BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
567 (Villines)
Hearing Date: 8/17/2009 Amended: 7/16/2009
Consultant: Bob Franzoia Policy Vote: G O 9-0 Jud 5-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 567 would do the following:
- Revise the authority of the Bureau of State Audits (BSA) to
specifically perform investigations and would delete the
reference to investigative audits.
- Establish the Clearinghouse for Governmental Innovation and
Improvement Program (CGIIP), as resources become available,
within the BSA to receive and review, in good faith, submissions
from the public that recommend how to direct the focus of the
state relative to its essential functions.
- Require the BSA to take reasonable steps to create and
maintain public awareness of the program as resources become
available.
- Authorize the BSA to create the means for the submission of
reports of improper governmental activity both via mail and by
electronic transmission.
- Require the BSA to report on recommendations he or she has
made that were reported more than one year ago and that has not
been fully implemented by the affected agency.
- State that the provisions of this bill shall impose no cost on
the state and shall be implemented solely using existing
resources.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Public Clearinghouse $100 $200 $200 General
Public awareness outreach Unknown, potentially
significant ongoing General
Revision/expansion of Minor, absorbable costs ongoing
General/*
California Whistleblower Special
Protection Act
* State Audit Fund, General Fund, and Central Service Cost
Recovery Fund
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
The California Whistleblower Protection Act authorizes the
California State Auditor to receive complaints from state
employees and members of the public who wish to report an
improper governmental activity. An "improper governmental
activity" is defined as any action that violates the law, is
economically wasteful, or involves gross misconduct,
incompetency, or inefficiency. The complaints received by the
State Auditor shall remain confidential, and the identity of the
complainant may not be revealed without the permission of the
complainant, except to an appropriate law enforcement agency
conducting a criminal investigation.
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AB 567 (Villines)
This bill would revise the act to do the following:
- Add an individual appointed by the Legislature to a state
board or commission and who is not a member or employee of the
Legislature to the list of state employees covered by the
California Whistleblower Protection Act and provide that state
employee includes any former employee who met specified criteria
during his or her employment.
- Change the definition of improper activity to include any
activity by an employee that is undertaken in the performance of
the employee's duties and would change the definition of
protected disclosure to specifically include any good faith
communication to the BSA alleging an improper governmental
activity and any evidence delivered to the BSA in support of the
allegation.
- Provide that the appointing power would have 60 days to serve
a notice of adverse action upon the employee who is the subject
of the investigative report.
The BSA Web site provides a process for persons to allege an
improper governmental activity. The Web site notes:
Upon receiving a complaint, the State Auditor may conduct an
investigation into the facts alleged in the complaint to
determine whether an improper governmental activity has
occurred. Before launching an investigation, the State Auditor's
staff will conduct a careful evaluation of the complaint to
determine whether it has enough potential merit to warrant the
expenditure of state resources to conduct an investigation.
After the State Auditor receives a complaint, any investigation
resulting from the complaint is confidential, so the State
Auditor's staff cannot provide any updates about what is being
done to investigate the complaint or what information has been
uncovered. Information about the investigation will not be
released until a report is issued by the State Auditor.
Biannually the BSA releases a report entitled Investigations of
Improper Activities by State Employees. For a recent report,
key findings were:
Between July 1, 2008, and December 31, 2008, the State Auditor's
Office:
Received 2,163 calls or inquiries from the Whistleblower
Hotline, mail, Web site, or individuals who visited the office.
Opened 338 new cases after careful review and continued to
analyze or investigate 117 other cases.
Substantiated or jointly substantiated with other state
agencies, nine investigations and reported that state employees
and departments engaged in improper activities.
Currently, only state employees, internal auditors of state
agencies, anyone else, including contractors who do business
with the state, job applicants, and persons obtaining services
from the state, may file complaints with the State Auditor. The
BSA receives about 4,000 inquires annually. It appears this
bill would expand that role to the creation of a clearinghouse
available to the general public that would be operated as
resources became available. As the BSA conducted public
awareness and contact with the public increased, additional
funding would be necessary. If the BSA received half
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AB 567 (Villines)
the inquires it receives now, and it possible it could receive
more inquires than it does now, at least two staff would be
needed to respond to the inquiries.
In 2009-10, BSA expenditures are estimated at $16,883,000. This
is down $1,728,000 from 2008-09. While General Fund support it
up, State Audit Fund (8855-0126) support dropped from $2,222,000
to $329,000 and Central Cost Recovery Fund reimbursements
dropped from $7,461,000 to $6,022,000. The BSA's funding has
been increasing in order to address new workload to track
federal stimulus money and to help implement Proposition 11, a
redistricting initiative.
Staff notes that to state that the provisions of this bill shall
impose no cost on the state presents a contradiction. If the
provisions shall impose no costs then existing resources are not
needed and could not, in any event, be spent for this purpose as
that would acknowledge a cost, which the language prohibits.
Staff recommends this language be deleted as it is ambiguous.