Chula Vista council woman Jill Galvez faced public scrutiny last month after calling for the job of Cultural Arts Manager Lynette Tessitore at a city council meeting on May 21.
Now, Galvez’s job appears to be the one under fire.
Public labor union SEIU Local 221 filed paperwork with the state of California on May 24 to form a committee to recall the embattled council woman, and, on June 13, filed an unfair practice charge against the city of Chula Vista with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).
SEIU Local 221, where Tessitore is represented and serves as a president of the Mid-Management and Professional (MM/PR) bargaining unit, alleged that the city, by way of Galvez’s actions, violated what is known as the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA), which stipulates that government employees must act in good-faith in regards to employee wages, hours, and other employment terms and conditions.
Additionally, SEIU Local 221 alleged the violation of six related government codes, along with three sections under PERB regulation 32603, which is in regards to unfair employer practices under the aforementioned MMBA.
The issue began at a council meeting on May 7, during which Galvez proposed the cutting of non-union council member staffing in order to save money.
Tessitore spoke in opposition of Galvez’s proposed cuts during the meeting’s public comment phase.
Then, on May 21, as outlined in the PERB charge documents, Tessitore and MM/PR Vice President Frank Rivera met privately with Galvez, in their official capacities as President and Vice President, to express their desire to have SEIU Local 221 be involved in budget discussions moving forward, to ensure solutions would take into account the best interests of employees in the MM/PR unit.
The charging document alleges that Galvez was not responsive to the concerns of Tessitore and Rivera, said “all earthlings know” that jobs are not permanent, that she would never apologize for cutting jobs and that anyone let go could find another job.
This, as explained in the document, would violate the MMBA because it would be her expressing that her proposed cuts were “inevitable and unchangeable,” and that to even discuss them would be “futile.”
The document alleges that Galvez was then surprised by how Tessitore and Rivera were “attached” to the jobs she had proposed to cut, and threatened Tessitore’s position as the city’s Cultural Arts Manager for the first time.
The document alleges that, immediately after Tessitore reminded Galvez she was there in her official capacity as the MM/PR President, Galvez threatened to propose to eliminate her position at a public city council meeting – something she would ultimately do later that evening after Tessitore once again spoke out against the proposal to cut staff.
This, the document alleges, is a violation of MMBA, since an employer “may not retaliate or threaten to retaliate against employees for exercising their rights.”
On June 5, Galvez responded to the possibility of a recall effort, saying, “I certainly think there is a more productive use of our time,” before restating the importance of finding ways to solve problems with the city budget.
“With our budget shortfalls projected in the 2020-2021 budget year, there’s no time like the present for all employee groups, SPIU, ACE, CPOA, IAFF, to start helping to identify ways that we can work together and create some operational efficiency’s so that we can free up more money to hire additional public safety officers,” Galvez said at the time.
The city currently has a budget deficit of around $6 million, a number which is expected to grow in the coming years.
