California Code, Government Code - GOV § 12010.6

(a) The purpose of this section is to increase the Governor's managerial flexibility without increasing costs.  It is the intent of the Legislature that positions designated as exempt from civil service by this section shall be filled by a Governor's appointment only after they are vacated by civil service employees.

(b) The Governor may designate as exempt from civil service positions in the executive agencies over which the Governor has line responsibility and which have civil-service-exempt officers and employees appointed pursuant to subdivision (f) or (g) of Section 4 of Article VII of the California Constitution; provided that the designations shall be limited to positions covered by these subdivisions and shall not cause the total number of positions exempted under these subdivisions to exceed one-half of 1 percent of the number of full-time equivalent positions in these agencies collectively.

(c) The Governor may appoint a person to a position designated as exempt from civil service pursuant to this section only after the position is no longer held by a civil service employee.

(d) Positions designated by the Governor as exempt from civil service pursuant to this section shall be limited to those designated as managerial positions under Section 3513 by the Department of Human Resources.

(e) The authority to designate positions as exempt from civil service shall not result in the displacement of civil service employees and shall not result in hiring additional employees into positions not authorized in the Budget Act.

(f) The Department of Human Resources shall report to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee by January 31 of each year the current percentage of civil-service-exempt officers and employees in state service.