BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2795
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Date of Hearing: April 28, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Cameron Smyth, Chair
AB 2795 (Committee on Local Government) - As Introduced: March
24, 2010
SUBJECT : Local government: organization
SUMMARY : Makes several minor, non-controversial changes to the
laws affecting local government organization and reorganization.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Defines "divestiture of power" to mean the termination of the
power and authority to provide particular functions or classes
of services within all or part of the jurisdictional
boundaries
of a special district.
2)Defines "Executive Officer" to mean the "executive officer or
designee as authorized by the commission" for the purposes of
clarifying the Executive Officer's role in the special
district selection process.
3)Clarifies that a local agency formation commission (LAFCO) may
initiate proposals through action of adopting a resolution.
4)Clarifies existing law to bring consistency to the process for
conducting elections by a board of supervisors or city
council.
5)Makes conforming changes to existing law to bring consistency
to election terms after incorporation.
6)Provides additional time for a local agency that is
negotiating a property tax exchange as part of a proposal or
reorganization by allowing that local agency to notify the
LAFCO, the county auditor, and the other affected local
agencies of its desire to extend the negotiating period to 90
days.
7)Corrects several obsolete and incorrect references contained
in the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act.
EXISTING LAW establishes the procedures for the organization and
AB 2795
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reorganization of cities, counties, and special districts.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)As statutes go into effect, local officials and others often
discover problems or inconsistencies in the language of the
law and approach the Legislature to correct them. These minor
problems do not warrant separate bills, particularly since,
according to the Legislative Analyst, in 2001-02 the average
cost to produce a single bill was $17,890.
2)The Assembly Local Government Committee has found that it is
expeditious and relatively inexpensive to respond to multiple
minor, non-controversial requests on related issues by
combining them into an annual "omnibus bill." Since AB 720
(Local Government
Committee), Chapter 388, Statutes of 2001, which was a clean-up
bill for AB 2838 (Hertzberg), Chapter 761, Statutes of 2000,
the major rewrite of the laws governing local
agency organization and reorganization, the Committee has
focused its omnibus bill efforts on LAFCO-related issues, most
recently with AB 1582 (Local Government Committee), Chapter
155, Statutes of 2009. The Committee has carried on this
practice this year by addressing a number of minor, but still
necessary, changes in this bill. The bill reflects the
concerns of LAFCOs and others who have brought proposals and
issues to the Committee. All proposals have been thoroughly
vetted by a large number of stakeholders. Any proposal that
provokes any controversy or opposition is rejected for
inclusion.
3)Support Arguments : AB 2795 provides an efficient and
cost-effective way to make a number of minor technical and
non-controversial changes to law, rather than introducing a
bill for each change.
Opposition Arguments : None at this time.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
CA Association of Local Agency Formation Commissions [SPONSOR]
AB 2795
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CA Special Districts Association
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Debbie Michel / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958