republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20112012/ab-309.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Public officers: removal from office."
description: "Under existing law, an office becomes vacant on the occurrence of certain events. Existing law specifies that when a public officer is removed, declared insane, or convicted of a felony or offense involving a violation of his or her official duty, or when his or her election or appointment is declared void, the body or person before whom the proceedings are had is required to give notice thereof to the officer empowered to fill the vacancy."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 309"
citation: "California AB 309 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Public officers: removal from office."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cook"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 25
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2011-02-09"
last_action: "2011-10-07"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7fa39306-3362-487f-a9a1-2909389c984b"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB309"
source_hash: "cd80a4564980c9c4543d10ea571521702441d197d39d1b90adcc371bd3054d1f"
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 309 (20112012) — Public officers: removal from office.

Under existing law, an office becomes vacant on the occurrence of certain events. Existing law specifies that when a public officer is removed, declared insane, or convicted of a felony or offense involving a violation of his or her official duty, or when his or her election or appointment is declared void, the body or person before whom the proceedings are had is required to give notice thereof to the officer empowered to fill the vacancy.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/09/11 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB309&version=20110AB30999INT)
2. **03/21/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB309&version=20110AB30998AMD)
3. **10/07/11 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB309&version=20110AB30996CHP)
4. **AB309** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB309)
5. **09/02/11 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB309&version=20110AB30997ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. — **9–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 309 COOK Assembly Third Reading — **59–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB309 Cook By Emmerson — **38–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Cook — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2011-02-09** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2011-02-10** From printer. May be heard in committee March 12.
- **2011-03-03** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2011-03-07** Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV. pursuant to Assembly Rule 96. `referral-committee`
- **2011-03-21** 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, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-03-22** Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-07** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (April 6). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-04-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-04-14** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 59. Noes 0. Page 979.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-04-14** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2011-05-12** Referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2011-06-08** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (June 8). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-06-09** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-06-22** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2011-06-27** From Special Consent Calendar pursuant to Joint Rule 22.2.
- **2011-06-27** Ordered to third reading.
- **2011-06-27** Ordered to inactive file at the request of Senator Emmerson.
- **2011-08-18** From inactive file.
- **2011-08-18** Ordered to second reading.
- **2011-08-22** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-08-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 2126.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-08-31** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2011-09-07** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2011-10-07** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2011-10-07** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 543, Statutes of 2011.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/7fa39306-3362-487f-a9a1-2909389c984b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).