Article 8. Miscellaneous of California Government Code >> Division 4. >> Title 1. >> Chapter 1. >> Article 8.

When an officer discharges ex officio the duties of another office than that to which he is elected or appointed, his official signature and attestation shall be in the name of the office the duties of which he discharges.

Where not otherwise provided, the seals of office of the various executive officers are those in use by such officers on January 1, 1873.

Every wilful omission to perform any duty enjoined by law upon any public officer, or person holding any public trust or employment, where no special provision is made for the punishment of such delinquency, is punishable as a misdemeanor.

When traveling expenses are allowed by law to any state, county, judicial district, or city officer, he may contract with the appropriate authorities for an allowance or mileage rate for the use of vehicles owned or rented and used by him in the performance of duty, in lieu of the usual transportation charges.

Any money paid by a state, county, judicial district, or city officer for United States postage for use in conducting the official business of his office may be refunded to him by claim allowed in accordance with law.

(a) An executive officer, a judicial officer, and a Member of the Legislature may administer and certify oaths.
  (b) (1) A former judge of a court of record in this state who retired or resigned from office shall be deemed a judicial officer for purposes of this section, if he or she satisfies the conditions set forth is subdivision (c) of Section 2093 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
  (c) A law, rule, or regulation regarding the confidentiality of proceedings of the Commission on Judicial Performance shall not be construed to prohibit the commission from issuing a certificate as provided for in this section.

When the records in the office of any public board or officer authorized to issue certificates show the issuance of a certificate other than a certificate of acknowledgment and it appears by affidavit that the certificate has been lost or destroyed by conflagration or other public calamity, the board or officer may issue a duplicate of the certificate. The duplicate shall recite the issuance and loss or destruction of the original and has the same force as the original.

An inmate of any state institution shall not be employed in the manufacture or production of any article intended for the private and personal use of any state officer or any officer or employee of any state institution. This section does not prohibit repairing of any kind nor the employment of such inmate in household or domestic work connected with the institution.

The governing board of any local agency may grant to any employee of such local governmental agency, upon request, a leave of absence without pay of not to exceed two years to accept a temporary position with the United States Government for service in a foreign country in a technical co-operation program, and upon termination of such service, and for three months thereafter, such employee shall have the right to be restored to his former position.

Any public officer who is charged with the custody of public records may take any action, including the transfer of such records to another place within the state, necessary for the safekeeping of such records during any duly proclaimed state of war emergency or state of emergency pursuant to Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 8550) of Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code.

The governing body of a city, county, city and county, or political subdivision of the State may grant leaves of absence to employees to appear as a witness in court other than as a litigant, to serve on a jury, or to respond to an official order from another governmental jurisdiction for reasons not brought about through the connivance or misconduct of the employee. The governing body may grant such leaves of absence with pay up to the amount of the difference between the employee's regular earnings and any amount he receives for jury or witness fees.

Whenever any person who is an employee subject to the provisions of Section 1230, or an employee of the state, is served with a subpoena which compels his presence as a witness, unless he is a party or an expert witness, such employee shall be granted a leave of absence with pay in the amount of the difference between the employee's regular earnings and any amount he receives for such appearance. This section shall not be applicable to appearances for which the employee receives compensation in excess of his regular earnings.

No state officer or employee shall be deemed to have a break in service or to have terminated his or her employment, for any purpose, nor to have incurred any change in his or her authority, status, or jurisdiction or in his or her salary or other conditions of employment, solely because of the failure to enact a budget act for a fiscal year prior to the beginning of that fiscal year. A person entering state service on or after the beginning of a fiscal year and before the effective date of the budget act for that fiscal year and who otherwise is a state officer or employee, shall be deemed a state officer or employee from the time he or she entered state service, notwithstanding the failure to enact a budget act for that fiscal year.

Funds from each appropriation made in the budget act for any fiscal year may be expended to pay to officers and employees whatever salary that would have otherwise been received had the budget act been adopted on or prior to July 1 of that fiscal year.

Funds from each appropriation made in the budget act for any fiscal year may be expended to pay any obligation incurred between the commencement of that fiscal year and the effective date of the budget act for that fiscal year, which would otherwise have been authorized by the budget act of that year had that act been adopted on or prior to July 1 of that year, subject to the same limitations, conditions, and requirements.

Acting in accordance with Executive Order 11246 (30FR 12319), as amended, applicants for employment by, and incumbent employees of, public agencies may be solicited to voluntarily declare their ethnic identification, provided this information shall be used for research and statistical purposes only. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, it shall be unlawful, for purposes of any appointment, hiring, or promotion, to use this information to discriminate against a prospective or incumbent employee or to give preference to a person identified as a member of an ethnic, racial, or religious group upon the basis of such membership or identification. A separate or tear-off portion of the application shall be written and shall be kept in a separate nonpublic file, accessible only to those charged by the personnel director with research responsibility, for the purpose of discharging that responsibility. The separate sheet or tear-off may contain a number to be used as a cross index to the application. Safeguards to prevent misuse of the information shall be approved by the State Fair Employment Practice Commission, including the point in time at which the separate sheet or tear-off portion of the application shall be maintained in separate nonpublic file. As used in this section, "public agency" means every city, county, and city and county whether chartered or not and every district.

No public officer while serving in any elective office in this state shall receive a retirement allowance which is based in whole or part upon service in that elective office. The monthly retirement allowance shall be suspended during the period of such service and shall resume upon discontinuance of such service. Any retired person who renders such service shall not acquire any additional retirement rights or benefits thereunder because of such service. In the event that the retired person dies while rendering such service, his survivors shall receive the benefits provided by the system for the survivors of retired persons. "Public officer" for purposes of this section includes every officer of the state, and every officer of a county, city, city and county, district, and authority, and each department, division, bureau, board, commission, agency, or instrumentality of any of the foregoing. "Public officer" shall not include a retired judge while serving under assignment by the Chairman of the Judicial Council. This section shall only be applicable to persons elected to public office after its effective date.

The salary of any elected public office shall not be reduced during an election year after any candidate for that particular office has filed the requisite forms declaring his or her candidacy for that particular office.

(a) Any person who is receiving an allowance from a public retirement system, who is charged by indictment or complaint, either in a court of this state or a federal court whose jurisdiction encompasses all or any portion of the state, with the commission of any felony involving or accepting or giving, or offering to give, any bribe, the embezzlement of public money, extortion or theft of public money, perjury, or conspiracy to commit any of those crimes arising directly out of his or her official duties as a public officer, who has a legal obligation not to leave the jurisdiction of the court, but does leave, shall have his or her retirement allowance suspended while absent the jurisdiction of the court.
  (b) The suspension shall be effective the first of the month following the month in which the court notifies the retirement system. The suspension shall be in effect until the retirement system is notified by the court. Upon notification by the court that the suspension has been lifted, the retirement system shall commence payment of the retirement allowance payable and make a onetime payment of the amount payable that had been suspended.
  (c) "Public officer," for the purposes of this section, means every officer of the state, and every officer of a county, city, city and county, district, and authority, and each department, division, bureau, board, commission, agency, or instrumentality of any of these entities.
  (d) The suspension shall not affect the payment of any survivor's benefits by the retirement system.
  (e) This section shall apply to persons who served in a public office prior to January 1, 1995, as well as to all persons who serve in a public office on or after January 1, 1995.

(a) All city, county, city and county, and district employees that conduct audits or that conduct audit activities of those respective agencies shall conduct their work under the general and specified standards prescribed by the Institute of Internal Auditors or the Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States, as appropriate. The standards generally provide as follows:
  (1) That auditors should be independent of the activities they audit.
  (2) That audits should be performed with proficiency and due professional care.
  (3) That the scope of the audit should encompass the examination and evaluation of the adequacy and effectiveness of the organization' s system of internal control and the quality of performance in carrying out assigned responsibilities.
  (4) That audit work should include planning the audit, examining and evaluating information, communicating results, and following up.
  (5) That the chief auditor should properly manage the auditing department.
  (b) Nothing in this section is intended to limit the rights or obligations of auditors to conduct audits and audit activities in accordance with other laws and regulations that may apply to a particular entity, as appropriate.

All state and local agencies with an aggregate spending of fifty million dollars ($50,000,000) or more annually shall consider establishing an ongoing audit function.

Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 1236, if a city, county, city and county, or district determines that the implementation of any specific standard enumerated in Section 1236 would result in net additional costs which exceed any potential savings, the governing body of that city, county, city and county, or district shall have the option to determine whether or not to implement the specified standard.

Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 1236, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, may, by majority vote, grant a waiver to any agency that petitions the committee from compliance with any standard prescribed in Section 1236.

Whenever a section of the California Constitution uses both the terms "salary" and "compensation", with respect to a public officer or employee, the terms shall be construed to apply only to salary.