BILL NUMBER: SB 252 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 9, 2012
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 31, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 10, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 14, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Senator Vargas
FEBRUARY 10, 2011
An act to add Article 4.5 (commencing with Section 19135)
to Chapter 5 of Part 2 of Division 5 of Title 2 of the Government
Code, relating to public contracts. An act to amend
Section 3521.7 of the Government Code, relating to collective
bargaining.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 252, as amended, Vargas. Public contracts: personal
services. Collective bargaining: state employees.
Existing law authorizes the Public Employment Relations Board to,
in accordance with reasonable standards, designate positions or
classes of positions which have duties consisting primarily of the
enforcement of state laws. Existing law prohibits employees in these
designated positions or classes from being denied the right to be in
a bargaining unit composed solely of those employees.
Existing regulations provide the procedure by which an employee
organization may file a petition to become the exclusive
representative of an appropriate unit consisting of a group of
employees who are already members of a larger established unit
represented by an incumbent exclusive representative. Existing
regulations require a petition to sever to be accompanied by proof of
majority support in the unit claimed to be appropriate.
This bill would declare that state employee peace officers, as
prescribed, have the right to be in a unit composed solely of those
employees, provided they have complied with the regulations governing
severance petitions described above. The bill would require the
State Personnel Board to grant any complying petition within 30 days
of the effective date of this act. The bill would also make related,
conforming changes to those provisions.
The California Constitution provides that the civil service
includes every officer and employee of the state, except as otherwise
provided. The California courts have interpreted the California
Constitution as generally restricting the contracting out of state
activities or tasks to the private sector, if those activities or
tasks may be adequately and competently performed by state employees.
Existing statutory law codifies certain judicially created
exceptions to that constitutional provision, and authorizes the state
to enter into personal services contracts when specified conditions
are met.
The California Public Records Act requires each state and local
agency to make its records available for public inspection during
office hours and, upon request of any person, to make copies
available upon payment of fees, unless the records are exempt by law
from disclosure.
This bill would enact the Government Oversight and Fiscal
Accountability Review Act of 2011. The bill would require a state
agency or department that enters into a privatization contract, as
defined, to report to the Department of General Services, on or
before April 1, 2012, and annually each April 1 thereafter, regarding
that privatization contract, and would require the Department of
General Services to compile, publish, and make that report available
for public inspection. The bill would also provide that a subcontract
executed under a privatization contract is a public record, and
would require the contractor to submit these subcontracts to the
contracting agency, which would in turn be required to make the
records available to the public pursuant to the California Public
Records Act. State agencies and departments would also be required to
prepare, as part of their budget requests, a document that contains
specified information relating to their use of privatization
contractors.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares the
following:
(a) Preservation of California's natural and cultural resources is
a fundamental responsibility of the state government. California's
priceless natural resources are being lost at an alarming rate
because of the lack of the state's ability to enforce environmental
laws. Department of Fish and Game wardens are California's primary
enforcement agencies that protect those natural resources.
(b) Department of Fish and Game wardens and state park peace
officers are statutorily designated peace officers with statewide law
enforcement authority.
(c) Department of Fish and Game wardens are the lead investigators
with the primary law enforcement expertise in natural resources
protection of California's fish, wildlife, water quality, and habitat
from criminal behavior including poaching, pollution, and wanton
destruction of natural lands, and also provide public safety,
national homeland security, and disaster response.
(d) Department of Fish and Game wardens investigate all inland and
marine, including in the Pacific Ocean, bays and estuaries, water
pollution violations, including illegal water diversions, illegal
removal of water and impacts to aquatic life, damming of water
courses, illegal draining of lakes or reservoirs, and illegal
sedimentation from pollution of water from illegal construction
activities. Wardens are trained and charged to respond to investigate
every hazardous material that enters or may enter any state waters,
including the ocean.
(e) Department of Fish and Game wardens provide enforcement within
the Office of Spill Prevention and Response of the Department of
Fish and Game and prepare investigation reports of illegal pollution
that result in criminal prosecution or civil penalties.
(f) Department of Fish and Game wardens make arrests that often
include illegal drug confiscation and have included the seizure of
countless weapons used to commit crimes, including bombs, rifles,
pistols, revolvers, shotguns, automatic firearms, and every type of
manufactured or homemade weapon. Wardens are the lead case agents to
contain hazardous materials illegally dumped into state waters and
collect hazardous materials that are deleterious to aquatic life for
evidence.
(g) Department of Fish and Game wardens and state park peace
officers are also responsible for enforcing the Penal Code, Vehicle
Code, and Health and Safety Code.
(h) Department of Fish and Game wardens support the enforcement of
all statutes promulgated by the Legislature and regulations, as
defined by Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations.
(i) Department of Fish and Game wardens are on call 24 hours a
day, seven days a week to provide public safety and defend against
human threats to the environment and wildlife.
(j) Department of Fish and Game wardens investigate violations of
local, state, and federal laws and regulations related to habitat
manipulation, water pollution, or take of fish or wildlife.
(k) Department of Fish and Game wardens serve search warrants,
serve arrest warrants, and investigate the illegal cultivation of
illegal drugs that destroy wildlife, water, and endanger the public.
(l) Department of Fish and Game wardens' responsibilities include
investigations of illegal take, including out of season, over limit,
undersized, and prohibited species, and administrative violations, of
all fish and wildlife species, including, but not limited to,
listed, threatened, and endangered species, illegal commercialization
of wildlife and animal parts thereof, habitat destruction, and
pollution of state waters.
(m) Department of Fish and Game wardens initiate complex
investigations, surveillances, and covert operations that stop all
types of criminal activity, in addition to poaching of fish and
wildlife, including the poisoning of aquatic life, dumping of toxic
waste, and illegal commercialization of fish and wildlife.
(n) Department of Fish and Game wardens are also responsible for
investigations of oil spills, illegal marijuana cultivation, illegal
water diversions, pollution, and commercial fishing.
(o) Department of Fish and Game wardens are responsible for a
geographic area that includes the state's 159,000 square miles of
land and 1,100 miles of coastline.
(p) Department of Fish and Game wardens use specialized
state-of-the-art patrol vessels with authority to enforce all laws
200 miles out into the Pacific Ocean along the California coastline
from Oregon to the Mexico border.
(q) Department of Fish and Game wardens and state park peace
officers are responsible for over 30,000 miles of rivers and streams,
4,800 lakes and reservoirs, over 1,000 native fish, 6,300 native
plants and 360 threatened or endangered species, approximately three
million license and permit holders and close to 38 million California
residents.
(r) Department of Fish and Game wardens and state park peace
officers perform duties primarily by specialized police vehicles, by
boat, on foot patrol, or undercover; issue citations; write reports;
make arrests for misdemeanors and felonies and serve warrants; and
conduct criminal and administrative investigations.
(s) Department of Fish and Game wardens also patrol by specialized
aircraft to locate illegal habitat destruction, illegal mining
operations, illegal commercial fishing over the ocean, find missing
persons, locate wildlife, and locate illegal night hunters with
infrared and other specialized night vision devices.
(t) Department of Fish and Game wardens and state park peace
officers are often the first responders in emergencies and perform
search and rescue activities, including, but not limited to,
detecting and rescuing persons or vessels in distress.
(u) Department of Fish and Game wardens and state park peace
officers annually rescue many outdoor recreationalists, hunters,
anglers, and accident victims; locate missing or abducted persons;
and investigate burglaries and homicides.
(v) In rural and rugged areas of the state, especially in
California as being the third largest land-mass state in the United
States, Department of Fish and Game wardens and state park peace
officers are often the only law enforcement presence.
(w) Department of Fish and Game wardens and state park peace
officers serve as representatives for local government task forces
and intelligence networks involving multiple law enforcement
agencies, including the Environmental Crimes Task Force, and
administer specialized training to other law enforcement agencies,
such as firearms training, tracking skills, cold weather or desert
survival, and disaster response.
(x) Department of Fish and Game wardens provide training on
hazardous material response, investigation, and containment to other
agencies and are considered California's environmental police.
Department of Fish and Game wardens and state park peace officers
teach conservation of water and natural resources to all other
agencies and the public.
(y) State park peace officers assist wild land and structural fire
suppression and provide emergency medical services, traffic control,
and radio dispatching.
(z) Department of Fish and Game wardens and state park peace
officers are charged with protecting habitat and wildlife
biodiversity unequaled by any other state, and they are charged with
apprehending those that abuse California's natural resources that are
held in trust for the 38 million people of California.
(aa) The Department of Fish and Game employs approximately 277
wardens with only 245 field operatives throughout the state to
protect California's valuable natural and cultural resources, fewer
than South Carolina, and the lowest per capita ratio of wardens to
population in North America.
(ab) In 2012, there are fewer than 300 state park peace officers.
(ac) Continued unfunded mandates and fewer Department of Fish and
Game wardens and state park peace officers has resulted in a direct
negative impact on public safety and preservation of California's
natural and cultural resources.
(ad) The Legislature finds and declares that the recruitment and
retention of Department of Fish and Game wardens and state park peace
officers is of primary importance to the state's goal of protecting
California's priceless natural and cultural resources and protecting
public safety.
(ae) Increasing the number of California's fish and game wardens
must be accomplished to provide adequate protection to California's
natural resources and cannot be achieved while Department of Fish and
Game wardens remain in their current bargaining unit.
(af) For the protection and conservation of California's priceless
natural and cultural resources that California's "environmental
police" must be a separate bargaining unit from the civilian members
of State Bargaining Unit 7.
SEC. 2. Section 3521.7 of the
Government Code is amended to read:
3521.7. (a) The board may, in accordance
with reasonable standards, designate positions or classes of
positions which have duties consisting primarily of the enforcement
of state laws. Employees so in these
designated positions and classes shall not be denied the
right to be in a unit composed solely of such
those employees.
(b) State employee peace officers in State Bargaining Unit 7 and
designated in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of
Part 2 of the Penal Code have the right to be in a unit composed
solely of those employees, provided that they have complied with
Section 40200 of Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations. The
board shall grant any complying petition from sworn state peace
officers in State Bargaining Unit 7 within 30 days of the effective
date of the act adding this subdivision.
SECTION 1. Article 4.5 (commencing with Section
19135) is added to Chapter 5 of Part 2 of Division 5 of Title 2 of
the Government Code, to read:
Article 4.5. Government Oversight and Fiscal Accountability
Review
19135. This article shall be known, and may be cited, as the
Government Oversight and Fiscal Accountability Review Act of 2011.
19136. For purposes of this article:
(a) "Agency" includes any state agency or department.
(b) "Person" includes an individual, institution, federal, state,
or local government entity, or any other public or private entity.
(c) "Privatization contract" means an agreement or combination or
series of agreements executed pursuant to Section 19130, by which a
privatization contractor agrees with an agency to provide services
valued at five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) or more, that are
substantially similar to, and in lieu of, services provided, in whole
or in part, by civil service employees of the agency.
(d) "Privatization contractor" means any contractor, consultant,
subcontractor, independent contractor, or private business owner that
contracts with an agency to perform services that are substantially
similar to, and in lieu of, services provided, in whole or in part,
by civil service employees of the agency.
(e) "Privatization contractor employee" includes a worker directly
employed by a privatization contractor, as well as an employee of a
subcontractor or an independent contractor that provides supplies or
services to a privatization contractor.
(f) "Services" includes, with respect to a privatization
contractor, all aspects of the provision of services provided by a
privatization contractor pursuant to a privatization contract, or any
services provided by a subcontractor of a privatization contractor
under the privatization contract.
19137. (a) A privatization contractor shall file with the
contracting agency a copy of each subcontract or amendment to a
subcontract executed under a privatization contract. The agency shall
maintain the subcontract or amendment to the subcontract as a public
record, as defined in the California Public Records Act (Chapter 3.5
(commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1).
(b) A privatization contract shall include language that provides
for public access to the completed contract.
(c) As part of the budgetary process, an agency shall provide an
addendum to its submitted budget request that includes all of the
following information:
(1) The name of each privatization contractor or subcontractor
that has entered into a privatization contract with the agency during
that year, the duration of that privatization contract, and the
services provided pursuant to that contract.
(2) The total cost of each privatization contract for the prior
year.
(3) The projected number of privatization contracts for the
current and upcoming year and the estimated cost of each contract for
the current and upcoming year.
(4) For each privatization contract, the number of privatization
contractor employees and consultants, reflected as full-time
equivalent positions, and their hourly wage rates for the current and
previous fiscal year.
(d) The addendum provided pursuant to subdivision (c) shall be a
public record.
19138. (a) An agency that enters into a privatization contract
shall prepare and submit to the Department of General Services, on or
before April 1, 2012, and annually each April 1 thereafter, a report
containing all of the following:
(1) A copy of each privatization contract for that year.
(2) A budget analysis of each privatization contract reported
pursuant to paragraph (1) that contains all of the following:
(A) The cost of each privatization contract for the prior,
current, and next year.
(B) The number of privatization contractor employees, reflected as
full-time equivalent positions, and their hourly wage rates.
(C) The cost of benefits paid by the agency for each privatization
employee for the current and previous year.
(3) The name of the privatization contractor and the number of
privatization contractor employees and consultants, reflected as
full-time equivalent positions, that performed legal, medical,
accounting, engineering, or any other professional, technical, or
consultant service for the agency on a contractual basis during the
previous year.
(4) The amount of compensation received by each privatization
contractor employee or consultant for the services described in
paragraph (3) during the previous year.
(b) The Department of General Services shall compile, publish,
and make available for public inspection all contracting reports he
or she has received in accordance with this article.