BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNANCE AND FINANCE
Senator Robert M. Hertzberg, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
------------------------------------------------------------------
|Bill No: |SB 1436 |Hearing |4/13/16 |
| | |Date: | |
|----------+---------------------------------+-----------+---------|
|Author: |Bates |Tax Levy: |No |
|----------+---------------------------------+-----------+---------|
|Version: |4/6/16 |Fiscal: |Yes |
------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Consultant|Favorini-Csorba |
|: | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Local agency meetings: local agency executive compensation:
oral report of final action recommendation
Requires the legislative body of a local agency to orally report
a recommendation for final action on the compensation of a local
agency executive during an open meeting.
Background
The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act governs local governments' relations
with their employees and portions of the Education Code govern
school districts and community college districts' employee
relations, including collective bargaining and representation
procedures. These procedures generally do not apply to
executive employees-county administrators, city managers,
special district managers, school superintendents, community
college presidents-who are employed by, and report directly to,
local elected governing boards.
The California Public Records Act requires public records to be
open to inspection during office hours and gives every person a
right to inspect public records, with specific exceptions. The
Public Records Act also provides the procedures for requesting
copies of public records. Among the specific exemptions are
employment contracts between public agencies and public
officials or employees.
SB 1436 (Bates) 4/6/16 Page 2
of ?
The Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act), first enacted by the
Legislature in 1953, is the set of state laws which guarantees
the public's right to attend and participate in local
legislative bodies' meetings. The Brown Act establishes
procedures to ensure public access to information maintained by
local agencies and that the decisions made by public agencies
are done in an open and transparent fashion to retain public
control over those agencies. Local agencies subject to the
Brown Act include cities, charter cities, counties, school
districts, special districts, and other political subdivisions
of the state.
Among other things, the Brown Act requires a local agency to
post an agenda for a regular meeting of its legislative body at
least 72 hours before the meeting in a location that is freely
accessible to members of the public. The Brown Act establishes
the presumption that business of local agencies' legislative
bodies must be conducted in open and public meetings. No action
may be taken by secret ballot, and the legislative body must
publicly report the action taken and the votes cast.
The Brown Act, however, allows the legislative body of a local
agency to meet, debate, and sometimes act in a closed session in
several specified cases-generally relating to legal matters or
other areas that require an element of strategy. One such case
relates to employee compensation. A local agency may meet in
closed session for the agency's designated representative to
discuss the compensation-including salaries, salary schedules,
or compensation paid in the form of fringe benefits-of its
represented and unrepresented employees. Local officials must
place a closed meeting item on an agenda and cite their
statutory authority to meet behind closed doors. They must
report on any action taken in closed session and provide the
vote of every elected member present. In addition, the Brown
Act requires the local agency to take final action on the
compensation of unrepresented employees in an open session.
In 2011, the Legislature amended the Brown Act to address
mismanagement on the part of officials in the City of Bell. AB
1344 (Feuer, 2011) prohibited local agencies from calling a
special meeting (outside of regularly scheduled meetings of the
agency's legislative body) regarding the compensation of a local
agency executive. AB 1344 defined local agency executive to
include any employee not governed by the collective bargaining
SB 1436 (Bates) 4/6/16 Page 3
of ?
and representation procedures established in the
Meyers-Milias-Brown Act and the Education Code, and that meet
any of the following criteria:
The person is the chief executive officer, a deputy
chief executive officer, or an assistant chief executive
officer of the local agency.
The person is the head of a department of a local
agency.
The local agency employs the person on a contract.
Some legislators want to further increase the transparency of
decisions that local agencies make about the compensation of
their executives.
Proposed Law
Senate Bill 1436 requires the legislative body of a local
agency, prior to taking final action on the compensation of a
local agency executive, to orally report a summary of the
recommendation for final action during the open meeting in which
the final action is to be taken. SB 1436 also states that the
bill's provisions shall not affect the public's right under the
Public Records Act to inspect or copy records created or
received in the process of developing the recommendation.
State Revenue Impact
No estimate.
Comments
1. Purpose of the bill . Transparency in local government
decisionmaking, particularly when it comes to executive
compensation, is a valuable safeguard against improper behavior
and helps ensure that taxpayer and ratepayer dollars are
effectively spent. Local agency executives, such as agency CEOs
and city managers, are offered fringe benefits including health
care coverage and pensions in amounts that can have a
significant long-term impact on the budget and that deserve
particular scrutiny by the public. SB 1436 encourages the
SB 1436 (Bates) 4/6/16 Page 4
of ?
active discussion of the compensation of local agency executives
in an open session, rather than simply placing an item on a
consent calendar where it will receive little attention. SB
1436 is a simple change that furthers the intent of the Brown
Act, makes it easier for the public to identify improper levels
of compensation, and builds trust in government.
2. Transparency vs. efficiency . Additional transparency in local
agency meetings can sometimes come at the cost of efficiency.
Because of the broad scope of the definition of local agency
executive, some larger local agencies must act on the
compensation of many department heads or employees on contract
in open meetings. In order to contain the meetings to a
manageable length and to increase administrative efficiency,
those agencies sometimes place the final actions on compensation
on the consent calendar. SB 1436 constrains the usefulness of
this practice by requiring an oral report prior to final action
and could lengthen local agency meetings, costing time and
money. It may even reduce overall engagement in legislative
bodies' actions if members of the public are unable to fully
attend, or lose interest in, the lengthier meetings. Do the
potential transparency gains outweigh the potential costs?
3. Mandate . The California Constitution generally requires the
state to reimburse local agencies for their costs when the state
imposes new programs or additional duties on them. In 2012
California voters approved Proposition 42, which amended the
California Constitution to eliminate the state's responsibility
to pay local governments for compliance with the Brown Act and
its amendments. According to the Legislative Counsel's Office,
SB 1436 creates a new state-mandated local program. But this
bill disclaims the state's responsibility for reimbursing local
agencies by including findings and declarations that the bill
amends the Brown Act and furthers its purposes.
Support and
Opposition (4/7/16)
Support : Californians Aware; California Newspaper Publishers
Association.
Opposition : Unknown.
SB 1436 (Bates) 4/6/16 Page 5
of ?
-- END --