BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1989
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 7, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 1989 (Mendoza) - As Introduced: February 17, 2010
SUBJECT : County Boards of Education: election
SUMMARY : Requires a county with a charter that provides for an
appointed county board of education (board of education) to
transition to an elected board. Specifically, this bill :
1)Deletes the provision of law that requires the manner of
selection of the board of education in a charter county to be
prescribed in the county charter or by the County Board of
Supervisors.
2)Requires any county with a charter that provides, on January
1, 2011, for an appointed board of education to elect the
board at a direct primary election held in 2014, where:
a) Four of the seven (or three of the five) trustee area
seats comprising the board of education are elected to
initial four-year terms and the remaining seats to initial
two-year terms.
b) Subsequent elections are held at the direct primary
election.
c) Members of the board of education thereafter serve
four-year terms.
d) Members of the board of education take office on July 1
following the direct primary election.
e) Boundaries of the trustee areas of the board of
education are determined by two-thirds vote of the county
committee on school district organization.
3)Prohibits the transition from an appointed board of education
to an elected board from causing a change in the benefits to
which members of the board are entitled, and requires that any
benefit changes occur under existing guidelines and procedures
in place within the county.
AB 1989
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EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires a board of education member to be a voter in a
trustee area and to be elected by the voters in that trustee
area, with two exceptions:
a) Charter counties, where the manner of selecting the
board of education is specified by either the county
charter or by the county board of supervisors.
b) A city/county.
2)Requires the governing board of a district to serve as the
board of education if the territory of the district includes
the entire county.
3)Requires the county committee on school district organization,
by two-thirds vote of its members, to establish the boundaries
of the trustee areas used for the election of members to the
board of education and to establish whether the board consists
of 5 or 7 members.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : The California Constitution recognizes two types of
counties: general law counties and charter counties. General law
counties adhere to state law as to the number and duties of
county elected officials, while charter counties have a limited
level of autonomous authority to provide for the selection,
compensation, and removal of county officers with the exception
of the sheriff, district attorney, and assessor, who must be
elected. Being a charter county does not give the county
additional authority over local regulations, revenue-raising
abilities, or budgetary decisions, nor does it allow the county
to add to or relieve any county officer from their legal
obligations. It does, however, mean that the county may hold
the appointing authority over county officers, such as the
members of the board of education or the county superintendent
of schools, who are elected officials in most counties. In a
charter county that appointing authority would be established in
the county charter or by the county board of supervisors.
A county may adopt, amend, or repeal a county charter with
majority vote approval by the county board of supervisors, and
the county charter has the force of law in the state. There are
AB 1989
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currently 44 general law counties and 14 charter counties;
charter counties include Alameda, Butte, El Dorado, Fresno, Los
Angeles, Orange, Placer, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego,
San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Tehama. Each county,
whether general law or charter, is required to have a board of
supervisors consisting of five members, except where the county
charter provides for a different number of members; each member
of a board of supervisors must be a registered voter of, and
reside in, the district from which the member is elected.
Each of California's 58 counties is represented by a county
superintendent of schools and a board of education. The county
superintendent of schools is appointed in five counties,
including in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco
and Santa Clara counties - all of which are charter counties.
Only one county appoints, rather than elects, members of its
board of education; in Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles
County Board of Supervisors, pursuant to Section 11 (1) of
Article III and Section 14 of Article IV of the Los Angeles
County Charter, appoints members of the Los Angeles County Board
of Education. There are also seven California counties where a
single school district encompasses the entire territory of the
county: Alpine, Amador, Del Norte, Mariposa, Plumas, San
Francisco and Sierra counties; in these counties, as required by
law, the elected school district governing board also serves as
the county board of education. San Francisco, as a city/county,
as well as through its status as a charter county, is authorized
to provide for a selection method other than election for its
county board of education; however, as mentioned previously, as
a single school district county, the elected governing board of
San Francisco Unified School District also functions as the
county board of education.
Boards of education have limited responsibilities, which include
serving as the appeal board for the adjudication of expulsion
appeals, interdistrict attendance appeals, and charter school
authorizations. Boards of education also review policies,
regulations and curriculum for the schools and educational
programs operated by the county superintendent of schools, and
have oversight responsibilities with respect to the annual
budget, annual audit and salary of the county superintendent of
schools, and to the purchase or lease of property for county
office operated programs. Many boards of education also act as
the county committee on school district organization, which
reviews changes in school district boundaries and trustee areas.
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In support of the bill, it could be argued that an elected board
of education provides greater direct accountability to the
people, while an appointed board of education member is
accountable to the elected official or officials that made the
appointment and thus only indirectly to the people. According
to the author, "Given the importance of this board [the board of
education], it is important for them to be accountable to the
residents who reside in the county and are affected by the
board's action. Therefore, in order to ensure that the will of
the people is served it is necessary to hold democratic
elections for the county board of education in all of
California's 58 counties." It could also be argued that an
elected board, under the provisions of this bill and current
law, would ensure geographic representation or diversity; in the
case of the appointed Los Angeles County Board of Education,
that geographic representation may or may not exist, but is not
required under the provisions of the Los Angeles County Charter.
Opponents of this bill would question the reason or need for
imposing direct election as the means of selecting members of a
local board, particularly when statute has long afforded local
control, in the case of charter counties, over choosing how to
select the members of the board of education. The statutory
authority for charter counties to prescribe the means of
selecting the board of education was built into the Education
Code in its current form when the Education Code was
restructured and rewritten by AB 3100 (Greene), Chapter 1010,
Statutes of 1976; however, the origin of the authority pre-dates
that restructuring and first appeared in statute prior to 1875.
The question that is clearly at the heart of the proposal made
in this bill is: Should members of all county boards of
education be directly answerable to the electorate, or do the
long-standing provisions allowing the appointment of those
members in charter counties provide sufficient accountability by
having those appointed members directly answerable to their
elected appointing entity and thus indirectly answerable to the
electorate?
Committee amendments: If the Committee chooses to pass this
bill, then Committee staff recommends that the following
amendments to the bill be made.
AB 1989
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1)If the bill is enacted as currently written, then the
authority for a charter county prescribing the manner of
selection in the county charter or by the county board of
supervisors will cease to be operable on January 1, 2011. The
bill requires any county, where that county's charter provides
for an appointed board of education on January 1, 2011, to
thereafter elect the board of education with the first such
election occurring at the direct primary election of 2014.
This language presents two problems.
a) No charter county would be authorized to have an
appointed board of education on January 1, 2011, therefore
the election requirement could be interpreted as applying
to no one. Also, since there is no requirement to elect a
board until 2014, it is possible that the board positions
could be unfilled for up to two and one-half years in any
county currently appointing the board of education. The
bill should be amended to allow the authority to appoint
the board of education to continue until the elected board
members take office July 1, 2014.
b) The authority for an appointed board of education is
eliminated for charter counties whether the means of
selection of the board is prescribed in the county charter
or is prescribed by the county board of supervisors;
however, the requirement for transition to an elected board
of education at the 2014 direct primary only applies to the
case where a county charter authorizes an appointed board
of education. The bill should be amended to apply to a
situation where a charter county, rather than where a
county charter, provides for an appointed board of
education.
2)Since there is no mechanism in the bill for identifying which
four of the seven (or three of the five) trustee area seats
receives an initial four-year term, Committee staff recommends
that the bill be amended to indicate that the odd number
trustee areas receive the four-year terms and that the county
committee on school district organization, which would
establish the boundaries for the trustee areas, also
sequentially number those trustee areas.
3)On page 3, line 3 of the bill, the county committee referenced
should be the county committee on school district
organization, not reorganization.
AB 1989
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Previous legislation: AB 3100 (Greene), Chapter 1010, Statutes
of 1976, restructured the entire Education Code, including
pre-existing provisions granting the authority to charter
counties to prescribe the means of selecting the county's board
of education in the county's charter or by the county board of
supervisors.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Teachers Association
Opposition
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087