BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 1965
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 9, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                     AB 1965 (Pan) - As Amended:  April 24, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                              Higher 
          EducationVote:6-2

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill allows a designee to attend meetings of the California 
          State University (CSU) Board of Trustees (BOT) and act on behalf 
          of an ex officio board member. Specifically, this bill:

          1)Allows an ex-officio member of the board, except the CSU 
            Chancellor, to designate a person to represent them at a 
            trustees' meeting in their absence. A designee cannot attend 
            closed sessions, and only one person may be designated by an 
            ex officio member in any calendar year.

          2)Requires the ex-officio member, pursuant to (1), to notify the 
            board secretary in writing (a) with the name and contact 
            information of a designee for that calendar year by January 10 
            and (b) 10 business days prior to a meeting if the ex officio 
            member will be sending their designee to that meeting.

          3)Allows the student board member, during the first year of 
            their term, to vote at a board meeting if the other student 
            board member is absent.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Negligible fiscal impact.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Purpose  . The BOT includes the following ex officio members: 
            the governor, lieutenant governor, Speaker of the Assembly, 
            Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the CSU Chancellor. 
            In addition, there are two student members appointed by the 








                                                                  AB 1965
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            Governor for overlapping two-year terms. While they can fully 
            participate in board discussion and debate, the student member 
            may only vote in the second year of their term.

            According to the author, ex officio trustees are often not 
            able to participate in meeting due to scheduling conflicts and 
            the first-year student trustee is unable to vote in the 
            second-year student trustee's absence. The author asserts that 
            AB 1965, sponsored by the California Faculty Association, will 
            facilitate increased representation of the public and 
            constituents to ensure more responsive  and transparent 
            decision-making by the board.

           2)Related Legislation  . SB 1515 (Yee), pending in Senate 
            Appropriations, changes the board composition by increasing 
            the number of faculty, student, and represented staff.

           3)Prior Legislation  . AB 690 (Ammiano) of 2009, AB 1413 
            (Portantino) of 2007, and AB 2339 (McLeod) of 2004, which were 
            all substantially similar to this bill, were vetoed by 
            Governor Schwarzenegger, who argued that the bills created a 
            disincentive for ex officio members to attend trustee meetings 
            and diminished the value of an ex officio member's 
            contribution to the public discourse.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081