BILL NUMBER: AB 177 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 23, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 13, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Price
FEBRUARY 2, 2009
An act to add Section 13985 to , and to add and repeal
Chapter 12.92 (commencing with Section 7096) of Division 7 of Title 1
of, the Government Code, relating to economic development.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 177, as amended, Price. Economic development.
development: California Urban Communities
Collaborative Initiative Act of 2009.
(1) Existing law provides for various programs and activities in
the development of economic opportunities for businesses in the
state.
This bill would, until January 1, 2016, enact the California Urban
Communities Collaborative Initiative Act of 2009. The bill would
create the California Urban Communities Collaborative Initiative in
state government. As part of the initiative, the bill would establish
an Inter-Agency Initiative Workgroup, partnership, and local
committees for designated project areas and assign these entities
specified duties with respect to coordinating and improving
government efforts for at-risk urban communities, as defined. The
bill would require the workgroup to report annually to the Governor
and Legislature on its activities.
The
(2) The Business, Transportation
and Housing Agency has various duties regarding general supervision
over the operation of the departments within the agency, including
the Department of Housing and Community Development.
This bill would authorize the agency to develop regional plans and
collaborative efforts in specified fields regarding economic
development.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) California's urban communities and neighborhoods within its
largest cities are remarkably diverse in their people, businesses,
and cultural heritage, and provide an enormous unrealized potential
for development of a skilled, educated, and sustainable workforce.
(b) The state has a very high interest in helping urban
communities realize their potential because, among other things,
uplifting these communities generates higher tax revenue, lowers
social costs, and improves the health and overall quality of life for
residents.
(c) By supporting public-private partnerships, business,
education, and law enforcement entities in at-risk, underserved
communities, the state ensures a longstanding commitment to economic
self-reliance, parity, power, and civil rights.
(d) Improving the economy and overall quality of life for the
people in at-risk urban communities requires a concerted,
coordinated, and creative response from leaders at all levels of
government and from the community.
(e) The Business, Transportation and Housing Agency has
established the California Urban Communities Collaborative, a
voluntary initiative that includes various pilot projects intended
to, among other things, facilitate collaboration among state and
local government agencies, community-based organizations, and the
private sector for the purpose of identifying, accessing, and
coordinating delivery of public and private resources to at-risk
urban communities within specified metropolitan areas to stabilize
the social structure, increase the living standards and the overall
economic performance, and improve the health of at-risk communities.
(f) Supporting collaborative efforts for the leveraging of private
and nonprofit sector resources with public funds through
collaborative projects that can result in increased employment and a
higher standard of living in California urban communities.
SEC. 2. Chapter 12.92 (commencing with Section
7096) is added to Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government
Code , to read:
CHAPTER 12.92. CALIFORNIA URBAN COMMUNITIES COLLABORATIVE
INITIATIVE ACT OF 2009
7096. (a) This act shall be known and may be cited as the
California Urban Communities Collaborative Initiative Act of 2009.
(b) The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) The current economic downturn exacerbates decades of disparity
and neglect within California's at-risk urban communities, making
the lack of a functioning and adequate state policy and strategy to
address the situation one of the most important social justice and
civil rights issues of our time.
(2) In the wake of global warming, urban revitalization represents
a major opportunity for smart growth, clean air, alternative energy,
green economy, and workforce policy in California.
(3) Given the passage and convergence of the California Global
Warming Solutions Act of 2006 and Senate Bill 375 of the 2007-08
Regular Session, both designed to mitigate climate change, it is
important that an appropriate economic development policy focused on
at-risk urban communities be adopted to ensure greater equity and
inclusion of all Californians in the future of developing and
implementing climate change, transportation, land-use, and economic
stimulus policies.
(4) California's urban communities and neighborhoods within its
largest cities are remarkably diverse in their people, businesses,
and cultural heritage, and provide an enormous unrealized potential
for development of a skilled, educated, and sustainable workforce.
(5) Every California community should have the right to
participate in the decisionmaking process on issues that affect it,
the opportunity to attain self-sufficiency and independence, and the
ability to provide a decent, safe, and supportive living environment
for every one of its residents.
(6) The state has a very high interest in helping urban
communities realize their potential because, among other things,
uplifting these communities generates higher tax revenue, lowers
social costs, and improves the health and overall quality of life for
its citizens.
(7) The state, among the world's 10 largest economies, needs to
enhance its competitiveness by investing in improved education and
training of people living in its urban communities to ensure the
expansion of the state's intellectual and scientific research
capacity, enabling an increased number of engineers, doctors,
scientists, teachers, and skilled individuals equipped to meet the
challenges of the technologically advanced 21st century.
(8) The state has a vested interest in providing the framework
from which equality can be attained among the diverse populations in
its largest metropolitan areas.
(9) Urban communities represent an untapped market for products
manufactured in the United States for export abroad and for goods and
services produced elsewhere in the state. As the economic potential
of urban consumers increases, so will the benefits to other economic
segments of our state.
(10) The state has a very high interest in reducing crime, the
cost of incarceration, and the loss of lives and property associated
with it, and best achieves improvements in these areas by finding
answers to these problems that plague urban communities.
(11) For every youth averted from incarceration in a facility of
the Juvenile Justice Division of the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation, the state will save between seventy thousand dollars
($70,000) and one hundred fifty-four thousand dollars ($154,000) per
year in detention and related costs.
(12) For every youth prevented from going to prison as an adult,
the state will save over thirty-four thousand dollars ($34,000) per
inmate annually in detention costs alone.
(13) This state is home to three of the 10 largest cities in the
United States, including Los Angeles, which is perhaps the most
socioeconomic and ethnically diverse of all.
(14) The strength of this state is tied to the economic success of
all its urban communities, as well as its rural regions. Improving
the economy and well-being of the people in at-risk urban communities
requires a concerted, coordinated, and creative response from
leaders at all levels of the private sector, the community, and
government.
(15) The holistic, comprehensive, and multijurisdictional approach
demonstrated by the San Joaquin Valley Partnership, created in 2005
for rural areas, can be a model for how the state can partner with
the public and private sectors in local communities to address the
problems in urban communities. The San Joaquin Valley Partnership has
demonstrated that a collaborative effort can produce a vision to
build a cohesive region that is supported by a vibrant economy
sustained by competitive strengths and sufficient resources. The
vision was to provide a high quality of life for all valley residents
in order to achieve the "3Es" of sustainable growth: a prosperous
economy, quality environment, and social equity.
(16) In a portion of the Crenshaw Corridor area of Los Angeles,
the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency has
established the California Urban Communities Collaborative, a
voluntary initiative that includes various pilot projects intended
to, among other things, facilitate collaboration among state and
local government agencies, community-based organizations and the
private sector, for the purpose of identifying, accessing and
coordinating delivery of public and private resources to at-risk
urban communities within specified metropolitan areas to stabilize
the social structure, increase the living standards and the overall
economic performance, and improve the health of designated project
areas in at-risk communities.
(17) Leveraging of private and nonprofit sector resources with
public funds through collaborative projects can produce partnerships
that result in an overall savings to state and local government while
ultimately increasing revenues due to increased employment and a
higher standard of living.
(18) By supporting public-private partnerships, business,
education, and law enforcement entities in at-risk communities, the
state ensures a longstanding commitment to economic self-reliance,
parity, power, and civil rights.
7096.1. For the purposes of this chapter, the following
definitions shall apply:
(a) "At-risk urban community" means an urban neighborhood or
community where the area median income is at or below 80 percent of
the statewide median income as determined by the federal Department
of Housing and Urban Development.
(b) "Designated project area" means an at-risk urban community
chosen by the partnership for coordinated planning and state
assistance, as described in Section 7096.2, that is both of the
following:
(1) Located within a Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area, as
defined by the United States Census Bureau, in this state with a
population of more than 500,000.
(2) Located within a redevelopment project area pursuant to
Section 33320.1 of the Health and Safety Code, or enterprise zone as
designated pursuant to subdivision (d) of Section 7072.
(c) "Local community revitalization strategy" means a strategy
developed by a local community or neighborhood through collaboration
with relevant public and private stakeholders. The local community
revitalization strategy shall address the areas of business
investment, retention, attraction and growth, homeownership,
education, job training, public safety, and the arts and
entertainment.
(d) "Workgroup" means the Inter-Agency Initiative Workgroup
convened pursuant to Section 7096.2.
7096.2. (a) The California Urban Communities Collaborative
Initiative is hereby created in state government. The purpose of the
initiative is (1) to develop and implement a more effective method
for delivering existing state programs and services and that support
and enhance comprehensive and integrated local efforts to improve
at-risk urban communities, and (2) to strengthen locally led public
and private efforts to stabilize the social structure and increase
the living standards and the overall economic performance of
designated project areas in at-risk urban communities. A local
coordinated effort between these public and private entities shall
bring together people, programs, and resources in an efficient
collaboration in the areas of business investment, retention,
attraction and growth, homeownership, education, job training, public
safety, and the arts and entertainment.
(b) The Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing shall
convene and chair an Inter-Agency Initiative Workgroup, which shall
include the following:
(1) The following state officials, or their designees from the
executive office of the corresponding agencies:
(A) The Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing.
(B) The Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development.
(C) The Secretary of California Health and Human Services.
(D) The Superintendent of Public Instruction.
(E) The Attorney General.
(2) One representative, who will serve at the pleasure of each of
the following:
(A) The California Economic Strategy Panel, chosen by the chair of
the panel.
(B) The California Workforce Investment Board, chosen by the chair
of the board.
(C) The Employment Training Panel, chosen by the chair of the
panel.
(c) The Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, through the
direction of its secretary as chair of the workgroup, shall enter
into a collaborative agreement with a partnership that includes, but
is not necessarily limited to, statewide economic development,
workforce development, social justice, civil rights, education,
public safety, and urban research organizations with local
affiliates, for the purposes set forth in this section.
(d) The partnership shall, with marketing assistance from the
workgroup, based on existing local activity, if any, and active level
of local interest, if any, identify, recruit and help assemble a
local committee for each designated project area consisting of all of
the following:
(1) Elected local government members, including the mayor and
county supervisor who represents the designated project area.
(2) Four civic leaders or private sector members.
(3) Three representatives of existing nonprofit organizations,
consortia, civic organizations, or educational institutions, with
established ties to, and that have a primary organizational focus on
promoting the economic and social advancement of, at-risk urban
neighborhoods. The chair of the local committee shall select
representatives appointed under this paragraph from a list of
recommendations provided by potential or existing members of the
local committee or the partnership. They shall serve at the pleasure
of the partnership.
(4) All members of the Legislature who represent the designated
project area may be ex officio, nonvoting members of the local
committee.
(e) Each local committee shall select one elected local government
member and one civic leader or private sector member to serve as
chair and vice chair of the local committee. The local committee
shall serve as the official body for discussions regarding
implementation of the overall local community revitalization plan.
Nothing in this subdivision precludes or limits the partnership or
workgroup from having discussions with any public entity regarding
any activities occurring within or related to each designated project
area.
(f) The partnership may request that the economic development
coordinators from local governments with jurisdiction over a
designated project area serve as ad hoc advisors to the partnership
and its project managers and consultants.
(g) Based on available funding, partnership organizations may
receive funding for purposes of partnership activities, which
includes ensuring maximum equity, diversity, and linkages between
regional economic development and low-income neighborhood
revitalization strategies.
(h) The partnership shall meet at least once quarterly for the
conduct of its business. It may also host town hall meetings in a
designated project area in addition to, or in conjunction with, its
quarterly meetings.
(i) A majority of the partnership board shall constitute a quorum
for the purposes of holding meetings or otherwise conducting
partnership business. Any item of partnership business requiring a
vote of the membership shall be subject to a majority vote from each
local committee.
(b) The Business, Transportation and Housing Agency shall provide
administrative support to the workgroup and the partnership out of
existing resources currently financing the California Urban
Communities Collaborative, or any federal or private funds secured to
finance that administrative support.
7096.4. (a) Duties of the workgroup, partnership, and local
committee for each designated project area shall include all of the
following, as applicable:
(1) Direct each state department or agency with relevant statutory
authority or programs to identify and make available appropriate
resources for a designated project area consistent with its local
community revitalization strategy. These departments and agencies may
include, but not be limited to, the Department of Housing and
Community Development, the State Department of Social Services, the
Department of Community Services and Development, the Employment
Development Department, the State Department of Education, the
Department of Justice, the California Infrastructure and Economic
Development Bank, the State Historic Preservation Officer, and the
Juvenile Justice Division of the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation.
(2) Analyze programs and policies of workgroup agencies that
relate to the requested and recommended actions in each of the local
community revitalization strategies of designated project areas to
determine what changes, modifications, and innovations should be
considered in state programs in the areas of business investment,
retention, attraction and growth, homeownership, education, job
training, public safety, and the arts and entertainment, if any. The
purpose of this analysis is to better serve the designated project
area and other communities and neighborhoods in the state facing
similar challenges.
(3) Consider statistical and data analysis, research, and policy
studies related to at-risk urban communities.
(4) Develop, recommend, and implement short-term and long-term
options for promoting sustainable economic development in the state's
at-risk urban communities.
(5) Consult and coordinate activities with federal, state, and
local governments, community leaders, state legislators, the private
sector, nonprofit organizations, and other interested parties to
benefit at-risk urban communities, attempting to build on the
strengths of existing authorities of the state and local governments,
and to preserve their existing working relationships with other
agencies, organizations, or individuals.
(6) Coordinate and collaborate on research and demonstration
priorities of partnership member organizations related to at-risk
urban communities.
(7) Integrate state and federal initiatives and programs into the
design of sustainable economic development actions for the state's
at-risk urban communities.
(8) Identify projects and programs that will best utilize public
dollars and most quickly improve the economic vitality of at-risk
urban communities, especially those that leverage federal, state,
local, and private sector resources in a coordinated effort to
address critical needs in these communities.
(9) Work with the state's elected congressional representatives
and federal officials to gain federal support for projects identified
by the partnership as critical to the state's at-risk communities.
(10) Partner with the University of California, the California
State University, the California Community Colleges, and the state's
other research and educational institutions, as well as private
foundations, to provide guidance, advice, and encouragement in
support of studies of particular interest and importance to the
at-risk urban communities.
(c) The Business, Transportation and Housing Agency shall link the
partnership's Internet Web site from its main Internet Web page to
provide the public with information about the partnership.
(d) Upon funds becoming available, the partnership shall establish
and operate a program to distribute matching grants to designated
project areas that can be used as seed grants to leverage private
sector and nonprofit contributions to support activities in the
designated project areas.
7096.5. (a) The partnership shall, at a minimum, use the
following eligibility criteria to select a designated project area
proposed by a local committee in at-risk urban communities:
(1) The community shall have a local community revitalization
strategy for the applicant community or neighborhood boundary area.
(2) The community shall be able to demonstrate commitments of
local government collaboration with at least two formal memoranda of
understanding with publicly funded entities in the areas of business
investment, retention, attraction and growth, homeownership,
education, job training, public safety, and the arts and
entertainment, as described in Section 7096.2.
(3) The community shall have secured private sector and nonprofit
organization funding that is available as a local match for any
partnership funds that are available for the project.
(b) The local community revitalization strategy is the foundation
for all partnership activities. In designating a new project area,
the partnership shall be guided by the following principles:
(1) The strategy should be comprehensive, including social,
physical, and economic development.
(2) The planning process for the development of the strategy
should be participatory, involving to the greatest extent possible, a
significant majority of all demonstrably concerned community
residents and other stakeholders.
(3) The strategy shall build the capacity of underutilized human
and institutional resources, including the transfer of knowledge and
skills.
(4) The strategy shall promote ownership by the community in both
development process and product.
(5) The strategy shall promote bridge building and interethnic
unity so that different ethnic groups and neighborhoods can be
brought together around common policies and goals.
7096.6. The workgroup, with participation from the partnership
and the local committees, shall report annually to the Governor and
the Legislature on its activities, including at least the following:
(a) A summary of the actions taken by the workgroup and projected
outcomes of these actions for each designed project area.
(b) Identification of public and private moneys and actions
leveraged through partnership activities. Particular focus shall be
made to contributions and investments made by the private sector.
(c) A progress report on the implementation of each local
community revitalization strategy.
(d) Determinations and workgroup results stemming from actions
pursuant to its analysis of state programs and policies pursuant to
this chapter.
(e) Legislative proposals for enactment in furtherance of the
partnership's mission.
7096.7. (a) (1) The partnership shall replicate the Los Angeles
Urban League's Neighborhoods@Work project pursuant to the conditions
in subdivision (b) of Section 7096.5 of this chapter, to test and
expand the local-state partnership concept and approach to
revitalizing at-risk urban communities. The partnership shall focus
on implementing a coordinated and expedited state response to local
economic development needs in the affected urban community, such as
business investment and competitiveness, educational attainment,
increased employment, reduction of crime rates, and increased
homeownership.
(2) Based on the results of the Los Angeles Urban League's
Neighborhoods@Work project described in paragraph (1), the workgroup
shall determine how the approach can be used to refine the state's
assistance to the partnership in improving the quality of life for
people and businesses located in at-risk urban communities. The
workgroup shall establish procedures and guidelines, where necessary,
for its participation in partnership activities.
(3) The partnership, based on capacity and workgroup consensus,
may designate up to two project areas in the state for partnership
participation in any given calendar year. As a condition of joining
the partnership, a local committee shall agree to annual reporting on
the goals and objectives identified in its local community
revitalization strategy.
(b) (1) In addition to the requirements of Section 7096.5, the
partnership shall select designated project areas based on the
following criteria:
(A) Demonstrated need of the at-risk urban community.
(B) Existing assets of the at-risk urban community that can
provide a basic infrastructure for community economic development.
(C) Demonstrated capabilities of the applicant local committee
organization for strategic planning and administration of programs.
(D) Demonstrated applicant local committee organization ability to
use a system of metrics to measure neighborhood change.
(2) The partnership may designate additional project areas, upon a
determination by the Secretary of Business, Transportation and
Housing that it is in the best interest of the state to utilize the
California partnership methodology to
intervene in the downward spiral of economic and social
conditions within at-risk urban communities and that sufficient
moneys are available for the state to be an adequate partner in
implementing local community revitalization strategies.
7096.8. This chapter shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2016, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2016, deletes or extends
that date.
SEC. 2. SEC. 3. Section 13985 is
added to the Government Code, to read:
13985. The Business, Transportation and Housing Agency may
develop regional plans and collaborative efforts that include, but
are not limited to, any of the following:
(1) Development of locally coordinated efforts that brings
together people, programs, and resources in an efficient
collaboration in the areas of health, education, public safety,
housing, economic development, employment, and job training.
(2) Identification of public and private resources consistent with
the local community revitalization strategies.
(3) Analysis of relevant programs and policies of government
agencies to determine what changes, modifications, or innovations
should be considered in state or local programs in the areas of
health, education, public safety, housing, economic development,
employment, or job training, if any, to better serve communities and
neighborhoods.
(4) Development of short-term, intermediate, and long-term options
for promoting sustainable economic development.
(5) Recommendations to integrate state initiatives and programs
into the design of sustainable economic and community development
action plans for the state's at-risk urban communities, consistent
with community revitalization plans.
(6) Development of an annual work plan that details how the
specific goals, objectives, and actions will be achieved.