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Local 21 members press SFUSD for health-insurance relief; board debates retroactive contract practice
Summary
Employees representing IFPTE Local 21 urged the board to address rising health-insurance premiums and asked the district to negotiate relief that would cost under $100,000 a year. Separately, several commissioners objected to a recurring pattern of retroactive contract approvals and severed multiple consent items for discussion.
Members of IFPTE Local 21 used the public-comment portion of the Jan. 13 meeting to urge the San Francisco Unified School District to negotiate increased district contributions to employee health insurance.
Local 21 representatives, including Kim Carter Martinez, Felix Gutierrez, Susan Chan, David Lanham, Jan Jin and Marco Sanchez, said their members have faced rising premiums while the district's contribution has not changed since 2008. Commenters described employees paying "up to almost $900 a month" for family coverage and said the union's modest proposal to provide relief would cost the district "less than $100,000 a year." Several speakers warned that continued high premiums threaten retention of critical staff, particularly in information technology and other support units.
Later in the meeting commissioners discussed the consent calendar and multiple retroactive contract items that had been severed for separate action. Commissioner Mendoza McDonnell expressed frustration at the frequency of retroactive approvals, saying it appears work is starting before budgets have been identified and urging departments to avoid initiating services without funding in place. Other commissioners sought written clarifications on payment timing, multi-year contract payments made in a single fiscal year and asked staff to withdraw and re-submit items if necessary to provide clearer information to the board.
The board approved the corrected consent calendar by roll call earlier in the evening; severed retroactive items were discussed and some were approved with commissioners recording individual votes.
