HCS HB 127 Griffith, Dave Committee
HCS HB 127 -- ELIMINATION OF THE PERSONNEL ADVISORY BOARD SPONSOR: Griffith
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass with HCS" by the Special Committee on Government Administration by a vote of 6 to 0 and 1 present. Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Rules- Administration Oversight by a vote of 6 to 1.
The following is a summary of the House Committee Substitute for HB 127.
Currently, the Personnel Advisory Board (PAB) provides oversight of personnel issues within all state departments. The PAB makes recommendations to the Governor for resolving general personnel problems and sets rules to ensure that no applicant or employee is discriminated against on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, sex, ancestry or handicap. This bill transfers most of the duties of the PAB to the Division of Personnel and its director, within the Office of Administration. A few duties are transferred to the Commissioner of the Office of Administration, and the bill eliminates the advisory board.
This bill is similar to HB 2023(2022); SS SB 111 (2023).
The following is a summary of the public testimony from the committee hearing. The testimony was based on the introduced version of the bill.
PROPONENTS: Supporters say the personnel advisory board’s main function was originally hearing employee appeals, but that duty was transferred to the Administrative Hearing Commission. Since 2010, the duties of the personnel advisory board have become more ministerial, essentially giving approval to work done by the personnel division’s staff. Inability to attain a quorum sometimes delays decisions that have been fully vetted. Changes to the personnel plan are transparent, so the resources used for PAB meetings can be more usefully employed on other personnel issues.
Testifying in person for the bill were Representative Griffith; and Hannah Swann, Office Of Administration.
OPPONENTS: There was no opposition voiced to the committee.
Written testimony has been submitted for this bill. The full written testimony and witnesses testifying online can be found under Testimony on the bill page on the House website.