SB 39, as amended, Senator De León. 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.begin insert Existing law, the California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013, requires the forfeiture of specified retirement benefits by an elected public officer or a public employee, as defined, if that officer or employee is convicted of a felony for conduct arising out of, or in the performance of, his or her official duties.end insert
This bill wouldbegin delete limit and specify the remedies available toend deletebegin insert require the forfeiture of a contractual, common law, constitutional, or statutory claim against a local public agency employer to retirement or pension rights or benefits, as specified, byend insert 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 officialbegin delete 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 applyend deletebegin insert
dutiesend insert. 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.
Vote: 2⁄3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
The Legislature finds and declares that local
2public agencies need protection from disgraced and avaricious
3public officials who, following conviction for crimes arising out
4of the performance of their official duties, continue tobegin delete abuse the begin insert seek unfair benefits at public expenseend insert by asserting a
5public trustend delete
6claim that their former employers owe them the value of pension
7begin delete benefitsend deletebegin insert benefits, end insertbegin insertincluding
benefitsend insert that the public retirement
8systems charged with administration of those benefits have
9rightfully disallowed.
Section 53244 is added to the Government Code, to
11read:
(a) A local public officer, as defined in subdivision
13(b), whobegin delete believes that he or she is entitled to claim, from a local begin insert
is convicted
14public agency employer, for funding of retirement benefits that
15have been disallowed by a public retirement system, however those
16benefits may be characterized, including, but not limited to, as lost
17compensation, may only pursue that claim through the
P3 1administrative process and appeal procedure available under the
2applicable public retirement system. The local public agency
3employer shall only be responsible for amounts awarded to the
4local public officer as provided in this subdivision.end delete
5by a state or federal trial court of any felony under state or federal
6law for conduct arising out of, or in the performance of, his or her
7official duties shall forfeit any contract right or other common
8law, constitutional, or statutory claim against a local public agency
9employer to retirement or pension rights or benefits, however those
10benefits may be characterized, including lost compensation, other
11than the accrued rights and benefits to which he or she may be
12entitled under any public retirement system in which he or she is
13a member. The forfeiture provided by this section shall be in
14addition to, and independent of, any forfeiture of public retirement
15system rights and benefits pursuant to Section 7522.70, 7522.72,
16or 7522.74end insertbegin insert.end insert
17(b) For the purposes of this section, “local public
officer” means
18a person, either elected or appointed,begin delete with all of the following
19
characteristics:end delete
20in his or her employment.end insert
21(1) The person exercised discretionary, executive authority in
22his or her employment.
23(2) The person was convicted of a felony for conduct arising
24out of, or in the performance of, his or her official duties.
25(3)
end delete
26begin insert(c)end insert This section shall apply to any claim filed prior tobegin delete January begin insert the effective date of the act enacting this sectionend insert, and still
271, 2014end delete
28pending on that date, and any claim commenced after that date.
29(d) Upon conviction, a local public officer as described in
30subdivision (a), and the prosecuting agency shall each notify the
31public employer who employed the local public officer at the time
32of the commission of the felony within 60 days of the felony
33conviction. The operation of this section is not dependent upon
34the performance of the notification required by this subdivision.
This act is an urgency statute necessary for the
36immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within
37the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into
38immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
39In order to protect the public from local public officers who are
40convicted of felonies due to violations of the public trust and who
P4 1continue tobegin delete abuse the public trust and rob the taxpayers,end deletebegin insert seek unfair
2benefits at public expense,end insert it is necessary that this act take effect
3immediately.
CORRECTIONS:
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Corrected 9-11-13—See last page. 92