Mandate reimbursements restored in ELA case 

As ordered by the courts in a lawsuit brought by CSBA’s Education Legal Alliance, the Commission on State Mandates on Sept 25 restored reimbursement of state mandated costs it previously determined existed in the School Accountability Report Cards program and certain Brown Act open meeting requirements retroactive to 2005 and the statutory Mandate Reimbursement Process retroactive to 2006.
 
Legislative direction in 2005 and 2006 had compelled the COSM to reconsider and/or overturn reimbursement of those mandates.  In a March 9, 2009 ruling the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento ruled that the Legislature lacked the authority under the constitutional separation of powers doctrine to legislatively direct the COSM to overturn or reconsider its prior final decisions. 

It is expected that the State Controller's Office will issue new claiming instructions for these restored mandates within 60 days and school districts and county offices of education will then have 120 days to file their claims for costs incurred retroactive to 2005. 

“Let the re-claiming begin,” said Alliance Director Richard Hamilton.

Prior to 2005, legislation exempted the state from having to reimburse school districts and county offices for the costs of mandates expressly created by voter-approved ballot measures. The COSM had determined that the SARC, having origins in a ballot measure (Proposition 98), was later significantly expanded by the Legislature beyond that expressed in Proposition 98 and thus required reimbursement.  The COSM had also determined that the MRP was not expressly required in a ballot measure and thus was a reimbursable cost.  At the time the COSM determined the Brown Act reforms were reimbursable costs they were only required by statute but a later ballot measure had made local agency open meetings a constitutional requirement.
 
In 2005 the Legislature expanded the exemption for mandates that were "expressly created" by voters to also exempt from reimbursement those costs that were "necessary to implement" or "reasonably within [the] scope of" the voter-aproved mandate.  The Legislature further directed the COSM to reconsider its decisions in the SARC and MRP cases and, after repealing and reenacting the Brown Act reform measures, directed the COSM to set aside its prior decision determining a state mandated cost.
 
In its ruling, the court held that the quasi-judicial decisions of the COSM are not subject "to the whim of the Legislature."  This meant the legislation requiring the COSM to overturn its prior decisions was unconstitutional and, as a result, SARC, MRP and pertinent Brown Act open meeting manadate claims were to be restored, Hamilton explained. 

"The action of the COSM on Sept 25 to restore reimbursement of these mandated costs is culmination of a great court victory for the Alliance on behalf of all school districts and county offices,” he said.  “The court decision reinforces our argument that the governor and the Legislature cannot continue balancing the state budget on the back of schools by imposing new requirements without paying for them."

The official citation for the March 9 case is 171 Cal App 4th 1183.