BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 489
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 6, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 489 (Cook) - As Introduced: February 15, 2011
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote: 7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill re-establishes the Commission on Peace Officer
Standards and Training (CPOST) to reclaim responsibility for
developing and monitoring training for correctional peace
officers from the Corrections Standards Authority (CSA), which
assumed this responsibility following the reorganization of the
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in 2005.
This bill does not change current law related to training, other
than reconstituting CPOST and substituting CPOST for CSA in
sections of law related to correctional officer training. This
bill also adds a member and specifies how this member will be
selected. Specifically, this bill:
Specifies the executive board of CPOST would be composed of
seven voting members: three appointed by, and representing the
management of, CDCR, and three appointed by, and representing
the membership of the CA Correctional Peace Officers Association
(CCPOA). This is the same membership configuration used prior to
2005.
The seventh, and potentially tie-breaking member, would be a
person with at least five years experience in a higher education
environment related to corrections or employee training. This
member would be selected in a rochambeau-like process in which
the three members representing management and the three members
representing CCPOA each nominate five persons as the seventh
member.
Management members and CCPOA members would take turns striking
names from the list of 10 nominees. The striking order would be
determined by lot. The last name remaining would be the seventh
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member and serve a term of three years.
Six months prior to expiration of the seventh member's term, the
six would decide whether to extend the term of the seventh for
an additional term of three years. If the six fail to extend the
seventh by majority vote, the seventh would be replaced with a
new member selected via the last-person standing process
described above.
FISCAL EFFECT
To the extent sufficient funds are shifted from CSA to support
CPOST, the net cost could be minimal. To the extent economies of
scale are lost, however, by creating a new entity with a more
singular mission from a large entity with a broader mission,
costs will likely increase by at least several hundred thousand
dollars. Increased costs are likely, particularly if the
proposed budget addresses recommendations of the Office of the
Inspector General, which has recommended increased funding and a
dedicated executive director position.
Prior to being abolished, the CPOST budget was reduced from
about $2.3 million in 2001 to about $1.3 million in its final
year, while the amount budgeted for state corrections standards
and training for 2011-12 is $1 million.
The bill is silent on funding.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author and sponsor, the CA Correctional Peace
Officers Association, (CCPOA) contend that since
responsibility for developing and monitoring training shifted
from CPOST to CSA in 2005, quality and standards have
deteriorated. The sponsor suggests that since training is but
one of many responsibilities of CSA, it would be more
effective to return this responsibility to CPOST, whose focus
is solely on training issues.
CPOST was created in 1994 (SB 1902, Peace) and abolished in
2005 when training responsibility was transferred to CSA,
which itself was restructured from the former Board of
Corrections in the 2005 reorganization of the departments
under the former Youth and Adult Correctional Agency. In 2004,
the Corrections Independent Review Panel (IRP) under the
direction of former Gov. George Deukmekjian, recommended CPOST
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be eliminated and its function and funding be consolidated
within the CSA.
2)The CSA is a 19-member board with an $86 million budget with
broad responsibilities over state and local corrections,
including developing and monitoring standards for local youth
and adult correctional facilities; reviewing architectural
plans for local detention facilities; establishing recruitment
and training standards for local corrections personnel;
administering funds for the construction or renovation of
local detention facilities; and administering state-funded
local corrections programs.
3)Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reports broadly
criticized CPOST and CSA . In 2005 OIG stated that since its
inception CPOST has made only minimal progress in developing
correctional peace officer training standards. The review
found that the commission developed training standards for
only 7 of the 27 correctional peace officer classifications
for which it is responsible and that it had yet to approve any
of the standards that had been developed.
The review also noted that the apprenticeship program lacked
key components essential to an apprenticeship program and was
threatened with decertification for non-compliance with state
and federal standards. The OIG found that CPOST's board had
not met for nearly a year, and had inadequately monitored
compliance with the few general curriculum standards that
already existed.
The OIG stated that CPOST's independence had been undermined
by the influence of CDCR and CCPOA, and that the commission's
membership structure was causing institutional paralysis due
to consistent voting deadlocks between management and
rank-and-file, caused by the even split between management and
rank-and-file representatives.
In a 2006 follow-up report, the OIG criticized CSA's response
to deficiencies identified by the OIG in 2005: "Most of the
recommendations from a 2005 special review of the former CPOST
have not been implemented. The CSA has made limited progress
toward developing selection and training standards for
correctional peace officers, and (CDCR's) Office of Training
and Professional Development has not yet implemented
recommendations pertaining to the correctional peace officer
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apprenticeship program.
4)OIG criticisms and recommendations are not resolved simply by
switching responsibilities back to CPOST . Among the
recommendations offered by the OIG:
a) Provide the resources necessary to develop and monitor
training standards (emphasis added.)
b) Resolve the voting stalemate by revising the "perpetual
stalemate."
c) Recruit and appoint an independent executive director to
provide leadership.
5)Related Legislation .
a) AB 1828 (Cook), 2010, almost identical to this bill, was
held on this committee's Suspense File.
b) SB 441 (Ducheny), 2009, created the Board of Community
Corrections to replace the Board of Corrections and CSA,
and re-established CPOST in a fashion similar to AB 1828.
SB 441 failed to move out of this committee.
c) AB 890 (Aghazarian), 2007), almost identical to AB 1828,
was held on the Senate Appropriations' Suspense File.
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081