BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 114
                                                                  Page  1

          SENATE THIRD READING
          SB 114 (Yee)
          As Amended  August 22, 2012
          Majority vote

           SENATE VOTE  :25-12  
           
           PUBLIC EMPLOYEES    6-0         APPROPRIATIONS      17-0        
           
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          |Ayes:|Furutani, Mansoor, Allen, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey,          |
          |     |Harkey, Ma, Wieckowski    |     |Blumenfield, Bradford,    |
          |     |                          |     |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
          |     |                          |     |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto,   |
          |     |                          |     |Hall, Hill, Lara,         |
          |     |                          |     |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, |
          |     |                          |     |Solorio, Wagner           |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
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           SUMMARY  :  Requires, beginning July 1, 2013, and annually 
          thereafter, collective bargaining or employment agreements for 
          community college and adult education instructor, reflecting the 
          full time equivalent for each class of affected employees, be 
          submitted electronically, as specified, to the California State 
          Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS).  

           EXISTING LAW  requires that each collective bargaining or 
          employment agreement for a part-time community college 
          instructor subject to the 525 hour minimum standard specify the 
          number of hours that equals full-time.  However, employers are 
          not required to provide copies of collective bargaining or 
          employment contract agreements to CalSTRS except upon request on 
          a case by case basis.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Assembly Appropriations 
          Committee, minor and absorbable costs for CalSTRS.

           COMMENTS  :  The following information was submitted to the Public 
          Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee by CalSTRS, 
          "Community college educators employed on a part-time basis may 
          elect to be covered by the CalSTRS Defined Benefit (DB) Program. 
           Although the design of the DB Program works well for full-time 
          employees, a number of issues have arisen over the years about 
          its application to part-time and adult education community 
          college staff.  The most significant issue has been the 








                                                                  SB 114
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          difficulty in reporting compensation in order to establish the 
          appropriate levels of service credit." 

          "Part-time community college instructors accrue service credit 
          based on Full-Time Equivalent (FTE), equal to the number of 
          hours of creditable service that a part-time community college 
          or adult education instructor would be required to complete if 
          he or she was working full-time in their position.  The FTE is 
          based on the hours of instruction that a full-time faculty 
          member is required to perform in their assignment.  The 
          community college employer compensates the part-time instructor 
          for the hours worked, based on an hourly pay scale.  When the 
          district payroll office reports to CalSTRS, it reports the 
          actual earnings for the member and they calculate an 'earnable,' 
          which is the hourly pay rate multiplied by the FTE." 

          "The statutory minimum FTE for adjunct faculty of 525 hours 
          reflects the typical requirement for 15 hours per week of 
          primary duties performed over a 35-week school year for a 
          part-time community college instructor.  However, certificated 
          faculty are categorized by classes of employees, and different 
          classes of employees have different hourly standards for the 
          duties they are required to perform.  An English instructor may 
          be required to teach a different number of hours than a science 
          instructor, who also is paid for laboratory hours.  In those 
          cases, the FTE for those two classes of faculty would be 
          different.  In cases where the FTE would be lower than the 
          statutory minimum of 525 hours, the employer is required to 
          report 525 hours for the faculty members, which means affected 
          faculty receive less service credit than they should."

          By requiring these collective bargaining or employment 
          agreements to be submitted to CalSTRS, SB 114 will allow CalSTRS 
          to cross-reference the information against the data received in 
          the monthly reports that are submitted by employers to CalSTRS.  
          In addition, CalSTRS is working with the Chancellor's office to 
          reach an agreement whereby CalSTRS may utilize the data they 
          receive from community college employers as a means to verify 
          the FTEs reported to CalSTRS. 

          According to CalSTRS, "This information in conjunction with the 
          collective bargaining or employment agreements will provide 
          CalSTRS with a better understanding of how to help employers 
          report accurate FTEs so that they do not simply report the 
          statutory minimum of 525, as is the current practice for some 








                                                                  SB 114
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          community colleges.  Also, the additional information may help 
          to ensure that part-time instructors are accruing the correct 
          amount of service credit."


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Karon Green / P.E., R. & S.S. / (916) 
          319-3957 


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