County Supervisors to Hold ‘Emergency Meeting’ on Call Center

For those of you free this afternoon, you are welcome to join the on again off again relationship between he County Board of Supervisors and the unions as they are hosting an “emergency meeting” regarding a call center.

The standstill would have prevented the state health exchange call center with new 205 jobs from entering Contra Costa County. If you recall, on Tuesday the Board of Supervisors voted to reject the deal after they couldn’t get all four unions to agree. The hold up was AFSCME opposed that their members could be forced into longer commutes and extended work hours — the center will operate 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays.

Federal Glovers staff were complimentary of multiple state lawmakers who helped in the process.

“All our state reps should be commended for getting involved,” said Ed Diokno.

Today could get interesting as they will decide between a Concord or Richmond call center site. My own personal opinion on this was that with the amount of jobs at stake, both sides should have simply met halfway and call it a day to get people working again.  It didn’t have to get this out of control and its a great thing for everyone involved a deal was struck.

Here is the Press Release that went out.

County supervisors to hold ‘emergency meeting’

• WHAT: Emergency Meeting
• WHEN: 4 p.m., March 15, 2013
• WHERE: Board chambers, 651 Pine St., Martinez
• WHO: Contra Costa Board of Supervisors

PITTSBURG (March 14, 2013) — Contra Costa Board of Supervisors chairman Federal Glover has called for an “emergency meeting” to discuss the fate of a call center that would create up to 200 jobs.

“We are on a tight deadline and we need to make this decision as quickly as possible,” said Glover.

Rather than wait for the board’s normal meeting time next Tuesday, March 19, Supervisor Glover decided to call for this emergency meeting. “We can’t afford to wait another minute to act,” he said.

County counsel confirmed that a meeting of elected officials is allowable by the open government laws and bypass the normal notification requirements if the matter to be discussed is urgent. The vote on the center’s location has been delayed at two previous supervisors’ meetings and the state has deadlines that require the center be operational by July.

The call center would be one of three in the state to help Californians enroll in health coverage as required by the Affordable Care Act.