BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 372 Page 1 Date of Hearing: May 8, 2013 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Mike Gatto, Chair AB 372 (Eggman) - As Amended: April 8, 2013 Policy Committee: Veterans AffairsVote: 9-0 PERS 7-0 Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: SUMMARY This bill deletes current statutes 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 exam, he or she will be ranked in the top rank of the resulting eligibility list. This bill also makes a series of related technical and conforming changes. FISCAL EFFECT Minor administrative costs to the Department of Human Resources. COMMENTS 1)Rationale . Sponsored by the Department of Human Resources, this bill is intended to ensure veterans qualify for state employment. 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 2 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." 2)Current law requires state agencies to hold open exams for nonpromotional positions in civil service, in which applicants, 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. Veterans are accorded additional points. Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081