BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 619 (Yee) - State employees: Civics orientation
Amended: January 6, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 9-0, PE&R
3-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: January 23, 2014
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: SB 619 requires the California Department of
Education (CDE), if private funds are secured for this purpose,
to develop and make available online a state employee civics
orientation on federal and state government by January 1, 2015.
This bill requires employees hired or promoted after July 1,
2015, to complete the orientation, and and submit a
certification statement to an appointing power or supervising
official, to be kept and made available as specified.
Fiscal Impact:
Develop and host orientation: Potentially significant costs
to the CDE, which cannot be incurred until private funds in
an amount sufficient to fully support the creation and
online hosting have been deposited in a specified account
for that purpose.
Certification records: Likely minor costs to each
department to ensure that employees self-certify completion
of the required orientation, and supervisors maintain the
certification statement for a period of 3 years.
Background: The CDE is responsible for administering K-12
public education programs, reporting to the federal government,
and providing technical assistance to local education agencies
(LEAs). The functions in administering education programs
include the allocation of funds to LEAs, curriculum and
management leadership, assessment and program review, school
improvement intervention, and the development of policies and
practices to close the state's student achievement gap.
The California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) was created
on July 1, 2012, as a consolidation of the Department of
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Personnel Administration and certain programs of the State
Personnel Board. CalHR is responsible for issues related to
salaries and benefits, job classifications, civil rights,
training, exams, recruitment, and retention.
Existing law requires CalHR to devise plans for and cooperate
with appointing powers and other supervising officials in the
conduct of employee training programs so that the quality of
services rendered by persons in the state civil service may be
continually improved. (Government Code § 19995)
Existing law also authorizes CalHR to prescribe regulations and
conditions for the purpose of meeting the needs of the state
service for continuing employee educational development, the
upgrading of employee skills, and improving productivity and
quality service.
Proposed Law: SB 619 requires the CDE, on or before January 1,
2015, to develop and make available online a state employee
civics orientation on federal and state government, subject to a
determination by the Department of Finance that sufficient
private funding has been secured to support those activities.
The bill would require, if the orientation is developed as
prescribed, an appointing power or other supervising official
for an employee hired, promoted, or reclassified after July 1,
2015, to certify annually to CalHR that the employee has
completed that orientation.
Staff Comments: This bill requires the CDE to develop and make
available online a state employee civics orientation on federal
and state government if sufficient private funds are secured to
do so. The language of the bill seems to leave it to the CDE to
determine how extensive the orientation curriculum will be, and
the specific topics to be covered "to facilitate a basic
understanding of the responsibilities and operation of the three
branches of government and the importance of civic engagement."
The CDE will have to collaborate with the Department of Finance
to determine the level of funding required to complete the
project, and then will only be required to do so if private
funds of that amount are received.
If those private funds are received and the CDE creates and
makes available online the specified orientation, any employee
hired, promoted, or re-classified after July 1, 2015 will be
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responsible for completing the orientation and certifying that
completion to his or her supervisor. It is not clear how the
training requirement would be implemented or enforced by
supervisors; the bill requires only that employees self-certify
that they completed the orientation. Supervisors would be
responsible for maintaining the actual certifications and making
them available to CalHR upon request.
Staff notes that this bill was introduced in 2013, with
implementation dates in January 1 and July 1, 2015. The author
may wish to adjust the dates in the bill to reflect an
implementation timeline that mirrors the version originally
introduced.