On June 23, 2023, UPE met with the County in regard to updating the above policy.
Although there was little change in the policy and procedure, UPE did have several requests that would provide clarification to the policy. Management has previously informed us that there are employees that may start later than what the court does; UPE asked if employees knew that they could flex their time on these days. The County said employees know they can flex that time.
We also wanted to know why the task of filing all needed court documents and responses subsequent to Deputy County Counsel review had been shifted from County Counsel Legal Secretary to Deputy Court Function. We made it clear that this seems like a clerical task. The department said the word “file” is misleading and that the Deputy Court Function is simply giving the documents for filing. We requested clear language for the task.
We also requested that the timeframe in which the Deputy Court Function has to send their supervisor-approved court results to clerical be updated from 11:30 am since court can now be held at all times of the business day. The department said they would clarify this timeline to state upon receipt.
UPE also wanted to know why the Supervisor does not just send their approved court results to clerical instead of sending them back to the Deputy Court Function; management stated it is done this way in case clerical has questions. Our team noticed that there is no time frame in which the Supervisors had to get the approved court results back to the Deputy Court Function; the County stated they would update this for the Supervisor to have them back to the Deputy Court Function without delay.
Thank you to the participants for your advocacy
Sarah Singleton and Matthew Von Savoye