It does not matter that Prop. 209 passed years ago outlawing discrimination in California. Certainly it does not matter that Prop. 16, the effort to make California like Alabama in 1950, a State where discrimination is the LAW, failed.. No, Sacramento Democrats do not care about the laws, the voters or ethics. They want California to discriminate as if run by the KKK.
“A new proposal in the California State Legislature would force state departments to factor race and gender into decisions about who gets promoted.
The legislation — introduced just two months after California voters rejected an initiative that would have repealed the state’s ban on affirmative action — aims to give women and minority candidates a better shot at navigating a civil service system that the bill’s sponsor, Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, described as overly complex and often biased.
While the state’s workforce for entry-level jobs is diverse, few minorities or women hold high-level posts, said Holden, citing state data.”
Should this pass expect a lot of discrimination law suits. Since Alabama is not allowed to discriminate due to gender or color, why should California? If allowed, discrimination will destroy what is left of California—as those not allowed to get a good job leave the State.
Race, gender would factor in promotions for California state workers under proposed law
By Wes Venteicher, Modesto Bee, 1/6/21
A new proposal in the California State Legislature would force state departments to factor race and gender into decisions about who gets promoted.
The legislation — introduced just two months after California voters rejected an initiative that would have repealed the state’s ban on affirmative action — aims to give women and minority candidates a better shot at navigating a civil service system that the bill’s sponsor, Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, described as overly complex and often biased.
While the state’s workforce for entry-level jobs is diverse, few minorities or women hold high-level posts, said Holden, citing state data.
“We’re trying to take this bureaucratic environment and try to fix some things that are broken and are not providing the same opportunities for upward mobility and advancement for everyone,” Holden said.
He said the bill was propelled by the nationwide protests and calls for equity that followed the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Holden said recent calls for equity from Black employees at the California Air Resources Board and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation show the state’s system isn’t working for everyone. Groups of workers from both agencies recently released letters detailing concerns about workforce diversity and promotions.
Assembly Bill 105 would expand and more aggressively enforce the state’s Upward Mobility program, which aims to usher entry-level workers such as custodians, gardeners and construction workers into higher-paying office and administrative jobs.
The program requires departments to create and pursue plans to meet internal promotion goals, but if departments don’t meet the goals, supervisors don’t face consequences.
Under Holden’s bill, departments would have to submit new goals by July 1, 2022, that would factor in race and gender, which the program doesn’t currently cover. If departments don’t meet their goals two years in a row, the state Human Resources Department could take over hiring at the department to make sure the goals are met.
California voters in 1996 banned employers from factoring race and gender into their hiring decisions. Voters this fall rejected a ballot measure that would have restored so-called affirmative action in public hiring, college admissions and contracting.
Holden said he is trying to find a way to make state promotions equitable without violating well-established state and federal rules that prohibit using “quotas” in hiring.
Holden described a process under his bill that would aim to make sure minorities and women aren’t passed over for jobs when they are the most qualified candidates. He said the proposal wouldn’t require specific numbers of women and minorities be promoted.
The bill includes provisions to require diversity on hiring panels and to make video recordings of state interviews for review.
Holden said he is trying to eliminate conditions that allow state managers to steer their favored candidates toward choice posts, rather than objectively considering who’s best for the job.
To that end, he said, the bill includes provisions that would standardize job classifications across departments, making them based on “core competencies,” such as typing and administrative skills for office technicians, rather than “minimum requirements,” such as higher education degrees.
He said the move to core competencies would make the proposal different from former Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2012 civil service reforms, which also aim to simplify the state’s thousands of job classifications.
Changes to discipline, executive appointments
The bill would make several other major changes to state hiring and discipline.
It would require the state to use independent arbitrators to run the initial hearings that can lead to employee discipline. Under the current system, when a manager initiates discipline against an employee, another manager from the same office is often selected to oversee the disciplinary hearing, known as a “Skelly hearing,” said Willie Armstrong, Holden’s chief of staff.
Employees often feel they don’t get a fair shake in those initial hearings, since managers within a department often are on the same page with one another regarding discipline, Armstrong said.
Under Holden’s proposal, an independent arbitrator would run those initial hearings and make recommendations to the State Personnel Board, which would retain final authority over any discipline that would be imposed.
The bill would require that candidates for high-level government jobs, known as career executive assignments, have at least two years of consecutive civil service experience. The change would apply to jobs such as assistant directors, deputy chiefs, associate directors, regional administrators and other positions that often pay more than $10,000 per month and don’t require Senate approval.
The proposal’s introduction is the first step in a long process to becoming law, including committee hearings, votes in both chambers of the Legislature and approval from Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Holden was a co-author of a proposal that became law last year requiring California corporations to include diverse members on their boards.
After that, he said, “We started to take a look inwardly, in terms of our civil service. Quite frankly, as my grandmother would say, it’s like calling the kettle black.”
