BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2710
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 23, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 2710 (Muratsuchi) - As Amended: March 28, 2014
SUBJECT : Public schools: Finances: Transparency: Ethics
training
SUMMARY : Limits the terms of an employment contract between a
local educational agency (LEA) and a district or county
superintendent of schools, requires the county superintendent of
schools to review and comment on an employment contract between
an LEA and a district superintendent of schools, and requires
disclosure of specified information related to an LEA's
expenditures. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the county superintendent of schools to review and
comment on any proposed employment agreement and compensation
package for the employment of a district superintendent of
schools within its jurisdiction.
2)Restricts the inclusion of a loan for the purchase of a home
in an employment contract between an LEA and a district or
county superintendent of schools to only those contracts in
which both of the following conditions are satisfied:
a) The employee is relocating to an area with a high cost
of housing, and the governing board of the LEA makes a
public finding to that effect; and
b) The loan agreement contains a provision that, if
employment contract is terminated by either the employer or
the employee, the unpaid balance of the loan may be
recovered by the LEA within a reasonable period of time.
3)Requires the following information to be posted on a school
district's or county office of education's Web site:
a) The cost of instruction;
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b) The titles and salaries of certificated employees;
c) The titles and salaries of classified employees;
d) The compensation and employment contract of the county
superintendent of schools or the district superintendent of
schools, as applicable;
e) The total amount of expenditures; and
f) The expenditure per unit of average daily attendance,
and a comparison of that number to the statewide average
for all school districts.
4)Requires the school district or county office of education to
annually update the information specified in this section and
to include a link to the school district's or county office of
education's profile on Ed-Data.
5)Expands, for the purposes of specified sections, the
definition of "local agency" to include a county office of
education or a school district.
6)Requires each local agency official in a county office of
education or a school district to receive ethics training at
least once every two years.
7)Makes technical non-substantive changes to these sections.
EXISTING LAW
1)Requires each county superintendent of schools to annually
examine the adopted budget of each school district within its
jurisdiction and, no later than August 15 of each year,
approve, conditionally approve, or disapprove the adopted
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budget.
2)Requires the superintendent of a school district to annually
provide all of the following information to the governing
board of the school district, or the county board of
education, as appropriate:
a) Estimated cost of any accrued, but unfunded, health and
welfare benefits that continue to a retired employee after
he or she reaches the age of 65;
b) Estimated costs of accrued, but unfunded, workers
compensation claims; and
c) Revisions to the school district's budget that are
necessary to fulfill the terms of a collective bargaining
agreement.
3)Defines, for the purposes of ethics training requirements,
"local agency" as a city, county, city and county, charter
city, charter county, charter city and county, or special
district.
4)Requires each local agency official in service as of January
1, 2006, to receive ethics training before January 1, 2007,
and, thereafter, at least once every two years.
5)Requires each local agency official who commences service on
or after January 1, 2006, to receive ethics training no later
than one year from the first day of service and, thereafter,
at least once every two years.
FISCAL EFFECT : State mandated local program
COMMENTS : According to the author, this bill seeks to provide
greater transparency to the public regarding a superintendent's
compensation and hold LEAs accountable for their financial
decisions. The catalyst for this bill came last year when it
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came to light that the superintendent of Centinela Valley Union
High School District drew more than $663,000 in compensation.
Despite enrolling only 6,600 students, this Superintendent's
compensation eclipsed that of the superintendent of the Los
Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest
school system. As a part of this contract, the Superintendent
also took out a low-interest $910,000 loan to purchase a home
outside the school district's boundaries. Since the initial
report, additional information has been disclosed that the
district also paid nearly $98,000 last year for whole life
insurance for the superintendent, bringing his total taxable
income to $772,457. These events pointed to the need for
increased leadership, accountability, and transparency to ensure
that tax payers' dollars are properly spent.
Committee Considerations
The provisions of this bill are intended to promote
transparency. Toward that end, staff recommends an amendment to
delete the provision that requires the county superintendent to
review and comment on a proposed contract between a local school
district and a district superintendent. Instead, staff
recommends requiring the local governing board to discuss, in a
regularly scheduled and properly agenized meeting, the terms of
the proposed contract, including all elements of compensation.
This amendment would prohibit this discussion from taking place
entirely in closed session and instead specifically requires a
public discussion and comment on each element of the proposed
contract, requires each element of compensation and its value to
be disclosed in the agenda item, and specifies that if each
element of compensation and its value is not agendized, as
specified, the employment contract is void.
This bill requires a school district and county office of
education to post a significant amount of information on its Web
site. School districts and county offices of education already
report this information in various formats and the data is
posted on the Ed-Data Web site. Ed-Data is a partnership of the
California Department of Education, EdSource, and the Fiscal
Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) designed to offer
educators, policy makers, the legislature, parents, and the
public quick access to timely and comprehensive data about K -
12 education in California. In an effort to prevent duplicative
reporting requirements, staff recommends, an amendment to remove
the requirement that an LEA post the contract of the
superintendent on its Web site, as the terms of the contract
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will have already been disclosed during a public meeting of the
governing board and will be available in the LEA's meeting
minutes.
Finally, staff recommends an amendment that encourages the local
governing board to consider whether the proposed employment
contract between an LEA and a district superintendent is
reasonable compared to the contracts of similarly situated
districts.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Association of California School Administrators (Support if
Amended)
Public Advocates
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087