AB 2305 passed the Legislature on August 27, 2018, and currently awaits action by the Governor. I previously wrote about this bill here. In short, AB 2305 would eliminate the carve-out for peace officer unions and bring them under the jurisdiction of PERB, while continuing the carve-out for peace officer individuals. It will be interesting to see what the Governor does since he previously vetoed AB 530, a similar version of the bill.
When I first wrote about this bill, one of my complaints was that the supporters of this bill were characterizing it as a codification of existing law based on PERB’s decision in Santa Clara County Correctional Peace Officers Association v. County of Santa Clara (2018) PERB Dec. No. 2431-M. I strongly disagreed. I’m glad that the Senate Rules Committee addressed this issue in its analysis of this bill. The analysis noted:
According to the author, this bill merely codifies this decision. However, PERB’s decision to exercise jurisdiction is grounded in the fact that the employee organization represented mixed units of employees. This bill seems to go a step further and extend PERB jurisdiction to peace officer unions consisting exclusively of peace officers.
I absolutely agree with the Senate’s analysis that this bill goes “further” than the Santa Clara decision. Indeed, in the Legislative Counsel’s digest for SB 739, which brought most of the MMBA under PERB’s jurisdiction, it expressly states:
The provisions of this bill would not apply to any recognized employee organization representing peace officers, as defined in a specified provision of existing law.
Thus, I hope everyone recognizes that if this bill goes into law, it represents a change going forward and is not a codification of existing law.
This entry was posted in Legislation, PERB News.
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