BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2155
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Date of Hearing: May 9, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2155 (Hueso) - As Amended: April 23, 2012
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:9-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires school districts and charter schools to
comply with financial reporting requirements for employee credit
cards, and places restrictions on district superintendent
contract provisions related to cash settlements, as specified.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the annual statements of school district and charter
school board members or employee credit cards to include an
itemized list of expenses charged to that credit card,
including identification by classification or title of the
officer or employee to whom the card is issued. Further
requires this statement to be filed with the county
superintendent of schools (CSS) or in the case of a charter
school, with its chartering authority.
2)Requires the board members, who are serving as of January 1,
2013, of a community college district, county office of
education (COE), and a school district to receive ethics
training by January 1, 2014 and at least once every two years
thereafter. Further exempts board members whose term ends
before January 1, 2014.
3)Establishes the maximum cash settlement paid to a
superintendent of a school district, when his or her contract
is terminated more than 12 months before scheduled, to be an
amount equal to the monthly salary of the employee multiplied
by 12.
FISCAL EFFECT
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1)Unknown indeterminate local GF salary savings to school
districts for not paying a cash settlement for more than 12
months to a terminated school superintendent, as specified.
The state would not experience any GF/98 savings because the
amount of general purpose funding it provides to a school
district will not change due to the termination of a
superintendent.
2)Unknown potential reimbursable GF/98 mandated costs, likely
between $115,000 and $280,000, to require school district, CC
district, and county board members to complete ethics
training. This assumes approximately one-half of educational
entities file a mandate reimbursement claim related to
notification of training, cost of providing the training, and
enforcement of the requirement. There are 1,050 school
district governing boards; 51 county boards of education; and
22 CC districts.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the author, "Public schools consume the
largest share of the state's shrinking general fund. How those
funds are allocated is coming under increased scrutiny by
education leaders, advocacy groups, and lawmakers.
Improvements in a school district's administrative process can
make a significant difference and provide an extra few hundred
dollars per student.
2)Background . Current law requires school districts and charter
schools on or before September 15 of each year to provide an
annual statement of all receipts and expenditures of the
district for the preceding fiscal year to the CSS. Statute
also requires the CSS, on or before October 15, to verify the
mathematical accuracy of the statements and transmit a copy to
the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Statute also requires all employment contracts between an
employee and an LEA to include a provision providing that
regardless of the term of the contract and if it is
terminated, the maximum cash settlement an employee may
receive is an amount equal to his or her monthly salary,
multiplied by the number of months left on the unexpired term
of the contract. Existing law further requires that if the
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unexpired term of the contract is greater than 18 months, the
maximum cash settlement must be an amount equal to the monthly
salary of the employee multiplied by 18.
Current law prohibits an LEA from providing a district
superintendent a cash or non-cash settlement in an amount
greater than the superintendent's monthly salary multiplied by
zero to six, if the LEA confirms (pursuant to an independent
audit) that the superintendent engaged in fraud,
misappropriation of funds, or another illegal fiscal practice.
Statute also requires an administrative law judge to
determine the amount of the cash settlement, as specified.
AB 1234 (Salinas), Chapter 700, Statutes of 2005, required a
local agency (i.e., city, county, special district, charter
city, and city and county) that provided any type of
compensation to a member of a legislative body to provide
ethics training to these members.
3)Need ? Current law establishes provisions to address financial
misconduct of both school district board members and
employees, including superintendents. For example, in the
wake of the City of Bell abuse of office allegations, the
Legislature passed and the governor signed legislation
applicable to all local governments, including school
districts, intended to establish transparency in the
administration of taxpayer dollars by local government
officials and administrators. Specifically, AB 1344 (Feuer),
Chapter 692, Statutes of 2011 established the following
provisions for all local governments (including school
districts):
a) Requires any contract of employment, on or after January
1, 2012, between an employee and a local agency employer to
include provisions that specify (regardless of the term of
the contact or if the contract is terminated) any cash
settlement related to the termination of the employee must
be fully reimbursement to the local agency if the employee
is convicted of a crime involving abuse of his or her
office or position.
b) Requires, on or after January 1, 2012, the employee or
officer who receives payments to fully reimburse the local
agency that provided them in the event that the employee or
officer is convicted of a crime involving the abuse of his
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or her office or position. This scenario occurs when the
local agency provides payments without a contractual
obligation, as specified.
Both of these provisions apply to school district
superintendents. If one of the purposes of the bill is
establishing accountability for school district
superintendents, one could argue Chapter 692 achieves this
goal.
Likewise, current statute requires school districts and
charter schools to provide CSS with an annual summary
statement of all district or charter school receipts and
expenditures, including credit cards. Under current practice,
the CSS reviews this information as part of its annual audit
requirements. This bill requires districts and charter
schools to provide the CSS with itemized statements, in
addition to the summary statement of receipts and
expenditures. This requirement appears to be redundant to
current law.
4)Potential reimbursable mandate for ethics training
requirement . AB 1234 (Salinas), Chapter 700, Statutes of
2005, requires local agencies to provide ethics training to
their members, if they provide compensation to a member of
legislative body According to CSBA, approximately 552 (53%)
of the 1,033 school district governing boards provide
compensation via a monthly payment or stipend to their board
members. Since a majority of school districts provide
compensation to their members, it is possible that districts
may submit a reimbursement claim to the Commission on State
Mandates for providing ethics training. The claim may request
costs associated with staff time regarding notification of
training to its members, enforcement procedures, and actual
costs of the training.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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