BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 372| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- CONSENT Bill No: AB 372 Author: Eggman (D) Amended: 4/8/13 in Assembly Vote: 21 SENATE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT & RETIREMENT COMM. : 5-0, 6/10/13 AYES: Beall, Walters, Block, Gaines, Yee SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8 ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 70-0, 5/16/13 (Consent) - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Civil service: veterans preference in hiring SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill deletes current provisions granting veterans preference points in specified state civil service 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/she will be ranked in the top rank of the resulting eligibility list. ANALYSIS : Existing law: 1. Establishes the state civil service system, which requires a CONTINUED AB 372 Page 2 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, and in certain cases awards additional points, as specified. 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. This bill: 1. Revises and recasts the provisions governing veterans' preference. 2. Defines for purposes of these provisions, "veteran", "disabled veteran", and "100% disabled veteran." 3. Deletes from law the existing system for awarding veterans preference points in specified state examinations. CONTINUED AB 372 Page 3 4. 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/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. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No SUPPORT : (Verified 6/21/13) 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 ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : 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. 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." 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 CONTINUED AB 372 Page 4 those individuals would be eligible for consideration for hire." ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 70-0, 5/16/13 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom, Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Mitchell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Ting, Torres, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez NO VOTE RECORDED: Allen, Buchanan, Eggman, Beth Gaines, Grove, Holden, Melendez, Morrell, Stone, Vacancy JL:d 6/24/13 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED