Page 11 - Mid Valley Times 7-25-19 E-edition

Thursday, July 25, 2019 | A11 | Mid Valley TiMes
No injuries after scare at Reedley Beach involving 2 swimmers
MVT Staff Report
A police report of a possible drowning at Reedley Beach on July 19 merely resulted in a bit of a scare in the water involv- ing an adult and child.
Reedley police Sgt. Bryan Pelayo said police received a call shortly before 6 p.m. from
people at the beach west of the Kings River and north of Olson Avenue. According to reports, a 21-year-old man had an 11-year- old boy on his shoulders in the water when the man apparent- ly walked on an unstable area of the river bottom and tempo- rarily lost control.
Concerned people at the
river called police, but by the time officers arrived the man and boy had already safely ex- ited the water.
high water levels that the sher- iff's office said caused unsafe conditions. Reedley Beach also reopened the weekend of July 6 when the county reopened the river to recreational ac-
possessing alcohol. Pelayo re- minds the public that alcohol is prohibited at Reedley Beach and Cricket Hollow Park.
Both Reedley Beach and Cricket Hollow Park will re- main open daily to the public for river activities through Labor Day Weekend ending Sept. 2.
CLASSIFIED Continued from page A1
hired, based on merit. The "system" is ad- ministered and overseen by the director and a
commission.
The commission Rios-
Hennecke will oversee consists of three com- missioners who are paid $20 for each monthly meeting.
It doesn't get much at- tention.
Not many outside the school district even know it exists.
But, for 50 years the commission has worked to make sure that classi- fied employees are hired and promoted according to merit.
“It's a three-member panel that oversees and reviews all hiring, firing, discipline and reclassifi- cations,” said outgoing director Roth.
Each member of the commission is drawn from a different constitu- ency.
The classified em- ployees' union, CSEA, selects a commissioner, the school district admin- istration picks one and a third is jointly selected from the community.
Cathy Viau is the union's pick, Nicole Frost is the district's represen- tative and Peter Vang was selected jointly by the union and the district.
The commissioners are appointed to three-
TAXES
Continued from page A6
for escape assessments. Supplemental bills are is- sued for changes of own- ership or new construc- tion, and escape bills are for taxes owed for a pre- vious tax year.
In 1984, the Board of Supervisors set the minimum assessed val-
year terms and face reappointment on an alternating basis each year.
The merit system
in public schools be- gan in 1933, following dramatic events in Southern California. That year, mass dis- missals left over 500 classified employees
of the Los Angeles Uni- fied School District sud- denly without jobs.
It was an election year for the school district, and four new members had just been elected to the board of education. Throughout their cam- paign, they had promised jobs in exchange for polit- ical support and on being elected they acted swiftly with mass dismissals to make way for their cro- nies. It was in the midst of the Great Depression and the ability to dole out school district jobs was a tremendous asset for an elected official.
In response to the mass dismissals, con- cerned citizens began to lobby for a panel to over- see that employees were hired, fired and promot- ed according to merit.
The merit system was not a new concept - it had been in effect for feder- al and state civil service employees from the late 1800s - but not until 1935 was the first law passed to allow districts to adopt a merit system. The fol- lowing year, Los Angeles
ue for regular tax bills at $1,000. Last October, Supervisors raised the exemption to $5,000, also be resolution. The resolu- tion approved July 9 su- persedes that ordinance.
All of the maximum assessments in the or- dinance code would be adjusted automati- cally if the statutes are amended.
Cathy Viau
Nicole Frost
Peter Vang
agreement rules were followed, I make sure the personnel commis- sion rules were fol- lowed and I made sure California education rules were followed about merit system dis- tricts.
“I suggested policy to the personnel com- missioners but they ultimately are the ones who make the decisions,” Roth said. “The director doesn't make the deci-
sions.”
Roth explained that
the union and district work alongside the com- mission.
“There’s the district, there’s the union and there’s the personnel commission,” Roth said. “And the district and the union negotiate for employee rights. That supersedes the power of the personnel commis- sion,” Roth said.
Employee evaluation is one area where the union contract has super- seded personnel commis- sion authority.
“Evaluations have been negotiated by the union, so we didn't have any part in evaluations.”
The commission’s meetings, which are on the third Monday of each month, are open to public.
Other than $20 per meeting, the commis- sioners receive no com- pensation. However, the director and the techni- cian receive salaries.
Most of the commis- sion's budget goes for salaries for the direc- tor and technician. The remainder is slated for legal fees, membership dues, conferences and the recruitment pro- gram.
"One of the main func- tions of the commission is recruitment of new employees," Roth said.
"When someone says, ‘I need to fill a position because someone left,’ they put in the paper- work,” Roth said. “And then after district ap- proved it, it came to us and we set up the testing and all the parameters for testing.
“When you’re in a merit system district, you test for all your classi- fied employees, like civil service” Roth said. “If you’ve ever applied for the county or for the state you have to take tests.”
"The personnel com- mission encourages ev- eryone to visit the dis- trict's website for infor- mation about classified vacancies and applica- tion forms."
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Police and Fresno County
Sheriff's deputiies advise the
public to practice caution tivities.
when entering the river, which reopened July 6 after being closed for a month because of
On July 20, Reedley police issued a citation to a person at Reedley Beach who was
became the first school district to adopt the mer- it system for classified employees.
Schuyler Joyner, busi- ness manager of L.A. Unified, was the father of the merit system in pub- lic schools, said George Cole, executive director of the California Schols Personnel Commission- ers Association. “He went to the legislature and asked them to adopt the system.”
Thirty-three years later, Sanger Unified en- acted the merit system for classified employees.
“In January of 1969, a petition was signed by 139 members of the classified staff and was submitted to the school board,” said Roth. “The petition requested the board voluntarily adopt the merit system for classified employees un- der the California educa- tion code.
In February 1969, the board directed the su- perintendent to set up an informational meeting on the merit system for all of Sanger Unified’s clas- sified employees. The next day a petition was signed by 33 members of the classified staff who requested a vote on
whether or not the merit system should become applicable to Sanger Uni- fied.
“That’s when the board said, ‘Let’s con- duct an election and see if classified employees want to be represented or not by the merit sys- tem,’” Roth said. “And that’s what they did.”
The next month, dur- ing the board’s regular meeting, the board ap- pointed three people to conduct the election. On March 25, 1969 the results of the election were reported with over 78 percent of votes cast by classified employees in favor of establishing the merit system.
The board of trustees determined the person- nel commission would become operable on July 1, 1969, just a little more than 50 years ago.
In addition to the di- rector and three commis- sioners, the commission employs a "technician."
“One of the things I did, as the director, was to be the go-between the classified union and district administration,” said Roth. “I made sure the rules were being fol- lowed. I made sure the collective bargaining
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