BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 1271 (Corbett) - Seismic Safety Standards Workgroup.
Amended: April 10, 2012 Policy Vote: Education 8-1
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 24, 2012 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: SB 1271 requires the Department of General
Services (DGS) to convene a work group, as specified, to develop
and adopt recommendations for improving the oversight of school
construction projects, and report them in a specified
legislative committee hearing by January 1, 2014.
Fiscal Impact:
Workgroup: $70,000 - $100,000 General Fund in DGS staffing
costs to complete the required reviews and recommendations,
within an existing committee or committees.
Cost pressure: The workgroup recommendations are likely to
result in cost pressure to make changes to school safety
related processes, and to provide funding for seismic
upgrades for existing schools and more extensive (and
expensive) requirements for future school construction
projects.
Background: Existing law requires that K-12 school facilities be
built in compliance with specified earthquake safety standards,
commonly known as the "Field Act," enacted in 1933. The Field
Act requires a comprehensive design specification and
construction inspection process for public school educational
facilities. The Field Act requires the Division of the State
Architect (DSA) within the DGS to review the construction plans
for school buildings and requires school districts to hire
onsite construction inspectors to ensure compliance with the
structural safety standards. (Education Code � 17280-� 17317, �
17365-� 17374)
Proposed Law: This bill would require the DGS to convene a
workgroup to develop and adopt recommendations for improving the
oversight of school construction projects, as specified. It
SB 1271 (Corbett)
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would also require the workgroup to review changes made within
the DSA to improve its oversight of school construction, and to
review the Field Act to consider changes to the act concerning
occupancy of school facilities when and if significant safety
concerns are identified. This bill would further require the
Division of the State Architect to report the recommendations of
the work to the Senate Select Committee on Earthquake and
Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery by January 1, 2014,
at a public hearing, as specified.
Staff Comments: The DGS has indicated that in order to
appropriately staff the workgroup responsibilities required by
this bill, the DGS would need an additional limited-term
Associate Governmental Program Analyst, and .25 FTE of a Staff
Programmer Analyst's time, to support a (.25 FTE) Supervising
Structural Engineer (SSE) of the DSA overseeing the workgroup.
The DSA will be required to redirect a quarter of their
Supervising Structural Engineer's time to the provisions of this
bill.
Depending on the recommendations generated by the review, there
may be additional cost pressure on DGS and on schools to
implement new construction standards. If the workgroup
identifies concerns, it will likely make recommendations to
retrofit schools to address those issues and recommend the
imposition of higher seismic safety standards on future
construction projects.
Author's Proposed Amendments: The proposed amendments require
the DGS to adapt, alter, or combine existing advisory boards or
committees to accomplish the required work, instead of convening
an entirely new workgroup.