BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 952|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 952
Author: Cristina Garcia (D)
Amended: 4/20/15 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FIN. COMMITTEE: 6-0, 7/1/15
AYES: Hertzberg, Nguyen, Beall, Lara, Moorlach, Pavley
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hernandez
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 74-0, 5/22/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Local government: vacancies
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill provides an alternative procedure for
filling a vacancy on a city council that occurs in the first
half of the term of office.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Outlines certain criteria for determining when a public office
become vacant, including death, absence without leave, removal
from office, felony convictions, and resignation.
2)Gives charter cities wide latitude to establish their own
rules for filling vacancies on their governing bodies.
3)Makes general law cities subject to the general laws passed by
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the Legislature.
4)Provides that, when a spot becomes vacant on the city council
of a general law city, the city council has 60 days from the
start of a vacancy to either appoint someone to fill the
position or call a special election (AB 1668, Knight, Chapter
38, Statutes of 2010).
5)Requires, if a general law city's city council chooses to call
a special election to fill a vacancy, that the election must
be held on the next regularly established election date that
is at least 114 days away from when the election is called.
6)Provides that a city councilmember who is elected or appointed
to fill a vacancy holds office for the rest of term of the
former officeholder, regardless of how much time is left in
the term for that vacant office.
7)Gives general law cities the option of using alternative
procedures to fill a vacant public office if they enact an
ordinance that either:
Requires a special election to fill every city council
vacancy and the office of mayor to be called
immediately-rather than within 60 days from the time of the
vacancy; or
Requires a special election to be held to fill a city
council vacancy and the office of mayor upon the filing of
petitions bearing a specified number of verified
signatures.
8)Provides that, under either alternative procedure, state law
requires a special election to be held no sooner than 114 days
from the call of the special election or the filing of the
petition.
This bill:
1)Repeals a requirement that a person appointed to fill a vacant
city elective office for the unexpired term of the former
incumbent.
2)Establishes the following procedure when a city council
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vacancy occurs (unless a council adopts an alternative
ordinance as authorized pursuant to existing law):
If the council calls a special election, the special
election shall be held on the next regularly established
election date not less than 114 days from the call of the
special election. A person elected to fill a vacancy holds
office for the unexpired term of the former incumbent.
If the council fills the vacancy by appointment, the
person appointed to fill the vacancy shall hold office
pursuant to one of the following:
o If the vacancy occurs in the first half of a term of
office and at least 130 days prior to the next general
municipal election, the person appointed to fill the
vacancy shall hold office until the next general
municipal election that is scheduled 130 or more days
after the date the council is notified of the vacancy,
and thereafter until the person who is elected at that
election to fill the vacancy has been qualified. The
person elected to fill the vacancy shall hold office for
the unexpired balance of the term of office; or,
o If the vacancy occurs in the first half of a term of
office, but less than 130 days prior to the next general
municipal election, or if the vacancy occurs in the
second half of a term of office, the person appointed to
fill the vacancy shall hold office for the unexpired term
of the former incumbent.
3)Does not affect the ability that city councils have under
existing law to adopt an alternative procedure that governs
the filling of vacancies in elective city office.
Comments
1)Purpose of the bill. When a city elective office is vacant, a
city council has two options: 1) to call a special election
to fill the vacancy; or 2) fill the vacancy by appointment.
But calling a special election can be prohibitively expensive,
especially for smaller cities. Furthermore, appointments
deprive the voters of the ability to choose their
representative, especially when appointees get to serve out
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more than half of the remainder of the original officeholder's
term. Appointees may not face an election for years, by which
time some will have already gained the advantage of being an
"incumbent." AB 952 reasonably limits the duration that an
appointee can serve without having to stand for election to
half a term, thereby making appointees more democratically
accountable. In addition, requiring that the special election
be held at the next general municipal election will usually
result in higher voter participation, at less cost to
taxpayers, than a stand-alone special election.
2)Nice, but not necessary. AB 952 allows voters to have a
greater influence over whether city council appointees stay in
office for the remainder of the original officeholder's term.
However, even in the event of a vacancy(s) a city council's
remaining members are already accountable to voters through
the democratic process, and their votes on appointments are
conducted in public. Therefore, it is unclear whether state
law needs to be changed to authorize special elections to be
held earlier, when citizens who are dissatisfied with the
appointment of a replacement councilmember can express their
dissatisfaction with the original councilmembers who voted for
the appointee.
3)Charter cities. The California Constitution authorizes cities
to adopt charters. Charter cities have greater autonomy over
local affairs than general law cities do, including plenary
authority, subject to limited restrictions, to provide for the
manner in which and the method by which municipal officers are
elected. As mentioned above, this bill would apply to all
general law cities (unless they adopt an alternative ordinance
as outlined above). But because the Constitution provides
that properly adopted city charters "shall supersede all laws
inconsistent" with the charter, AB 952 will only apply to
charter cities whose charters do not provide a procedure for
filling city council vacancies.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified7/2/15)
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California Common Cause
OPPOSITION: (Verified7/2/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 74-0, 5/22/15
AYES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla,
Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly,
Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Alejo, Jones, O'Donnell, Olsen, Waldron,
Weber
Prepared by:Toren Lewis / GOV. & F. / (916) 651-4119
7/2/15 14:58:11
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