Legal Alerts

At the end of August 2005, both houses of the State Legislature approved AB 1234, which imposes ethics training, compensation, and reimbursement regulations on cities, counties, and special districts. The bill is currently before the Governor for his signature.

AB 1234 imposes ethics training requirements on “local agency officials”, which are defined as: (i) members of the legislative body who receive any type of compensation, salary or stipend; or (ii) any employee designated to take ethics courses by the legislative body. Generally, AB 1234 requires local agency officials to receive no less than two hours of training in general ethics principles and ethics laws every two years. The bill allows local agency officials to fulfill this requirement by taking courses developed in consultation with the Fair Political Practices Commission and the Attorney General. Local agency officials whose terms end before January 1, 2007 are exempted from the ethics training requirement. For officials currently serving a local agency, AB 1234 requires that these officials obtain two hours of ethics training no later than January 1, 2007. Thereafter, the local agency official is required to complete two hours of ethics training every two years. Local agency officials who begin their term on or after January 1, 2006 will be required to fulfill two hours of ethics training within one year of taking office. Subsequently, these officials will be required to complete two hours of training every two years.

Apart from imposing ethics training requirements, AB 1234 also places certain limitations on how members of legislative bodies may be compensated for attending meetings and reimbursed for travel, lodging, and meals. Under the bill, a local agency is only authorized to compensate its legislative body members for attending the following: (i) meetings of the governing board, (ii) meetings of advisory bodies, and (iii) conferences. The local agency is prohibited from providing compensation for attending other types of meetings unless those meeting are included within a written policy adopted by its legislative body.

AB 1234 also restricts the manner in which legislative body members are reimbursed for travel, lodging, and meal expenses. Specifically, AB 1234 provides that “if a local agency reimburses its legislative body members for actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of official duties,” then the local agency is required to adopt a written policy specifying the types of occurrences (e.g. conferences) that qualify a legislative body member for reimbursement of expenses relating to travel, meals, lodging, and other actual and necessary expenses. AB 1234 would also require legislative body members seeking reimbursement for travel, lodging, and meals to file an expense report, as well as make an oral report on the meeting or conference attended.

In anticipation of this legislation, our firm has prepared a number of ethics training courses that are tailored to meet the requirements of AB 1234. Should your agency desire our firm to present a course or if you have any questions regarding implementation of AB 1234, please do not hesitate to contact the BB&K attorney of your choice.