BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  ACR 61
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   July 3, 2013

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

                  ACR 61 (Beth Gaines) - As Amended:  June 13, 2013 

          Policy Committee:                              PERSSVote:6-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill authorizes the payment of state merit awards approved  
          by the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) to eight  
          individuals whose proposals resulted in eliminating or reducing  
          state expenditures or improving state operations.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Enactment of the resolution will authorize the payment of  
          $38,395 for suggestions given by state employees.  A total of  
          eight employees will receive the merit award payments.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Purpose  .  According to the author, existing law authorizes  
            CalHR to grant awards to public employees who propose  
            procedures that result in the state saving money.  When the  
            award is $5000 or more, these awards must be approved by  
            concurrent resolution.  The author argues such approvals have  
            not been requested for several years and payment of the awards  
            is long overdue.

           2)Background.   These awards must meet specified criteria,  
            including the suggestion must be outside of the employees  
            normal job responsibilities.  When the savings to the state  
            are more than $1000, the employee can receive a merit award of  
            20% of the savings.
                
            3)Previous legislation  .  This resolution is similar to the  
            following resolutions which approved merit award payments:

             a)   ACR 178 (Niello), Chapter 159, Statutes of 2010.








                                                                  ACR 61
                                                                  Page  2

             b)   ACR 116 (Blakeslee), Chapter 85, Statutes of 2006.
             c)   SCR 41 (Soto), Chapter 143, Statutes of 2001.
             d)   ACR 135 (Wesson), Chapter 122, Statutes of 2000.



           Analysis Prepared by  :    Roger Dunstan / APPR. / (916) 319-2081