BILL NUMBER: AB 117 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 25, 2003
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Kehoe
JANUARY 14, 2003
An act to amend Sections 120508 and 120521, and to add Section
120509 to, the Public Utilities Code, relating to transportation.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 117, as amended, Kehoe. Transportation: transit boards.
Under the Mills-Deddeh Transit Development Act, the San Diego
Metropolitan Transit Development Board is created with specified
transportation powers, including the power to purchase or acquire
real and personal property. Existing law provides that whenever the
board acquires ownership of existing facilities from a privately or
publicly owned corporation or public utility that has a pension plan
in operation, it is required that the members and beneficiaries of
the pension plan continue to have the rights, privileges, benefits,
obligations, and status under that plan.
This bill would permit the board to enroll the members and
beneficiaries in, or transfer them to, the Public Employees'
Retirement System under specified conditions. The bill would also
authorize the board to abolish a nonprofit entity that operates
public mass transit services and is solely owned by the board
and . The bill would provide that the
provisions of certain collective bargaining agreements that are
intended to prohibit or limit the right of the board to contract with
a common carrier of persons do not apply to contracts for services
entered into, renewed, or extended prior to January 1, 2004. The
bill would make related changes.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 120508 of the Public Utilities Code is amended
to read:
120508. (a) This article also applies to the employee relations
of employees of a nonprofit entity which operates public mass transit
services and which is solely owned by the board. For employee
relations regarding these employees, the term "board," as used in
this article, means the board and the board of directors of the
nonprofit entity as the joint employer of the employees.
(b) The board may, at any time in its sole discretion, abolish any
nonprofit entity.
(c) Upon abolishing a nonprofit entity pursuant to subdivision
(b), the board shall become the sole employer of the employees of the
nonprofit entity and shall assume sole responsibility to observe all
existing labor contracts established and maintained pursuant to this
article.
(d) Except as may be agreed upon through the collective bargaining
process, nothing in this section shall prohibit or limit the right
of the board to contract with common carriers of persons operating
under a franchise, license, or other agreement. Any provision in a
collective bargaining agreement applicable to the board in its
capacity as a joint employer with a nonprofit entity pursuant to
subdivision (a) or sole successor employer pursuant to subdivision
(b) that is intended to prohibit or limit the right of the board to
contract with a common carrier of persons shall not apply to any
contract for services entered into, renewed, or extended prior to
January 1, 2004.
SEC. 2. Section 120509 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
120509. Upon the request of the board, as defined in Section
120508, with the consent of any labor organization acting as
the exclusive representative of employees whose collective bargaining
rights are subject to Section 120508, the "board," as
defined in Section 120508, board and the Board
of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System, shall
enter into a contract to enroll the collectively bargained employees
as members of the system. However, employees transferred from any
existing retirement system or pension plan to the Public Employees'
Retirement System by operation of this section shall receive benefits
immediately after enrollment in, or transfer to, the system that are
at least equal to, or greater than, the benefits the employees would
have been entitled to immediately before enrollment in, or transfer
to, the system.
SEC. 3. Section 120521 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
120521. Whenever the board acquires ownership of existing
facilities from a privately or publicly owned corporation or public
utility, either in proceedings in eminent domain or otherwise, and
terminates the corporation or operates the facilities itself, that
has a pension plan in operation, the members and beneficiaries of the
pension plan shall continue to have the rights, privileges,
benefits, obligations, and status with respect to the plan.
The board shall consider, and take into account, the outstanding
obligations and liabilities of the corporation or of the publicly or
privately owned public utility, as the case may be, by reason of the
pension plan, and may negotiate an allowance in the purchase price of
the corporation or the utility for the assumption of those
obligations and liabilities when acquiring the corporation or the
utility.
Instead of maintaining an existing pension plan applicable to
bargaining unit employees of an acquired facility, the board, with
the consent of any exclusive collective bargaining representative of
employees of an acquired facility whose rights are protected by
Section 120520, may enroll the employees in, or transfer them to, the
Public Employees Employees' Retirement
System. However, employees participating in an existing pension plan
shall receive benefits immediately after enrollment in, or transfer
to, the system that are at least equal to, or greater than, the
benefits the employees would have been entitled to immediately before
enrollment in, or transfer to, the system.