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 15, 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
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Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the
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: The
Regents consist of:
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
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members of the CSU Trustees as follows:
a) Governor: A secretary of an executive agency
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 or
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 designates 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. 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. Given that ex officio members may
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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 bill will improve board oversight.
2) Meeting schedules . The UC and CSU governing boards
have six standing meetings per year. The UC and CSU
have worked together to to coordinate meeting schedules
to make it easier for ex officio members to attend both
meetings. 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.
3) By virtue of the office : The California Constitution
and state law designates specific state-elected
officials as ex officio members of the UC Regents and
CSU Trustees respectively in order to allow these
elected leaders to share their perspective in the
formulation of system policy. By virtue of the office
they hold, these elected officials 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. Staff notes
that this bill specifies that designees are permitted to
attend a meeting or meetings of the Trustees in the ex
officio member's absence; they do not attend these
meetings on behalf of the member. As such, it is not
clear that the perspectives of the ex officio office
holders will continue to be represented should AB 690 be
enacted.
4) Accountability . While the bill requires designees to
be from the same office or same elective body, the
specified designees are accountable to different
constituencies 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
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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. Does this matter?
5) County Superintendents . The designation of a county
superintendent to attend meetings in the absence of the
SPI could be problematic. Although a county
superintendent will likely have a "K-12" perspective,
what do they know about higher education policy? What
happens if a Trustees or Regents' meeting conflicts with
a scheduled meeting for a county superintendent?
Finally, 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. 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.
6) 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? Are the designees entitled to
participate in closed session meetings?
7) 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? Staff recommends amending the bill to
remove the Chancellor's authority to designate a
Chancellor's Office staff to attend Trustee meetings.
Finally, given that the State Constitution supersedes
Section 2 of this bill, it appears that ex officio
Regents cannot designate someone to attend a meeting or
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meetings of the Regents. Staff recommends amendments to
remove Section 2 from the bill.
8) 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:
"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."
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