This annoys me greatly. I have personal experience with the appeals process at the Employment Development Department. I found that everyone involved, from the Administrative Law Judge who initially heard my case to the Appeals Board to which former Senator Ducheny has just been appointed, were worthless, inefficient, ineffective bureaucrats who didn't seem to give a rat's ass about evidence or justice.
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...The seven-member board has come under fire for being a cushy home for retired legislators and had come under sharp fire recently for a huge backlog of undecided cases.
The sitting five members are all ex-lawmakers, including former Assemblyman George Plescia, R-La Jolla...."http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/06/former-state-sen-ducheny-gets-post-six-figure-sala/This is one of the biggest problems in our state IMO - Welfare for termed-out career politicians. I have to ask what qualifies Ducheny for the post, why there are so many members, and why they get paid so much.
My own case involved me declining a job offer in 1994 while I had an active UI claim. The position I was offered paid much less than my previous one, and there were several other reasons I felt the job was unsuitable. I made the mistake of answering all questions on my Continued Claims Forms honestly. The EDD cut off my benefits and set up a kangaroo court hearing with an ALJ who left the door to a busy hallway open, and took three phone calls while he was quizzing me about the case. He denied my appeal, and so did the Appeals Board in Sacramento, which took eight weeks to act.
The great irony of the situation is that the EDD provisionally restored my benefits during the appeals process, then never asked me to return the five weeks of benefits I was paid during that time even though my claim was finally denied with no possibility of further appeal. (I found and accepted another, much better job while I was waiting for the board's final ruling.)
I still feel that my claim should never have been challenged in the first place. The state lost thousands of dollars on my case over nothing. Now Denise Ducheny gets to feed at that same trough, at our expense, while the state spirals toward bankruptcy.