BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                      



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                  AB 1572|
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                                 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





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          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.








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          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 







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          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 







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            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 







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                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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