BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1965
AUTHOR: Pan
AMENDED: April 24, 2012
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 27, 2012
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Daniel Alvarez
SUBJECT : California State University (CSU): trustees.
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes an ex officio member of the CSU Board
of Trustees, excluding the Chancellor of the CSU, to
designate a person to attend, speak, and vote at CSU Board
of Trustees meetings in the ex officio member's absence.
BACKGROUND
Under current law (Education Code § 66602), the CSU Board
of Trustees is comprised of, at any time, 25 members, as
follows:
1) Five (5) ex-officio members: (a) the Governor, (b) the
Lieutenant Governor, (c) Speaker of the Assembly, (d)
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and (e) the
Chancellor of the CSU.
2) Sixteen (16) Governor appointees confirmed by
two-thirds of the Senate, each serving an eight-year
term.
3) One (1) alumni association representative, who cannot
be an employee of the CSU, appointed by the Governor
serving a two-year term.
4) One (1) tenured CSU faculty representative appointed
by the Governor, for a two-year term, from a list of
names of at least two persons furnished by the CSU
Academic Senate. The faculty member cannot
participate on any subcommittees of the board
responsible for collective bargaining negotiations.
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5) Two (2) CSU students appointed by the Governor for
staggered two-year terms from a list of nominees
furnished by the governing board of any statewide
student organization that represents CSU students and
the student body organizations of the CSU campuses.
Only one student is eligible to vote at any time.
ANALYSIS
This bill authorizes an ex officio member of the CSU Board
of Trustees (BOT), excluding the Chancellor of the CSU, to
designate a person to attend, speak, and vote at CSU BOT
meetings in the ex officio member's absence. More
specifically, this bill:
1) Authorizes ex officio members of the CSU Board of
Trustees to designate a person to attend, speak, and
vote at CSU BOT meetings in the ex officio member's
absence.
2) Prohibits the designated person from attending any
closed session of the board.
3) Specifies that no more than one person may be
designated in any calendar year to attend CSU BOT
meetings.
4) Specifies an ex officio member who chooses to
designate a person to attend and vote at CSU BOT on
their behalf to:
a) Notify the secretary of the board in writing
of the name and contact information of the
designee by January 10 of the calendar year; and
b) Notify the secretary of the board in writing
10 business days prior to the board meeting if
the ex officio member will be sending the
designee to attend the meeting in his or her
place.
5) Authorizes the non-voting student trustee to vote at
the BOT meeting if the voting student member is absent
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from the meeting.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author's office,
ex officio BOT are often not able to participate in
meetings due to scheduling conflicts and the
first-year BOT student is unable to vote in the
second-year student trustees' absence. The author
indicates this measure will facilitate increased
representation of the public and constituents to
ensure more responsive and transparent decision-making
by the board.
2) Meeting schedules . The CSU BOT has six standing
meetings per year. The hearing schedule for the
upcoming calendar year is set in March of the prior
calendar year. Because of the overlap of ex officio
members, the CSU and the University of California have
worked together to coordinate meeting schedules to
make it easier for ex officio members to attend both
meetings.
3) By virtue of the office : The California Constitution
and state law designates specific state-elected
officials as ex officio members of the UC Regents and
CSU Trustees respectively in order to allow these
elected leaders to share their perspective in the
formulation of system policy. By virtue of the office
they hold, these elected officials bring their unique
perspective and experience to the policy and
governance discussions of these boards and provide a
means for the executive and legislative branches of
government to monitor and, through public
deliberation, participate in the actions of the these
governing boards. As such, it is not clear that the
perspectives of the ex officio office holders will
continue to be represented should this measure be
enacted.
4) Board integrity . Although this measure could result
in more public dialog at board meetings and may enable
CSU to more reliably predict who attends its Trustee
meetings, other impacts of the measure are less clear.
Since it is possible that ex officio members may
attend some meetings and their designees attend
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others, could this bill lead to greater inconsistency
in board actions? Will designees be held to the same
confidentiality and fiduciary requirements as the ex
officio members?
5) Related and prior legislation .
SB 1515 (Yee, 2012) would have changed the CSU BOT
composition, increasing the number of faculty,
students and represented staff. This measure was held
in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 690 (Ammiano, 2009), AB 1413 (Portantino, 2007),
and AB 2339 (Negrete McLeod, 2004) all contained
provisions substantially similar to this measure, and
all three were vetoed by then Governor Schwarzenegger.
In the most recent veto statement of AB 690, the
governor stated:
As I stated before, it is unnecessary to
statutorily authorize a person to attend a board
meeting in the absence of an ex-officio member
since the meetings are open to anyone from the
public to attend and provide comment. Moreover,
ex officio members serve by virtue of their
experience and qualifications in sharing their
perspective on issues impacting higher education.
Allowing these members to appoint a substitute
to attend in their absence creates a disincentive
for the member to actually attend the meetings,
and diminishes the value of an ex-officio
member's contribution to the public discourse.
SUPPORT
California Faculty Association
OPPOSITION
California State University
CSU Channel Islands Alumni and Friends Association
California State Student Association
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