BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
365 (Ducheny)
Hearing Date: 05/28/2009 Amended: 04/23/2009
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 6-3
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BILL SUMMARY: This bill would transfer the functions and staff
of the Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) from the
Department of General Services (DGS) to the State Allocation
Board (SAB) as January 1, 2010. The bill would also make
significant changes to the membership of the SAB, including
reducing representation from each house of the Legislature from
3 members to two; making the Directors of Finance and General
Services nonvoting members; and require the Governor to appoint
4 members of the public to the SAB who have expertise in
educational facilities construction.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Administration $300 $600 $600
Bond*
*Proposition 1D and other school facilities bonds
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
This bill would enact certain recommendations of a Little Hoover
Commission report issued in 2007. The report (The State
Allocation Board: Improving Transparency and Structure)
concluded that the SAB, while functionally admirably, suffers
from an "irrational" governance structure. The report suggests
that the SAB should have more public representation (currently,
the SAB includes 1 public member appointed by the Governor, 3
members of the Senate, 3 members of the Assembly, the Director
of the Department of Finance, the Director of DGS, and the
Superintendent of Public Instruction) and that having
legislators make up a voting majority may create the perception
of a conflict of interest.
The report also recommends creating a direct line of authority
from the SAB to its staff. Currently, OPSC administers state
facility programs and staffs the SAB but reports to the Director
of DGS, as the office is established within that department.
Additionally, the SAB appoints an assistant executive officer,
who directly reports to the SAB. The report suggests this
arrangement results in a confusing alignment of authority and,
potentially, allegiance.
To address some of the concerns cited in the report, this bill
would transfer the functions and staff of OPSC to the SAB,
thereby providing that OPSC report directly to the SAB.
Currently, OPSC includes almost 150 employees. Transferring
those positions should be cost neutral. However, as OPSC is
currently established within DGS, it does benefit from the
assistance of non-OPSC DGS staff to perform certain functions
related to
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SB 365 (Ducheny)
administration and legislative and legal affairs. It is likely
that OPSC would need to hire about 5 or 6 positions at a total
approximate cost of $600,000 to keep current services intact.
Most of these costs would likely be covered from bond funds.
Similar legislation, SB 1552 (Margett, 2008), was held under
submission by the Assembly Appropriations Committee last year.