Governor Acts on Chamber Request to Veto AB 1881

by Gary Toebben

On Aug. 12, 2014, the Chamber, through its attorney George Kieffer, sent a letter to Gov. Brown strongly urging him to veto AB 1881, which would have mandated the nomination and appointment process for the Employee Relations Board of the City of Los Angeles and the Employee Relations Commission of the County of Los Angeles. Gov. Brown concurred with the Chamber yesterday and returned the bill to the Legislature without his signature.

The selection process outlined in AB 1881 would have given public employee unions that represent city and county employees veto power in the nominating process for the City Employee Relations Board and the County Employee Relations Commission. These boards rule upon labor disputes at the City and County. Had this bill been signed into law, future pension reform would have faced a certain death.

In his letter to the Assembly, Gov. Brown said, “Signing this bill would be a significant override of local decision making authority and a departure from my belief in subsidiarity.  These issues should be resolved at the local level.”

AB 1881, which was initiated by labor and introduced by Assemblymember Jones-Sawyer of L.A., would have given labor the opportunity to screen the pool of candidates available for appointment by Mayor Garcetti and the County Board of Supervisors. This unique requirement would have handcuffed the Mayor and Board of Supervisors and set up a nomination process that is counter to the procedure followed in other city and county appointments. 

The Chamber thanks Gov. Brown for vetoing AB 1881 and applauds the efforts of Mayor Garcetti and the County Board of Supervisors to communicate to Gov. Brown the dire importance of vetoing this legislation. Fortunately, this end run by labor to use their friends in Sacramento to thwart future pension reforms in the City and County of L.A. did not succeed. 

And that's The Business Perspective.