Category: California PERB Blog

I was greatly saddened today to learn that Chief Administrative Law Judge Bernard McMonigle passed away this weekend. Bernie was both a friend and mentor to me at PERB. I first met Bernie when he was a Regional Attorney at PERB and I was an attorney at the Department of Personnel Administration. I later had the pleasure to appear before him when he was an Administrative Law Judge and was working at PERB he when was promoted to Chief ALJ.Bernie was a great attorney and ALJ. He knew the law, but more importantly he understood the realities of the workplace.  You…

The 2009-2010 Legislative session is officially over. Of the six bills that comprised the Legislature’s response to the City of Bell salary scandal, only two bills made it out of both the Assembly and Senate: AB 194 and AB 827. AB 194 (Limits on Pensions) was passed without any major amendments. The only change was that urgency language was added so that the law will take effect as soon as it is signed by the Governor.  For a description of what AB 194 entails, see my blog post on August 27, 2010.AB 827 (Limits on Local Employment Contracts) was substantially…

AB 194 is part of a six-bill package of legislation in response to the salary scandal at the City of Bell. AB 194 would cap compensation that could be considered in calculating a public employee's pension at 125% of the Governor's current salary, which is $173,987.  (The Governor's salary was $212,179 but the Citizen's Compensation Commission voted on May 20, 2010 to reduce that salary by 18%, to $173,987, effective December 7, 2009.)  So the cap would be $217,483.75.  The cap would only apply to individuals joining a pension system on or after January 1, 2011 and the cap would be subject to an annual cost-of-living increase. …

AB 827 is part of a six-bill package of legislation in response to the salary scandal at the City of Bell. AB 827 would prohibit any employment contract for a local, unrepresented employee from including: 1) an automatic renewal provision; 2) an automatic raise in excess of a cost-of-living adjustment; or 3) an automatic compensation increase, including any increase that is linked to a third-party contract. The bill itself is a “gut and amend” of a prior bill dealing with the archival of county records. Perhaps because the bill was so quickly written, the language – although extremely short –…

The Legislature has unveiled a six-bill package of legislation in response to the salary scandal involving the City of Bell. The six bills are:AB 827: Prohibits any employment contract for a local, unrepresented employee from including an evergreen provision, severance payments greater than 12 months in salary, automatic compensation increases, and automatic raises that exceed the cost of living.AB 192: Requires cities to pay for any higher pension payments that stem from their luring a municipal employee away from another city by offering exorbitant pay. AB 194: Establishes a cap on the total compensation that can be used to calculate a…