republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-761.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "County employees' retirement: personnel: Orange County."
description: "The County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL) authorizes counties to establish retirement systems pursuant to its provisions in order to provide pension benefits to their employees. CERL authorizes the board of retirement and both the board of retirement and the board of investment to appoint administrative, technical, and clerical staff as required to accomplish the necessary work of the board. Under CERL, these appointments are generally required to be made from eligible lists created in accordance with the civil service system or merit system rules of the county. CERL, however, authorizes the retirement boards of specified counties to appoint assistant administrators and chief investment officers who, following appointment, are outside county charter, civil service, and merit system rules, except as specified. CERL provides that these administrators and officers are employees of the county, as specified, while serving at the pleasure of the appointing boards, and that they may be dismissed without cause. Existing law also applies these provisions to any county if the board of supervisors for that county, by resolution adopted by majority vote, makes those provisions applicable in the county."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 761"
citation: "California AB 761 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["County employees' retirement: personnel: Orange County."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Chen"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 17
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2021-02-16"
last_action: "2021-06-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/52cfa1be-1d2b-4cf4-8224-628d632bd756"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB761"
source_hash: "31a34fe4936661e223b426929cdd63ca6d2df83e4275791cad1753217445db47"
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 761 (20212022) — County employees' retirement: personnel: Orange County.

The County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL) authorizes counties to establish retirement systems pursuant to its provisions in order to provide pension benefits to their employees. CERL authorizes the board of retirement and both the board of retirement and the board of investment to appoint administrative, technical, and clerical staff as required to accomplish the necessary work of the board. Under CERL, these appointments are generally required to be made from eligible lists created in accordance with the civil service system or merit system rules of the county. CERL, however, authorizes the retirement boards of specified counties to appoint assistant administrators and chief investment officers who, following appointment, are outside county charter, civil service, and merit system rules, except as specified. CERL provides that these administrators and officers are employees of the county, as specified, while serving at the pleasure of the appointing boards, and that they may be dismissed without cause. Existing law also applies these provisions to any county if the board of supervisors for that county, by resolution adopted by majority vote, makes those provisions applicable in the county.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/16/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB761&version=20210AB76199INT)
2. **03/18/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB761&version=20210AB76198AMD)
3. **06/28/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB761&version=20210AB76196CHP)
4. **AB761** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB761)
5. **06/18/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB761&version=20210AB76197ENR)

## Votes

- AB 761 Chen Consent Calendar Second Day — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be ordered to the Consent Calendar — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Consent Calendar AB761 — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **7–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Chen — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-02-16** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2021-02-17** From printer. May be heard in committee March 19.
- **2021-02-25** Referred to Com. on P.E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2021-03-18** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on P.E. & R. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-03-22** Re-referred to Com. on P.E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-19** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (April 15). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-20** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-04-22** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 1156.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-04-26** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2021-05-12** Referred to Com. on L., P.E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2021-06-08** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 7). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-06-09** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-06-17** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 1543.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-06-17** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2021-06-22** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4:15 p.m.
- **2021-06-28** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-06-28** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 26, Statutes of 2021. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/52cfa1be-1d2b-4cf4-8224-628d632bd756`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).