BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 372 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 24, 2013 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC EMPLOYEES, RETIREMENT AND SOCIAL SECURITY Rob Bonta, Chair AB 372 (Eggman) - As Amended: April 8, 2013 SUBJECT : Civil service: veterans' preference in hiring. SUMMARY : Deletes provisions granting veterans' preference points in specified state examinations and instead requires that whenever any veteran, widow or widower of a veteran, or spouse of a 100% disabled veteran achieves a passing score on an entrance examination, he or she will be ranked in the top rank of the resulting eligibility list. Specifically, this bill : 1)Revises and recasts the provisions governing veterans' preference. 2)Defines for purposes of these provisions, "veteran", "disabled veteran", and "100 percent disabled veteran". 3)Deletes provisions establishing the existing system for awarding veterans preference points in specified state examinations. 4)Requires that whenever any veteran, widow or widower of a veteran, or spouse of a 100 percent disabled veteran achieves a passing score on an entrance examination, he or she will be ranked in the top rank of the resulting eligibility list. 5)Prohibits application of the preference to any veteran who has been dishonorably discharged or released. 6)Specifies that preference will not be awarded to permanent civil service employees. 7)Makes other technical and conforming changes. 8)Makes various legislative findings and declarations related to Legislature's intent to expand employment opportunities for veterans and to improve the application of veterans' preferences in state hiring. EXISTING LAW : AB 372 Page 2 1)Establishes the state civil service system, which requires a hiring process that is to be based on merit ascertained by competitive examination. 2)Allows state employing agencies to hold open exams for nonpromotional positions in civil service, in which applicants receive points, and based on their scores are placed on ranked hiring lists and are then eligible to be hired into state civil service. Applicants are ranked according to their scores into six ranks. In general, applicants must be hired first from the top three ranks and are said to be "reachable." 3)Establishes a number of provisions that provide additional exam points for veterans, disabled veterans, spouses of 100% disabled veterans, and widows and widowers of veterans who obtain passing scores on open, nonpromotional state civil service examinations that do not require college graduation and two or more years of experience. These provisions do not apply to a veteran who received a dishonorable discharge. 4)Allows veterans and widows or widowers of veterans, as well as spouses of 100% disabled veterans, to receive a 10-point veteran's preference and allows a disabled veteran to get a 15-point veteran's preference added, to a passing score on an open, nonpromotional exam. 5)Requires that a veteran who has completed acceptable training in the United States Armed Forces as a military law enforcement officer receive 15 preference points in an examination for an open peace officer position in state employment. FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. COMMENTS : According to the author, "The current process does not provide any advantage to veterans who pass the exam but do not score in the highest three ranks, and have the minimum qualifications for the job, because they will never be in the higher ranks on the list. As a result the true objective, to get veterans jobs in state government, is frustrated. This legislation will ensure that more veterans will be competitive for state positions by allowing veterans who pass exams to automatically be placed in the top rank." AB 372 Page 3 The author concludes, "This proposal simplifies the system and gives every veteran, disabled veteran, and widow of a veteran an equal advantage. The revised law would provide simply that any one of those individuals who passes an open examination would be automatically moved to the top rank of the list, meaning all of those individuals would be eligible for consideration for hire. With more reachable veterans, departments are more likely to find a veteran who meets the particular needs of the job they need to fill." This bill has been double-referred to the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee where it was heard on April 2, 2012, and passed out of the Committee on a vote of 9 to 0. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support American Legion-Department of California AMVETS-Department of California California Association of County Veterans Service Officers California State Commanders Veterans Council VFW-Department of California Vietnam Veterans of America-California State Council Veterans Democratic Club of Sacramento County Opposition None on file Analysis Prepared by : Karon Green / P.E., R. & S.S. / (916) 319-3957