"I don't get it. You're either at 95 percent compliance or you're in unchartered territory. You can't be in both places at the same time."–– Judge Richard M. Berman
Below is an excerpt from the Court Conference on December 4, 2013 between EST Pro Tem Steve McInnis and Judge Berman.
THE COURT: Do we have present today anybody from the district council, the EST, for example, the interim EST or somebody else who could address that?
MS. JONES: Yes, your Honor.
MR. MURPHY: Yes, your Honor.
THE COURT: Could he address this issue? Nice to meet you. Wherever you're comfortable. At the podium if you like or there.
MS. JONES: Your Honor, I should also tell you that vice president Mike Cavanaugh is here and a number of other representatives from the district council.
THE COURT: Thank you. If you could state your name for the record.
MR. McINNIS: Steven McInnis. How you doing, your Honor.
Currently we have a process for hiring that's required by the bylaws. We have six names that have been sent to the review officer for review to put six more representatives in the field.
When it comes to administrative staff, we've actually added four additional admin staffs temporarily to deal with this issue.
THE COURT: Do you have an IT person?
MR. McINNIS: We use Red Eye to handle the basic IT stuff. that the
THE COURT: That's a contractor?
MR. McINNIS: Correct.
THE COURT: I'm talking about in-house.
MR. McINNIS: Red Eye is in-house four days a week.
THE COURT: You don't have anybody on your staff?
MR. McINNIS: Right. We began the process and I think delegate body wanted to take on the process to bring in a consultant in IT and we want to do it ourselves. If we're going to be a democratic organization and stand on our own two feet, we need to take on the responsibility of doing it right the way.
So we actually have interviews with five different firms this week, and we hope to have a recommendation to the delegate body next Wednesday. It's a process. The review officer mentioned what the funds have done. That's been a two-year process. I don't think it's going to take us two years to get where we need to go. I think we have a very expedited process and we're addressing a lot of different issues.
THE COURT: What's your take about why it hasn't since August of 2012? That's when the issue was first put on the table or maybe even before that.
MR. McINNIS: Which particular issue?
THE COURT: Technology.
MR. McINNIS: Technology?
THE COURT: Yeah.
MR. McINNIS: You know, we've used contractors. Down the road, I don't know if we're going to use contractors. We're going to see what the consultant has to say.
It's very difficult to move things at the district council. We deal with a lot of different issues. This is, as Jim Murphy would state, this is a large organization. I think when it comes down to it, and Judge Jones will go into it, when it comes to the rolling out of the compliance piece regarding full mobility, our intention was to incrementally roll it out. In discussions with the bureau office, we didn't wanted to jump in the pool the same day.
I think our numbers are above 95 percent of our people are doing this the right way. You know, it's something that our goal and the vision here is to get it to a hundred percent.
THE COURT: You think you're at 95 percent compliance, as it were, with the electronic anticorruption measures at this point?
MS. JONES: Judge, in terms of actually reporting hours worked, we think we are somewhere between 90 and 95 percent.
In terms of the accuracy of the underreported jobs because shop stewards -- that's only one reason -- are not calling in a job when it's closed, we carry all of these open jobs where there really is no reporting that could be done. There are no hours being worked. I know you understand that --
THE COURT: I do.
MS. JONES: -- from my letter.
THE COURT: I do.
MR. McINNIS: So we've taken the measures to drill down and identify these false negatives and to implement different pieces.
Whenever you're going to roll out something -- and this is a fundamental change institutionally and organizationally and culturally about how we report hours -- and it's something that takes a little bit of time. We've seen a lot of technological rollouts with their issues out there, and I don't think we're anywhere near some of the CityTime for New York City or the Affordable Care Act website. I think we're doing a good job.
THE COURT: I don't think these things are comparable to that. I don't think this is in any way comparable to Affordable Care Act issues and problems. I don't think it's anywhere comparable to the CityTime, which is the subject of a criminal court proceeding as we sit here right now. I think this is far more finite.
And it didn't take any, it didn't take any time to implement full mobility, right? That was a fundamental change that a lot of the people who are in your union were not happy about. That you did overnight. That was also a big change. So this, you know, I'm just.
MR. McINNIS: Your Honor, I can tell you that there is on the union side, you know, we are in unchartered territory, this new technology. We do believe we need assistance.
THE COURT: I don't get it. You're either at 95 percent compliance or you're in unchartered territory. You can't be in both places at the same time.
MR. McINNIS: I do believe you can be in both places at the same time. This is a new system and a new system that is working at 95 percent, with the goal to get it to a hundred; and we're committed to put the additional resources to get it to a hundred percent, to be at full compliance.
THE COURT: And what's your view about having a technology person on staff?
MR. McINNIS: I believe that, you know, it's something that's not my expertise and that's why we're going to bring somebody in. We feel the consultant is an architect and if we're going to build something, we need an architect who's going to come in. And if they say we need two in-house people and that's the recommendation, I think that's the direction we should head into.
THE COURT: You don't have an opinion as to whether you need anybody in-house?
MR. McINNIS: I'd like to have an educated opinion. We had the first interview. I think it was very informative. I'd like to make educated opinions in regard to that, and it's not something that's common nature and knowledge to me. But I'm looking to educate myself and the executive committee and the delegate body so that when these decisions are represented, it's transparent, people understand what we're spending money on, and it's something that the members can buy into. And that's the process we've signed on for and that's the process we hope to follow.
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