BILL ANALYSIS Ó ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1572| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ THIRD READING Bill No: AB 1572 Author: Fletcher (I), et al. Amended: 8/14/12 in Senate Vote: 27 - Urgency SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMM : 9-0, 6/26/12 AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Harman, Kehoe, Lowenthal, Pavley, Rubio, Simitian, Wyland SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-0, 8/6/12 AYES: Kehoe, Walters, Alquist, Dutton, Lieu, Price, Steinberg ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-0, 5/31/12 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Service authorities for freeway emergencies: San Diego County SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill dissolves the existing San Diego County motorist aid body and replaces it with the San Diego County Association of Governments (SANDAG). ANALYSIS : Under existing law, a county board of supervisors and the city councils of a majority of the cities having a majority of the population of cities within the county may establish a service authority for freeway emergencies (SAFE). The county and cities may designate CONTINUED AB 1572 Page 2 the county transportation commission or the council of governments as the SAFE, or the county and cities can designate a seven-member SAFE, with the county board of supervisors naming two members and the cities jointly naming the other five. San Diego constituted its SAFE through the board and city councils naming seven members. Once constituted, a SAFE may impose a surcharge of $1 per year on the registration of vehicles in the county, the revenues from which it must use for the implementation, maintenance, and operation of a system of call boxes on freeways, expressways, unincorporated county roads, and state highway routes that connect these roads. The Department of Transportation and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) must each review and approve plans for implementation of a system of call boxes proposed for any state highway route and receive reimbursement from the SAFE for all costs incurred due to review and approval of the plan. If the funds from the $1 vehicle registration surcharge exceed the amount needed to implement, maintain, and operate the call box system, the SAFE may use the excess funds to provide additional motorist aid services or support, including, but not limited to: Changeable message signs. Lighting for call boxes. Support for traffic operations centers. Freeway service patrols. This bill: 1.Dissolves, effective January 1, 2013, the SAFE created in San Diego County and makes SANDAG its successor for all the remaining responsibilities of the San Diego SAFE for operational, administrative, and maintenance tasks for the call box system. 2.Directs the San Diego SAFE, in consultation with SANDAG, to develop a plan to transition its responsibilities to SANDAG between this bill's effective date and January 1, 2013. AB 1572 Page 3 3.Prohibits San Diego SAFE from spending any funds or entering into any contracts during this transition period, unless SANDAG approves those expenditures in writing. 4.Requires SANDAG to post on its website its detailed budget as to how it spends the funds collected from the $1 surcharge on vehicle registrations in San Diego County. 5.Requires SANDAG by March 31, 2013 to disburse any reserves in the San Diego County's SAFE funds that are in excess of $4 million to the cities in San Diego County and to the county in proportion to the fees paid by vehicle owners within those jurisdictions in the 2010-11 fiscal year. The cities and county must use funds received to implement, maintain, and operate call boxes and to provide additional motorist aid. 6.Allows SANDAG to continue to fund local police, fire, and rescue helicopter programs. Comments Since legislation enacted in 1985 authorized SAFEs, California has installed over 15,000 call boxes on 6,300 miles of highway. Call boxes provide a direct communication link to the CHP and are available to motorists to seek assistance for, for example, mechanical breakdowns, flat tires, traffic accidents, or other incidents. A seven-member board governs the San Diego SAFE. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors and the 18 cities within the county appoint these directors, and San Diego SAFE contracts with TeleTranTek Services (T-Cubed) for its staffing requirements. In fact, the owner of T-Cubed serves as the Executive Director of the SAFE. San Diego County was the first county to implement a SAFE. At its height, the San Diego call box system had almost 1,800 call boxes on state highways and county roads. Since then, the number of call boxes in place has declined to approximately 1,425 call boxes. San Diego SAFE is AB 1572 Page 4 considering further reductions that would bring the total installed call boxes down to just over 900, due in part to the high cost of maintaining the call boxes and the drop in motorists' usage of the call boxes. The author introduced this bill in response to what he believes is San Diego SAFE's questionable spending practices, including advertising gimmicks and continually increasing consultant expenditures. The author offers as evidence that San Diego SAFE contracted with a private company (T-Cubed) to manage the county's call boxes and renewed the contract six times "without once having a fair and competitive bid process." Proponents further note that despite a dramatic decline in call box use, San Diego SAFE has consistently increased annual payments to the managing firm. Furthermore, the author points out that San Diego SAFE has approximately $12 million sitting idly in reserves, approximately $8 million which this bill would return to the county and cities in San Diego, while $4 million would transfer to SANDAG to perform its SAFE duties. This bill dissolves the SAFE and names SANDAG as the successor agency. SANDAG is governed by a board of directors composed of mayors, councilmembers, and county supervisors from each of the region's 19 local governments. As the regional planning agency for transportation, SANDAG allocates millions of dollars annually in local, state, and federal funds for the region's transportation network. SANDAG is also responsible for developing the regional transportation plan to implement a long-range vision for buses, rail, highways, and major streets. Naming SANDAG as the successor to the SAFE is consistent with how SAFEs are administered throughout the state. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: Yes According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: Redistribution of approximately $8 million in SAFE reserves to cities and San Diego County in proportion to the amount of fees paid by vehicle owners in the jurisdiction of each local agency in 2010-11 (local AB 1572 Page 5 surcharge revenue). Moderate state-mandated costs (not reimbursable) to develop a transition plan, redistribute excess reserve revenues, and post budget information on the call box fee revenues on a website (local surcharge revenue). SANDAG administrative costs of up to $440,000 and operations costs of up to $700,000 annually, fully covered by local surcharge revenues, to continue call box and freeway emergency programs. SUPPORT : (Verified 8/15/12) Automobile Club of Southern California Chula Vista Council Member Steve Castañeda City of El Cajon City of National City City of San Diego San Diego City Council Member David Alvarez San Diego City Council Member Lorie Zapf San Diego City Council Member Sherri S. Lightner San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-0, 5/31/12 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, Bill Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Campos, Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, Beth Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Grove, Hagman, Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Roger Hernández, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lara, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Miller, Mitchell, Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Portantino, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez NO VOTE RECORDED: Charles Calderon, Gorell, Hueso, Mansoor, Mendoza, Valadao JJA:n 8/15/12 Senate Floor Analyses AB 1572 Page 6 SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END ****