BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �






          SENATE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT & RETIREMENT    BILL NO:  SB 765
          Jim Beall, Chair               HEARING DATE:  May 6, 2013
          SB 765 (Block)    as amended   4/01/13        FISCAL:  NO


           PUBLIC EMPLOYEES:  BARGAINING UNITS FOR SCHOOL DISTRICT  
          SUPERVISORY PEACE OFFICERS
           
           HISTORY  :

            Sponsor:  San Diego Schools Police Officers Association

            Other legislation:  AB 2699 (Furutani), 2008
                          Died in Assembly PER&SS Committee

           
          SUMMARY  :

          SB 765 would permit full time school peace officers in school  
          districts to move between  rank-and-file school peace officer  
          and supervisory peace officer bargaining units, at will.

           BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS  :
          
          1)   Existing law  :

            a)  establishes the Education Employment Relations Act  
              (EERA) to promote the improvement of personnel management  
              and employer-employee relations within the public school  
              systems (K-12 and community colleges) by establishing a  
              process for recognizing employee organizations.

            b)  creates the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to  
              oversee collective bargaining in the public sector, as  
              specified, and provides, with regard to supervisory  
              bargaining units, that PERB shall make determinations as  
              to whether a bargaining  unit is appropriate for  
              collective bargaining purposes in a school district,  
              under the following guidelines:

            i)     requires that a bargaining unit of supervisory  
                 employees must consist of all supervisory employees in  
                 the district (i.e., including supervisory peace  
          Pamela Schneider
          Date:  May 2, 2013                                      Page  
          1









                 officers and supervisory non-peace officers) if there  
                 are less than 20 supervisory peace officers.

            ii)    allows, in a district where there are 20 or more  
                 supervisory peace officers, for there to be separate  
                 bargaining units for all of the supervisory peace  
                 officers and all of the supervisory non-peace  
                 officers.

            iii)   prohibits a supervisory employee bargaining unit  
                 from being represented by the same employee  
                 organization that represents the employees they  
                 supervise.


          2)   This bill  :  
           
            a)  amends EERA to state that any district  that employs  
              full-time peace officers (as defined in the Penal Code)  
              and PERB shall not prohibit  any  full time peace officer  
              from joining or participating in bargaining units  
              composed of peace officers (i.e. rank and file peace  
              officers), supervisory peace officers, or both.

           COMMENTS  : 
          
           1)Concerns of the Committee  :

            As currently written, the language of the bill may be too  
            broad for practical application, as it would allow  any   
            peace officer of any school district to move between  
            bargaining units (i.e., supervisory and non-supervisory)  
            based on the personal choice of the individual.  This would  
            be difficult to administer by employers, conflicts with  
            other collective bargaining statutes, and appears to go  
            beyond the stated intent of the bill.

            The committee is recommending an amendment to the bill to  
            allow representation of a supervisory peace officer by a  
            non-supervisory peace officer bargaining unit, but only if  
            the employer, bargaining unit of the supervisory peace  
            officers, and bargaining unit of the non-supervisory peace  
            officers all agree that such representation is appropriate  
          Pamela Schneider
          Date:  May 2, 2013                                      Page  
          2









            and inform PERB of the transfer of representation.

          2)   Argument in Support  :  
           
          The sponsor states that current law that prohibits  
          supervisory peace officers from being in the same employee  
          organization as their rank and file peace officers raises  
          concerns because of "the potentially inadequate  
          representation of School Peace Officer Supervisors during a  
          complaint filed by a citizen of any magnitude, up to and  
          including the use of excessive force, but more importantly  
          during critical incidents such as an Officer Involved  
          Shooting.  Those Supervisors would be represented by an  
          association of School Administrators who have no knowledge of  
          the Peace Officers Procedural Bill of Rights?The lack of  
          proper representation could result in placing that  
          association with a significant liability for their lack of  
          adequate representation and the school district itself  
          through punitive action for violating such rights, money the  
          school does not have."

          3)   SUPPORT  :

            San Diego Schools Police Officers Association (Sponsor)
            Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC)

          4)   OPPOSITION  :

            None to date



                                      #####
          







          Pamela Schneider
          Date:  May 2, 2013                                      Page  
          3