OAKLAND, Calif. /California Newswire/ — On Sunday night, Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. appointed a board to investigate the contract dispute between Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and its unions – effectively ending the immediate threat of service disruption.
The Governor notified all parties of his action in the following letter:
August 4, 2013
Ms. Grace Crunican
General Manager, San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
P.O. Box 12688
Oakland, CA 94604
Ms. Antonette Bryant
President, ATU Local 1555
132 Ninth Street, Suite 100
Oakland, CA 94607
Ms. Roxanne Sanchez
President, SEIU 1021
100 Oak Street
Oakland, CA 94607
Ms. Jean Hamilton
President
AFSCME, Local 3993
80 Swan Way, Suite 110
Oakland, CA 94621
Dear Ms. Crunican, Ms. Bryant, Ms. Sanchez, and Ms. Hamilton:
At the request of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, I am appointing a board to investigate the threatened strike that would disrupt public transportation services in the Bay Area. This board is appointed under the authority of Government Code, § 3612, subdivision (a), because the strike will significantly disrupt public transportation services and will endanger the public’s health, safety, and welfare.
The three individuals appointed to the board of investigation are:
Jacob Appelsmith, Chairman
Robert Balgenorth
Micki Callahan
The Government Code prohibits any strike or lockout while the board completes its investigation. (Gov. Code, § 3612, subd. (b).)
The board is directed to provide me with a written report within the next seven days. For the sake of the people of the Bay Area, I urge – in the strongest terms possible – the parties to meet quickly and as long as necessary to get this dispute resolved.
Sincerely,
Edmund G. Brown Jr.
* * *
The Governor appointed the following individuals to the investigatory board:
Jacob Appelsmith (chairman) has been senior advisor to the Governor and director of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control since 2011. He was a special assistant to the Attorney General and chief of the California Bureau of Gaming Control from 2008 to 2011. Appelsmith served in multiple positions in the Office of the Attorney General from 1994 to 2008 including deputy attorney general, general counsel for personnel and equal employment opportunity matters and lead supervising attorney for the Employment, Regulation and Administrative Section. He was an attorney at Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro from 1988 to 2004. Appelsmith was recently hired as chief campus counsel at the University of California, Davis. He will assume his new duties in September.
Micki Callahan has been director of Human Resources for the City and County of San Francisco since 2007, where she served as employee relations director in 2005. Callahan held multiple positions at the State Mediation and Conciliation Service from 1996 to 2005, including supervisor of conciliation from 2000 to 2005. She worked at the California Nurses Association in 1995 and was a union representative at the Service Employees International Union from 1982 to 1994.
Robert L. Balgenorth is president emeritus of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, where he served as president from 1993 to 2012. He served on the California High-Speed Rail Authority Board from 2011 to 2012. Balgenorth was a commissioner at the California Transportation Commission from 2002 to 2006 and served as chair in 2004. He was business manager and financial secretary at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 441 from 1989 to 1993 and executive secretary of the Orange County Building Trades Council from 1982 to 1989. He entered the construction trades as an apprentice electrician in 1965.
The compensation for each board member is $100 per diem.
The administration has worked with all parties to prevent BART service disruptions. When BART and its unions failed to reach an agreement last month, California Labor Secretary Marty Morgenstern sent two of the state’s top mediators – the chair of the Public Employment Relations Board and the chief of the State Mediation and Conciliation Service – to facilitate discussions.
Secretary Morgenstern and the state’s mediators were instrumental in driving BART and its unions to agree to end a brief strike in July.
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The version of above news story by Christopher Simmons, Calif. Governor Brown Takes Action to Avert BART Strike, Appoints Investigatory Board was syndicated from California Newswire.
