republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/ab-2234.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Classified school and community college employees: personnel commission: legal counsel."
description: "Existing law authorizes a school district or community college district to adopt a merit system that establishes how the governing board of the district employs, pays, and otherwise controls the services of classified employees of the district. Existing law requires a district that adopts a merit system to appoint a personnel commission consisting of either 3 or 5 members and requires the commission to classify employees and positions within the jurisdiction of the governing board or of the commission. Existing law requires the legal counsel of the governing board to represent the commission in all legal matters, except that existing law requires the legal counsel to refuse to represent the commission in circumstances in which the legal counsel knows, or has reason to know, that a conflict exists between the interests of the commission and the interests of the governing board or the district. Existing law authorizes the commission to employ its own attorney if the legal counsel refuses to represent the commission."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 2234"
citation: "California AB 2234 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Classified school and community college employees: personnel commission: legal counsel."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Chau"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 17
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2020-02-13"
last_action: "2020-09-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/856b849e-4bc1-4fac-97ec-828fb06a77ce"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2234"
source_hash: "34e4021baf0fe5a153ca572c31dcea3792bd0763d968fe85766c6a285506a018"
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 2234 (20192020) — Classified school and community college employees: personnel commission: legal counsel.

Existing law authorizes a school district or community college district to adopt a merit system that establishes how the governing board of the district employs, pays, and otherwise controls the services of classified employees of the district. Existing law requires a district that adopts a merit system to appoint a personnel commission consisting of either 3 or 5 members and requires the commission to classify employees and positions within the jurisdiction of the governing board or of the commission. Existing law requires the legal counsel of the governing board to represent the commission in all legal matters, except that existing law requires the legal counsel to refuse to represent the commission in circumstances in which the legal counsel knows, or has reason to know, that a conflict exists between the interests of the commission and the interests of the governing board or the district. Existing law authorizes the commission to employ its own attorney if the legal counsel refuses to represent the commission.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/13/20 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2234&version=20190AB223499INT)
2. **03/12/20 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2234&version=20190AB223498AMD)
3. **09/09/20 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2234&version=20190AB223496CHP)
4. **AB2234** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2234)
5. **08/31/20 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2234&version=20190AB223497ENR)

## Votes

- AB 2234 Chau Assembly Third Reading — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Consent Calendar AB2234 — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be ordered to the Consent Calendar — **5–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Chau — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2020-02-13** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2020-02-14** From printer. May be heard in committee March 15.
- **2020-03-02** Referred to Coms. on P.E. & R. and HIGHER ED. `referral-committee`
- **2020-03-12** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on P.E. & R. Read second time and amended. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-03-16** Re-referred to Com. on P.E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2020-05-05** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (May 5). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2020-05-06** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-06-08** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 4674.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-06-09** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2020-06-23** Referred to Com. on L., P.E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2020-08-06** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (August 5). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2020-08-07** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-08-28** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 4374.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-08-28** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2020-09-04** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
- **2020-09-09** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2020-09-09** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 48, Statutes of 2020.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/856b849e-4bc1-4fac-97ec-828fb06a77ce`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).