BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 981 (Yee) - Public Utilities commission: commissioners:
executive employees
Amended: March 14, 2012 Policy Vote: EU&C 7-6
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 24, 2012 Consultant: Marie Liu
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: SB 981 would restrict when a former public
utilities employee can be hired by the Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) or appointed as a commissioner, and when a
former PUC employee can lobby the PUC on behalf of a public
utility.
Fiscal Impact: Ongoing costs of $150,000 annually from the
Public Utilities Commission Utilities Reimbursement Account
(special fund) beginning in 2013 for the management of
restrictions on potential, existing, and former PUC employees.
Background: The Milton Marks Postgovernment Employment
Restrictions Act of 1990 prohibits any officer and specified
designated employees of a state agency, for a period of one year
after leaving office or employment, from making any formal or
informal appearance, or by making any oral or written
communication, before any state administrative agency for which
he or she worked.
Current law defines an executive officer of a public utility as
a person who performs policy-making functions and is employed by
the public utility subject to the approval of the board of
directors. Executive officers include the utility president,
secretary, treasurer, and any vice president in charge of a
principal business unit, division, or function of the public
utility. A public utility includes electric, gas, telephone, and
water corporations, and common carriers.
Current law also prohibits a PUC commissioner from holding an
official relation to, or having a financial interest in, a
person or corporation subject to regulation by the commission.
SB 981 (Yee)
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Proposed Law: This bill would:
Prohibit a PUC commissioner, executive employee of the
commission, or the PUC attorney from lobbying the PUC on
behalf of a public utility or other entity subject to PUC
regulation for a period of two years after leaving office or
employment;
Prohibit the Governor from appointing any person as a PUC
commissioner who was an executive officer of a public utility
within the past two years before appointment; and
Prohibit the PUC from hiring an executive employee or attorney
who, in the previous two years, was an executive officer of a
public utility.
For the purpose of these restrictions, an "executive employee of
the commission" is defined as: (1) any chief of staff, executive
assistant, or administrative assistant I for a commissioner; (2)
specific advisors to a commissioner including legal advisors,
rotational advisors, policy and planning advisors, and technical
advisors; (3) the executive director of the PUC; and (4)
employees of specified executive offices including the deputy
executive director, director of governmental affairs, and
communication director.
These restrictions would apply to any commissioner or employee
appointed or hired after January 1, 2013.
Staff Comments: This bill extends current statutory restrictions
on employment after leaving the PUC from one year to two years
for commissioners and executive employees of the PUC. In
addition, this bill would prohibit recent executive officers of
public utilities from being hired to certain PUC positions or
being appointed as a commissioner, a "revolving door" direction
that is currently not restricted by law.
This bill differs from existing "revolving door" restrictions in
that this bill specifies restrictions based on working titles,
civil service classification, and supervisor instead of the
actual responsibilities of the employee. According to author,
the bill takes this this alternate approach in order to affect
only subset of the employees that are currently subject to the
one-year post employment restriction. However, having two sets
of restrictions that are applied to employees by different means
potentially creates a confusing restrictions patchwork,
especially considering that this bill would not only affect new
SB 981 (Yee)
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hires to the PUC but also internal hires or transfers of PUC
employees who were hired into a non-executive position but may
have worked for a public utility in the past two years.
Additionally, staff notes that former PUC employees currently
continue to work with PUC legal staff for one year pass their
employment in order to ensure compliance with existing
post-employment restrictions. This bill would extend their use
of legal staff to two years. Staff estimates that the PUC is
likely to require at least the workload equivalent of a full
time additional conflict attorney and half-time associate
governmental program analyst to screen and advise potential,
current, and former PUC employees for conflicts at a total
minimum ongoing cost of approximately $200,000 annually from the
Public Utilities Commission Utilities Reimbursement Account
(special fund) beginning in 2013.
Proposed Author Amendments: Reduce the revolving door
restrictions from two years to one year.