Employee Assembly Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, March 7, 2001
12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Day Hall Boardroom

I. Call to Order and Introductions

D. Darby, Chair, called the meeting to order at

Attendance:

Present: Timothy Anguish, Sharon Bahringer, Deb Billups, Dawn Darby, Joseph DeMarco, Thomas Hoebbel, Dawne Martyniak, Cindy Monroe, Marlene Reitz, Cheri Woodward

Absent: Francisco Berry, Brian Goodell

Excused: Denise Howland

Others Present: Hope Mandeville, Greg Pratt, Dennis Stein

II. Approval of Minutes

D. Darby asked for changes to the minutes.

C. Woodward stated that she was excused from the last meeting and was not present.

D. Darby entertained a motion to approve the minutes.

D. Martyniak made a motion to approve the minutes.

S. Bahringer seconded the meeting.

The minutes were unanimously approved as amended by the Employee Assembly.

III. Open Forum

D. Darby read the flyer that was handed out from the Office of Workforce Diversity, Equity and Life Quality. It’s titled “Sharing Our World” and there are three events, LGBT Cultural Event: Kitchen Theater Production, “Stop Kiss” on March 15, 6–10 PM plus reception at the Odyssey, Reception for New Women Faculty and Staff on March 29, 6–8 PM Johnson Art Museum, Moving Wall Vietnam War Memorial on May 1–5th. For further information, please call the OWDELQ at 255–3976.

D. Darby asked for other items.

D. Stein gave EA members a heads up that the staff graduation that will take place on May 31, 2001 has become an annual event. In the past the funds have been sponsored by the Office of Human Resources and the Office of Assemblies. D. Stein will be putting a proposal together to ask the EA to share funding with the Office of Human Resources for the staff graduation.

D. Darby asked D. Stein to meet with D. Howland to have the Education Committee present that request.

D. Darby asked for other items.

T. Hoebbel stated that he is having a solo photo shoot at Juno’s caf� and he will be sending out an email.

IV. Business of the Day

Emergency Grant Ad Hoc Fund Recommendations

D. Darby asked for the recommendations from the committee.

D. Billups said that her understanding was that the March 28th meeting is when the committee was going to provide the EA with the final recommendations.

D. Billups updated the EA on the first award to the recipient. The check was delivered to the recipient. There was talk of having 2 separate committees, one would be the grant fund review committee and one would be the fund raising committee. She also mentioned that there is an opportunity to have some fund raising at the weekend hockey games by having EA members sell t-shirts or hats at the game. The campus store is willing to donate 10% of the total sales towards the grant fund.

D. Billups made a motion to establish a fund raising committee now so that the committee can start planning events for the roll out of the fund on April 1, 2001.

T. Hoebbel said that the EA needs to vote on establishing the committee.

D. Darby asked if there is a second.

T. Hoebbel seconded it.

D. Darby asked for any discussion or objections. There were none.

T. Hoebbel asked if there are any volunteers?

D. Darby asked for volunteers to join the fund raising committee.

D. Billups said that it would be nice to have a few events lined up before the roll out on April 1st.

G. Pratt asked how many fund raising events can you run on campus? Is there an office on campus that keeps track of this information?

T. Hoebbel said that the main focus of this committee would be to work on a way to get regular contributions, possibly through payroll deductions.

G. Pratt, and D. Stein volunteered to work on this committee.

D. Billups discussed the draft of the application. Several HR reps and other committees have looked at the draft. She asked EA members to review it now and make any suggestions or changes.

Livable Wage

T. Hoebbel passed around copies of an article on Tompkins County livable wage that was on the front page of the Ithaca Journal. He also has the mission statement from the Tompkins County living wage coalition. Please take a look at it at your leisure and give it consideration for the next meeting. He would like to make a motion that the Employee Assembly joins either the Tompkins County Living Wage Coalition or the Cornell Living Wage Coalition or both.

D. Stein asked T. Hoebbel, what it means to join the coalition?

T. Hoebbel said that to become a member of the Tompkins County Living Wage Coalition, means that your organization is in full agreement with the coalitions mission statement and is willing to be listed as a member.

D. Darby asked T. Hoebbel if he could get information on the Cornell Livable Wage Coalition and Tompkins County Livable Wage to the EA members before the next EA meeting.

T. Hoebbel will email A. Bunce when he receives the information.

D. Darby asked if there is any other discussion.

T. Hoebbel will have more information on what people can do to support the coalition, so please contact him.

M. Reitz asked for clarification. Is it legal to join as an EA? You can’t use the logo for Cornell without going through red tape.

T. Hoebbel said we should be able to join as a decision making body.

D. Darby said she remembers that the attorney’s were contacted last year to look at the charter to see if there would be a problem with the EA joining a specific wage dispute.

H. Mandeville responded that Mike Kimberly from the counsel’s office said that the EA has no legislative authority.

D. Darby asked for other discussion.

T. Anguish said taking it one step further; we still haven’t followed up on the President’s address. We need to follow up on that.

T. Hoebbel agreed with T. Anguish and joining the coalition is one piece that he wants to bring to the group. There was an article in the Worth Reading. This group should spend time and research what Cornell Staff’s living wage should be, get back up and present it.

T. Anguish said that salary adjustments are for your benefit, based on what the market is, job qualifications, and terms of employment.

C. Woodward said that if we hold off for a month or two, we might see something happen on the President’s initiatives.

D. Stein said that if this group feels that they need to speak to somebody from HR regarding where they are with these things, he is willing to be the go between to extend that invitation.

T. Anguish said that he wants to make sure that the part that he talked about doesn’t get pushed aside and that it’s addressed at the next EA luncheon.

G. Pratt said that the Cornell coalition has already done the groundwork, we should look over what they have already done.

T. Hoebbel agreed with G. Pratt. His intention was not to brush aside T. Anguish point.

President’s Response to EA Participation Resolution

D. Darby said that the last paragraph is the President’s response refers to the university committee and not the EA committee. D. Darby will contact the Personnel Policy Committee and have them make recommendations.

Electronic Voting

H. Mandeville said that T. Anguish had sent out an email to the members about the electronic voting.

T. Anguish said that the student voting is going on now and that the EA members should stop by a location and check it out. The IOC would like to meet the last week of March to discuss the electronic voting/paper ballot issue and compare the two.

D. Darby really thinks that this needs all of the EA input. Some members don’t have computers to use.

G. Pratt said that he will not be in town the last week in March, but he is very interested in helping out because he has a few thoughts.

D. Darby asked for other discussion. There was none.

EA Budget

D. Darby said that there are 4 options that the EA has. Option one is to accept the regularized budget of $9,250, The second option is to submit a proposal to increase the base to $10,250, The third option is to accept #1 for this year and get an extra 2%. The fourth option is to not accept #1,2 or 3 and start from scratch.

H. Mandeville stated that when funds are left over from the budget they will be carried over to the next year’s budget.

S. Bahringer asked when the budget is due?

T. Hoebbel said that he was told March 15th. If the EA wants a regularized budget then it should be the $10, 250 plus the 2%. If the EA does not want a regularized budget then they should vote for #4.

D. Martyniak said that after doing a lot of research on the budget, she feels that the 3rd option would be best.

D. Darby asked what the process is if the EA accepts a regularized budget and then wants to change it? There are new ideas each year and suggests the EA to think twice about using a regularized budget. She would never worry about the EA not having financial support.

S. Bahringer feels that this information is good but doesn’t feel that there is enough information before voting on this.

D. Stein said that his personal favor is number 3. A regularized budget would be easier for this group.

G. Pratt feels that his biggest concern is a single-hand in the honey pot.

T. Anguish stated that we should go with what we have and have our own people looking for funds to share costs on events.

D. Darby said that each year the assembly inherits lasts years budget and the new assembly may not want or need that money. The EA is elected and accountable. There are no checks and balances with the current budget system. Oversight comes from Office of Assemblies and R. Reese’s office.

D. Darby entertained a motion to reject offer number 1.

G. Pratt is concerned about submitting a budget at this time; the budget isn’t sufficient to stand up to an offense.

D. Stein said, if the university is giving us money then we are accountable for it.

D. Darby said that the first level is to be accountable to employees.

M.Reitz asked if this has been discussed at other meetings?

D. Darby said not really, we just found out about the base amount.

T. Hoebbel made a motion to pursue option #2.

M. Reitz seconded it.

D. Darby asked for discussion.

T. Anguish asked if we have any of these options?

T. Hoebbel said that if the EA decides on #2, we send a letter to R. Reese saying that we want next year’s budget to be this number. He might not agree.

D. Darby still has concerns about a regularized budget.

M. Reitz called the question for a regularized budget with the $10, 250. The vote was 2-No, 3 -Opposed, 1 Abstention.

D. Darby entertained a motion for option number 4 which is $12,000, which is what we originally asked for. The motion is to submit a proposal to not accept or reject a regularized budget. The vote was 5-yes, 1-abstain.

T. Anguish asked if the EA could get a copy before the letter is sent.

T. Hoebbel made a motion to adjourn the meeting.

V. Adjournment

D. Darby adjourned the meeting at 1:40 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Amy Bunce