BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 2331
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 21, 2010

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                AB 2331 (Skinner) - As Introduced:  February 19, 2010 

          Policy Committee:                              Local  
          GovernmentVote:9-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill provides that once a firefighter has notified the  
          California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Program of his or  
          her employment or reemployment, the firefighter's name shall be  
          immediately removed from the list of permanent career civilian  
          federal, state, and local government firefighters eligible for  
          appointment to a firefighter position by a local government.
           
          FISCAL EFFECT  

          The State Fire Marshal indicates that the bill would not result  
          in any state costs.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Background  . The California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship  
            Program, established in 1980, is a non-profit program  
            sponsored and administered by the State Fire Marshal and the  
            California Professional Firefighters.  The program is designed  
            to improve the quality and quantity of training for  
            professional firefighters, and to provide an avenue of entry  
            into the California Fire Service for qualified,  
            underrepresented, and targeted groups. The hiring list was  
            established in 1997 through SB 538 (Greene), Chapter 73,  
            Statutes of 1997, in response to federal military base  
            closures.  The intent of SB 538 was to address unemployment  
            from base closures and to spare local agencies the expense of  
            training new fire personnel when they might instead hire  
            qualified former federal personnel. 

           2)Purpose . The bill is intended to allow the apprenticeship  








                                                                  AB 2331
                                                                  Page  2

            program to keep its hiring list current. The sponsor  
            (California Professional Firefighters) indicates that current  
            law requires the program to keep an eligible displaced  
            firefighter's name on the hiring list for at least 48 months -  
            even if a firefighter has been hired prior to that the  
            conclusion of that period. Consequently, the sponsor indicates  
            there is a need to amend the law to enable the apprenticeship  
            program to remove a firefighter's name from the hiring list  
            upon notification of employment.  Doing so will ensure the  
            list is current for any prospective fire department that may  
            want to refer to it as a hiring resource.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Brad Williams / APPR. / (916) 319-2081