BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 57
Author: Beall (D), et al.
Amended: 6/20/12 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMM : 9-0, 6/12/12
AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Harman, Kehoe, Lowenthal,
Pavley, Rubio, Simitian, Wyland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 71-5, 5/26/11 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Metropolitan Transportation Commission
SOURCE : Metropolitan Transportation Commission
DIGEST : This bill increases the membership of the
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) from 19 to 21
members.
ANALYSIS : MTC serves as both the regional transportation
planning agency, a state designation, and as the
metropolitan planning organization (MPO), a federal
designation for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.
The Bay Area counties include Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin,
Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and
Sonoma. When created in 1970, MTC was the first
statutorily-created transportation planning agency in
California.
CONTINUED
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MTC is responsible for preparing the regional
transportation plan, a comprehensive long range planning
document that establishes planning and funding goals for
the development of mass transit, highway, airport, seaport,
railroad, bicycle, and pedestrian facilities. Other
responsibilities include prioritizing regional
transportation investments, distributing certain state and
federal transportation funds to local agencies, and
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. More recently, SB
375 (Steinberg), Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008, assigns the
leadership to MTC for the integration of land use and
transportation planning through the preparation of a
sustainable communities strategy as part of the regional
transportation plan.
Existing law establishes a 19-person governing board, 16 of
whom are voting members. The appointing authorities of the
voting members are as follows:
1.Two members from the City and County of San Francisco,
with one member appointed by the mayor and one member
appointed by the board of supervisors.
2.Eight members, two each from the counties of Alameda,
Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara. The city
selection committee in each county selects one member and
the board of supervisors select one member.
3.Four members, one each from the counties of Marin, Napa,
Solano, and Sonoma. The city selection committees of
each county nominate three persons whose names are
forwarded to their respective boards of supervisors.
Each board then selects a city-county representative from
its county.
4.One member appointed by the Association of Bay Area
Governments (ABAG).
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5.One member appointed by the Bay Conservation and
Development Commission (BCDC).
Three non-voting members are appointed as follows:
1.One member appointed by the California Secretary of
Business, Transportation & Housing.
2.One member appointed by the United States Secretary of
Transportation.
3.One member appointed by the United States Secretary of
Housing & Urban Development.
This bill:
1.Increases the membership of MTC to 21 by adding two new
voting members, the Mayor of Oakland and the Mayor of San
Jose. The mayors may serve or may appoint a member of
their respective city councils.
2.Requires that the BCDC appoint a member, provided that
member shall be a resident of the City and County of San
Francisco and shall be approved by the Mayor of San
Francisco.
3.Provides that no more than three members of MTC's
governing board may be residents of the same county.
4.Sets the initial term for new commissioners appointed by
the mayors of Oakland and San Jose to end in February
2015.
Background
History of MTC appointment . MTC's existing arrangement for
selecting board members seeks to balance population and
jurisdictional representation between the five large
counties and the four small ones. To meet this goal, the
larger counties -- Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and
Santa Clara -- are assigned two members, one representing
the board of supervisors and one selected by a city
selection committee. When formed in 1970, San Francisco's
representation on MTC presented a unique problem because it
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was a consolidated city and county, it was the region's
third most populous county, and its most populous city in
the region. To resolve the issue of representation for San
Francisco, the legislation creating MTC gave both the mayor
and the board of supervisors appointments. In remaining
smaller counties -- Marin, Napa, Solano, and Sonoma -- to
balance city and county representation, the cities nominate
slates for an appointment to MTC and the boards of
supervisors select an appointee from the slate. The
representation scheme balanced large and small
jurisdictions.
MTC and the management of regional transportation planning .
Among MTC's important activities is to manage the flow of
transportation revenue among the Bay Area's cities,
counties, and transit agencies. Through the regional
planning process, MTC establishes policies and priorities
that govern the expenditure of transportation funds. MTC
also coordinates funding for transportation projects
between local governments, transit districts, and the State
Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Because of MTC's
success at managing the linkage between transportation
planning, policy making, and funding, it is recognized as
among the most effective regional planning agencies in the
country and the benchmark of excellence among similar
agencies. MTC achieved this reputation through
collaboration and consensus building. Contentious votes
are a rarity at its meetings.
After legislation to merge the two agencies failed in 2002,
MTC and ABAG established a process to improve inter-agency
collaboration with the formation of the Joint Policy
Committee (JPC). According to a report of a joint MTC-ABAG
task force, the purpose of the JPC is "to advance
integrated regional planning and?to comment on and review
any substantial regional plans or strategies that are
devised by either agency?" In 2004, SB 849 (Torlakson),
Chapter 849, added the Bay Area Air Quality Management
District (BAAQMD) to the JPC, required that every county in
the region be represented on the JPC, and required it to
review and comment on the regional transportation plan, the
ABAG housing element, and the BAAQMD ozone attainment and
clean air plans. AB 2094 (DeSaulnier), Chapter 442,
Statutes of 2008, added the San Francisco Bay Conservation
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and Development Commission to the JPC.
With the enactment of SB 375 and its requirements placing a
greater emphasis on coordinating land use and
transportation investment decisions, MTC is attempting
through this bill to strengthen the decision-making process
for implementing SB 375 and its goal of better land use
planning to reduce automobile travel. To this end MTC, in
recent years has become ABAG's major funder. In addition,
JPC's member agencies are using the required update of the
regional transportation plan to produce an integrated
regional transportation and land use plan that encompasses
the goals of SB 375.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/25/12)
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (source)
Alameda County Transportation Commission
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees
Cities Association of Santa Clara County
City and County of San Francisco
City of Oakland
City of San Jose
Contra Costa Transportation Authority
East Bay Economic Development Alliance
Napa County Board of Supervisors
San Francisco County Transportation Commission
Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
Silicon Valley Leadership Group
OPPOSITION : (Verified 6/25/12)
Solano County Board of Supervisors
Bay Conservation and Development Commission
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, the
reasons for giving seats to the cities of San Jose and
Oakland include the following:
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They are among the largest Bay Area cities in terms of
both population and households.
They will each play a leading role in the Bay Area's
efforts to comply with the state's greenhouse gas
reduction requirements.
Their combined total of 1.2 million workers represents
1/3 of the entire Bay Area workforce.
Oakland and San Jose have a combined total of 183,000
daily transit commuters, which represents more than 50
percent of all transit commuters in the Bay Area as a
whole.
In the case of adding a third representative for San
Francisco, the bill codifies BCDC's informal practice of
appointing a resident of San Francisco to MTC.
The bill's sponsor, MTC, argues that a change in the
representation structure is needed to implement the
requirements of SB 375 (Steinberg), which seek to focus new
development within the existing urban core and near public
transit stations. To achieve this goal, MTC writes that "a
strong partnership with the cities of San Francisco,
Oakland, and San Jose is essential." In light of this
need, MTC argues, "The time has come to modify the
Commission's structure so that it ensures representation
for the Bay Area's three largest cities."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The Solano County Board of
Supervisors states, "AB 57 would require the commission to
consist of 21 members, including one member appointed by
the Mayor of the City of Oakland and one member appointed
by the Mayor of the City of San Jose. AB 57 would also
prohibit more than three members of the commission from
being residents of the same county. However, AB 57 in its
current from would also require the member for the BCDC
ÝSan Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission]
to be a member of that commission, a resident of San
Francisco, and to be approved by the Mayor of San
Francisco. Our Board is opposed to this provision and
opposes the bill unless this provision is removed. The
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essence of MTC's ÝMetropolitan Transportation Commission]
dynamics has been is the development of broad consensus
from within the participating cities and counties.
Allowing one mayor from one city to have the final say
regarding one member who is supposed to be the appointee of
a separate regional body is inappropriate and contrary to
the goal of true regional balance and cooperation in the
Bay Area."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 71-5, 5/26/11
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Atkins, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos,
Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eng,
Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, Galgiani,
Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Grove, Hagman, Halderman, Hall,
Harkey, Hayashi, Roger Hernández, Huber, Hueso, Huffman,
Jeffries, Knight, Lara, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Mendoza,
Miller, Mitchell, Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen,
Norby, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Portantino,
Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Valadao,
Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NOES: Ammiano, Beth Gaines, Hill, Ma, Mansoor
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cedillo, Davis, Gorell, Jones
JJA:n 7/5/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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