BILL NUMBER: SB 39 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 6, 2013
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 5, 2013
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 28, 2013
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 7, 2013
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 24, 2013
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 21, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Senator De León
DECEMBER 5, 2012
An act to amend Section 25421 of the Public Resources
Code, relating to energy, and making an appropriation therefor
add Section 53244 to the Government Code, relating to
local government, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect
immediately .
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 39, as amended, De León. Energy: conservation:
financial assistance. Local agencies: public officers:
claims and liability.
(1) Existing law provides for the governance of local agencies and
specifically prescribes the rights and duties of their officers and
employees. Existing law authorizes local agencies to establish
retirement systems for the provision of pension benefits to officers
and employees of the agencies and commits the administration of those
systems to retirement boards. Existing law establishes a process for
making claims on local agencies and excepts from that process
applications for money or benefits from a public pension or
retirement system.
This bill would limit and specify the remedies available to a
local public officer who exercised discretionary authority and who
was convicted of a felony for conduct arising out of, or in the
performance of, his or her official duties, and who believes that he
or she is entitled to a claim against his or her employer for the
funding of retirement benefits, however characterized, that have been
disallowed by a public retirement system. The bill would specify the
claims to which it would apply. The bill would also make a statement
of findings.
(2) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
The Energy Conservation Assistance Act of 1979 requires, until
January 1, 2018, the State Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Commission to administer the State Energy Conservation
Assistance Account, a continuously appropriated account to provide
grants and loans to local governments and public institutions to
maximize energy use savings.
This bill would extend the operation of the act to January 1,
2022, and would thereby make an appropriation by extending the time
during which the funds in a continuously appropriated account are
made available.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: yes no .
Fiscal committee: yes no .
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares that
local public agencies need protection from disgraced and avaricious
public officials who, following conviction for crimes arising out of
the performance of their official duties, continue to abuse the
public trust by asserting a claim that their former employers owe
them the value of pension benefits that the public retirement systems
charged with administration of those benefits have rightfully
disallowed.
SEC. 2. Section 53244 is added to the
Government Code , to read:
53244. (a) A local public officer, as defined in subdivision (b),
who believes that he or she is entitled to claim, from a local
public agency employer, for funding of retirement benefits that have
been disallowed by a public retirement system, however those benefits
may be characterized, including, but not limited to, as lost
compensation, may only pursue that claim through the administrative
process and appeal procedure available under the applicable public
retirement system. The local public agency employer shall only be
responsible for amounts awarded to the local public officer as
provided in this subdivision.
(b) For the purposes of this section, "local public officer" means
a person, either elected or appointed, with all of the following
characteristics:
(1) The person exercised discretionary, executive authority in his
or her employment.
(2) The person was convicted of a felony for conduct arising out
of, or in the performance of, his or her official duties.
(3) This section shall apply to any claim filed prior to January
1, 2014, and still pending on that date, and any claim commenced
after that date.
SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute necessary
for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety
within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go
into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to protect the public from local public officers who are
convicted of felonies due to violations of the public trust and who
continue to abuse the public trust and rob the taxpayers, it is
necessary that this act take effect immediately.
SECTION 1. Section 25421 of the Public
Resources Code is amended to read:
25421. (a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), this chapter
shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2022, and as of that
date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, which is enacted
before January 1, 2022, deletes or extends that date.
(b) Except as specified in subdivisions (c) and (d), all loans
outstanding as of January 1, 2022, shall continue to be repaid on a
semiannual basis, as specified in Section 25415, until paid in full.
All unexpended funds in the State Energy Conservation Assistance
Account on January 1, 2022, and thereafter shall revert to the
General Fund.
(c) To the extent required under applicable bond obligations,
unexpended funds from the proceeds of bonds sold pursuant to Section
25417.5 that remain in the State Energy Conservation Assistance
Account on January 1, 2022, shall remain in the account. These funds
shall be expended pursuant to the applicable requirements for bond
proceeds. Once all applicable bond obligations have been satisfied,
unexpended funds shall revert to the General Fund.
(d) Unexpended funds from the federal American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5) remaining in the State
Energy Conservation Assistance Account on January 1, 2018, shall
revert to the Federal Trust Fund.