BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 148
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Date of Hearing: May 11, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 148 (Smyth) - As Amended: April 14, 2011
Policy Committee: Local
GovernmentVote:9-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Controller to withhold any funds to which
a local agency is entitled, until the local agency posts its
adopted written attendance compensation policy or adopted
written reimbursement policy on the local agency's Internet Web
site, if any, and submits a copy of the written policy to the
Controller. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires a local agency to post the ethics training records of
those members of the local agency who are elected on the local
agency's Internet Web site, if any, and to submit a copy to
the Controller within 90 days of receiving the records.
2)Adds compensation-setting guidelines as established by
organizations, including, but not limited to, the California
State Association of Counties, the League of California
Cities, the California Special Districts Association, the
California City Management Foundation, or the local agency, to
the list of ethics law required to be covered during a local
agency's mandatory ethics course.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)The bill's requirements affect a large number of agencies.
There are almost 500 cities, 58 counties and 4000 special
districts. They would incur reimbursable costs preparing and
submitting documents to the Controller. These reimbursable
costs are likely to be at least several hundred thousand
dollars.
2)The Controller's office will incur costs to receive and
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process the records and also to establish a process for
withholding payments to local agencies that do not comply with
the requirements of the bill. These are also likely to be
several hundred thousand dollars.
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COMMENTS
1)Purpose. According to the author, the City of Bell scandal
highlights the need to strengthen existing laws on ethics
training, compensation policies and reimbursement policies.
The public, the author says, should have better access to
records on these policies to encourage public participation
and oversight, which in turn could help prevent another city
repeating the City of Bell's example of unethical and bad
faith governance. The author says the solution is to amend
existing law to require all local government agencies to post
on their Internet Web site their compensation policy,
reimbursement policy, and ethics training records and to
submit copies of these policies to the Controller.
2)Background. Current law on local government compensation and
ethics training was added in 2006 with the intent of boosting
public confidence by instituting ethics training, documenting
reimbursement, and clarifying when compensation is
appropriate. These provisions were drafted based on
suggestions from the State Auditor's report on Independent
Special Water Districts, and closely followed the guidelines
established in the Institute for Local Self Government's
publication "Of Cookie Jars And Fishbowls: A Public Official's
Guide To Use Of Public Resources" and the Association of
California Water Agencies "Guidelines of Conduct: A Primer for
Public Water Agency Officials."
3)Sanctions. The bill authorizes the Controller to withhold
local agency funds. This is a significant sanction owing to
the large amounts of local assistance processed by the
Controller. The state has many requirements for local
governments. Is compliance with the bill's requirements
important enough to invoke that sanction? If a future City of
Bell scandal could be avoided, then this would be an
appropriate sanction, but it is not clear that posting of the
guidelines would have that effect.
Analysis Prepared by : Roger Dunstan / APPR. / (916) 319-2081
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