Signaling a major loss for local governments across the state,
the Fourth District Court of Appeals issued two rulings that
found factfinding procedures under the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act
must be applied to all bargaining disputes, not solely those
disputes arising from comprehensive negotiations for a memorandum
of understanding (MOU).
After a vote today by the Legislature and pending the
Governor’s signature, by 2022, workers in California will be
eligible for a $15/hour minimum wage and IHSS workers will be
provided with three paid sick leave days per year.
Big changes are coming to minimum wage laws in California.
Governor Brown and labor groups reached an agreement that would
gradually increase the minimum wage to $15/hour by 2022, and the
language of the deal was placed into already-existing Senate Bill
3 by Senator Mark Leno.
AB 1124 (Perea; 2015) was the subject of a recent joint
hearing of the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee
and the Assembly Insurance Committee (materials available
here).
The bill, passed by a large majority in 2015, requires the
Administrative Director of the Division of Workers’ Compensation
(DWC) to establish a formulary for use in the workers’
compensation system by July 1, 2017.
Did we already lose you? It’s admittedly on the more wonky side
of California’s workers’ compensation policy.
The Legislature went through another long, tedious workers’
compensation system reform process back in 2012 − affectionately
known as SB 863 if you’re particularly affectionate about
workers’ comp. CSAC supported SB 863’s promise to deliver fair
and timely benefits to public employees while reducing the
administrative and financial hurdles faced by counties as
employers, and has worked to uphold its intent since Governor
Brown signed it.
The Public Employment Labor Relations Board (PERB) recently heard
a case related to whether or not employees have the right to
union representation during performance evaluations. The appeal
came from a complicated case where an employee received a
performance review that included a negative evaluation of his
work.
There were several irregularities with the meeting, including a
lack of notice to the employee for a meeting that occurred at a
time the employee did not typically work, and with a different
supervisor conducting the review.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)
Board of Administration (Board) today approved the sponsorship of
legislation to implement the California Employees’ Pension
Prefunding Trust (CEPPT).
Currently, CalPERS only offers employers the option to prefund
their Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) liabilities; the
CEPPT would allow employers to prefund their future annual
pension contributions and provide an additional option to pay
down unfunded liabilities.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) published an
online series to analyze a 2014 plan to fund teacher
pensions. Pensions are an ongoing concern for solvency and
unfunded liabilities, but in 2014 the Governor and Legislature
came to an agreement regarding the California State Teachers
Retirement System (CalSTRS). AB 1469 (2014, Bonta) increased
contributions and attempted to set the program on track for
sustainability.
Attorney General Kamala Harris recently issued
an opinion on the question of whether or not the Brown Act
would be violated if a local agency is unable to post a meeting
agenda online within the required timeline in the case of
technical difficulties, such as a power failure, cyber-attack, or
other third-party interference.
CalPERS is considering what they describe as “a new program that
would allow eligible California public agencies to set aside
additional funds in a trust to prefund the employers’ annual
required pension contributions to a defined benefit pension
plan.” To that end, CalPERS is reaching out to public agencies to
gauge the level of interest in a program like this, and to better
understand how agencies currently approach these financial
obligations. They survey is short and responses are anonymous.
A California case about union dues is being heard by the United
States Supreme Court. Friedrichs v. California Teachers
Association (CTA) concerns a lawsuit filed by ten California
teachers who are suing to overturn Abood v. Detroit Board of
Education (1977), which allowed states to require all employees
represented exclusively by a public-employee union to pay
“fair-share” or “agency” fees.
The Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Program (VHHP)
was the subject of an oversight hearing on Tuesday, January 5.
The Senate Veterans Committee met jointly with the Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee to discuss this relatively
new program and to hear about lessons learned from the first
round of funding awards and where the program is headed in the
future.
CSAC’s Employee Relations policy unit is co-sponsoring two bills
related to vital records, and both will be heard in the Assembly
Health Committee on Tuesday, January 12. CSAC’s Government
Finance and Operations Committee discussed the measures at its
December 3 meeting.
The proponents of a proposed pension reform ballot measure have
abandoned the original proposal and have instead split it into
two separate initiatives.
Counties will recall that The Voter Empowerment Act of
2016 received a less than favorable Title and Summary from
the California Attorney General back in August. The advocates of
the measure have now proposed a pair of measures.
The Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals has denied a request by
home health associations for a stay of its ruling that entitles
home health workers to overtime pay and minimum wage.
The Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals has denied a request by
home health associations for a stay of its ruling that entitles
home health workers to overtime pay and minimum wage.
Governor Vetoes FEHA Protections for Reserve Peace Officers
Governor Brown vetoed Assembly Bill 272, by Assembly Member Tom
Lackey, on September 8. This bill, which was opposed by CSAC and
CSAC-EIA, would have added volunteer reserve peace officers as
“employees” under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act
(FEHA). CSAC was opposed to this bill because of the potential
implications for treating volunteers as employees. Reserve
officers are unpaid volunteers who work on an as-needed basis.
The end of session approaches, several bills with significant
impact to counties are still active and moving quickly. Follow
@csac_employment for
up-to-date information about high priority bills.
Appropriations Committees Determine Fate of Legislation Impacting
Counties
The Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees yesterday voted
on hundreds of bills that had been awaiting action due to costs
they posed to the State. The following bills of major importance
to counties passed out of their respective committees and will
next be awaiting a vote on their respective Floors.
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) last month published
a
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding exemptions under the
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The rule would include public
employees and could have a significant impact on
counties.
Bill Requiring Counties to Provide Costly Credit Monitoring
Services in Cases of Data Breach Sent to Suspense File
AB 259, by Assembly Member Matt Dababneh, would
require agencies that are the source of a data breach to provide
identity theft prevention and mitigation services to affected
individuals for one year. Current law requires that an agency
disclose news of a breach to any California resident whose
unencrypted personal information may have been accessed.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris has issued a title for
a
pension reform measure that would allow voters to weigh in on
compensation and retirement benefits for public employees.
CSAC Takes Oppose Position to Bill Requiring Prevailing Wage for
Ready-Mix Concrete Delivery
CSAC now opposes Assembly Bill 219, by Assembly Member Tom Daly,
which would expand the definition of “public works” for the
purpose of prevailing wage requirements, to include the delivery
of ready-mix concrete.
The Assembly on Monday overwhelmingly supported Assembly 304 by
Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez, a bill intended to clarify
several sections of last year’s mandatory paid sick leave bill
(AB 1522).
The current version of the bill has been months of negotiations
between the author, the California Chamber of Commerce and CSAC
to ensure AB 304 addresses major interpretation concerns with AB
1522. CSAC was able to get an exemption for retired annuitants in
the bill, which also includes the following clarifications:
Today both houses will hear 2015-16 budget trailer bills during
their floor sessions. A detailed analysis of the Legislature’s
budget actions will be included in a CSAC Budget Action Bulletin.
CalPERS Board Adopts 2016 Health Plan Premium Rates
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s (CalPERS)
Board of Administration adopted health care premium rate and plan
changes for 2016. The recommendations include adopting a Medicare
plan alternative – UnitedHealthcare’s (UHC) Medicare Advantage
Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan – and eliminating
Medicare Advantage plans currently offered by Anthem Blue Cross,
Blue Shield of California, Health Net and Sharp.
This week, the joint Budget Conference Committee closed out all
remaining open items. For details regarding the Conference
Committee’s actions, please refer to the June 10 edition of the
CSAC Budget Action Bulletin.
CalPERS Holds Webinars on Risk Mitigation Strategies
The CalPERS Board of Administration and staff
recently held
a workshop on May 20th to review and discuss two
strategies to reduce risk and volatility in the fund. Both
strategies are intended to ensure the long-term sustainability of
the fund and will have impacts to member and employer
contributions in the future.
Bill Usurping Decision Making from Governing Boards Moves to
Senate Fiscal Committee
Senate Bill 239, by Senator Robert Hertzberg, places
agreements between public agencies to provide fire protection
services under the purview of local agency formation commissions
(LAFCOs). Secondly, this bill requires the contracting local
agency to receive written permission from the recognized employee
organization to extend fire services outside its service
area.
CPRA Disclosure Not Required for Attorney-to-Client Billing
Invoices
In County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors v.
Superior Court, No. B257230 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr 13,
2015), the California Court of Appeal has concluded that public
agencies are not required to disclose under the California Public
Records Act (CPRA) billing invoices sent to them by their
attorney.
Open Data Becomes a Hot Topic in Legislature Next Week
Legislators will hear the following bills in respective
legislative committees next week; the bills are part of a larger
discussion of making public agency data accessible to the public.
CSAC is working closely with the bills’ authors as the discussion
evolves.
AB 169 (Maienschein) – Pending
As Amended on April 6, 2015
The Assembly Labor and Employment Committee last week passed
Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez’s AB 67, dubbed the “Double Pay
on the Holiday Act of 2015.” The bill:
AB 211 (Gomez) – Watch
As Introduced February 2, 2015
AB 211, by Assembly Member Jimmy Gomez, would de-link the
transfer of collective bargaining for In-Home Supportive Services
(IHSS) providers to the state from the Coordinated Care
Initiative. The measure proposes a January 2016 start date for
transferring collective bargaining from all counties to the
state.
“A popular government without popular information or the
means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy,
or perhaps both.” – James Madison
California’s 58 counties have long valued transparency and
accountability in government. Our local elected officials
embrace, even promote, the ability of their constituents to
participate in the process and the access of residents to public
records and information. Counties like San Mateo and Los Angeles
and the City and County of San Francisco are leading the effort
in the era of open data, establishing websites where records and
information can be easily accessed by a simple keystroke.
Counties have assuredly let the sun shine in.
