---
type: "Bill"
title: "Local government: vacancies."
description: "Existing law requires a city council, within 60 days of a vacancy in an elective office, to fill that vacancy by appointment or call a special election to fill the vacancy, and provides that a person elected or appointed to fill a vacancy holds office for the unexpired term of the former incumbent."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 952"
citation: "California AB 952 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Local government: vacancies."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cristina Garcia"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 20
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2015-02-26"
last_action: "2015-08-12"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/00112fda-1c23-4c2f-aad2-bada340babbd"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB952"
source_hash: "2c19a63f054abeb062c0eada0f326d6e2ccc67940003f1a9988e601af8b52f7b"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 952 (20152016) — Local government: vacancies.

Existing law requires a city council, within 60 days of a vacancy in an elective office, to fill that vacancy by appointment or call a special election to fill the vacancy, and provides that a person elected or appointed to fill a vacancy holds office for the unexpired term of the former incumbent.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/26/15 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB952&version=20150AB95299INT)
2. **04/08/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB952&version=20150AB95298AMD)
3. **04/20/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB952&version=20150AB95297AMD)
4. **08/12/15 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB952&version=20150AB95295CHP)
5. **AB952** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB952)
6. **07/15/15 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB952&version=20150AB95296ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Elections and Redistricting] — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 952 GARCIA, C. Consent Calendar Second Day — **74–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB952 Cristina Garcia By Lara — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **6–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Cristina Garcia — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2015-02-26** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2015-02-27** From printer. May be heard in committee March 29.
- **2015-03-16** Referred to Coms. on L. GOV. and E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-08** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on L. GOV. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-09** Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-16** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on E. & R. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (April 15). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-04-20** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-21** Re-referred to Com. on E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2015-05-13** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (May 13). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-05-14** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-05-22** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 74. Noes 0. Page 1560.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-05-22** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2015-06-04** Referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2015-07-01** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (July 1). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-07-02** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-07-13** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 1901.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-07-13** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2015-08-03** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2015-08-12** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2015-08-12** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 185, Statutes of 2015.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/00112fda-1c23-4c2f-aad2-bada340babbd`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).