BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó






                         SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
                             Alan Lowenthal, Chair
                           2011-2012 Regular Session
                                        

          BILL NO:       AB 1662
          AUTHOR:        Fong
          AMENDED:       April 26, 2012
          FISCAL COMM:   No             HEARING DATE:  June 13, 2012
          URGENCY:       No             CONSULTANT:    Daniel Alvarez

           SUBJECT  :  County boards of education: members.
          
           SUMMARY  

          This bill permits an employee of a school district that is 
          not within the jurisdiction of the county board of 
          education eligible to be a member of a county board of 
          education.

           BACKGROUND  

          Current law:

             1)   Prohibits an employee of a school district from 
               being an elected or appointed member of that school 
               district's governing board unless and until he or she 
               resigns as an employee. If the employee does not 
               resign, the employment will automatically terminate 
               upon being sworn into office. (Education Code § 35107)

             2)   Prohibits a county superintendent of schools, any 
               member of his or her staff, or any employee of a 
               school district from being a member of the county 
               board of education. (EC §1006)

             3)   Prohibits a local agency officer (defined to 
               include governing board members) from engaging in any 
               employment that is inconsistent, incompatible, in 
               conflict with, or inimical to his or her duties as a 
               local agency officer (incompatibility of office 
               doctrine). (Government Code Section 1126.)

           ANALYSIS
           
          This bill permits an employee of a school district that is 




                                                               AB 1662
                                                                Page 2



          not within the jurisdiction of the county board of 
          education eligible to be a member of a county board of 
          education.

          STAFF COMMENTS  

           1)   Need for the bill  .  According to the author, current 
               law prohibits an employee of a school district from 
               being a member of a county board of education.  This 
               prohibition applies even if the school district 
               employee is seeking to serve on the county board of 
               education in a county other than the one in which he 
               or she is employed. The policy of this bill is 
               supported by a 1986 Attorney General opinion, in which 
               the AG concluded that a member of a county board of 
               education is eligible to serve as a substitute teacher 
               in a school district that falls outside the board's 
               jurisdiction.  By eliminating the unnecessary 
               prohibition against school employees serving on county 
               boards of education in counties other than the ones in 
               which they are employed, this measure will protect the 
               constitutional rights of school employees while 
               allowing county boards of education to benefit from 
               the unique insight that these employees can offer.  

           2)   Attorney General (AG) opinion  .  In a similar matter, 
               the AG, in Opinion No. 86-601, when posed the 
               question, "may a member of a county board of education 
               serve as a substitute teacher for a district which 
               falls within the board's jurisdiction and may he or 
               she do so for one which does not?"  The opinion 
               concluded "?a member of a county board of education 
               may not serve as a substitute teacher in a district 
               which falls within the board's jurisdiction but may do 
               so in one which does not."

           3)   Proponents argue  this measure is consistent with the 
               14th amendment of the US Constitution, the equal 
               treatment of all people under the law, that 
               essentially all citizens should be treated equally and 
               that being a school employee should not exclude you as 
               a class from being able to run for office.  We have 
               doctors, lawyers, business owners, and other 
               professionals running for elected office.  There are 
               ample provisions in existing law to prevent any 
               conflict of interest. 




                                                               AB 1662
                                                                Page 3




           4)   Opponents argue  this measure would enable a 
               fundamental shift in governance away from lay, 
               community member oversight. The independent role of 
               county boards is best protected by maintaining the 
               current requirement that its members not be school 
               district employees.

           5)   Prior legislation.   Similar but more expansive 
               legislation, AB 1212 (Thompson, 1999), among other 
               things would have allowed a school district employee 
               within that particular county eligible to be a member 
               of a county board of education, was vetoed by then 
               Governor Gray Davis.  The veto message read:

                    "This bill would violate the common law rule 
                    against the holding of incompatible offices. 
                     The purpose of this rule is to disallow a 
                    person from holding two or more offices in 
                    which he or she is in a position in one 
                    office to review and approve his or her 
                    actions in the other office, and to disallow 
                    the holding of offices wherein his or her 
                    duties and loyalties are incompatible.  
                    County boards of education have jurisdiction 
                    over several areas which would present such 
                    a conflict, such as fiscal oversight, 
                    budgeting, and student discipline and 
                    transfer.  Moreover, I note that current law 
                    prohibits school district employees from 
                    being elected or appointed members of their 
                    school district governing boards. 

                    For this reason, I cannot support this 
                    measure.

           
          SUPPORT  

          American Federation of State, County and Municipal 
          Employees
          Association of California School Administrators
          California School Employees Association (sponsor)
          California Federation of Teachers
          California Labor Federation
          California Professional Firefighters




                                                               AB 1662
                                                                Page 4



          Services Employees International Union 

           OPPOSITION

           California County Superintendents Educational Services 
          Association