BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1096
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 8, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 1096 (Committee on Elections) - As Amended: May 1, 2012
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:5-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill makes several substantive and technical changes to
provisions governing the operations and procedures of the
Citizens Redistricting Commission, including:
1)Moving up the deadline by four and one-half months for each of
the steps involved in accepting and reviewing applications
from individuals who are interested in serving on the CRC, and
in establishing the CRC from the pool of qualified applicants.
2)Requiring the State Auditor, rather than the Secretary of
State (SOS), to provide support functions to the CRC while it
is being formed and until the CRC's staff and office are fully
functional.
3)Providing that the three-person panel that reviews
applications for the CRC shall be made up only of auditors
employed by the Bureau of State Audits (BSA) instead of
auditors licensed by the California Board of Accountancy (CBA)
and employed by the state.
4)Clarifying that the CRC has the authority to fill all
vacancies on the CRC, and extending, from 30 to 90 days, the
time that the CRC has to fill a vacancy that occurs on or
after December 31 of a year ending in the number two.
5)Extending, from 10 to 12 days, the amount of time that a bill
must be in print prior to final passage by the Legislature if
that bill proposes to amend specified provisions of state law
that govern the formation and operations of the CRC, and
prohibiting the Legislature from amending those provisions in
a year ending in the number nine.
SB 1096
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FISCAL EFFECT
Any net costs to the affected entities to the State Auditor and
the CRC should be minor and absorbable.
COMMENTS
Background and Purpose . Proposition 11, which was approved by
the voter in November 2008, created the CRC and gave it the
responsibility for establishing district lines for the Assembly,
Senate, and BOE. Proposition 20, which was approved by the
voters in November 2010, gave the CRC the responsibility for
establishing lines for California's congressional districts. The
CRC consists of 14 registered voters, including five Democrats,
five Republicans, and four others, all of whom are chosen
according to procedures specified in Proposition 11.
Proposition 11 placed the general structure of the CRC and the
criteria to be used by the CRC when drawing district boundaries
in the California Constitution, but put most of the specifics
about the formation and operation of the CRC into statute. As a
general rule, statutory provisions of initiative measures can be
amended only by another statute that becomes effective only when
approved by the electors, unless the initiative statute permits
amendment without voter approval. Proposition 11 allows the
statutory provisions of that measure to be amended without voter
approval only if all of the following conditions are met:
1)The CRC recommends amendments to the statutory provisions by
the same vote required for the adoption of the final set of
maps;
2)The exact language of the amendments provided by the CRC is
enacted as a statute approved by a two-thirds vote of each
house of the Legislature and signed by the Governor;
3)The bill containing the amendments provided by the CRC is in
print for 10 days before final passage by the Legislature;
4)The amendments further the purposes of Proposition 11; and,
5)The amendments are not passed by the Legislature in a year
ending in the numbers zero or one.
SB 1096
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On June 7, 2012, the CRC met and unanimously approved the
language contained in the current version of this bill, which is
intended to assist future commissioners in completing their
mission.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081