By: Richard D. Pio Roda, Founding Partner, Redwood Public Law LLP
The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act authorizes collective bargaining for local public employees and employers, including special districts. Assembly Bill 2561 (McKinnor) adds Section 3502.3 to the Government Code to require all local public agencies, including special districts, to hold yearly public hearings on specified topics relating to recruitment and retention. The author’s stated purpose of the bill was to address the critical issue of high vacancy rates within local public agencies in California.
AB 2561 was one of a number of bills considered by the State Legislature in 2024 in connection with vacancy rate concerns, which also included Assembly Bill 2557 (Oretga) and Assembly Bill 2489 (Ward). In response to significant opposition, including by CSDA and a coalition of local agency organizations, AB 2557 and AB 2489 were defeated during the legislative process and AB 2561 was significantly narrowed in certain respects.
The enacted provisions of AB 2561, effective January 1, 2025, require special districts to take the following actions:
First, special districts must present the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts at a public hearing at least once per fiscal year. At the hearing, the district is required to identify changes to policies and recruitment efforts that create hiring obstacles. Moreover, if the special district adopts an annual budget during the fiscal year, the special district must present the status of vacancies before adopting the final budget. These requirements are understood to accommodate agencies that adopt multi-year budgets.
Secondly, the bill allows recognized employee organizations for a bargaining unit to make a presentation at the public hearing at which the public agency presents the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts for positions within that bargaining unit. This requirement appears to apply only to local agencies with recognized employee organizations. No guidance is given in the bill as to the amount of time required to be granted to the recognized employee organizations, or other particulars concerning their presentations.
This will be a new law with no current Attorney General opinions or case law guidance on implementation. Given the explicit requirement for recognized employee organizations to make a presentation at the AB 2561 public hearing, special districts may wish to seek advice from counsel as to whether a public hearing for AB 2561 compliance should be held separate from any regularly scheduled public hearing before budget adoption.
Lastly, if the number of job vacancies within a single bargaining unit meets or exceeds 20 percent of the total number of authorized full-time positions, the special district must provide all the following information during the hearing upon the request of a recognized employee organization:
- The total number of job vacancies within the bargaining unit
- The total number of applicants for vacant positions within the bargaining unit
- The average number of days to complete the hiring process from when a position is posted
- Opportunities to improve compensation and other working conditions
Special districts should engage in proactive record keeping throughout the year in anticipation of the need to comply with this requirement. However, this final informational requirement appears to apply only to special districts with recognized employee organizations.
Although AB 2561’s requirements may present challenges for local agencies, the chaptered version of the bill no longer contained a “meet and confer” requirement, which was amended out of an earlier version of the bill, and which may have otherwise presented additional labor-relations challenges.
Communication is provided for general information only and is not offered or intended as legal advice. Readers should seek the advice of an attorney when confronted with legal issues and attorneys should perform an independent evaluation of the issues raised in these communications.
Take a look back at previous parts of the 2025 New Laws Series in CSDA eNews for more in-depth overviews of new laws affecting special districts:
Missed Part 1? Read it now: Public Officials May Not Block Commenters from Official Social Media Accounts and Posts
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