BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT & RETIREMENT BILL NO: SB 523
Jim Beall, Chair HEARING DATE: April 22, 2013
SB 523 (Correa) as amended 4/01/13 FISCAL: YES
CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES: OVERSIGHT OF LOCAL
MERIT SYSTEM STANDARDS
HISTORY :
Sponsor: Orange County Employees Association
Other legislation: AB 1062 (Jones-Sawyer), 2013
Currently in Assembly Judiciary Committee
SUMMARY :
This bill would provide that Orange County shall not be
entitled to an administrative waiver of all or part of a
local agency merit system by the State Personnel Board (SPB)
if the county is found to be out of compliance with a
merit-based personnel system pursuant to an audit by the
county or by SPB. Although the bill specifies SPB, this
statutory function was transferred to CalHR by the DPA/SPB
consolidation and technical amendments to the code are
pending to reflect the transfer of responsibility to CalHR.
BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS :
1) Existing law :
a) under the California Constitution, creates and
designates SPB as the responsible agency for
administering the state employee civil service system
and ensuring that state employment is based on merit and
free of political patronage.
b) merged operations of the former Department of
Personnel Administration (DPA) and SPB into a new,
consolidated agency, California Department of Human
Resources (CalHR).
c) retains the independence and autonomy of the State
Personnel Board with regard to hearing matters related
Glenn A. Miles
Date: 4/16/13 Page
1
to the merit principle for state civil service
employees, as required in the Constitution and clarifies
that SPB will continue to hear cases and prescribe rules
consistent with the merit principle for state employees.
d) vests CalHR with the jurisdiction and responsibility
of establishing and maintaining personnel standards on a
merit basis and administering merit systems for local
government agencies where such merit systems of
employment are required by statute as a condition of a
state-funded program or a federal grant-in-aid program
established under federal law.
e) permits local agencies to establish their own merit
system and determine thereunder the personnel standards
to be applicable to their employees, but as to employees
engaged in administering state and federally supported
programs such local systems and standards shall be
subject to approval and review by CalHR to the extent
necessary to qualify for federal funds.
f) permits CalHR to waive administration of all or part
of a local agency merit system after the approval of a
legally binding memorandum of understanding negotiated
between the local agency governing board and an employee
organization recognized pursuant to applicable law
representing employees engaged in federally supported
programs.
g) provides that CalHR shall grant such waivers upon
request of the local agency governing board and the
recognized employee organization on any or all standards
following determination by CalHR that the provisions of
the memorandum of understanding maintain merit system
standards to the extent necessary to qualify for federal
funds.
h) requires that all merit system standards waivers
shall be subject to periodic audit, approval, or
revocation by CalHR.
2) This bill :
Glenn A. Miles
Date: 4/16/13 Page
2
a) provides that Orange County shall not be entitled to
an administrative waiver of all or part of a local
agency merit system by CalHR if the county is found to
be out of compliance with a merit-based personnel system
pursuant to an audit by the county or by CalHR.
b) makes findings and declarations by the Legislature
that a special law is necessary and that a general law
cannot be made applicable within the meaning of Section
16 of Article IV of the California Constitution because
of the need to implement recruitment, hiring, and
promotion standards in the County of Orange, consistent
with the findings of the 2008 report by the Orange
County Grand Jury on the county human resources
department and the 2011 audit of the Human Resources
Department of Orange County by the Office of the
Performance Audit Director for Orange County.
COMMENTS :
1) Arguments in Support :
According to the author's office, this bill is necessary to
address significant concerns regarding the integrity of the
merit-based personnel system in Orange County. In the past
ten years the Orange County Human Resources Department (HRD)
has been reviewed seven times by the Orange County Grand
Jury, three times by consultants, twice by the State, and
three times by the County's Internal Audit Department with
many of these reviews detailing "significant deficiencies in
the HR department, which remain today." The most recent
performance audit, initiated at the direction of the Board of
Supervisors, "outlines a troubling number of instances (75
total) where classification/compensation standards were not
followed, including hidden management pay raises without
proper justification and preferential hiring practices within
the County of Orange for political appointees in what is
believed to be a violation of California's merit system
rules."
The Orange County Employees Association (OCEA) states that
the bill "is critical to the preservation and proper
administration of merit system standards in the County of
Glenn A. Miles
Date: 4/16/13 Page
3
Orange." According to OCEA, "the County has been unable or
unwilling to comply with merit system standards. In fact,
the County's ongoing practice had been to disregard those
standards whenever it determined it was preferable to do so
for either administrative or political reasons." "SB 523 will
in no way impinge upon Orange County's ability to administer
its own merit system unless it elects to administer that
system in violation of civil service statutes."
2) SUPPORT :
Orange County Employees Association (OCEA), Sponsor
3) OPPOSITION :
None to date
#####
Glenn A. Miles
Date: 4/16/13 Page
4