BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 2386 Page 1 Date of Hearing: May 4, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Lorena Gonzalez, Chair AB 2386 (Williams) - As Amended March 15, 2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Higher Education |Vote:|12 - 1 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No SUMMARY: This bill requires that one of the Governor's sixteen appointments to the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees (BOT) be a nonfaculty CSU employee appointed to a two-year term. The appointee must be a permanent employee who is not in a management personnel plan, a confidential classification, or an excluded classification. The bill also requires an independent system staff council, funded by CSU employee organizations, to provide the Governor with a list of AB 2386 Page 2 two nominees for the position. FISCAL EFFECT: As it does for the faculty BOT representative, CSU would buy out the represented staff member's time while in service on the BOT. Those costs would depend on the type of employee appointed to the board. Represented staff annual salaries range from $33,000 (groundskeeper) to $220,000 (physician), though relatively few staff are at the high end of this range. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author, the Trustees are represented by alumni, faculty, students, administration, ex officio members, and Governor appointees. The author contends that classified employees are the only unrepresented entity on the Board. The author states that, "This bill is necessary as there has never been an appointment of a classified employee in the Boards' 34 year existence. An appointment would give voice to the 20,000 classified staff members employed by the CSU." It should be noted that the California Community College Board of Governors includes a nonfaculty appointment. 2)Background. The BOT consists of the following: a) Five ex officio members: the governor, Lieutenant Governor, Assembly Speaker, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Chancellor; b) An Alumni Trustee appointed by the CSU Statewide Alumni Council. AB 2386 Page 3 c) A Faculty Trustee appointed by the governor from a list of nominees proposed by the Statewide Academic Senate. d) Two student trustees appointed by the governor from a list of nominees proposed by the California State Student Association. One has full voting powers; the second, non-voting student trustee succeeds to the voting position upon the expiration of the term of the first. e) Sixteen remaining trustees appointed by the governor, subject to Senate confirmation, and serving eight-year terms. 3)Prior Legislation. AB 2721 (Pan), which was similar to this measure, was vetoed. The Governor stated, "Since the Board of Trustees was established in 1960, there have only been 4 additions to the Board. The last of these was the addition of the non-voting student member in 1999. I am not persuaded that increasing the membership of the Board beyond 25 is necessary." 4)Opposition. While not opposed to having a non-faculty staff member as a Trustee, CSU believes the position should be open to all non-faculty, rather than excluding certain classifications as in AB 2386. CSU also argues that the staff council should be formed by the Chancellor and operated consistent with that of the Faculty Senate and the California State Student Association for their respective trustees. Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081 AB 2386 Page 4