BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 946
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          Date of Hearing:  September 8, 2011

                       ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
                                Cameron Smyth, Chair
               AB 946 (Bonnie Lowenthal) - As Amended:  August 31, 2011
          
          SUBJECT  :  Public contracts: Los Angeles County: regional 
          interoperable communications system.

           SUMMARY  :  Authorizes the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable 
          Communications System Authority (LA-RICS), a joint powers 
          agency, to procure a regional interoperable communications 
          system by utilizing a solicitation process to award a contract 
          for the design and build out of a regional interoperable 
          communications system and related infrastructure.

           The Senate amendments  delete the Assembly version of this bill, 
          and instead:  

          1)Authorize the County of Los Angeles or the LA-RICS to solicit 
            proposals and enter into agreements with private entities for 
            the delivery of a regional interoperable communications system 
            and all related infrastructure to be used by public safety 
            agencies and emergency responders located in the County of Los 
            Angeles, including, but not limited to the :


             a)   Studying, planning, design, developing, and financing of 
               the system, the delivery and installation of equipment;


             b)   Architectural and engineering design of the improvements 
               to real property;


             c)   Construction of the improvements to real property; and, 


             d)   Maintenance, rebuilding, repair, or operation, or any 
               combination thereof, of the regional interoperable 
               communications system.


          2)Require the solicitation process to ensure that the contractor 
            is selected in compliance with the "procurement by competitive 








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            proposals" process specified in applicable federal regulations 
            governing federal grants and cooperative agreements to state 
            and local governments. 


          3)Find and declare that a special law is necessary because of 
            the unique requirements for a regional interoperable 
            communications system in the County of Los Angeles.


          4)State that an urgency statute is necessary in order to allow 
            the County of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Regional 
            Interoperable Communication System Authority to contract for a 
            regional interoperable communications system as soon as 
            possible.


           EXISTING LAW  :
           
           1)Requires the governmental agency soliciting proposals and 
            entering into agreements with private entities for the 
            studying, planning, design, developing, financing, 
            construction, maintenance, rebuilding, improvement, repair, or 
            operation, or any combination thereof, by private entities for 
            fee-producing infrastructure projects to ensure that the 
            contractor is selected pursuant to a competitive negotiation 
            process.

          2)Requires the competitive negotiation process to utilize, as 
            the primary selection criteria, the demonstrated competence 
            and qualifications for the studying, planning, design, 
            developing, financing, construction, maintenance, rebuilding, 
            improvement, repair, or operation, or any combination thereof, 
            of the facility. 

          3)Requires the selection criteria to also ensure that the 
            facility be operated at fair and reasonable prices to the user 
            of the infrastructure facility services.

          4)Specifies that powers which may be exercised by a joint powers 
            agency (JPA) can be no greater than the powers shared by each 
            of the agency's constituent members.

          5)Provided that for a JPA it shall not be necessary that any 
            power common to the contracting parties be exercisable by each 








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            such contracting party with respect to the geographical area 
            in which such power is to be jointly exercised.

          6)Provides for a state strategic plan for establishing a 
            statewide integrated, interoperable public safety 
            communications network.

          7)Governs, through the State Contract Act, contract practices 
            between state departments and private contractors.

          8)Establishes, under the Local Agency Public Construction Act, 
            the procedures local agencies are required to use when 
            soliciting and evaluating bids or proposals for the 
            construction of a public work or improvement.

           AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY  , this bill consolidated into Revenue 
          and Taxation Code 
          Section 279 reference to the effective dates for eligibility of 
          the disabled veterans' exemption for specified situations.

          FISCAL EFFECT  :   None

           COMMENTS  :  

          1)In 2009, the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications 
            System Authority was established as a joint powers authority 
            specifically to create the Los Angeles Regional Tactical 
            Communications Subsystem - a network that would unite the 
            region's 34,000 first responders through voice and data 
            communications.

          2)The need for emergency communications interoperability is 
            especially great in the Los Angeles region with over 50 law 
            enforcement agencies and 31 fire departments serving a 4,084 
            square mile region and 10 million County residents.  After 
            several years of work and a contract that was about to be 
            awarded to the technology company Raytheon, the LA-RICS 
            Authority was advised by counsel of several issues that would 
            require canceling its existing procurement process and 
            beginning a new one.  County counsel recently raised concerns 
            that the nearly completed contract violated state rules on how 
            contracts for publicly funded projects must be structured and 
            awarded.  In light of this, negotiations with Raytheon were 
            suspended.  It was found that not all of the entities 
            comprising the LA-RICS JPA have the statutory authority to 








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            enter into a contract using a solicitation process, yet the 
            project had been procured through one, all-encompassing 
            solicitation meant to lead to a single contract.  AB 946 would 
            authorize the JPA to proceed with the solicitation process on 
            this project without running afoul of state contracting laws 
            and the limitations set forth in the Joint Exercise of Powers 
            Act.

          3)Under existing infrastructure financing laws, governmental 
            agencies, including counties, cities, school districts, public 
            districts, and joint powers authorities, are authorized to 
            solicit proposals and enter into contracts for the design, 
            financing, construction, maintenance, operation, or any 
            combination thereof, for fee-producing infrastructure 
            projects.  AB 946 would allow the use of a similar 
            solicitation process for the LA-RICS project.

          4)According to the sponsor, the County of Los Angeles, the need 
            for urgency legislation is due in large measure to hundreds of 
            millions of dollars in Federal grant funding that has already 
            been allocated for the LA-RICS Authority project.  To date, 
            over $270.0 million in Federal grants have been budgeted for 
            the project that are subject to time limits. Last year, the 
            U.S. Department of Commerce awarded the Authority a Broadband 
            Technology Opportunities Program grant of $154.6 million to 
            cover the infrastructure costs in deploying a broadband public 
            safety network for the project which alone is estimated to 
            generate 2,181 jobs, including jobs produced indirectly from 
            the project.  In addition, the project would create a large, 
            new market for public safety broadband software applications, 
            which could result in substantial innovation and additional 
            jobs that have not been quantified. 

          5)Support arguments:  According to the County of Los Angeles, 
            this urgency legislation is needed because over $270 million 
            in federal grant funding allocated for the LA-RICS Authority 
            project must be utilized within a specified time.  

          Opposition arguments:  Opposition could argue that traditional 
            procurement processes that all members of the JPA share should 
            be used instead of creating a separate procurement process 
            just for LA-RICS.  
           
          REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :   









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           Support 
           
          County of Los Angeles ÝSPONSOR]
          California Contract Cities Association
          California Police Chiefs Association, Inc.
          California State Firefighters' Association
          Cities of Bell Gardens, Cerritos, Culver City, Gardena, Long 
          Beach, Torrance and Whittier
          Los Angeles County District Attorney, Steve Cooley
          Los Angeles County Sheriff, Leroy Baca
          Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System 
          Authority
          Los Angeles Unified School District
          Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, City of Los Angeles

           Opposition 
           
          None on file
           
          Analysis Prepared by  :    Katie Kolitsos / L. GOV. / (916) 
          319-3958