The board may issue subpoenas and subpoenas duces tecum, and compensate persons subpoenaed. This power shall be exercised and enforced in the same manner as the similar power granted the board of supervisors in Article 9 (commencing with Section 25170) of Chapter 1 of Part 2 of Division 2 of this title; except that the power shall extend only to matters within the board’s jurisdiction, and committees of the board shall not have this power. Reasonable fees and expenses may be provided for by board regulation for any or all of the witnesses regardless of which party subpoenaed them.
Subpoenas shall be signed by the chairman or secretary of the board, except that the board may by regulation provide for express written delegation of its subpoena power to the retirement administrator or to any referee it appoints pursuant to this chapter.
Any member of the board, the referee, or any person otherwise empowered to issue subpoenas may administer oaths to, or take depositions from, witnesses before the board or referee.
This section shall apply only in a county of the first class, as defined by Section 28020, as amended by Chapter 1204 of the Statutes of 1971, and Section 28022, as amended by Chapter 43 of the Statutes of 1961.
(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 48, Sec. 2. (SB 637) Effective January 1, 2012.)