MEETING DATE
6/27/2013 |
BUREAU SUBMITTING THIS REPORT
Executive Office |
RESEARCHED BY (PRINT NAME)
Charles Evans |
REVIEWED BY (PRINT NAME)
Alan B. Deal |
REPORT DATE
06/11/2013 |
APPROVED BY
Robert A. Stresak |
DATE APPROVED
06/12/13 |
PURPOSE
Decision Requested |
FINANCIAL IMPACT
No
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| ISSUE, BACKGROUND, ANALYSIS, & RECOMMENDATION |
| ISSUE: |
| Should the Commission Oppose Unless Amended AB 906 (Pan), proposed legislation to limit the term of certain personal services contracts to 2 years; and prohibit a contracting agency from executing such contracts until the State Personnel Board has contacted all organizations that represent state employees who perform the type of work to be contracted? |
| BACKGROUND: |
The Department of General Services (DGS) is charged with reviewing and approving contracts of state agencies, including personal service contracts (Government Code section 19130). The State currently has over 14,000 personal services contracts worth $11.8 billion. These expenditures occur with no substantive legislative oversight.
Assembly Bill 906 reflects a position by the author of the bill that DGS has undermined the Legislature's appropriation authority and the state civil service system by failing to thoroughly review personal services contracts to ensure that the request (to contract) makes good business sense and the cost is reasonable. The author describes the bill as a first step in ensuring that state agencies are working in conjunction with the Legislature to build and maintain a strong civil service system, as envisioned in the State Constitution.
Supporters, argue that California spends millions of dollars paying for contracts and temporary employees at state institutions when it could hire state employees at lower cost. They state privatization contracts are often unnecessary and violate state constitutional and statutory prohibitions against overspending on service contracts. |
| ANALYSIS: |
Assembly Bill 906 provides restrictions that limit the term of a personal services contract to two years and require agencies to notify the State Personnel Board of the intention to enter into contracts. The State Personnel Board would be required to notify State employee representative organizations that perform the work to be contracted. These requirements would add to the already significant delays in processing and enacting contracts for vital law enforcement training.
Currently, POST is already experiencing significant delays in gaining contract approval from the Department of General Services (DGS). The amount of additional justification required by DGS to secure approval of POST contracts, including personal services contracts has caused staff to actively seek alternatives to provide law enforcement training. Some of the alternatives include seeking legislative remedy or modifying existing regulation to accommodate other means to fund course presentation costs (An agenda item that addresses a staff recommendation to expand the use of reimbursement Plan V is included in the Commission agenda for the meeting of June 28, 2013).
Assembly Bill 906 would eliminate the ability of POST to use personal services contracts as an effective means of providing law enforcement training. Without an exemption or waiver of the provisions of AB 906, POST will not be able to provide training needed by the law enforcement community where personal services contracts are the means of securing instructors.
For over two decades POST has developed and presented high quality training to more than 600 law enforcement agencies. POST has used personal services contracts, with public entities for the delivery of courses, such as the Supervisory Course, Management Course, Sherman Block Supervisory Leadership Institute Course, Command College, Executive Development, Instructor Development Institute (IDI), and the Robert Presley Institute of Criminal Investigations (ICI), among others. POST also contracts with regional skills training centers for the delivery of Law Enforcement Driving Simulator (LEDS) and Force Option Simulator (FOS) training, and with basic training academies for Emergency Vehicle Operation Courses.
Government Code (GC) section 19130 was enacted to establish strict criteria for state agencies to follow when creating personal services contracts. All contracts are reviewed by the Department of General Services to ensure that contract justification and requirements described in GC 19130 are met. The time to complete and review contracts averages four to six months with some contracts taking as long as one year to be approved and implemented. This limits POST's agility to respond to law enforcement legislative mandated demands.
The provisions of GC 19130 hamstring POST's ability to use personal service contracts to secure law enforcement training-related services because of the absence of civil service employees that can perform the required work. The work is highly specialized and/or technical in nature and requires necessary expert knowledge, experience, and ability not available through the civil service system. Additionally, POST's, personal service contracts do not result in the displacement of civil service employees nor adversely affect the state's affirmative action efforts.
POST is a small agency with 125 employees. This means that it must leverage its efforts in developing and delivering law enforcement training throughout the state. To do so, POST has actively used contracts with public entities to deliver training. This training (described above) involves POST certified content and oversight to ensure that the highest quality of training delivery. These often are high-cost courses that most law enforcement agencies cannot afford to send their officers to without POST’s subvention. That subvention occurs through coverage of tuition, travel and per diem. To deliver these courses, POST uses a combination of contracts with public entities and personal services contracts.
Many of the presenters certified by POST provide an array of law enforcement training courses with technical expertise related to the topics within these courses. In many instances these individuals are peace officers with specific instructor qualifications. POST routinely accesses state employees (e.g., California Highway Patrol, Department of Justice, Alcohol Beverage Control Agency, among others) who meet POST instructor qualifications to present training in the above described courses.
Staff has described to the author and the sponsor the consequences of AB 906 to the presentation of critically needed law enforcement training. The author and sponsor of the bill have expressed support for law enforcement training; however, neither has offered to make changes to the bill to allow for a POST exemption.
For these reasons, staff recommends that the Commission Oppose AB 906 Unless Amended. |
| RECOMMENDATION: |
| Staff recommends that the Commission Oppose AB 906 Unless Amended. |
| ATTACHMENT(S): |
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| No Attachments Available |
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