Report I2019-2 Recommendations

To ensure its efficient management of the Assigned Judges Program (AJP) funding and to determine the impact of its recent program changes, the Judicial Council should reassess the AJP no later than June 30, 2019, and it should examine in particular its allocation of service days and AJP funding to superior courts with surplus judges.

To ensure that it has successfully implemented its recent AJP changes at the superior courts, the Judicial Council should periodically evaluate trial court compliance with the recent program changes.

The California Department of Social Services (Social Services) should require that the supervisor retake supervisory training regarding managing employee performance and the importance of following the State's progressive discipline process.

Within the guidelines of the relevant bargaining unit agreement, Social Services should place appropriate documentation in the office technician's personnel or supervisory file to demonstrate that he failed to complete his work and wasted state time in the event that he returns to his job at Social Services.

The State Water Board should require Employee A's supervisor to continue to monitor and examine weekly time reports for Employee A and other subordinate employees to ensure that they account properly for all of the time worked and the leave taken.

The Department of Industrial Relations (Industrial Relations) should provide instruction to all supervisors to maintain an accurate record of subordinate staff's daily work hours by either requiring all hourly employees to record the hours worked on their timesheet or using another reliable and consistent system to record daily hours worked by subordinate staff.

Industrial Relations should provide training to the two supervisors regarding proper time and attendance procedures.

The State Controller's Office (SCO) should immediately recover overpayments made to the employee or adjust her leave balances by 23 hours to account for her missed work time.

By April 2019, the SCO should review attendance for the employee for the time period that she worked an alternate schedule to determine whether she owes the State any additional hours as a result of informally switching her regular day off (RDO). If she does, the SCO should recover any overpayments or adjust her leave balances accordingly.

By June 2019, the SCO should review the attendance records of the manager's other staff to determine whether the other employees also failed to account for any missed work time.

The SCO should determine whether other managers or supervisors at the SCO also allowed employees to informally switch their RDOs. If so, the SCO should review the attendance records for the relevant employees to verify that they accurately recorded their time off and hours worked. To the extent that the SCO determines other employees improperly accounted for their time, the SCO should recover any overpayments or adjust their leave balances accordingly.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) should ensure that it recoups all overpayments that it made to the associate.

Caltrans should notify all Caltrans employees of the limitations of bereavement leave and where bargaining agreements can be located for additional information specific to bereavement leave.

Caltrans should remind supervisors of their responsibility to ensure that employees properly charge leave, including bereavement leave, and to not exceed the allowable limits that the bargaining agreements outline.

Caltrans should consider revising its policy to require supervisors to request employees to submit substantiation, such as a funeral announcement, for each claim of bereavement leave.

Caltrans should consider conducting leave audits of the other subordinate staff that the supervisor formerly oversaw.

The State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) should take appropriate disciplinary actions against Engineers A, B, and C for their misuse of state time and dishonesty during their interviews.

The State Water Board should determine the amount of time it can charge Engineers A, B, and C to account for their missed hours, reduce their leave balances accordingly, and if applicable, seek to recover from them any wages paid for time they did not work.

The State Water Board should take appropriate corrective or disciplinary actions against the three engineers' supervisor, which should include providing supervisory training to ensure that he holds the three engineers accountable for their missed work time.

The State Water Board should require this supervisor to implement policies and procedures to ensure that his subordinates account for all of their missed work hours.

The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) should recover overpayments or adjust leave balances for the 25 exempt employees that this report identifies.

CDTFA should review attendance records for these 25 exempt employees to determine whether the State owes them any holiday credits or other leave credits because the employees may have unnecessarily charged leave time on days that they were scheduled to be off.

CDTFA should survey or otherwise determine leave use for all exempt employees who worked alternate schedules during the past three years to ascertain whether and by how much those employees were overpaid and to recover any overpayments as state law requires.

The California State University (CSU) campus should take immediate and appropriate disciplinary action against the police officer for failing to be fully prepared to perform her duties and for inaccurately reporting the hours she worked while in the investigation unit; consider deducting her leave balances for the hours during which she was not performing her duties.

The CSU campus should take immediate and appropriate disciplinary action against Sergeant I for approving and allowing the police officer to remove part of her uniform and to lie down while on duty, as well as for his failure to perform his supervisory duties.

The CSU campus should develop a written policy within 90 days that explains how and when the police department expects employees to check in and out of their shifts. The policy should specify where all employees should be when they check in and out--for example, it should state whether the employees should be physically on campus.

The CSU campus should provide training within 90 days to all police department staff that covers relevant sections of the police department policy manual, including the following requirements for all uniformed police department employees:

-- Employees should be prompt, prepared, and ready to work on assignments.
-- Employees should be punctual in reporting to a duty station or assignment.
-- Employees should not leave before the end of their scheduled hours.

The CSU campus should remind supervisors immediately of their responsibility to identify and document when employees are perceived to be unable to perform their duties because of physical conditions, as outlined in applicable policies.