Employees’ union wants councilman to hire an assistant

At a time when San Jose faces more than a $100 million budget deficit and the prospect of hundreds of layoffs, San Jose City Councilman

Pete Constant is battling with a City Hall employees’ union over whether he should be forced to hire an administrative assistant.

Judge

Kevin McKenney of Santa Clara County Superior Court recently ordered that the case be taken to a costly arbitration instead of the state’s Public Employment Relations Board — something both Constant and the city’s attorneys had sought.

That decision pleased the city’s 214-member Confidential Employees Organization, which contends the city was required to confer with the union before Constant decided to eliminate the position. The job — which requires answering phones, scheduling appointments and making photocopies, among other duties — pays about $70,000 a year.

“My concern quite frankly is not who decides the issues. It’s getting a resolution on the core issue, which is: Who should determine how I staff my office?” said Constant, who was re-elected last year to a second term representing West San Jose.

The City Council’s only Republican contends that residents of the district support his ability to make decisions for them. Besides, Constant said, he prefers to do all of the secretarial work himself, with help from four full-time council aides. And he contends that the $70,000 can be better spent on things such as resource fairs, helping neighborhood associations, an online database that updates Constant’s office with constituent information and inquiries, and license fees for an iPhone app that allows residents to easily report problems.

But

LaVerne Washington, president of the employees’ association, said it is not Constant’s prerogative to create his own “process and procedures,” which she said conflict with labor agreements between the city and the union.

“This is not just somebody’s job. This was a process the city designed well before Pete Constant got there,” Washington said. “It’s my belief that they want some consistency and regularity in the council offices, which is why each council member has an administrative assistant.”

City Attorney

Rick Doyle, however, said there is nothing in the union contract that prohibits Constant from not hiring an assistant.

No word yet on whether his office will appeal the judge’s ruling.

Schwarzenegger’s speech a big hit at energy event

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rocked the house last week during his keynote address at ARPA-E, the Department of Energy’s annual geekfest for clean-technology engineers, entrepreneurs, policy wonks and venture capitalists.

The event was 3,000 miles away in Washington, D.C., so IA couldn’t make it. But we got a kick out of reading the text of the speech, which included this line: “Why should a dried-up little country like Libya with a crazy dictator play havoc with America’s economy and security?”

Schwarzenegger’s defense of California’s climate-change legislation is his greatest legacy, and the ARPA-E crowd gave him a standing ovation. That’s led to a fresh wave of speculation that the former action-hero governor could become energy secretary if and when Steven Chu decides to terminate his tenure.

Internal Affairs is an offbeat look at state and local politics. This week’s items were written by Tracy Seipel and Dana Hull. Send tips to internalaffairs@mercurynews.com, or call 408-920-5552.