BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 57 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 57 (Beall) As Amended May 19, 2011 Majority vote TRANSPORTATION 13-0 LOCAL GOVERNMENT 9-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Bonnie Lowenthal, |Ayes:|Smyth, Alejo, Bradford, | | |Jeffries, Achadjian, | |Campos, Davis, Gordon, | | |Blumenfield, Bonilla, | |Hueso, Knight, Norby | | |Buchanan, Eng, Furutani, | | | | |Galgiani, Logue, Norby, | | | | |Portantino, Solorio | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- APPROPRIATIONS 16-1 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, | | | | |Blumenfield, Bradford, | | | | |Charles Calderon, Campos, | | | | |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto, | | | | |Hall, Lara, Mitchell, | | | | |Nielsen, Norby, Solorio, | | | | |Wagner | | | | | | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| |Nays:|Hill | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Revises the membership and appointments of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). Specifically, this bill : 1)Expands the membership of MTC to include two additional members representing, separately, 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)Effective with the MTC term commencing February 2015, AB 57 Page 2 prohibits more than three members of MTC from being residents of the same county. 4)Requires that the initial terms of the commissioners appointed, including self-appointments, by the mayors of the Cities of Oakland and San Jose terminate in February 2015. EXISTING LAW : 1)Establishes MTC as the regional transportation planning agency in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area with comprehensive regional transportation planning and other related responsibilities. Specifies that MTC consists of 19 members and establishes four-year terms of office for its members. 2)Requires two members from the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara. Requires one member each from Marin, Napa, Solano, and Sonoma Counties. For San Francisco, requires the mayor to appoint one member and the board of supervisors to appoint the other. 3)Requires one representative each appointed by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC). 4)Requires three nonvoting members appointed separately by the Secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, the federal transportation and housing and urban development departments. 5)Limits each term of office to four years. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the bill would have negligible state costs. Any costs associated with the expanded MTC are not reimbursable because the MTC has requested the authority provided in this bill. COMMENTS : According to MTC, it was "created by an act of the State Legislature in 1970. The composition of the commission was established in that original enabling statute and has not been changed since that time? At the time the Legislature was crafting MTC's governing board structure in 1970, the five southern counties were closer in population than they are today. According to 2010 Department of Finance data, however, both AB 57 Page 3 Alameda and Santa Clara counties are significantly more populous than the other three." MTC serves as both the regional transportation planning agency, a state designation, and as the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for federal purposes. The agency is responsible for the regional transportation plan, a comprehensive long range planning document which establishes planning and funding goals for the development of mass transit, highway, airport, seaport, railroad, bicycle, and pedestrian facilities. Other responsibilities include distributing certain state and federal transportation funds to local agencies reviewing local projects to determine their compatibility with the regional transportation plan. Changes over the years in state and federal laws have strengthened the roles of regional transportation planning agencies and MPOs, and have given MTC an increasingly important role in financing Bay Area transportation improvements. Further, MTC is a part of the joint coordinated regional planning effort in conjunction with ABAG, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and BCDC. The joint policy group's initiatives are: focused growth, climate protection, and development of sustainable communities strategy, pursuant to SB 375 (Steinberg), Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008. Of the 19 members on the MTC governing board, 16 are voting members as follows: a) Two each from the five larger counties in the southern part of the region (Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara); b) One each representing the four smaller counties in the northern part of the region (Marin, Napa, Solano, and Sonoma); and, c) One representative from ABAG and BCDC. The remaining three members are nonvoting members as identified in the above "EXISTING LAW" section. The author indicates that the intent of this bill is to adjust the composition of the MTC governing board in order to make it more reflective of the population distribution in the region as identified in the recent population census. Accordingly, this AB 57 Page 4 bill seeks changes to reflect significant population increases in Alameda and Santa Clara Counties in comparison to the three other large counties (Contra Costa, San Francisco, and San Mateo). Further, this bill would limit the representation of MTC voting members to no more than three who reside in the same county. In effect, if this bill is enacted, a person residing in either Alameda or Santa Clara Counties could not be appointed as either the ABAG or BCDC representative. Writing in support of this bill, the County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors indicates that the "two most populous counties, Alameda and Santa Clara, currently have the same level of representation on MTC despite having at least 40% more residents that the other "larger" counties. AB 57 would provide the Cities of San Jose and Oakland with proportional representation on MTC. As a result, the two cities would have fair representation on this important Commission to help ensure that their transportation needs receive appropriate consideration and funding." In opposition to this bill, the San Francisco Transportation Authority indicates that it is "very concerned that the bill, as proposed, will make it difficult for the region to have a productive conversation about the Sustainable Communities and the Regional Transportation Plan, and exacerbate tensions related to the distribution of transportation funding in the Bay Area. The arguments that have been put forth about the need for the bill do not add up. Since its inception, representation on MTC has not been proportional to population. The essence of MTC's dynamics has always been broad consensus. The change sought by AB 57, which would make Alameda and Santa Clara Counties the only ones in the region with three votes, will dilute the voting representation of the other counties and it has the potential to really destabilize the consensus dynamics evolved over the four decades' history of MTC." MTC resolution: At its January 26, 2011 meeting, the MTC approved the proposal to increase the representation by the Counties of Alameda and Santa Clara (by including a new mayoral vote). The resolution indicated that a strong case can be made that the three largest cities in the region - San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland - should be represented directly on the MTC governing board and listed six supportive factors. The San Francisco representative and the two Contra Costa representatives voted against the resolution. The other San AB 57 Page 5 Francisco representative was absent from the meeting. Double-referral : This bill was also approved by the Assembly Local Government Committee. Analysis Prepared by : Ed Imai / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 FN: 0000656