Dept. of Finance v. Com'n on State Mandates

Jo Anne Sawyerknoll, Sacramento, and Jose A. Gonzales, San Diego, for Real Party in Interest and Respondent San Diego Unified School District.

No appearance by Real Parties in Interest and Respondents Kern High School District and County of Santa Clara.

DAVIS, Acting P.J.

The question in this appeal is whether two state statutes—requiring local school site councils and advisory committees for certain educational programs to prepare and post an agenda for their meetings and to provide for public comment on agenda items—constitute a reimbursable state mandate under article XIII B, section 6 of California's Constitution. We agree with the trial court that these statutes specify a "higher level of service" under state mandate principles. [1] We also agree with the trial court that a state mandate is not limited to situations of legal compulsion. We construe state mandate as also extending to situations where the local governmental entity has no reasonable alternative to the state scheme, or has no true choice but to participate in it. The Commission on State Mandates (the Commission) did not consider these issues. We will therefore remand this matter to the Commission for it to…