Only 2 of 6 Pay Reform Bills Pass Legislature

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 amended. The bill still prohibits both automatic renewals of contracts and automatic increases in salary above the cost-of-living. However, the bill was amended to allow for automatic cost-of-living increases. The bill also still requires a performance review for any salary increase, except a cost-of-living increase. Most significantly, the bill was amended to eliminate the requirement that performance reviews be conducted in open session. This change eliminates the privacy issue I highlighted in my prior blog post.  Finally, the urgency language was also added.

UPDATE: I should add that even though AB 827 contains urgency language, the bill itself states that it only applies to contracts entered into or renewed on or after January 1, 2011.  Thus, the urgency language in AB 827 appears to be meaningless.