BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1578|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1578
Author: Logue (R)
Amended: 6/13/12 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER COMM : 9-0, 6/12/12
AYES: Pavley, La Malfa, Cannella, Evans, Fuller, Kehoe,
Padilla, Simitian, Wolk
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 9-0, 6/28/12
AYES: Wolk, Dutton, DeSaulnier, Fuller, Hernandez, Kehoe,
La Malfa, Liu, Yee
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 75-0, 5/17/12 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Indian Valley Watermaster District
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill creates the Indian Valley Watermaster
District.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
1.Provides for the establishment of watermaster service
areas by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) for the
purposes of ensuring the most practical and economic
supervision of the distribution of water.
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2.Specifies that upon the submission of a specified
petition to a court in which a relevant judicial decree
has been entered, the court may appoint a public agency
as a watermaster to replace the watermaster appointed by
DWR.
This bill:
1.Enacts the Indian Valley Watermaster District Act,
creating the Indian Valley Watermaster District. The
District's boundaries cover 53 specified tracts within
Plumas County.
2.Gives the District the power to act as watermaster over
decreed water rights for which the superior court has
appointed the District as watermaster. The District has
the same powers and duties as a DWR watermaster service
area. However, the superior court can modify the
District's powers. The bill also gives the District the
power to adopt ordinances and regulations, acquire and
dispose of property, appoint employees, and enter
contracts. The bill says that the District does not have
eminent domain powers.
3.Creates a five-member board of directors to govern the
District. By February 1, 2013, the Plumas County Board
of Supervisors must appoint the District's initial board
of directors. The initial board serves until the first
opportunity to hold an election. At that election, the
affected landowners in the Indian Valley Service Area
elect three members. The Plumas County Board of
Supervisors appoints the two other board members who must
be county residents, but not landowners in the Indian
Valley Service Area. The directors classify themselves
so that three directors serve initial terms of four years
and two directors serve initial terms of two years.
Thereafter, the directors serve staggered four-year
terms. The directors may be reimbursed for expenses.
4.Defines the District's voters as the owners of water
rights whose places of use are parcels within the
District for water rights under appointed decrees. Water
rights owners who contract with the District for
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water-master service for their parcels are also voters.
Every voter has one vote. Otherwise, the District's
elections follow the procedures used by landowner voting
districts under the Uniform District Election Law.
5.Allows the District to recover its costs by charging
apportionments to the affected landowners, following the
same procedures as a DWR watermaster service area.
6.Requires the District to comply with the Brown Act's open
meeting requirements, have regular audits, and file
annual financial reports with the State Controller. The
bill also declares that the District is not subject to
the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act.
Background
Watermasters carry out water rights decrees, ensuring that
the owners of water rights properly distribute, divert,
store, and use their water. In eight northern counties,
DWR provides watermaster services, operating in 12
watermaster service areas. Watermaster service areas
recover their costs by charging annual "apportionments" to
the landowners whose water rights are covered by the
decrees.
Historically, the affected landowners paid for half of a
watermaster service area's costs and the state government
paid the rest. The 2004-05 State Budget ended that
cost-sharing, requiring landowners to pay for a watermaster
service area's full costs. However, because DWR used funds
from other programs to help offset costs of the watermaster
related activities, the program's full costs were not
passed onto water rights holders. The 2011-12 state budget
eliminated the remaining state subsidy, resulting in
dramatic fee increases for some water rights holders.
In response to the 2004-05 reduction in cost sharing, some
landowners wanted the courts to reassign watermaster duties
to local governments. In 2006, the Legislature authorized
a court to appoint another public agency to assume DWR's
watermaster duties. The next year, at the request of water
rights holders in three water service areas, the
Legislature created two new special districts to assume the
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watermasters' duties in those areas.
In response to the fee increases that resulted from the
recent loss of state funding for watermaster services,
water rights holders in the Indian Creek Water Service Area
in Plumas County want the same authority to form a new
special district that the 2007 Aanestad and La Malfa bills
granted to landowners in other water service areas.
Comments
Invented in California, special districts offer landowners
and residents a way to pay for the services they want.
Unlike counties and cities that deliver a wide range of
public services over large areas, special districts offer
focused services, delivering just one or two services to
specific geographic areas where the recipients are willing
to pay. With the end of state subsidies for watermaster
services and the resulting increase in rates, some
landowners want the courts to reassign the watermaster
duties to local governments. Instead, Plumas County's
affected landowners want the Legislature to set up a new
special district. By creating the Indian Valley
Watermaster District, AB 1578 gives the affected landowners
more control over their watermasters' costs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/7/12)
California Cattlemen's Association
Plumas County Board of Supervisors
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 75-0, 5/17/12
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall,
Bill Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos,
Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson,
Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, Beth
Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Gorell, Grove,
Hagman, Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Roger
Hernández, Hill, Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones,
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Knight, Lara, Logue, Ma, Mansoor, Mendoza, Miller,
Mitchell, Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby,
Olsen, Pan, V. Manuel Pérez, Portantino, Silva, Smyth,
Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Valadao, Wagner, Wieckowski,
Williams, John A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Fletcher, Bonnie Lowenthal, Perea,
Skinner, Yamada
CTW:RM:n 8/8/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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