BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 57 Page 1 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 AB 57 Page 2 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 AB 57 Page 3 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 AB 57 Page 4 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