Pension Reform Ballot Measure Filed

A group of city mayors last week submitted a draft of a proposed ballot measure to the Attorney General for title and summary for the November 2014 state ballot. 

“The Pension Reform Act of 2014,” as it is titled, would provide governmental entitities with the authority – currently only given to private entities – to negotiate changes to the pensions or retiree health benefits of current employees for future years of service. Counties will note that several legal decisions have determined that public employee retirement benefits are contractual obligations entitled to the protection of the “Contract Clause” of the State Constitution, which states that, “A … law impairing the obligation of contracts may not be passed.” (Article I, section 10 of the United States Constitution similarly prohibits a state from impairing the obligation of contracts.)

The proposed ballot measure aims to amend the Constitution to allow for changes to the prospective benefits of current public employees. 

The Attorney General must now draft a title and summary for the measure. CSAC will keep you apprised of changes in the status of this proposed ballot measure.

The following is a list of priority legislation in the Employee Relations area with actions by the Governor. 

Wages

AB 10 (Alejo) – Watch
Chapter No. 351, Statutes of 2013

Assembly Bill 10, by Assembly Member Luis Alejo, increases the minimum wage, on and after July 1, 2014, to not less than $9 per hour and  
increases it, on and after January 1, 2016, to not less than $10 per hour.

SB 407 (Hill) – Watch
Chapter No. 213, Statutes of 2013

Senate Bill 407, by Senator Jerry Hill, expands existing law that prohibits an employment contract for a local agency executive from providing an automatic renewal of a contract to include any person who is a deputy or assistant chief executive officer, and any person whose position is held by an employment contract between that person and the local agency. The bill also rovides that if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill’s provisions contain costs mandated by the state, then reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made.

SB 462 (Monning) - Oppose
Chapter No. 142, Statutes of 2013

Senate Bill 462, by Senator Bill Monning, makes the award of attorney’s fees and costs in any action brought for the nonpayment of wages, fringe benefits or health and welfare or pension fund contributions where the prevailing party is not an employee contingent on a finding by the court that the employee brought the court action in bad faith.

Public Safety

AB 11 (Logue) – Watch
Chapter No. 120, Statutes of 2013

Assembly Bill 11, by Assembly Member Dan Logue, requires employers with 50 or more employees to permit an employee who performs emergency duty as a volunteer firefighter, reserve peace officer or as emergency rescue personnel, to take a leave of absence for the purpose of engaging in fire or law enforcement training.


SB 313 (de Leon) – Oppose
Chapter No. 779, Statutes of 2013

Senate Bill 313, by Senator Kevin de Leon, prohibits a public agency from taking punitive action against a public safety officer or denying a promotion on grounds other than merit solely because the officer’s name is placed on a Brady list or the officer’s name is subject to disclosure pursuant to Brady v. Maryland.

SB 765 (Block) – Watch
Vetoed

Senate Bill 765, by Senator Marty Block, would permit a supervisory peace officer employee to join or participate in an employee organization and negotiating unit that is composed of nonsupervisory peace officers if the representation has been agreed to by the supervisory employee representative, the nonsupervisory peace officer representative, and the employer and those entities have informed the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) of their agreement. This bill also permits the employer to have a supervisory peace officer employee join a bargaining unit separate from the employees the supervisory peace officer employee supervises. 

Employee Rights

AB 218 (Dickinson) - Oppose
Chapter No. 699

Assembly Bill 218, by Assembly Member Richard Dickinson, prohibits a state or local agency from asking an applicant to disclose information regarding a criminal conviction until after the applicant’s qualifications for the position have been determined to meet the requirements for the position.

AB 556 (Salas) – Watch
Chapter No. 691, Statutes of 2013

Assembly Bill 556, by Assembly Member Rudy Salas, adds “military and veteran status” to the list of categories protected from discrimination under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA).

SB 292 (Corbett) – Watch
Chapter No. 88, Statutes of 2013

Senate Bill 292, by Senator Ellen Corbett, clarifies that, with respect to an employment-related sexual harassment claim made under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), sexually harassing conduct need not be motivated by sexual desire.

SB 400 (Jackson) – Watch
Chapter No. 759, Statutes of 2013

Senate Bill 400, by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, expands the protections given to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault who take time off to obtain any relief (such as a temporary restraining order) to victims of stalking and prohibits an employer from discharging, retaliating or discriminating against an employee because of his/her known status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. The law now also
requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation for an employee who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, as specified.

SB 770 (Jackson) – Watch
Chapter No. 350, Statutes of 2013

Senate Bill 770, by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson,b roadens the definition of family within the Paid Family Leave (PFL) program to allow workers to receive the partial wage replacement benefits while taking care of 
seriously ill siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, and parents-in-law.

Retirement Benefits

AB 373 (Mullin) – Watch
Chapter No. 768, Statutes of 2013

Assembly Bill 373, by Assembly Member Kevin Mullin, would provide that domestic partners and adult children are eligible to enroll in long-term care plans offered under the Public Employees’ Long-Term Care Act.

AB 410 (Jones-Sawyer) – Watch
Chapter No. 525, Statutes of 2013

Assembly Bill 410, by Assembly Member permits a CalPERS retiree who reinstates to active employment with a CalPERS employer to subsequently re-retire and enroll in PEMHCA as a retiree of the prior employer from which he or she first retired. In such cases, the retiree would be eligible for the employer contribution toward retiree health care that he or she had when first retired. The bill additionally allows the retiree to enroll for retiree health care coverage under the subsequent employer upon re-retirement if the 
employer contribution under the subsequent employer is higher 
than that provided by the first employer and specifies that the subsequent retirement must occur within 120 days after separation from employment from the most recent employer. The 120-day rule would not apply in cases in which a local contracting employer contracts for the option to allow 
coverage regardless of the length of separation for employees 
who had 20 years of service with that local employer.

AB 822 (Hall) – Watch
Vetoed

Assembly Bill 822, by Assembly Member Isadore Hall, would have required local agencies to procure and make public an independent actuarial statement of the impact on future annual costs of local ordinances or measures that propose a change to municipal employee retirement benefit plans, and requires the statement or a summary of the statement to be printed in the voter information portion of the sample ballot preceding arguments for and against such measures, if any. 

AB 1380 (P.E.R., S.S. Committee) – Watch
Chapter No. 247, Statutes of 2013

Assembly Bill 1380, by the Committee on Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security makes various technical corrections and conforming changes that align the County Employees’ Retirement Law of 1937 (‘37 Act) with the provisions of the Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013 
(PEPRA), as enacted in AB 340 (Furutani), Chapter 296, Statutes of 
2012. 

SB 13 (Beall) – Watch
Chapter No. 528, Statutes of 2013

Senate Bill 13, by Senator Jim Beall, makes technical corrections to the Public Employees Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA) in order to clarify 
the Legislature’s intent in enacting PEPRA and to assist affected employers and retirement systems in implementation of PEPRA. 

SB 215 (Beall) – Support
Chapter No. 778, Statutes of 2013

Senate Bill 215, by Senator Jim Beall, allows the state and local employers who contract with CalPERS for health care under the PEMHCA to comply with requirements of the Affordable Care Act by expanding the definition of “employee” in PEMHCA to include fulltime employees as defined by Section 4980(H) of Title 26 of the United States Code.

SB 220 (Beall) – Watch
Chapter No. 526, Statutes of 2013

Senate Bill 220, by Senator Jim Beall, is the PEPRA implementation measure that aligns the Public Employees’ Retirement Law (PERL) and other laws administered by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System with PEPRA.

Brown Act/Public Records Act

AB 246 (Bradford) – Watch
Chapter No. 11, Statutes of 2013

Assembly Bill 246, by Assembly Member Steven Bradford, amended the Ralph M. Brown Act to add the Governor to the list of those with whom local agencies can hold closes sessions on matters posing a threat to security of public buildings and/or services.

SCA 3 (Leno) – Concerns
Chapter No. 123, Statutes of 2013

Senate Constitutional Amendment 3, by Senator Mark Leno, proposed an amendment to the California Constitution to require local agencies to comply with the California Public Records Act and the Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act), and with any subsequent statutory enactment amending either act, enacting a successor act, or amending any successor act and proposes an amendment to the Constitution that provides that the Legislature may, but need not, reimburse local agencies for legislative mandates contained in these Acts. The provisions of SCA 3 will be placed on the June 2014 statewide ballot.

Workers’ Compensation

AB 607 (Perea) – Watch
Chapter No. 786, Statutes of 2013

Assembly Bill 607, by Assembly Member Henry Perea, for purposes of workers’ compensation death benefits, eliminates the requirement that, in order to conclusively presume that children under 18, or certain adult children, are wholly dependent for support on the deceased employee-parent, there not be a surviving totally dependent parent.

AB 1373 (Perez) – Oppose
Vetoed

Assembly Bill 1373, by Assembly Speaker John Perez, would extend the statute of limitations from 240 to 480 weeks for when surviving family members of police and firefighters can claim death benefits.

SB 809 (DeSaulnier) – Support
Chapter No. 400, Statutes of 2013

Senate Bill 809, by Senator Mark DeSaulnier, establishes a funding mechanism to update and maintain the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) and Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), requires all prescribing health care practitioners to apply to access CURES information, and establishes processes and procedures for regulating prescribing licensees through CURES and securing private information. 

Veterans

AB 151 (Olsen) – Support
Chapter No. 689, Statutes of 689

Assembly Bill 151, by Assembly Member Kristin Olsen, allows the governing board of any county to grant financial assistance, relief, and support to a disabled veteran, defined in current law as a veteran of the military, naval, or air service of the United States. 

AB 639 (Perez, J.) – Support
Chapter No. 789, Statutes of 2013

Assembly Bill 639, by Assembly Speaker John Perez, authorizes the issuance of $600 million in general obligation (GO) bonds to fund the acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, and preservation of multifamily supportive housing, affordable transitional housing, affordable rental housing, and related facilities for veterans and their families, if approved by the voters at the June, 2014, statewide election.

AB 725 (Anderson) – Support
Chapter No. 697

Assembly Bill 725, by Assembly Member Joel Anderson, provides that, whenever a city, county, or city and county has provided, maintained, or provided and maintained any building, memorial hall, meeting place, memorial park, or recreation center for the use or benefit of one or more veterans associations, veterans service organizations, or nonprofit veterans service agencies pursuant to current law, as specified, the provision of that facility and its acceptance by the veterans associations, veterans service organizations, or nonprofit veterans service agencies constitutes a dedication of that property to a public purpose, and the city, county, or city and county may not revoke the dedication, so long as the veterans associations, veterans service organizations, or nonprofit veterans service agencies have not violated the terms and conditions of the dedication, unless the city, county, or city and county dedicates substitute facilities or unless the veterans associations, veterans service organizations, or nonprofit veterans service agencies have either consented to the proposed city, county, or city and county action or have abandoned use of the facilities.