BILL ANALYSIS Ó ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 57| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ 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 AB 57 Page 2 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). AB 57 Page 3 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 AB 57 Page 4 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 AB 57 Page 5 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: AB 57 Page 6 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 AB 57 Page 7 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 **** END ****