Source: https://www.calpublicagencylaboremploymentblog.com/public-safety-issues/questions-and-answers-regarding-responding-quickly-to-disasters-2/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 23:27:51+00:00

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HOW CAN WE CONVENE OUR BOARD AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE?
“Emergency meetings” are a limited class of meetings held when prompt action is needed due to an actual or threatened emergency situation and are held on little notice. (Gov. Code, § 54956.5.) An emergency situation means a work stoppage, crippling activity, or other activity that severely impairs public health, safety, or both, as determined by a majority of the members of the legislative body. (Gov. Code, § 54956.5 subd. (a)(1).) It also means a dire emergency, which is a crippling disaster, mass destruction, terrorist act, or threatened terrorist activity that poses peril so immediate and significant that requiring a legislative body to provide one-hour notice before holding an emergency meeting (discussed below) may endanger the public health, safety, or both, as determined by a majority of the members of the legislative body.
What are the notice requirements for an emergency meeting?
If news media does not have a written request on file for notification of special or emergency meetings, a legislative body has no legal obligation to notify news media of special or emergency meetings—although notification may be advisable in any event to promote communication during disasters.
How do you convene an emergency meeting?
What may be covered at an emergency meeting?
What are the notice requirements for a special meeting?
At least 24 hours before the meeting, a legislative body must post a notice in a location freely accessible to the public that contains the time and place of the meeting and identifies matters to be transacted or discussed at the meeting. The body must also post the agenda on its Internet website, if it has one. (Gov. Code, § 54956(a).) The District should describe the business to be transacted or discussed be in the same manner that an item for a regular meeting would be described on the agenda—with a brief general description. Closed session items should be described in accordance with the Brown Act’s provisions to protect legislative bodies and elected officials from challenges of noncompliance with notice requirements.
How do you convene a special meeting?
A legislative body may not call a special meeting regarding the salaries, salary schedules, or compensation paid in the form of fringe benefits, of a local agency executive. (Gov. Code, § 3511.1 subd. (d).) This does not apply to a local agency calling a special meeting to discuss the local agency’s budget.
What are the agenda requirements for a special meeting?
What if it is not safe to meet in our regular meeting place?
The Brown Act generally requires all regular and special meetings of a legislative body, including retreats and workshops, to be held within the boundaries of the territory over which the local agency exercises jurisdiction. (Gov. Code, § 54954 subd. (b).) However, if a fire, flood, earthquake, or other emergency makes the usual meeting place unsafe, the Board President is authorized to designate another meeting place for the duration of the emergency. News media that have requested notice of meetings must be notified of the designation by the most rapid means of communication available. (Gov. Code, § 54954 subd. (e).) This means you may move your Board meetings to another public venue within your District boundaries.
May members of the legislative body teleconference into the emergency or special meeting?
The Brown Act allows a legislative body to use any type of teleconferencing to meet, receive public comment and testimony, deliberate, or conduct a closed session. (Gov. Code, § 54953 subd. (b)(1).) However, the decision to use teleconferencing is entirely discretionary within the body and can present some issues.
“Teleconference” is defined as “a meeting of a legislative body, the members of which are in different locations, connected by electronic means, through either audio or video, or both.” (63 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 215 (1980).) Teleconference meetings must comply with all requirements of the Brown Act, including, but not limited to, including the address of each teleconference location in the agenda, posting the agenda in the teleconference location, and public accessibility to the teleconference location. The legislative body must conduct teleconference meetings in a manner that protects the statutory and constitutional rights of the public or parties appearing before the legislative body. This might indicate that teleconferenced emergency meetings, where there is little or no public notice, might be problematic. When the public has short notice of emergency meetings, Districts should be careful in limiting access further by using teleconferenced meetings.
HOW DO WE HANDLE EMPLOYEE ISSUES?
What is a disaster services worker?
How can we assign work to a disaster services worker?
How do we compensate employees performing disaster services?
The provisions of the Emergency Services Act give agencies some power to direct their employees to perform disaster service duties outside of their typical job duties. The Education Code addresses a District’s obligation to pay overtime for hours worked in excess of eight hours in a day or forty hours in a week. (Ed. Code, § 88027.) (If an employee has a regular workday of less than eight but more than seven hour, or a regular workweek of less than 40 but more than 30 hours, for certain classes the employee will be entitled to overtime for time worked in excess of the established workday. Ed. Code, § 88027.) The District may order employees to work overtime. If your collective bargaining agreement addresses the rotation of overtime, Districts should follow that language.
If the bargaining agreement is silent, use a fair system, such as asking for volunteers or by assigning overtime by lot. Taking such steps unilaterally is likely authorized by the management rights clauses in your CBAs, regarding disaster situations. However, we also recommend communicating and working with your union leadership as quickly as possible, to share information on the well-being and needs of impacted employees as well as district plans for directing and compensating disaster service work.
What if employees are unable to work?
Employees who have suffered personal loss or injury, or who are needed to care for a family member, may of course utilize the full array of applicable leaves available to them by law and pursuant to your collective bargaining agreements. These include but are not limited to: sick leave, extended leave, personal necessity leave, and FMLA/CFRA leave.
Districts should also work with employees who live or travel through affected areas. The fires or associated road closures may interfere with their travel and they may have trouble getting to work on time or at all. School closures will also play havoc with parents’ arrangements.
Review the management rights clauses in all your contracts. As noted above, these likely authorize some amount of unilateral action in the face of such a natural disaster. This would include making decisions about work schedules, revised call-in procedures, revised uses of available paid leaves, and other workplace issues normally subject to negotiation.
While some unilateral action is likely authorized, we recommend meeting quickly—by phone is fine—with union leadership. Check-in and share information each may have on affected employees; strategize how to get support to those in need; inform how the district is addressing needs for leave; etc.
Do we pay employees for time the district is closed?
Whether or not there is a legal obligation to pay employees during a district closure depends on a variety of factors under both the federal FLSA, and state wage and our law, such as: whether the employee is exempt or nonexempt, the length of the closure, whether the employee worked during any period of an FLSA workweek, and whether the employee is otherwise ready, willing and able to work. Thus, as a first step we recommend that you look at your own policies and collective bargaining agreements—which may address the issue. If your policies and/or CBAs are silent, unclear, or you are not sure if they meet minimum legal requirements, contact legal counsel.
We anticipate that if campus closures last long enough to affect student contact hours the California Community College Chancellor’s Office will issue guidance as it has in the past. For programs with specific clinical or other attendance requirements, such as allied health, districts will need to work with the State Accrediting Agency to determine whether those requirements will be revised or modified.
At colleges fortunate enough to be open, districts should encourage individual faculty members to be flexible, and work with students living or traveling through affected areas.

References: § 54956
 § 54956
 § 54956
 § 3511
 § 54954
 § 54954
 § 54953
 § 88027
 § 88027