BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
Martha M. Escutia, Chair
2001-2002 Regular Session
AB 1103 A
Assembly Member Papan B
As Amended April 5, 2001
Hearing Date: June 12, 2001 1
Business and Professions Code 1
MTY 0
3
SUBJECT
Law Libraries: Board of Trustees
DESCRIPTION
This bill would make various changes to the law governing
county law library boards of trustees. It would authorize
the appointment of non-lawyers as well as lawyers who are
not residents of the county to serve on the boards of
trustees. It would also revise provisions governing the
total number of members of the boards.
BACKGROUND
State law establishes in each county a public law library
that is governed by a board of trustees. The membership of
that board of trustees depends on the size of the county,
and usually consists of the chair of the county's board of
supervisors and some combination of the county's superior
court judges and members of the county bar selected by the
judges and/or board of supervisors.
This bill would permit judges and the chair of the board of
supervisors to select non-lawyer residents of the county or
any member of the state bar to serve on the boards of
trustees. It would also permit the board of supervisors to
appoint any member of the state bar to serve on the board
of trustees. The bill would restrict the number of
non-lawyer appointees or designees to no more than two.
The bill also makes various adjustments to provisions
(more)
AB 1103 (Papan)
Page 2
governing the total number of members on the boards of
trustees.
CHANGES TO EXISTING LAW
1. Existing law provides that if a county has three or
fewer superior court judges, each of those judges serves
as an ex officio member of the law library board of
trustees [Bus. and Prof. Code Sec. 6301]. When there are
three or fewer superior court judges, the judges may at
their option choose one judge to serve as trustee and
appoint two additional trustees who are members of the
county bar [Bus. and Prof. Code Sec. 6301].
This bill would allow the judges to appoint residents of
the county or members of the state bar to serve as
trustees.
2. Existing law provides that if a county has four or more
superior court judges, those judges will select three
judges to serve on the board of trustees [Bus. and Prof.
Code Sec. 6301].
This bill would require the judges to select four or five
judges to serve on the board of trustees.
3. Existing law permits a judge who is serving on the
board of trustees to designate a member of the county bar
to act for the judge as trustee.
This bill would permit judges to designate a resident of
the county or a member of the state bar to serve as
trustee.
4. Existing law provides that the chair of the county
board of supervisors is an ex officio member of the board
of trustees [Bus. and Prof. Code Sec. 6301]. At the
request of the chair of the board of supervisors, the
board of supervisors may appoint a member of the county
bar to serve as trustee in place of the chair [Bus. and
Prof. Code Sec. 6301].
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Page 3
This bill would permit the board of supervisors to
appoint a resident of the county or a member of the state
bar to serve as trustee in place of the chair.
5. Existing law provides that the county board of
supervisors shall appoint as many additional trustees as
are necessary to bring the board of trustees to six or
seven total members, depending on the number of municipal
court judges serving on the board of trustees. Existing
law also provides procedures governing the service of
municipal court judges on the board of trustees.
This bill would eliminate the provisions governing
municipal court judges' service on the board of trustees
as well as the link between municipal court judges and
the overall size of the board of trustees. Instead, this
bill would provide that the board of supervisors shall
appoint as many additional trustees as are necessary to
bring the total number of trustees to six or seven.
6. Existing law requires that the additional trustees
appointed by the board of supervisors be members of the
county bar.
This bill would permit the board of supervisors to
appoint members of the state bar to serve as additional
trustees.
This bill would also limit the number of trustees who are
not judges of the county, members of the state bar, or
members of the board of supervisors, to no more than two.
7. Existing law permits the county board of supervisors to
reduce the size of the board of trustees to no fewer than
three if the board of supervisors finds that there is an
insufficient number of members of the county bar eligible
to serve on the board of trustees.
This bill would provide that in any county where there
are three or fewer superior court judges, the board of
supervisors, with the concurrence of the superior court
judges, may reduce the size of the board of trustees to
no fewer than three.
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8. Existing law contains special statutory provisions
governing the boards of trustees for the Los Angeles
County and San Diego county law libraries. Various
aspects of this bill would not apply to those counties.
COMMENT
1. The need for the bill
The bill's supporters argue that it will make needed
improvements to the governance of county law libraries.
According to the bill's supporters, some boards of
trustees have had problems meeting quorum requirements at
their meetings. The bill's provisions expanding the size
of the boards of trustees are intended to make it easier
to meet quorum requirements. The bill also preserves the
flexibility needed by smaller counties to reduce the size
of the board of trustees if necessary.
The bill's supporters also argue that there are several
benefits to expanding eligibility to serve on the boards
of trustees to non-lawyer county residents and
non-resident lawyers. As to the former, they note that
the general public represents a large class of law
library patrons. Supporters argue that expanding board
membership to non-lawyers would help make the law
libraries more responsive to their non-lawyer patrons.
As to the latter, the bill's supporters also emphasize
county law libraries are experiencing a funding
shortfall. They believe that expanding board membership
to county residents and non-resident lawyers may make it
easier to develop non-governmental financial support for
the libraries.
2. Balancing the need for expanding law library boards
with local control
Existing law restricts membership on a county's law
library board of trustees to that county's judges,
supervisors, or bar members. These restrictions ensure
that all members of a law library's board of trustees
have significant ties to the community being served by
the law library. This bill expands eligibility to serve
on the boards of trustees to all members of the state
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Page 5
bar, whether residents of the county or not.
As previously noted, the bill's supporters argue that
this expansion is desirable because it may make it easier
to recruit board members who will assist the law
libraries with their shortfalls in resources. The bill's
supporters have also informed committee staff that some
counties, particularly smaller counties, are having
difficulties recruiting eligible and qualified
individuals to serve on their law library boards of
trustees. They argue that expanding eligibility to all
members of the state bar will help these counties fill
vacancies on their law library boards of trustees.
However, the Committee may want to consider whether
making all members of the state bar eligible to serve on
any county's law library board of trustees raises the
potential that those boards may not have sufficient ties
to the communities being served. Since non-resident
board members would only be appointees or designees of
judges or the board of supervisors, it is difficult to
assess how often non-residents would be selected to
serve. Under the bill's provisions, however, it is
possible for non-residents of the county to significantly
outnumber county residents.
3. Clarifying the meaning of "concurrence" in Section 2 of
the bill
The bill would allow the county board of supervisors to
reduce the size of the board of trustees "with the
concurrence of the judges of the superior court." It is
unclear whether "concurrence" means unanimous or majority
concurrence.
California Law Revision Commission staff has informed
Committee staff that the term "concurrence" is used in
California code sometimes as a stand-alone term and
sometimes with modifiers such as "unanimous" or
"majority." The Committee may want to consider
clarifying this term to prevent future confusion.
Should this term be clarified by the Committee to
indicate the concurrence of "a majority of the incumbent
judges of the superior court"?
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4. Explanation of amendments regarding municipal courts
The bill would eliminate any reference to the municipal
courts in the law governing membership on the board of
trustees. The bill would also eliminate a provision that
ties the overall size of the board to the number of
municipal court judges. These provisions are included
because as of early this year, all municipal courts in
the state have been eliminated as a result of trial court
unification.
Support: Council of California Law Librarians; Northern
California Association of Law Libraries; Orange
County Public Law Library Board of Trustees; San
Diego Area Law Libraries; Southern California
Association of Law Libraries; San Mateo County Board
of Law Library Trustees; Superior Court Judge
Quentin Kopp, San Mateo County
Opposition: Fresno County Law Library Board of Trustees
HISTORY
Source: California Law Revision Commission
Related Pending Legislation: None Known
Prior Legislation: None Known
Prior Vote: Assembly Local Government Cmte. (11-0);
Assembly Floor (76-0)
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