Kern County Hospital Authority.

The Kern County Hospital Authority Act authorizes the board of supervisors of the County of Kern to, among other things, establish, by ordinance, the Kern County Hospital Authority to manage, administer, and control the Kern Medical Center and for the operation of additional programs, clinics and other facilities, care organizations, physician practice plans, and delivery systems that may be affiliated or consolidated with the medical center. Existing law requires the board of supervisors to adopt, and the authority to implement, a personnel transition plan that requires specified actions, including acknowledgment that the authority, to the extent permitted by federal and state law, is required to be bound by the terms of the memoranda of understanding executed between the county and its exclusive employee representatives that are in effect on the date the county adopts the enabling ordinance. Existing law subjects the authority to other employment and retirement provisions. This bill would revise and recast those provisions to make technical changes to provisions relating to the transfer of control of the medical center by the county to the Kern County Hospital Authority, as specified. The bill would clarify that the authority is empowered with the maintenance, operation, management, control, ownership, or lease of the medical center, as provided by the enabling ordinance, as specified. The bill would make changes to the personnel transition plan to instead provide that the memoranda of understanding that apply to the authority are those in effect on the date of the transfer of control of the medical center to the authority, as specified, and if the memoranda of understanding has expired, that the most recent memoranda is binding unless modified by mutual agreement with each of the exclusive employee representatives. The bill would make other changes to related provisions to further reflect that certain actions be taken on the date of the transfer of control of the medical center to the authority, rather than the date the county adopts the enabling ordinance. The bill would make other changes to provisions related to, among others, retirement provisions, debt instruments, and contract provisions. The bill would authorize the board of supervisors to contract on behalf of the authority. Existing law provides that certain employees of the authority may participate in the Kern County Employees' Retirement Association, as specified. The bill would require new obligations between the county and the authority regarding employer contributions to employee retirement plans. The bill would provide that legacy employees, as defined, would be deemed county employees only for purposes of participation in a benefit plan administered by the Kern County Employees' Retirement Association. The county would assume primary financial responsibility, and the authority would assume supplemental financial responsibility, for employer contributions that fund benefits for legacy employees, upon the transfer of control of the medical center to the authority. The bill would provide that the authority would assume primary financial responsibility, and the county would assume supplemental financial responsibility, for employer contributions that fund benefits for new employees, as defined. However, if the authority fails to make required contributions for new employees, the county would be required to make employer contributions upon notice and demand from the Kern County Employees' Retirement Association, as specified