BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE Senator Lois Wolk, Chair BILL NO: SB 235 HEARING: 3/16/11 AUTHOR: Negrete McLeod FISCAL: No VERSION: 3/14/11 TAX LEVY: No CONSULTANT: Detwiler WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICTS' GOVERNING BOARDS Allows water conservation districts to reduce the size of their governing boards. Background and Existing Law Most of the 3,300 special districts rely on about 50 principal acts which spell out their powers, finances, and governance. The Water Conservation District Law of 1931 is the principal act for the 11 water conservation districts (WCDs), which have elected boards of directors with three, five, or seven members. One WCD has a three-member board, four districts have five-member boards, and six have seven-member boards. Special legislation allows the two WCDs in Ventura County to change the size of their boards of directors and reapportion their electoral divisions. Proceedings start with either a board resolution or a voter petition. The WCD's board must send the proposal to the county board of supervisors. After giving public notice, the county supervisors must hold a public hearing and then call an election on the proposal. State law requires majority-voter approval to change the size of the WCD's board (AB 2934, Henson, 1965). The San Bernardino Valley WCD covers 78 square miles and about 98,000 registered voters, including the San Bernardino County communities of Highland, Loma Linda, Redlands, and San Bernardino. The District has a seven-member board of directors, elected by divisions. Three directors' terms end in December 2011; four in December 2013. To help reduce its costs, the District wants to reduce the size of its board of directors from seven to five. However, there are no statutory procedures for changing the size of the governing boards of the WCDs SB 235 -- 3/14/11 -- Page 2 that are not in Ventura County. Proposed Law Senate Bill 235 allows water conservation districts with seven-member boards of directors to decrease the number of directors to five members. Proceedings start when a district's governing board adopts, by majority vote of the board's membership, a resolution which includes a map and description of the five proposed electoral divisions. The district's secretary must call a public hearing that can't be less than 30 days or more than 60 days after the board adopts its resolution. The district's secretary must publish a public notice in a general circulation newspaper once a week for three weeks. At its public hearing, the district's board must consider any comments and then either disapprove the proposal or order the decrease in the board's size. That decision is subject to referendum by the district's voters. Decreasing the number of directors and changing their electoral divisions doesn't affect the existing directors' terms of office and the existing directors continue to serve until their terms end. Decreasing the size of a district's board can't occur within 180 days of a director's election. SB 235 doesn't apply to the water conservation districts in Ventura County. State Revenue Impact No estimate. Comments 1. Purpose of the bill . To cut costs, the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District wants to reduce the size of its governing board, but there's no statutory procedure. Only the two WCDs in Ventura County can shrink their boards, but they need voter approval. If SB 235 let all WCDs to use the existing procedures for the WCDs in Ventura SB 235 -- 3/14/11 -- Page 3 County, the elections might cost more than the resulting savings. Instead, the bill provides for public notices, a public hearing, and the opportunity of a referendum. SB 235 balances government efficiency with public transparency. 2. Says who ? State laws try to balance the costs of local government with a commitment to accountability. In some cases, state law requires voter approval before local governments can change their governance structures. Cities, for example, must get majority-voter approval before changing the number of council members. Similarly, fire protection districts need majority-voter approval if they want to increase or decrease the size of their boards. SB 235 allows some water conservation districts to reduce the size of their boards without voter review, although a referendum is possible. The Committee may wish to consider whether a governing board's size is the kind of decision that a local government should share with its voters. 3. Who knows ? If legislators let WCDs shrink their boards without elections, the Committee may wish to consider whether the public notice and the public hearing required by SB 235 adequately substitutes for voter review. The bill requires a WCD to publish three weekly notices before the public hearing. While that's more notice than for most hearings, it is enough? The Committee may wish to consider whether a WCD should mail public hearing notices to all of its registered voters. The Committee may wish to consider requiring a WCD to submit its decision to voter review if the protests at the hearing reach 10% or 25% of the registered voters. 4. Fewer directors or fewer districts ? Both the San Bernardino Valley WCD and the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District (MWD) overlay the Bunker Hill basin, although the MWD is nearly five times as large as the WCD. In 2005, the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) for San Bernardino County completed a two-year municipal service review of the Bunker Hill basin and determined that the MWD and the WCD should consolidate. In 2006, the MWD applied to the LAFCO for approval to consolidate the two districts. After lawsuits and opposition by the WCD, the LAFCO denied the consolidation in 2010. Now the WCD wants to cut costs by cutting the size of its governing board. The Committee may wish to SB 235 -- 3/14/11 -- Page 4 consider whether a better alternative is to cut the number of special districts in San Bernardino County. Support and Opposition (3/10/11) Support : San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District. Opposition : Unknown.