BILL NUMBER: AB 1215 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE SEPTEMBER 4, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 12, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member De La Torre
FEBRUARY 27, 2009
An act to amend Sections 87482 and 87882 of the Education
Code, relating to community colleges. An act to add
Sections 19852.2 and 19852.3 to the Government Code,
relating to public employment.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1215, as amended, De La Torre. Community colleges:
temporary and part-time faculty. Public employment:
furloughs.
Existing law authorizes the Governor to require that the 40-hour
workweek be worked in 4 days in any state agency or part thereof when
the Governor determines that the best interests of the state would
be served thereby. Existing law vests the Department of Personnel
Administration with the duties and responsibilities exercised by the
State Personnel Board with respect to the administration of salaries,
hours, and other personnel-related matters.
This bill would exempt employees in positions funded at least 95%
by sources other than the General Fund from furloughs implemented by
any state agencies, boards, and commissions. The bill would also
prohibit a state agency, board, or commission from directly or
indirectly implementing or assisting in implementing a furlough of
those employees. The bill would define "employee" for the purpose of
those provisions and would also specify that nothing in those
provisions shall be construed as legal authorization for the
imposition of furloughs on employees through Executive order. The
bill would also make related findings and declarations.
(1) Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges,
under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California
Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary
education in this state. Existing law establishes community college
districts, administered by a governing board, throughout the state,
and authorizes these districts to provide instruction to students at
the community college campuses maintained by the districts.
Existing law requires that a person employed to teach adult or
community college classes for not more than 67% of the hours per week
of a full-time employee having comparable duties, excluding
substitute service, be classified as a temporary employee.
Existing law authorizes the governing board of a district to
employ a person serving as full-time faculty or part-time faculty but
prohibits employment of a person as a temporary faculty member by
any one district for more than 2 semesters or 3 quarters, except that
a person serving as full-time or part-time clinical nursing faculty
teaching 60% or more of the hours per week considered a full-time
assignment for regular employees may be employed as a temporary
faculty member for up to 4 semesters or 6 quarters within any period
of 3 consecutive years between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2014.
This bill would instead allow nursing faculty that teach up to 67%
of the hours per week considered a full-time assignment for regular
employees having comparable duties, excluding substitute service, to
be employed by any one school district in the amounts described
above.
(2) Existing law, the Community College Part-Time Faculty Office
Hours Program, authorizes the governing board of a community college
district to establish a program to provide part-time faculty office
hours. For purposes of the program, existing law defines "part-time
faculty" as any person who is employed to teach for not more than 60%
of the hours per week considered a full-time assignment for regular
employees having comparable duties.
This bill would change the definition of "part-time faculty" by
increasing the percentage of the hours per week to 67.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 19852.2 is added to the
Government Code , to read:
19852.2. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Executive Orders S-16-08 and S-13-09 imposed three unpaid
furlough days on state employees. These furloughs, instituted outside
the collective bargaining process, constitute an annual pay cut of
14 percent. The imposition of involuntary furlough time on state
employees has resulted in tremendous hardship to employees and their
families.
(b) Although the Executive orders declare an emergency pursuant to
Section 3516.5 based upon the General Fund deficit, the furloughs
apply to virtually all state employees, without regard to whether
they are paid through the General Fund or whether the furlough
results in any state savings.
(c) Several dozen state agencies are user-funded or federally
funded. Furloughing the employees of these agencies creates no
General Fund savings and simply makes these agencies less efficient.
(d) Not only do delays harm California's most vulnerable residents
but they also deprive the state of various sources of federal
funding, at a time when we must maximize all revenue sources to
improve our economy. A report by the Social Security Administration's
inspector general concluded that just two furlough days would
decrease California's capacity to process disability claims by 10
percent, delaying 2,375 disability cases per month. Currently the
Department of Social Services, which administers the program, is
losing ten million dollars ($10,000,000) per month in federal funds.
(e) With the unemployment rate at a record high, furloughing
workers at the Employment Development Department and the California
Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board will only make it harder for the
unemployed to access benefits. It is estimated that the wait time
for an appeal to be heard will increase from seven weeks to three
months. These departments are federally funded so the hardship
inflicted will not result in any state savings.
(f) In addition to departments whose employees are not paid from
the General Fund, the furloughs extend even to those departments that
generate new revenue. The Franchise Tax Board says the state will
lose five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000) over the next three
years because collections and audits will decline due to employee
furloughs. The Franchise Tax Board has already seen a three hundred
seventy-two million dollar ($372,000,000) reduction in income tax
revenue for the fiscal year that ended June 30. These furloughs are
actually exacerbating the General Fund deficit they were intended to
help reduce.
(g) California's budget deficit is a product of the national and
global economic downturn. Solutions to the budget crisis should focus
on improving the economy, rather than cutting the pay of and
decreasing consumer spending by California workers. The Sacramento
region is already losing five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000)
to six hundred million dollars ($600,000,000) a month in worker
wages, forcing many local businesses to lay off workers or close
their doors.
SEC. 2. Section 19852.3 is added to the
Government Code , to read:
19852.3. (a) Employees in positions funded at least 95 percent by
sources other than the General Fund shall be exempt from furloughs
implemented by any state agencies, boards, and commissions.
(b) A state agency, board, or commission shall not directly or
indirectly implement or assist in implementing a furlough of an
employee when the position is funded at least 95 percent from sources
other than the General Fund.
(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed as legal
authorization for the imposition of furloughs on employees through
Executive order.
(d) For the purposes of this section, "employee" means a civil
service employee of the State of California. The "State of California"
as used in this section includes such state agencies, boards, and
commissions as may be designated by law that employ civil service
employees.
SECTION 1. Section 87482 of the Education Code
is amended to read:
87482. (a) (1) Notwithstanding Section 87480, the governing board
of a community college district may employ any qualified individual
as a temporary faculty member for a complete school year, but not
less than a complete semester or quarter during a school year. The
employment of those persons shall be based upon the need for
additional faculty during a particular semester or quarter because of
the higher enrollment of students during that semester or quarter as
compared to the other semester or quarter in the academic year, or
because a faculty member has been granted leave for a semester,
quarter, or year, or is experiencing long-term illness, and shall be
limited, in number of persons so employed, to that need, as
determined by the governing board.
(2) Employment of a person under this subdivision may be pursuant
to contract fixing a salary for the entire semester or quarter.
(b) A person, other than a person serving as clinical nursing
faculty and exempted from this subdivision pursuant to paragraph (1)
of subdivision (c), shall not be employed by any one district under
this section for more than two semesters or three quarters within any
period of three consecutive years.
(c) (1) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), a person serving as
full-time clinical nursing faculty or as part-time clinical nursing
faculty teaching the hours per week described in Section 87482.5 may
be employed by any one district under this section for up to four
semesters or six quarters within any period of three consecutive
academic years between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2014, inclusive.
(2) A district that employs faculty pursuant to this subdivision
shall provide data to the chancellor's office as to the number of
faculty members hired under this subdivision, and what the ratio of
full-time to part-time faculty was for each of the three academic
years prior to the hiring of faculty under this subdivision and for
each academic year for which faculty is hired under this subdivision.
This data shall be submitted, in writing, to the chancellor's office
on or before June 30, 2012.
(3) The chancellor shall report, in writing, to the Legislature
and the Governor on or before September 30, 2012, in accordance with
data received pursuant to paragraph (2), the number of districts that
hired faculty under this subdivision, the number of faculty members
hired under this subdivision, and what the ratio of full-time to
part-time faculty was for these districts in each of the three
academic years prior to the operation of this subdivision and for
each academic year for which faculty is hired under this subdivision.
(4) A district may not employ a person pursuant to this
subdivision if the hiring of that person results in an increase in
the ratio of part-time to full-time nursing faculty in that district.
SEC. 2. Section 87882 of the Education Code is
amended to read:
87882. For purposes of this article, "part-time faculty" means
any person who is employed to teach for not more than the hours per
week described in Section 87482.5.