May 24, 2013 - The Sacramento Bee
California state worker moonlighting bill held up in committee
California Assembly lawmakers this morning put a
hold on legislation that would have prohibited salaried state employees from
taking a secondary hourly-wage position within their same department or
agency.
The Appropriations Committee didn't officially vote to kill Assembly Bill 208, but holding the measure in committee
essentially kills it.
Assembly Budget Vice Chairman Jeff Gorell, R-Camarillo,
introduced the legislation after reports in The Bee shed light on the obscure
policy. Gorell blasted the practice, saying that it had become a means for
salaried state workers to receive de facto overtime.
"I continue to ask my colleagues to make the responsibility of government
oversight a top priority," Gorell said in a statement released this afternoon.
"Week after week we are seeing new examples of executive branch mismanagement,
and this is just one more example of a government culture out of control and
irreverent to oversight."
Democratic majority leaders, including Assembly Speaker John A.
Pérez, expressed concern about the policy and Gov. Jerry
Brown has since banned intra-departmental "additional appointments" for
salaried state employees. His edict carries the force of administrative policy,
not law.
Last week Brown's Department of Human Resources released an
audit that concluded departments inappropriately appointed salaried managers to
secondary-wage jobs. A separate audit by the State Personnel
Board said that departments violated state civil service laws by doling
out additional appointments without a competitive, fair application process.