CALSAGA

CALL TO ACTION – Grassroots effort needed on meal and rest break

As reported earlier this week, a legislative deal to provide legal clarity to the contract private security industry regarding on-duty meal periods has been gaining significant traction.  We are pleased to report that the reform package is finally in bill format – Senate Bill 529 authored by Senator Gil Cedillo (D – Los Angeles). 

We encourage all members to write letters and call your legislators urging their support of the bill.  Please contact William Hodges at (916) 930-0552 or via email at whodges@calsaga.org to get contact information for both your Senate and Assembly representatives.  Additionally, we ask that you include your company letterhead on any correspondence and fax a copy to CALSAGA at (916) 930-0702 for our records.

Below are some talking points you can use to craft your letter and/or use when calling your legislators office:

• On behalf of [insert company name] and the California Association of Licensed Security Agencies, Guards & Associates (CALSAGA), we strongly support the on-duty meal break reform package contained in Senate Bill 529 and applaud Senator Cedillo for his leadership and effort to bring clarity to this issue.
• Due to the nature of contract private security work, the requirement for an off-duty meal period is not practical from a public safety, homeland security, or administrative perspective.  From a public safety perspective, allowing or even requiring a security officer to leave his/her post unattended is essentially an advertisement to criminals that a site is unprotected. 
• Administratively, because our security officers are dispersed throughout many sites, it makes it virtually impossible to designate employees from our company to drive from site to site to relieve officers to ensure mandatory meal breaks are taken.
• Furthermore, nearly all of our employees prefer to perform eight hours of work for eight hours of pay with an on-duty meal break, as opposed to having to work for eight-and-a-half hours to get eight hours of pay.   
• In a post 9/11 world, security officers are increasingly being called upon to protect some of the State’s most critical infrastructure sites, from energy facilities to oil refineries.  In many cases, simply their presence acts as crime deterrence. 
• Until our industry gets relief on this issue, we will continue to be threatened with class action lawsuits over alleged violations.  These lawsuits don’t solve anything and hurt both employees and employers. 

As mentioned in past communiqué, we can’t stress enough the importance of this grassroots effort.  It is absolutely imperative that legislators hear from our industry on this bill, so they clearly understand the issue from our perspective.

We thank you in advance for your support!

Governor Schwarzenegger calls for on-duty meal break exemption for security industry

At a press conference yesterday to discuss how to solve the State’s ongoing budget gridlock, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called for an on-duty meal and rest break exemption for the security industry as part of this economic stimulus package.  Without question, this latest development is monumental for a variety of reasons and certainly strengthens our hand as we continue to lobby for an exemption. 

Click here to download the fact sheet from the press conference. 

Because details are constantly evolving, we encourage you to check the CALSAGA Blog periodically for the most up-to-date information on our meal and rest break efforts. 

CALSAGA conducting Legislative Day at Capitol

CALSAGA staff, lobbyist and members of the association are working the halls of the Capitol today, in an effort to raise awareness of our issues.  Meetings with key legislators and staff were scheduled throughout the day.  Check back on the blog tomorrow for a full recap.

Governor to give his fifth State of the State tonight

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is poised to give his fifth State of the State tonight at the Capitol.  In excerpts released earlier this morning, the Sacramento Bee reports that the Governor will blame the State's formulaic budgeting system for the estimated $14 billion deficit the State is facing.  Moreover, the Governor will call for across-the-board cuts in favor of raising taxes.

CALSAGA will be closely watching how much money is allocated to the Bureau of Security & Investigative Services (BSIS).  As many of you know, CALSAGA applauded the Governor for increasing the BSIS budget in 2007-2008 by $1.4 million, which has been instrumental in BSIS' effort to hire enforcement agents to crack down on unlicensed activity.

Stay tuned....

State assembly passes health care legislation

Just when the special legislative session appeared to be fruitless, the Assembly passed a $14.4 billion health care reform plan today on a party-line vote, 45-31. The bill would provide coverage for most uninsured Californians.

Assembly Republican Leader, Mike Villines (R - Clovis) said the bill was "more public relations than policy" while Speaker Fabian Nunez (D - Los Angeles) countered by saying it was not just a publicity stunt. Regardless, the Senate isn't expected to vote on the bill anytime soon, most likely not until the beginning of the year after Governor Schwarzenegger releases his 2008-2009 budget proposal.

Click here to read an article in the Sacramento Bee.

Twin Falls, Idaho Regulations Remind Us of Need for State-Level Regulation

The article in the Daily News Clips today about the city of Twin Falls, Idaho adopting city-level regulation of private security firms is a good reminder that state-level regulation, as we have in California, is a far better model.

There is nothing wrong with Twin Fall's stated reason for the need to regulate the firms.  But imagine if that trend took hold in California.  If, for example, Pasadena, Glendale, and Burbank each had different ruules and regulations for security firms and security officers, a company might be allowed to work in one city, but not another.  You might have to keep track of different training or uniform or licensing rules for each city, and perhaps certain officers of yours might be able to work in one city, but not another.

It would be an administrative nightmare.

That is why we are lucky to have state-level regulation of security here in California, and why CALSAGA has aggressively responded to any city-level regulations and encouraging BSIS to continue to assert state pre-emption on undue city regulation of our industry.

Recently, CALSAGA worked with the City of Oxnard in responding to draft regulations their City Council had discussed, some of which would have intruded on the state's realm of regulating security.

If you are aware of city level regulations that you believe cross the line into the areas that are supposed to be covered only by the state, let us know.

New initiative filled that would strip Legislature of drawing their own districts

The California Common Cause filled an initiative yesterday that would put the task of drawing California's districts into the hands of a 14-member citizens commission made up of 5 democrats, 5 republicans and 4 independents.

The initiative comes after years of fustration, due to the inability of the Legislature to agree on a new method to draw California's districts.  In the last two election cylces, not a single seat of the 120 possible seats in the California Legislature changed hands. 

Click here to read the story in today's Sacramento Bee.

Governor Schwarzenegger vetoes Assembly Bill 1025

CALSAGA learned late Sunday that Assembly Bill 1025, authored by Assemblywoman Karen Bass (D – Los Angeles) who is a friend of our industry and CALSAGA, was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.  AB 1025 would have permitted individuals previously convicted of crimes to work in a regulated profession. 

While CALSAGA supports the author’s intent to increase jobs to constituents in her district, as well as offering rehabilitated individuals a chance at gainful employment, we were concerned that the bill took away a licensing entity’s discretion to deny a license or take other licensing actions.  Additionally, the bill put the burden of proof on state licensing bodies to show that an individual is not rehabilitated, which could result in increased litigation. 

Security officers in California need close scrutiny due to the nature of the work.  CALSAGA was concerned that this bill could potentially compromise public safety, as well as roll back much of the work we have done in recent years to professionalize the industry with background checking and training standards.

To read the Governor’s veto message, click here.

Daily Private Security News Clips - October 15, 2007

No significant news clips this morning.  However, we received word late last night that the Governor signed CALSAGA's SB 666.  We will post more on that topic later this morning.

Meal and rest break reform update

Despite an immense effort put forth by our lobbyist, our member companies and staff, it appears that meal and rest break reform will not happen this year.  As it turned out, a deal was not able to come together in the limited time left before the end of the legislative session.

The good news is that we made significant progress this year, laying the groundwork for another push beginning in January 2008.   As you know, CALSAGA made meal and rest break reform its top legislative priority for 2007 and spent countless of hours meeting with elected officials, industry representatives, Labor and key staff from the Governor's Administration.

Throughout the process, CALSAGA emerged as a major player in the negotiations and we will continue to play that role in further discussions on this issue. 

The meal and rest break issue will be a major topic of discussion at the 2007 CALSAGA Annual Conference.  In an effort to increase dialogue on the issue, we have confirmed an all-star lineup of speakers to discuss this issue, including Mike Prosio, Deputy Legislative Director for Governor Schwarzenegger, Angela Bradstreet, the newly-appointed Labor Commissioner and Laura Innes, with Simpson, Garrity and Innes.