The Upward Mobility Act of 2021: boards and commissions: civil service: examinations: classifications.

Existing law provides that it is the policy of the State of California that the composition of state boards and commissions shall be broadly reflective of the general public, including ethnic minorities and women. This bill would require that, on or after January 1, 2022, all state boards and commissions consisting of one or more volunteer members have at least one board member or commissioner from an underrepresented community. The bill would define the term "board member or commissioner from an underrepresented community" as an individual who self-identifies as Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native; who self-identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender; who is a veteran, as defined; or who has a disability, as defined. The bill would apply these requirements only as vacancies on state boards and commissions occur. The California Constitution establishes the State Personnel Board (board) and requires the board to, among other things, enforce the civil service statutes, prescribe probationary periods and classifications, adopt rules authorized by statute, and review disciplinary actions. The Constitution also requires the executive officer of the board to administer the civil service statutes under the rules of the board. Under existing law, the board is authorized to conduct audits and investigations of the personnel practices of the Department of Human Resources and appointing authorities to ensure compliance with civil service policies, procedures, and statutes. Existing law establishes the Department of Human Resources (department) and provides that, subject to the requirements of the California Constitution, it succeeds to and is vested with the duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction exercised by the board as its designee with respect to the board's administrative and ministerial functions. This bill, among other things, would instead authorize the department, at the direction of and in conjunction with the State Personnel Board, to conduct audits and investigations of personnel practices of other departments and appointing authorities to ensure compliance with civil service policies, procedures, and statutes. The bill would require the department to oversee compliance with rules prescribed by the board consistent with a merit-based civil service system to govern appointments, classifications, examinations, probationary periods, disciplinary actions, and other matters related to the board's constitutional authority, and require the department, pursuant to a process established by the State Personnel Board, to investigate complaints filed by employees in a state department's equal employment opportunity program and personnel office, other civil service employees, applicants, and members of the public alleging violations of civil service laws and report findings to the board for adjudication. Existing law requires any state agency, board, or commission that directly or by contract collects demographic data as to the ancestry or ethnic origin of Californians to use separate collection categories and tabulations for major Asian and Pacific Islander groups, as specified. This bill would require any state agency, board, or commission that directly or by contract collects demographic data as to the ancestry or ethnic origin of Californians to use separate collection categories and tabulations for specified African American groups. The bill would distinguish between African Americans who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States and African Americans who are not descendants of persons enslaved in the United States, as defined. Existing law requires that lists of eligible applicants for civil service positions be established as a result of free competitive examinations. Existing law, with regard to the requirements governing examinations for establishing employment lists, authorizes the department to designate an appointing power to design, announce, or administer examinations and requires the board to establish minimum qualifications for determining the fitness and qualifications of employees for each class of position. This bill would require instead that the board establish a process that includes diversity and best practices in each aspect of the design, announcement, and administration of the examinations and, in developing qualifications for determining the fitness and qualifications of employees, create standards for statements of qualifications used as examination criteria for the State of California in determining the fitness and qualifications of employees for each class of position. The bill would also require that examinations with an oral component be video and otherwise electronically recorded and all other examination materials be maintained for each examination, as specified. The bill would also require the announcement for an examination to include the core competencies, as defined, and the standard statement of qualifications, if applicable. Existing law requires all appointing authorities of state government to establish an effective program of upward mobility for employees in low-paying occupational groups. Existing law requires each upward mobility program to include annual goals for upward mobility and a timetable for when progress will occur, and requires the department to approve the goals and timetables. Existing law authorizes an appointing authority that determines that it will be unable to achieve the goals to ask the department for a reduction in the goals, as specified. This bill would repeal the authorization for an appointing authority to ask the department for a reduction in their annual upward mobility goals, and would instead require the appointing authority to submit a report explaining the failure to achieve the goals and what requirements are necessary to facilitate achieving the goals, as specified, and then submit the report to specified persons. The bill would, on or before July 1, 2022, require the department to develop model upward mobility goals that include race, gender, LGBTQ, veteran status, or physical or mental disability as factors, and to provide a report to the Legislature outlining the department workforce analysis used to develop those model goals. Existing law authorizes a state appointing power to take adverse action against state civil service employees for specified causes for discipline, and provides procedures for state civil service disciplinary proceedings. Existing law authorizes the board to hold hearings and make investigations concerning all matters relating to the enforcement and effect of the State Civil Service Act, as specified. This bill would require each appointing power to provide the Department of Human Resources with a report, no later than April 1 of each year, detailing certain information regarding adverse actions against state employees, including, but not limited to, the ethnicity, race, gender identity, or sexual orientation of each employee served with an adverse action in the preceding calendar year.