Administration of certain public assistance programs in Milwaukee County, removing county civil service protections from certain employees, required provisions in certain collective bargaining agreements under the Municipal Employment Relations Act, and making an appropriation

This bill requires DHS to establish a Milwaukee County enrollment services unit (unit) in DHS to determine eligibility for and administer income maintenance and state supplemental payment programs in Milwaukee County (county). In addition, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) may contract with DHS to have the unit perform eligibility and authorization functions in the county for DCF's child care subsidy program. Under the bill, DHS may contract with the county for the performance by the county of administrative functions under the income maintenance and state supplemental payment programs and, if DCF so contracts with DHS, for the performance of the eligibility and authorization functions under the child care subsidy program. The county is required to expend a certain specified amount for the operation of income maintenance programs in the county, and DHS must reimburse the county for all approved costs that exceed that amount for the operation of the income maintenance and state supplemental payment programs in the county and, if DCF so contracts with DHS, for the performance of the eligibility and authorization functions under the child care subsidy program in the county. The bill also requires DHS and Milwaukee County, at a specified time in the future, to discuss who will operate the income maintenance programs in the county in the future and how the programs will be operated.

The bill requires that supervisory personnel in the unit be state employees and that all other employees in the unit may be a combination of state employees and county employees. Milwaukee County is required to maintain for the unit no fewer represented authorized full-time employee positions than the number of represented employee positions that were authorized on February 1, 2009, to perform the functions that the unit will perform under the bill. Under the bill, DHS has the authority to supervise, hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, discipline, and adjust grievances with respect to county employees performing services for the unit. The bill provides that any DHS employment decision affecting county employees may be appealed to the Employment Relations Commission, as are decisions affecting state employees. In addition, DHS must use the same employment process and procedures that are used for appointments to the classified service of the state civil service system, including specifically the use of probationary periods. County employees performing services for the unit are subject to the same residency requirements as are other employees of Milwaukee County under the county's civil service rules.

The bill provides certain enhanced benefits for county employees who are appointed as state employees and are employed in the unit. First, the employee must have his or her seniority with the state computed by treating the employee's total service with the county as state service. Second, the employee's annual leave and accrued sick leave must be based on both county and state years of service. Third, the employee is immediately covered for employer contributions towards health care coverage insurance when the employee becomes insured, unlike other most other state employees who must wait until the first day of the third month after beginning state employment. Finally, the employee is given the option of remaining a participant in the Milwaukee County Employees' Retirement System as opposed to becoming covered under the Wisconsin Retirement System.

Under current law, every county with a population of at least 500,000 (presently only Milwaukee County) is required to have a civil service system for county employees who are in the classified service. The civil service procedures that apply to classified employees relate to issues such as competitive examinations, hiring, disciplinary procedures, and standardized scales of compensation. County employees who are in the unclassified service are not subject to the civil service procedures, and state statutes specify which county employees are in the unclassified service. Under the bill, nonsupervisory county employees who perform staff services for the unit are placed in the unclassified service for purposes of the county civil service provisions of the statutes.

Under the bill, a collective bargaining agreement that covers county employees who perform services for the unit must contain a provision that permits the terms of the agreement to be modified, with respect to hours and conditions of employment, by a memorandum of understanding entered into with DHS.

Current law contains various provisions for the recovery of both correctly made and incorrectly made payments under programs administered by DHS, including income maintenance and state supplemental payment programs. Generally, if the efforts of an employee of a county are responsible for a recovery, the county may retain a portion of the amount recovered. The bill provides that in Milwaukee County, no portion of amounts recovered through the efforts of a state or county employee are to be retained by Milwaukee County, but such amounts will be deposited in their entirety in the general fund and credited to an appropriation that pays for, among other things, recovery effort costs and activities related to error reduction.

Because this bill relates to public employee retirement or pensions, it may be referred to the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems for a report to be printed as an appendix to the bill.