BILL NUMBER: SB 1358 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 9, 2012
INTRODUCED BY Senator Walters
( Coauthor: Senator La Malfa
)
FEBRUARY 24, 2012
An act to repeal and add amend
Section 3521.7 of the Government Code, relating to collective
bargaining , and declaring the urgency thereof, to take
effect immediately .
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1358, as amended, Walters. Collective bargaining: state
employees.
Existing law authorizes the Public Employment Relations Board to,
in accordance with reasonable standards, designate positions or
classes of positions which have duties consisting primarily of the
enforcement of state laws. Existing law prohibits employees in these
designated positions or classes from being denied the right to be in
a bargaining unit composed solely of such
those employees.
This bill would require the Public Employment Relations Board to
recognize positions or classes of positions designated as peace
officers under specified provisions that shall not be denied the
right to be a unit composed solely of those positions and classes.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
Existing regulations provide the procedure by which an employee
organization may file a petition to become the exclusive
representative of an appropriate unit consisting of a group of
employees who are already members of a larger established unit
represented by an incumbent exclusive representative. Existing
regulations require a petition to sever to be accompanied by proof of
majority support in the unit claimed to be appropriate.
This bill would declare that state employee peace officers, as
prescribed, have the right to be in a unit composed solely of those
employees, provided they have complied with the regulations governing
severance petitions described above. The bill would require the
State Personnel Board to grant any complying petition within 30 days
of the effective date of this act. The bill would also make related,
conforming changes to those provisions.
Vote: 2/3 majority . Appropriation:
no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares the
following:
(a) Preservation of California's natural and cultural resources is
a fundamental responsibility of the state government. California's
priceless natural resources are being lost at an alarming rate
because of the lack of the state's ability to enforce environmental
laws. Fish and Game Wardens are California's primary enforcement
agencies to protect those natural resources.
(b) Fish and Game Wardens and State Park Peace Officers are
statutorily designated peace officers with statewide law enforcement
authority.
(c) Fish and Game Wardens are the lead investigators with the
primary law enforcement expertise in natural resources protection of
California's fish, wildlife, water quality, and habitat from criminal
behavior including poaching, pollution, and wanton destruction of
natural lands, and also provide public safety, national homeland
security, and disaster response.
(d) Fish and Game Wardens investigate all inland and marine,
including in the Pacific Ocean, bays and estuaries, water pollution
violations, including illegal water diversions, illegal removal of
water and impacts to aquatic life, damming of water courses, illegal
draining of lakes or reservoirs, and illegal sedimentation from
pollution of water from illegal construction activities. Wardens are
trained and charged to respond to investigate every hazardous
material that enters or may enter any state waters, including the
ocean.
(e) Fish and Game Wardens provide enforcement within the Oil Spill
Prevention and Response Branch of the Department of Fish and Game
and prepare investigation reports of illegal pollution that results
in criminal prosecution or civil penalties.
(f) Fish and Game Wardens make arrests that often include illegal
drug confiscation and have included the seizure of countless weapons
used to commit crimes, including bombs, rifles, pistols, revolvers,
shotguns, automatic firearms, and every type of manufactured or
homemade weapon. Wardens are the lead case agents to contain
hazardous materials illegally dumped into state waters and collect
hazardous materials that are deleterious to aquatic life for
evidence.
(g) Fish and Game Wardens and State Park Peace Officers are also
responsible for enforcing the Penal Code, Vehicle Code, and Health
and Safety Code.
(h) Fish and Game Wardens support the enforcement of all statutes
promulgated by the Legislature and regulations, as defined by Title
14 of the California Code of Regulations.
(i) Fish and Game Wardens are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week to provide public safety and defend against human threats to the
environment and wildlife.
(j) Fish and Game Wardens investigate violations of local, state,
and federal laws and regulations related to habitat manipulation,
water pollution, or take of fish or wildlife.
(k) Fish and Game Wardens serve search warrants, serve arrest
warrants, and investigate the illegal cultivation of illegal drugs
that destroy wildlife, water, and endanger the public.
(l) Fish and Game Wardens' responsibilities include investigations
of illegal take, including out-of season, over limit, undersized,
prohibited species, and administrative violations, of all fish and
wildlife species, including, but not limited to, listed, threatened
and endangered species, illegal commercialization of wildlife and
animal parts thereof, habitat destruction, and pollution of state
waters.
(m) Fish and Game Wardens initiate complex investigations,
surveillances, and covert operations that stop all types of criminal
activity, in addition to poaching of fish and wildlife; including the
poisoning of aquatic life, dumping of toxic waste, and illegal
commercialization of fish and wildlife.
(n) Fish and Game Wardens are also responsible for oil spill
investigations, illegal marijuana cultivation, illegal water
diversions, pollution, and commercial fishing.
(o) Fish and Game Wardens are responsible for a geographic area
that includes the state's 159,000 square miles of land and 1,100
miles of coastline.
(p) Fish and Game Wardens staff uses specialized state-of-the-art
patrol vessels with authority to enforce all laws 200 miles out into
the Pacific Ocean along the California coastline from Oregon to the
Mexico border.
(q) Fish and Game Wardens and State Park Peace Officers are
responsible for over 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, 4,800 lakes
and reservoirs, over 1,000 native fish, 6,300 native plants and 360
threatened or endangered species, approximately three million license
and permit holders and close to 38 million California residents.
(r) Fish and Game Wardens and State Park Peace Officers perform
duties primarily by specialized police vehicles, by boat, on foot
patrol, or undercover; issue citations; write reports; make arrests
for misdemeanors, arrests for felonies and serve warrants; and
conduct criminal and administrative investigations.
(s) Fish and Game Wardens also patrol by specialized aircraft to
locate illegal habitat destruction, illegal mining operations,
illegal commercial fishing over the ocean, find missing persons,
locate wildlife, and locate illegal night hunters with infrared and
other specialized night vision devices.
(t) Fish and Game Wardens and State Park Peace Officers are often
the first responders in emergencies and perform search and rescue
activities, including, but not limited to, detecting and rescuing
persons or vessels in distress.
(u) Fish and Game Wardens and State Park Peace Officers annually
rescue many outdoor recreationalists, hunters, anglers, and accident
victims; locate missing or abducted persons; and investigate
burglaries and homicides.
(v) In rural and rugged areas of the state, especially in
California as being the third largest land-mass state in the United
States, Fish and Game Wardens and State Park Peace Officers are often
the only law enforcement presence.
(w) Fish and Game Wardens and State Park Peace Officers serve as
representatives for local government task forces and intelligence
networks involving multiple law enforcement agencies, including the
Environmental Crimes Task Force, and administer specialized training
to other law enforcement agencies, such as firearms training,
tracking skills, cold weather or desert survival, and disaster
response.
(x) Fish and Game Wardens provide training on hazardous material
response, investigation, and containment to other agencies and are
considered California's environmental police. Fish and Game Wardens
and State Park Peace Officers teach conservation of water and natural
resources to all other agencies and the public.
(y) State Park Peace Officers assist wild land and structural fire
suppression and provide emergency medical services, traffic control,
and radio dispatching.
(z) Fish and Game Wardens and State Park Peace Officers are
charged with protecting habitat and wildlife biodiversity unequaled
by any other state, and they are charged with apprehending those that
abuse California's natural resources that are held in trust for the
38 million people of California.
(aa) California employs approximately 277 Fish and Game Wardens
with only 245 field operatives throughout the state to protect
California's valuable natural and cultural resources, fewer than
South Carolina, and the lowest per capita ration of wardens to
population in North America.
(ab) In 2012, there are fewer than 300 State Park Peace Officers.
(ac) Continued unfunded mandates and fewer Fish and Game Wardens
and State Park Peace Officers has resulted in a direct negative
impact on public safety and preservation of California's natural and
cultural resources.
(ad) The Legislature finds and declares that the recruitment and
retention of Fish and Game Wardens and State Park Peace Officers is
of primary importance to the state's goal of protecting California's
priceless natural and cultural resources and protecting public
safety.
(ae) Increasing the number of California's Fish and Game Wardens
must be accomplished to provide adequate protection to California's
natural resources and cannot be achieved while Fish and Game Wardens
remain in their current bargaining unit.
(af) For the protection and conservation of California's priceless
natural and cultural resources that California's "environmental
police" must be a separate bargaining unit from the civilian members
of Bargaining Unit 7.
SEC. 2. Section 3521.7 of the
Government Code is amended to read:
3521.7. (a) The board may, in accordance
with reasonable standards, designate positions or classes of
positions which have duties consisting primarily of the enforcement
of state laws. Employees so in these
designated positions and classes shall not be denied the
right to be in a unit composed solely of such
those employees.
(b) State employee peace officers designated in Chapter 4.5
(commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2 of the Penal Code
have the right to be in a unit composed solely of those employees,
provided they have complied with Section 40200 of Title 8 of the
California Code of Regulations. The board shall grant any complying
petition within 30 days of the effective date of the act adding this
subdivision.
SECTION 1. Section 3521.7 of the Government
Code is repealed.
SEC. 2. Section 3521.7 is added to the
Government Code, to read:
3521.7. The board shall recognize positions or classes of
positions designated under Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830)
of Title 3 of Part 2 of the Penal Code as peace officers that shall
not be denied the right to be a unit composed solely of employees in
these positions and classes.
SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute
necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health,
or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and
shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity
are:
In order to implement the terms of a negotiated memorandum of
understanding, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.