BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 57
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Date of Hearing: April 6, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Cameron Smyth, Chair
AB 57 (Beall) - As Amended: February 2, 2011
SUBJECT : Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
SUMMARY : Revises the membership and appointments of the
Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Increases, from 19 to 21, the number of members on
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) by giving one
additional seat each to the Counties of Alameda and Santa
Clara.
2)Requires that the new members on MTC representing the Counties
of Alameda and Santa Clara be either the mayors of the Cities
of Oakland and San Jose or an appointee of the mayors from
their respective city councils.
3)Prohibits, effective with the membership term starting
February 2015, more than three members of MTC from being
residents of the same county.
4)Requires the initial terms of the commissioners appointed,
including self-appointments by the mayors of the Cities of
Oakland and San Jose to terminate in February 2015.
5)States that no reimbursement is necessary because the only
costs incurred by a local agency or school district are the
result of a program for which legislative authority was
requested by that local agency or school district.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes MTC as a regional agency in the nine-county San
Francisco Bay Area with comprehensive regional transportation
planning and other related responsibilities.
2)Requires the membership of MTC to consist of 19 members, as
follows:
a) Two members each from the Counties of Alameda, Santa
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Clara, Contra Costa, San Francisco, and San Mateo;
b) One member each from the Counties of Marin, Napa,
Solano, and Sonoma;
c) One representative each appointed by the Association of
Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the San Francisco Bay
Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC); and,
d) Three nonvoting members appointed separately by the
Secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing
Agency, the Federal Transportation Department, and the
Housing and Urban Development Departments.
3)Establishes a four-year term of office for members of MTC.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)This bill expands the membership of MTC to include two
additional members representing Alameda and Santa Clara
Counties. The author indicates that the intent of the bill is
to adjust the composition of MTC's governing board in order to
make it more reflective of the current population distribution
in the region.
MTC was established by legislative statute in 1970, at which
point the five southern counties were closer in population.
The author argues that because the Counties of Alameda and
Santa Clara are significantly more populous than the other
three counties, the membership should be updated to be
reflective of this population shift. MTC notes that the
membership composition has not changed since its creation in
1970.
Additionally, the bill limits the representation of MTC voting
members to no more than three who reside in the same county.
Because the bill increases the number of seats in both Alameda
and Santa Clara Counties to three, this effectively means that
MTC representatives from ABAG and BCDC could not come from
either Alameda or Santa Clara.
2)At its January 26, 2011 meeting, MTC approved the proposal to
increase the representation by the Counties of Alameda and
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Santa Clara on the MTC Board. The San Francisco
representative and the two Contra Costa representatives voted
against the resolution.
3)This is not the first attempt to revise MTC's membership. AB
2741 (Salinas, 2004), a similar bill to expand the MTC
membership to include the mayors of Oakland and San Jose, was
double-referred to the both the Assembly Transportation
Committee and the Local Government Committee. AB 2741 passed
out of the Transportation Committee, but was never heard in
the Local Government Committee.
AB 2908 (Wolk, 2004), a bill that would have similarly revised
the membership of MTC, was referred to both the Transportation
and Local Government Committees, but was never heard by either
committee.
4)The Committee may wish to ask the author and sponsor about the
process used to reach consensus on the proposed changes to
MTC's membership, and if there are additional opportunities
that can be used to create support from all interested
stakeholders. The Committee has heard other bills that revise
membership, and has generally supported those bills that have
brought forward a membership change that is met with
consensus. Without that, this bill creates winners and losers
on what is essentially a district-specific issue.
5)This bill was heard in the Transportation Committee on March
21, 2011, and passed on a
13-0 vote.
6)Support argument: Supporters argue that MTC's current
composition is not reflective of the population changes that
have occurred since MTC's establishment. Because MTC is
working to implement the requirements of SB 375 (Steinberg),
Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008, MTC and other supporters argue
the need to focus on development within the existing urban
core, especially the population centers of Oakland and San
Jose because of the leading role they will play in the Bay
Area's efforts to comply with the state's greenhouse gas
reduction requirements.
Opposition argument: The San Francisco County Transportation
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Authority (Authority) argues that since its inception,
representation on MTC has not been proportional to population,
and believes that the bill will dilute the voting
representation of the other counties. Additionally, the
Authority believes that the bill and resulting dynamic may
have the potential to destabilize the consensus dynamics that
have been involved since MTC's inception, at a time when
implementation of SB 375 is critical.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Metropolitan Transportation Commission ÝSPONSOR]
Alameda County Transportation Commission
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME)
City of San Jose
Contra Costa Transportation Authority
Counties of Napa and Santa Clara
Jean Quan, Mayor, City of Oakland
Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce and Convention Visitors Bureau
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
Silicon Valley Leadership Group
Opposition
San Francisco County Transportation Authority
Analysis Prepared by : Debbie Michel / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958