On March 30, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-40-20 which extends various statutory deadlines due to the State of Emergency in California relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the Executive Order, the deadline specified in Government Code section 3304(d) for opening and completing investigations of alleged misconduct by public safety officers is extended by 60 days. This 60-day extension on the one-year statutory period to investigate police officer misconduct, and issue a notice of intent to discipline, only currently applies to investigations of police officers under the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act (“POBR”). There is no reference in Governor Newsom’s Executive Order to Government Code section 3254 of the Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights Act or Government Code section 3508.1. The 60-day extension, therefore, does not currently apply to similar investigations of firefighters or civilian employees in a City police department. We will post another bulletin if clean-up legislation and/or Executive Order(s) from Governor Newsom are issued to address this discrepancy.
