BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 690
AUTHOR: Ammiano
AMENDED: May 12, 2009
FISCAL COMM: No HEARING DATE: July 1, 2009
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Beth Graybill
SUBJECT : California State University Trustees and University
of California
Regents: meetings.
SUMMARY:
This bill authorizes ex officio trustees of the California
State University Board of Trustees to designate individuals
to attend Trustee meetings in their absence and expresses the
intent of the Legislature that ex officio members of the
Regents of the University of California designate individuals
to attend meetings of the Regents in the member's absence.
BACKGROUND
Existing law establishes the California State University
(CSU) administered by a Board of Trustees comprised of:
16 Governor appointees, each serving an eight-year term,
confirmed by two-thirds of the Senate.
One (1) alumni association representative appointed by
the Governor serving a two-year term.
One (1) CSU faculty representative appointed by the
Governor, serving a two-year term.
Two (2) student members, appointed by the Governor,
serving staggered two-year terms. One student Trustee
has full voting powers; the second, non-voting student
Trustee succeeds to the voting position upon the
expiration of the term of the first.
Five (5) voting ex officio members, including four
elected state officials: the Governor, the Lieutenant
Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the
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Superintendent of Public Instruction. The CSU
Chancellor is the fifth ex officio member.
Article IX, Section 9 of the California Constitution
establishes the University of California (UC) as a public
trust administered by the Regents of the University of
California (Regents). The Constitution grants the Regents
full powers of organization and government, subject only to
such legislative control as may be necessary to insure the
security of its funds, compliance with the terms of
University endowments, other procedures as specified:
18 Governor appointees, each serving a 12-year term,
confirmed by a majority of the Senate.
One (1) student appointed by the Regents to a
one-year term.
Seven (7) voting ex officio members -- the Governor,
Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the Assembly,
Superintendent of Public Instruction, the president and
vice president of the Alumni Association of UC and the
UC president.
Two (2) faculty members -- the chair and vice chair
of the Academic Council -- sit on the board as
non-voting members.
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Authorizes ex officio members of the CSU Board of
Trustees to designate an officer or member of the same
office or elective body of the member to attend CSU
Trustee meetings in the ex officio member's absence.
2) Specifies who may be designated to represent ex officio
members of the CSU Trustees as follows:
a) Governor: A secretary of an executive agency
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appointed by the Governor.
b) Lieutenant Governor: A member of the
California Senate.
c) Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI): A
county superintendent of schools.
d) Speaker of the Assembly: A member of the
California Assembly.
e) Chancellor of the CSU: An executive officer
employed by the Office of the Chancellor.
3) Prohibits a designated representative from voting on
behalf of an ex officio member of the CSU Trustees and
prohibits a designee from being counted as a member of
the board for purposes of establishing a quorum.
4) Specifies that an ex officio member of the CSU Trustees
may designate only one person in a calendar year to
attend a meeting or meetings in the
ex officio's absence.
5) States legislative intent that each ex officio member of
the Regents designate a person to attend a meeting or
meetings of the regents in the member's absence.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author's office,
conflicts in meeting schedules for the CSU Board of
Trustees and the UC Regents make it difficult for ex
officio members who serve on both boards to attend both
meetings. The sponsor of this measure maintains that
the absence of the ex officio members compromises the
integrity of both boards and argues that allowing ex
officio members to appoint representatives to attend for
them will provide better oversight of these
institutions. Given that ex officio members may already
send representatives to attend any and all open meetings
of the Trustees and Regents and speak on their behalf
during public comment periods, it is not clear how this
legislation will enhance oversight.
2) By virtue of the office : The California Constitution
designates specific state-elected officials as ex
officio members of the UC Regents in order to allow
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elected leaders to share their perspective in the
formulation of system policy. Similarly, the
Legislature has established the importance of certain
state-elected officers serving as members of the CSU
Trustees. By virtue of the office they hold, ex-officio
members bring their unique perspective and experience to
the policy and governance discussions of these boards
and provide a means for the executive and legislative
branches of government to monitor and, through public
deliberation, participate in the actions of the these
governing boards. It is not clear whether the
perspectives of these specific offices will continue to
be represented should AB 690 be enacted. Will designees
be guided by their own viewpoints or those of the
constituent groups they serve? Would the Secretary of
Business, Transportation, and Housing have the same
perspective as the Governor on matters relating to
higher education policy?
3) Accountability . While the bill requires designees to
be from the same office or same elective body, it is not
clear that these provisions will ensure greater
accountability because the specified designees are
accountable to different groups of people than the ex
officio members. Agency secretaries and directors serve
at the pleasure of the Governor and are not directly
accountable to the voters; a member of the Senate is
accountable to voters in his or her district, but not
voters statewide as is the Lieutenant Governor; and a
member of the Assembly will represent a different
district than the Speaker of the Assembly. In addition,
while most county superintendents are accountable to
voters in their county, at least five county
superintendents are appointed by the county school board
of education rather than directly elected by residents
of the county. What happens if a Trustees or Regents'
meeting conflicts with a scheduled meeting for a county
superintendent? Is it appropriate for a county
superintendent to allocate a portion of his or her time
to prepare for and attend meetings for the Trustees,
which could be construed as using local assistance
resources for a statewide benefit? Staff recommends
amending the bill to clarify that only elected county
superintendents may be designated to attend Trustee
meetings on behalf of the Superintendent of Public
Instruction.
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4) Board integrity . Although AB 690 could result in
more public dialog at board meetings and may enable CSU
to more reliably predict who attends its Trustee
meetings, other impacts of the measure are less clear.
Since it is possible that ex officio members may attend
some meetings and their designees attend others, could
this bill lead to greater inconsistency in board
actions? Will designees be held to the same
confidentiality and fiduciary requirements as the ex
officio members they represent? Are the designees
entitled to participate in closed session meetings?
5) How will this work ? The bill authorizes the
Chancellor of the CSU to designate an officer employed
by the Office of the Chancellor to attend Trustee
meetings. Aside from whether it would be wise for a
Chancellor to do this, could this provision signal that
it is acceptable for the Chancellor to miss meetings of
the Trustees? Further, by authorizing ex-officio
members to send a designee to participate in meetings on
their behalf, this bill grants ex officio members a
privilege regular members do not have. Is this
appropriate? Finally, given that the State Constitution
specifies the ex officio members of the UC Regents, it
appears that ex officio Regents cannot designate someone
to attend a meeting or meetings of the Regents. Staff
recommends amending the bill to delete the provision
concerning the Chancellor's authority to designate an
Chancellor's Office staff to attend Trustee meetings.
6) Meeting schedules . The UC and CSU governing boards
have six standing meetings per year. The UC and CSU
have worked together in recent years to coordinate
meeting schedules to ensure that regular meetings are
not held on the same day. In 2009, only the November
meetings of both governing boards conflict, and in 2010,
only the first day of the July Regents' meeting
conflicts with meeting of the Trustees.
7) Previous legislation . AB 1413 (Portantino, 2007)
would have allowed
ex officio members to designate a staff person to attend
Trustee meetings in his or her absence. AB 1413 passed
out of this Committee on a 5-1 vote and was vetoed by
Governor Schwarzenegger. In his veto message, the
Governor addressed the provision by noting:
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"CSU Board of Trustees meetings are already open to the
public and therefore it is unnecessary to statutorily
authorize a staff person to attend in a member's
absence."
8) Related legislation . SCA 21 (Yee) repeals the
constitutional provisions relating to the University of
California and the Regents and would require the
University and the Regents to be subject to legislative
control. This measure is scheduled to be heard by this
Committee on July 8, 2009.
SUPPORT
AFSCME, Local 3299
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
California Faculty Association
California State Employees Association
Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi
OPPOSITION
California State University
University of California