BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 41
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          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
          AB 41 (Hill)
          As Amended  August 16, 2012
          2/3 vote.  Urgency
           
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          |ASSEMBLY:  |60-0 |(April 14,      |SENATE: |36-0 |(August 30,    |
          |           |     |2011)           |        |     |2012)          |
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           Original Committee Reference:    E. & R.

          SUMMARY  :  Requires a member of the High-Speed Rail Authority 
          (HSRA) who has a financial interest in a governmental decision 
          before the HSRA to publicly identify the financial interest that 
          gives rise to the conflict of interest, to recuse himself or 
          herself from discussing or voting on the matter, and to leave 
          the room until after the discussion, vote, and any other 
          disposition of the matter is concluded.  Expands the amount of 
          information that a member of the HSRA must disclose on a 
          statement of economic interests (SEI).  Specifically,  this bill  
          adds members of the HSRA to a statutorily-designated list of 
          high-ranking public officials who are subject to the most 
          expansive disclosure requirements under the Political Reform Act 
          (PRA).

           The Senate amendments  :

          1)Require each individual who is selected by the HSRA to serve 
            in a peer review capacity to the HSRA to be deemed to be a 
            designated employee of the HSRA, thereby requiring such 
            employees to file SEIs.  Require that SEIs filed by these 
            employees be filed with the HSRA.

          2)Add double-jointing language to avoid chaptering problems with 
            AB 2609 (Hueso).

          3)Add an urgency clause, allowing this bill to take effect 
            immediately upon enactment.
           
          AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY  , this bill was substantially similar 
          to the version approved by the Senate, except that it did not 
          contain the provisions requiring certain individuals serving in 
          a peer review capacity to be considered designated employees of 








                                                                 AB 41
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          the HSRA, nor did it contain double-jointing language or an 
          urgency clause.
           
          FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Senate Appropriations 
          Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.

           COMMENTS  :  Existing law designates certain high-ranking public 
          officials who are subject to the most expansive disclosure 
          requirements under the PRA.  This bill proposes to add members 
          of the HSRA to that statutorily-established list.  This change 
          would have two primary effects on the members of the HSRA.  

          First, members of the HSRA board would be subject to somewhat 
          broader disclosure when they file their SEIs; currently board 
          members must disclose only those interests that fall within one 
          of the disclosure categories listed in the HSRA's Conflict of 
          Interest Code, but under this bill, board members would be 
          required to disclose all investments, interests in real 
          property, and income, with certain limited exceptions.  

          Second, adding members of the HSRA board to the 
          statutorily-established list of high-ranking public officials 
          would mean that if a member of the board had a conflict of 
          interest in a matter before the board, that member would have to 
          publicly identify the financial interest and leave the room 
          until after the discussion of that matter had finished.

          California voters passed an initiative, Proposition 9, in 1974 
          that created the Fair Political Practices Commission and 
          codified significant restrictions and prohibitions on 
          candidates, officeholders and lobbyists.  That initiative is 
          commonly known as the PRA.  Amendments to the PRA that are not 
          submitted to the voters, such as those contained in this bill, 
          must further the purposes of the initiative and require a 
          two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature.

          This bill had been substantially amended in the Senate to add 
          new provisions requiring HSRA board members to report ex parte 
          communications in certain circumstances.  However, the 
          provisions governing ex parte communications subsequently were 
          removed from the bill.  As a result, there are two substantive 
          differences between the current version of this bill and the 
          version approved by the Assembly last year.  First, this bill 
          now requires individuals who are selected by the HSRA to serve 
          in a peer review capacity to file SEIs.  Second, this bill now 








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          contains an urgency clause.
           

          Analysis Prepared by  :    Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094 


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