BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1662
AUTHOR: Fong
AMENDED: April 26, 2012
FISCAL COMM: No HEARING DATE: June 13, 2012
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Daniel Alvarez
SUBJECT : County boards of education: members.
SUMMARY
This bill permits an employee of a school district that is
not within the jurisdiction of the county board of
education eligible to be a member of a county board of
education.
BACKGROUND
Current law:
1) Prohibits an employee of a school district from
being an elected or appointed member of that school
district's governing board unless and until he or she
resigns as an employee. If the employee does not
resign, the employment will automatically terminate
upon being sworn into office. (Education Code � 35107)
2) Prohibits a county superintendent of schools, any
member of his or her staff, or any employee of a
school district from being a member of the county
board of education. (EC �1006)
3) Prohibits a local agency officer (defined to
include governing board members) from engaging in any
employment that is inconsistent, incompatible, in
conflict with, or inimical to his or her duties as a
local agency officer (incompatibility of office
doctrine). (Government Code Section 1126.)
ANALYSIS
This bill permits an employee of a school district that is
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not within the jurisdiction of the county board of
education eligible to be a member of a county board of
education.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, current
law prohibits an employee of a school district from
being a member of a county board of education. This
prohibition applies even if the school district
employee is seeking to serve on the county board of
education in a county other than the one in which he
or she is employed. The policy of this bill is
supported by a 1986 Attorney General opinion, in which
the AG concluded that a member of a county board of
education is eligible to serve as a substitute teacher
in a school district that falls outside the board's
jurisdiction. By eliminating the unnecessary
prohibition against school employees serving on county
boards of education in counties other than the ones in
which they are employed, this measure will protect the
constitutional rights of school employees while
allowing county boards of education to benefit from
the unique insight that these employees can offer.
2) Attorney General (AG) opinion . In a similar matter,
the AG, in Opinion No. 86-601, when posed the
question, "may a member of a county board of education
serve as a substitute teacher for a district which
falls within the board's jurisdiction and may he or
she do so for one which does not?" The opinion
concluded "?a member of a county board of education
may not serve as a substitute teacher in a district
which falls within the board's jurisdiction but may do
so in one which does not."
3) Proponents argue this measure is consistent with the
14th amendment of the US Constitution, the equal
treatment of all people under the law, that
essentially all citizens should be treated equally and
that being a school employee should not exclude you as
a class from being able to run for office. We have
doctors, lawyers, business owners, and other
professionals running for elected office. There are
ample provisions in existing law to prevent any
conflict of interest.
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4) Opponents argue this measure would enable a
fundamental shift in governance away from lay,
community member oversight. The independent role of
county boards is best protected by maintaining the
current requirement that its members not be school
district employees.
5) Prior legislation. Similar but more expansive
legislation, AB 1212 (Thompson, 1999), among other
things would have allowed a school district employee
within that particular county eligible to be a member
of a county board of education, was vetoed by then
Governor Gray Davis. The veto message read:
"This bill would violate the common law rule
against the holding of incompatible offices.
The purpose of this rule is to disallow a
person from holding two or more offices in
which he or she is in a position in one
office to review and approve his or her
actions in the other office, and to disallow
the holding of offices wherein his or her
duties and loyalties are incompatible.
County boards of education have jurisdiction
over several areas which would present such
a conflict, such as fiscal oversight,
budgeting, and student discipline and
transfer. Moreover, I note that current law
prohibits school district employees from
being elected or appointed members of their
school district governing boards.
For this reason, I cannot support this
measure.
SUPPORT
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees
Association of California School Administrators
California School Employees Association (sponsor)
California Federation of Teachers
California Labor Federation
California Professional Firefighters
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Services Employees International Union
OPPOSITION
California County Superintendents Educational Services
Association