(L to R) Gina Pagnotta (President of PACE); Jim Scerenscko (Sergeant at Arms); (Front row L to R) Marie Brown (2nd Vice President); Jon Calloway (1st Vice President); Joyce Harris (Secretary); Geneva Heyward (Union Steward).

PACE Executive Board met on February 16, 2010, to discuss the recertification issues that all unions need to resolve. Now that the drop period has closed, PACE is on a high volume drive to recruit new members to become a part of our elite organization. Members are strongly encouraged to bring at least one new member to join to help meet our recertification goal. To date, we had no members to drop during the month of January 2010.

PACE officials met with Mayor Reed to discuss legislation and pension issues on Thursday February 4, 2010. PACE gained 24-hour access to the Mayor and staff (per Mayor Reed) to meet with PACE Officials whenever he was not on location outside the City. PACE will continue its dialog with the Executive and Legislative branch as the City moves into FY11 budget preparations.

PACE was able to Lobby a 4-3 vote to hold a walked in Legislation presented by Keisha Lance Bottom and C.T. Martin to introduce legislation, giving Department Heads and Commissioners the ability to hire new employee’s above the mid-point and up to the top of the salary range without Council approval. See Ordinance 10-O-0225 as Substituted by: Finance/Executive committee dated 01/27/2010.

Councilmember Felicia Moore, Yolanda Adrean, Howard Shook, and Alex Wan supported the hold of this Ordinance for PACE Review. Union President Pagnotta advised Councilmember Moore that she did not approve of the Ordinance before it was introduced to the Finance/Executive Committee as stated by Keisha Lance-Bottom. The hold on the Ordinance vote was necessary so PACE, Council, and other Labor Unions could further review the Legislation. It was placed on Hold until February 10, 2010 and again placed on hold for further review with the 2011 budget plan. This would be an amendment to the current Section 1: Ordinance Section 114-125. PACE members can review the Finance/Executive Meeting at: http://citycouncil.atlantaga.gov/VIDEO.HTM for January 27, and February 10, 2010.

What does this mean? It means that the City Department Heads would have had the ability to hire new personnel and pay them more than the current employees in the same classification, without the approval of City Council. The approvals would only have been the Department of Human Resources and the Chief Operating Officer. Although Union membership in job classifications Grade 28 and above are not authorized to join a Union through City dues deductions, PACE was still instrumental in acquiring an agreement that Grades 27 and below needed the approval through the Compensation Committee to hire above mid-point range, which was recreated for this agreement. If this agreement was not passed, there may have been an abundance of hiring above mid-range which could have impacted the financial component in the General Fund employee population.