BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1358
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1358 (Fong)
As Amended September 3, 2013
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |46-25|(May 23, 2013) |SENATE: |28-11|(September 9, |
| | | | | |2013) |
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Original Committee Reference: HIGHER ED.
SUMMARY : Authorizes organized California Community College
(CCC) student body associations (SBA) to hold campus-wide
elections in order to potentially increase the student
representation fee (SRF) from $1 per semester to $2 to fund
governmental affairs representatives for the CCC students,
changes the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the students
voting in the election to establish the SRF to a majority of
students voting, and makes clarifying and technical changes to
current law.
The Senate amendments :
1)Clarify that monies collected for the SRF shall be expended to
provide support for the governmental affairs representatives
of local or statewide SBA.
2)Specify that the SRF funded statewide CCC SBA must have
effective student representation and participation in
state-level community college shared governance.
3)Establish underlying goals of statewide CCC SBA to include,
but not be limited to, sustainable advocacy, institutional
memory, oversight and decision-making, strengthening regional
coordination, transparency and accountability.
4)Provide that SRF collected must be annually distributed to the
Board of Governors (BOG) before February 1, and by the BOG to
the SBA by April 15 if the SBA satisfies specified
requirements, including, registering with the Secretary of
State, demonstrating compliance with laws and reporting
requirements, establishing generally accepted accounting
controls, conducting the specified annual independent
financial audit resulting in either no significant audit
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findings or the SBA addressing necessary corrections, and
meeting specified obligations and goals.
5)Require SBA meetings to be open to the public and comply with
the requirements of the California Public Records Act and the
Ralph M. Brown Act.
6)Require the CCC district, responsible for custody of the SBA
monies, to annually report on revenue collected and
expenditures, and require this summary to be presented at the
CCC district board meeting each year and posted to the CCC
district Web site.
7)Provide that costs incurred by the CCC Chancellor to implement
the provisions of this bill shall be reimbursed by the SBA.
8)Provide that if no statewide CCC SBA qualifies for the
funding, the CCC Chancellor shall hold the funds collected
until a qualifying statewide SBA is recognized, or the funds
shall be returned to the source.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Authorizes the governing board of a CCC district to authorize
the students of a college to organize a SBA to encourage
students to participate in the governance of the college and
conduct any activities, including fundraising activities.
2)Authorizes a SBA of a college to order an election be held to
establish a SRF fee of $1 per semester, collected by officials
of the college at or before registration; specifies that
two-thirds of the students voting in the election shall be
sufficient to establish the fee, but that the election shall
not be sufficient to establish the fee unless the number of
students who vote in the election equals or exceeds the
average of the number of students who voted in the previous
three SBA elections; specifies that the chief fiscal officer
of the college shall have custody of the money collected, but
that the funds shall be disbursed to the SBA for specified
purposes; allows the CCC district to retain a portion of the
SRF collected and deposited that is equal to the actual costs
of administering the SRF up to, but not more than, seven;
allows the SRF to be terminated by a majority vote of the
students voting in an election held for that purpose; and,
allows a student to refuse to pay the SRF for religious,
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political, financial, or moral reasons.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, this bill is unlikely to have a significant fiscal
impact on the state. To the extent the bill results in campus
SBAs holding elections to authorize increasing the campus's SRF
to $2 per semester, and the students vote to do so, there would
be increased revenue held by the CCC Chancellor's Office (CCCCO)
for a specific purpose. Absent success in increasing the SRF,
advocacy will likely continue as it is currently. The CCCCO and
CCC districts are likely to be able to recover any
administrative costs they incur to administer the fee through
their reimbursement authority in the bill.
COMMENTS : According to the author, the 2.4 million students at
the CCC, unlike their counterparts at the University of
California and the California State University, do not have a
sustainably funded statewide student association. This bill
will assist CCC students in establishing and sustaining
statewide legislative and governmental advocacy through their
recognized representative organization, the Student Senate for
California Community Colleges (SSCCC).
According to the 2012 CCCCO Student Fee Handbook, a newly formed
student government organization cannot order an election for the
purpose of having the student body vote to establish a SRF
without having held three prior student body elections. In
specifically requiring three previous student body elections
prior to raising the student fee issue, the intent of the
Legislature was to ensure meaningful participation in the
student body election process. However, under certain
circumstances, voting results from student body elections held
under a previous and related student government structure may
satisfy this requirement.
Analysis Prepared by : Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0002432
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