewed Flex and Overtime options. Remember that either option must be mutually agreed upon between employee and supervisor prior to working the time. Your supervisor cannot require you to flex your time.
o Anna Osborne, CEA discussed the option for pay to be counted by PERS with overtime.
• The New Employee Orientation Committee would like ideas on how to change the presentation. We need to find a way to keep those in the presentation engaged during the meeting.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Community Alliance – Joe Palos, Leslie Fox, Sean Toro and Patty Mundo met and went over events and donations for the committee to participate in and discussed past events.
The committee will be participating in the Cesar Chavez event coming up on March 29th. We will need as many volunteers as possible to interact with the public as they attend the event. Membership is welcome to volunteer at this event. Bertha, Sean, Leslie, Isabella, Greg and Joe will be volunteering at the Cesar Chavez event.
Jessica Baracel and Joe will secure the dry ice and paletas which will be handed out to those visiting the GCEA booth. Large coolers are in the GCEA office. Sean will bring tee shirts for volunteers to wear and GCEA pens to give away.
The GCEA would like to convey to the public who the GCEA is; who makes up the GCEA; and what the GCEA does for the public.
Isabella Alvarez requested to join the committee.
Political Action – Nothing to report.
Benefits – Joe met with Jaime Avalos regarding the Joint Labor Committee. According to Jaime there was never a decision made regarding police, fire, IBEW and the GCEA coming together to form a committee to align medical benefits. As of now, this committee has been put on hold.
The city’s broker for medical insurance made changes to the medical plans. This will need to be addressed with HR as no changes were to be made at this time.
Pers Conference will be in Palm Desert. Joe will keep the board posted as to whether he will be attending.
Social Media – Kerri Zelenak presented in the absence of Elisabeth Bergman. The Q&A section on the website is ready to be posted.
Sean is working on a quarterly newsletter to be sent to membership.
We will not be hosting an Instagram page at this time.
Employee Assistance – All loans are current, and all paperwork was received from recipients needed to complete the files.
Scholarship – Leslie Fox stated the committee has not met but will need to soon.
New Employee Orientation – Kerri presented in absence of Elisabeth. Changes are being made to the presentation to keep attendees more engaged in the process.
Bylaws– Sean reported the committee is close to submitting the bylaws to CEA for one last review prior to sending to the membership for a vote.
DISCUSSION/COMMENTS:
• Sean is in the process of refreshing the office space downstairs. It is his hope that we will be able to host our GCEA meetings in the office in the very near future.
• Kerri Zelenak brought up scheduled time off for a brief discussion.
• Need to install code on the copier in the GCEA office to protect usage.
• Jeff Brown introduced Greg Asaturian. Jeff has stepped down as a director and Greg will be assuming the role. Greg has worked for the City of Glendale for 3 years.
Motion to adjourn made by Bertha Albright.
The motion was seconded by Joe Palos.
Minutes respectively submitted by Stephanie Kinnison.
