BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                            



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                                       CONSENT


          Bill No:  ACR 61
          Author:   Beth Gaines (R)
          Amended:  6/13/13 in Assembly
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT & RETIREMENT COMM.  :  5-0, 8/26/13
          AYES:  Beall, Walters, Block, Gaines, Yee

           SENATE APPROPRIAITONS COMMITTEE  :  Senate Rule 28.8

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  77-0, 8/8/13 (Consent) - See last page for vote


           SUBJECT  :    State employee merit awards

           SOURCE  :     California Department of Human Resources


          DIGEST  :    This resolution declares that specified merit award  
          payments, authorized by the five-member Merit Award Board and  
          the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR), be made in  
          amounts up to and including 20% of the first-year savings  
          generated by each suggestion of the proposed recipients.

           ANALYSIS  :    

          Existing law:

          1. Authorizes CalHR to make merit awards to current or retired  
             state employees who:

             A.    Propose procedures or ideas that are subsequently  
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                adopted and that result in eliminating or reducing state  
                expenditures or improving operations, provided the  
                proposals are placed in effect.

             B.    Perform special acts or special services in the public  
                interest.

             C.    Makes exceptional contributions to the efficiency,  
                economy or other improvement in the operations of the  
                state government, by their superior accomplishments.

          2. Provides that awards be made pursuant to standards and  
             procedures established by CalHR, which may adopt rules and  
             regulations to administer the merit awards program and may  
             appoint a merit awards board made up of state officers,  
             employees, or citizens to consider award recipients.

          3. Authorizes awards to be paid from the appropriation available  
             to the state agency affected by the award.

          4. Requires that any award over $5,000 have legislative  
             approval.

          This resolution provides that the following merit awards  
          authorized by the Merit Award Board and CalHR be made as  
          follows:

          1. $4,182, to be shared equally, to Department of Transportation  
             employees Lawrence Crawford, Glenn Mochel, and Steve Sattler  
             for suggesting that rocker switches installed in department  
             vehicles to activate different lighting equipment be  
             identified by engraving directly onto the switches, rather  
             than requiring separate labels to be engraved and  
             subsequently installed on those switches, and to stock a  
             supply of commonly used relabeled switches, which resulted in  
             a first-year savings of $45,898.

          2. $11,387 to Employment Development Department employee Andrew  
             Seames who created a macro for use by the department's Tax  
             and Wage Corrections Group, to reduce repetitive data entries  
             and expedite the processing of work items when correcting  
             employer information in the database, which resulted in a  
             first-year savings of $81,937.


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          3. $7,325 to Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation  
             employee Adrienne Redding who suggested replacing expensive  
             and heavily-padded exposure control jumpsuits required for  
             inmates with a history of indecent exposure, which were  
             purchased from an out-of-state sole source vendor, and  
             instead using inmate labor for the in-house manufacture of a  
             lighter-weight version of the exposure control jumpsuits at  
             the California Correctional Center in Susanville, which  
             resulted in a first-year savings of $61,625.

          4. $15,501, to be shared equally, to Department of Water  
             Resources employees Steven Speck, Roger Shonafelt, and Dana  
             White who suggested using polypropylene material in lieu of  
             steel material for radiator tank ends for motor air coolers  
             at 28 pumping plant units, which resulted in a first-year  
             total savings of $204,965.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Fiscal Com.:  Yes

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  8/29/13)

          California Department of Human Resources (source)

           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    According to the author's office, the  
          merit awards program is a useful tool to promote and reward  
          state work employees' innovative ideas that result in savings,  
          while making the state more efficient and productive.

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  77-0, 8/8/13
          AYES:  Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,  
            Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian  
            Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dahle, Daly,  
            Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth Gaines,  
            Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Grove,  
            Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones,  
            Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein,  
            Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mitchell, Morrell, Mullin,  
            Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea,  
            V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner,  
            Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk,  
            Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Chávez, Vacancy, Vacancy



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          JL:d  8/30/13   Senate Floor Analyses 

                           SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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