BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2138|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2138
Author: Gatto (D)
Amended: 4/29/14 in Assembly
Vote: 27
SENATE GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE : 7-1, 6/10/14
AYES: Correa, Cannella, De Le�n, Galgiani, Hernandez, Padilla,
Torres
NOES: Vidak
NO VOTE RECORDED: Berryhill, Lieu, Vacancy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-0, 8/14/14
AYES: De Le�n, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters, Gaines
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 72-0, 5/23/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Innovation awards
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill creates a one-year "innovation awards"
contest in state government for the purpose of awarding cash
prizes to eligible California participants who are not employees
of the state.
ANALYSIS : Existing law, the State Merit Award Program,
authorizes the Department of Human Resources (CalHR) to make
awards to current or retired state employees who propose
procedures or ideas that are subsequently adopted and placed in
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effect and result in eliminating or reducing state expenditures
or improving state operations; and provides that any such award
in excess of $5,000 must be approved by concurrent resolution of
the Legislature.
This bill:
1.Requires the Governor to designate three state agencies to
participate in a pilot program to award cash prizes of up to
$25,000 to participants in an innovation contest established
by each designated agency.
2.Appropriates $75,000 from the General Fund to the Governor,
for allocation to the designated state agencies for purposes
of the awards.
3.Requires the innovation contests to be held in 2015 and be
open to all residents of California who are not employees of
the state.
4.Requires each designated state agency to determine the
specific subject of the innovation contest and administer its
innovation contest, including but not limited to, determining
the standards for participation and award and publicizing the
contest.
5.Specifies that the subject of the innovation may include
proposals that detail a procedure, plan, design, or idea to
contribute to the efficiency, economy, or other improvement in
the operations of the state agency, including, but not limited
to, streamlining an existing process or system of the state
agency or the design of a feedback system for the state
agency.
6.Requires each designated state agency, on or before January 1,
2016, to award a prize of up to $25,000 to the participant the
agency determines has submitted the entry that best addresses
the subject of the contest, and has the highest likelihood of
being adopted and placed in effect. Also, requires that
unawarded prize money revert to the General Fund.
Background
The State Merit Award Program, administered by CalHR, provides
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cash awards to active and retired state employees who propose
ideas that are implemented and result in savings to the state or
improvement in state operations. According to CalHR, awards to
employees for adopted suggestions are paid from the individual
departments out of the projected first year savings resulting
from implementation of the respective suggestions and not
directly from the General Fund. CalHR points out that on
average, 566 ideas are submitted each year and 21 lead to
monetary awards. The majority of awards involve improved
procedures and the average award amounts to approximately $100.
Comments
The author's office notes that this bill stems from a suggestion
in Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom's book, Citizenville, which
states that "incentive prizes are a perfect bipartisan solution:
They solve problems, help people, and save money, thereby
fulfilling goals that span the whole political spectrum." These
prizes have been around for centuries, dating back to 1714 when
the British government created the "Longitude Prize" - a 20,000
award (more than $4 million in today's dollars) to the person
able to formulate a method to calculate the longitude of a ship
once it had sailed out of view of land - surprisingly, it was a
watchmaker not an astronomer or navigator that was able to
calculate longitude and win the challenge.
Furthermore, the author's office points out that more recently
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched a
contest in February 2011 to quickly develop a combat vehicle
that could be used for reconnaissance as well as delivery and
evacuation. The contest was open to anyone, and the winner, to
be chosen by vote, would receive a $7,500 prize, in addition to
seeing their prototype built. Ordinarily, the procurement
process for developing this type of vehicle would cost the
government millions and take a considerable amount of time.
However, with the contest deadline of mid-March, DARPA had over
150 designs to choose from within weeks, and was able to deliver
the prototype within another 14 weeks.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: Yes Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
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One-time General Fund appropriation of $75,000 in 2014-15 to
the Governor's Office for innovation contest prizes.
Unawarded prize money will revert to the General Fund in
2015-16.
Administrative costs, from $300,000 to $450,000 to design and
administer innovation contests. (General or Special Funds)
This bill does not require state agencies to implement
suggestions collected in the contest, but to the extent
innovative ideas are submitted and adopted, there could be
future cost savings if efficiencies in a particular process or
procedure are achieved.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/13/14)
Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom
California Association of Professional Scientists
California Forward
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author's office believes that this
bill will incentivize everyday citizens to bring untapped
expertise and imagination to the streamlining or innovation of a
process, procedure, or issue within state government and give
participating state agencies the authority to experiment with
this entrepreneurial process to solve problems.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 72-0, 5/23/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonta, Bradford, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos,
Chau, Ch�vez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly,
Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia,
Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman,
Hall, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi,
Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, John A.
P�rez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bonilla, Brown, Donnelly, Harkey, Roger
Hern�ndez, Jones, V. Manuel P�rez, Vacancy
MW:e 8/15/14 Senate Floor Analyses
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SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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