BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE
Senator Lois Wolk, Chair
BILL NO: SB 1337 HEARING: 4/25/12
AUTHOR: DeSaulnier FISCAL: Yes
VERSION: 4/18/12 TAX LEVY: No
CONSULTANT: Weinberger
ZONE 7 WATER AGENCY
Creates the Zone 7 Water Agency, specifying the new
agency's boundaries, governance, powers and procedures.
Background and Existing Law
Zone 7 is a semi-autonomous improvement zone within the
Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation
District. Zone 7 supplies treated drinking water to
retailers serving more than 200,000 people in the cities of
Pleasanton, Livermore, Dublin (Alameda County) and, through
the Dublin San Ramon Services District, the Dougherty
Valley area in San Ramon (Contra Costa County). Zone 7
also provides flood protection in eastern Alameda County.
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors governs the
countywide Alameda County Flood Control and Water
Conservation District. To tailor its services to the
County's diverse communities, the District has 10 internal
zones. Special legislation in 1955 allowed the voters of
Zone 7 to elect its own seven-member Board of Directors (AB
2130, Bee, 1955). During the ensuing decades, Zone 7's
board and the District's board entered into a series of
agreements that granted Zone 7 greater autonomy over
various contracting, personnel, and policy matters. In
2003, the Legislature allowed the Zone 7 Board of Directors
to control all matters that relate only to that Zone (AB
1125, Houston, 2003).
In nearly all respects, Zone 7 operates as an independent
special district. However, Zone 7's remaining
interdependence with the Alameda County Flood Control and
Water Conservation District creates challenges. Although
Zone 7 sells water to a retail water district that serves
over 15,000 residents in Contra Costa County, those
SB 1337 -- 4/18/12 -- Page 2
residents cannot vote for members of Zone 7's board of
directors because Zone 7's boundaries cannot extend beyond
the Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation
District's boundaries. Zone 7 officials also express
concerns about their ability to effectively recruit and
retain staff within the County's civil service structure.
To resolve these issues, Zone 7 officials want the
Legislature to create the Zone 7 Water Agency as an
independent special district.
Proposed Law
Senate Bill 1337 creates the Zone 7 Water Agency,
specifying the new agency's boundaries, governance, powers,
and procedures.
SB 1337 declares that the objects and purposes of the Zone
7 Water Agency Act are to provide regional flood control,
water supply reliability, and groundwater management, as
specified. SB 1337 declares the Legislature's intent that
the Agency should work collaboratively with other
appropriate entities in the Counties of Alameda and Contra
Costa to carry out the bill's purposes.
SB 1337 requires that all land and rights-of-way previously
held by the Alameda
County Flood Control and Water Conservation District within
Zone 7 Water Agency's territory must be transferred to the
agency on the effective date of the Agency's special act,
without any cost to the agency or district other than
administrative costs incurred to transfer titles, which
must be borne by the agency. SB 1337 requires that the
legal title to all property, except shares of stock in
mutual water companies or corporations, acquired by or on
behalf of the former Zone 7 of the Alameda County Flood
Control and Water Conservation District or under SB 1337's
provisions must immediately and by operation of law vest in
the Agency and must be held by the agency for specified
purposes.
SB 1337 provides that the Agency will have a seven-member
board of directors, elected at-large. The directors will
serve staggered, four-year terms. The improvement zone's
board members will serve as the Agency's initial board of
directors, until their successors take office. The Agency
must conduct elections in accordance with the Uniform
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District Election Law, with specified exceptions. Board
vacancies can be filled by appointment by a majority of the
remaining board members. Board directors are subject to
recall.
SB 1337 assigns corporate powers to the Agency, including
provisions relating to
lawsuits, claims, property, contracts, ordinances, budgets,
meetings, records, and elections. SB 1337 also spells out
the Agency's functional powers:
Water . The Agency can store, conserve, reclaim, recycle,
treat, purify, distribute, store, and manage water for
present and future use within the territory of the agency.
The Agency can appropriate and acquire water and water
rights, and import water into the Agency and to conserve
water for any purpose useful to the Agency. The Agency can
do any and every lawful act necessary so that sufficient
water may be available for any present or future beneficial
use or uses of the lands or inhabitants within the agency,
including the acquisition, storage, treatment, and
distribution of water for irrigation, domestic, fire
protection, municipal, commercial, industrial,
environmental, institutional, recreational, and all other
beneficial uses. The Agency can distribute, sell, or
otherwise dispose of, outside the Agency, any waters not
needed for beneficial uses within the Agency. The Agency
can fully regulate wells and require the sealing of
abandoned or unused wells according to specified standards
designed to protect the Agency's groundwater resources from
contamination.
Flood control . The Agency can control the floodwaters and
stormwaters within the Agency's territory and the
floodwaters and stormwaters of streams that have
their sources outside of the Agency's territory, but that
flow into the Agency's territory. The Agency can conserve
these waters for beneficial and useful purposes by
spreading, storing, retaining, and causing to percolate
into the soil within or without the Agency's territory.
The Agency can save or conserve in any manner all or any of
those waters and protect from damage from those floodwaters
or stormwaters the watercourses, watersheds, public
highways, life, and property in the Agency's territory, and
the watercourses outside of the Agency's territory of
streams flowing into the Agency's territory.
SB 1337 -- 4/18/12 -- Page 4
Recreation . The Agency can acquire, construct, maintain,
operate, and install landscaping and recreational
facilities. Specifically, the Agency can plan, improve,
operate, maintain, and keep in a sanitary condition, a
system of public parks, playgrounds, beaches, swimming
areas, and other facilities for public recreation. The
agency also may construct, maintain, and operate any other
amusement or recreational facilities, including picnic
benches and tables, bathhouses, golf courses, tennis
courts, or other special amusements and forms of
recreation.
Electric power . The Agency can acquire, construct,
maintain, operate, and install, lease, and control
facilities for the generation, transmission, distribution,
sale, exchange, and lease of electric power.
SB 1337 allows the Agency to raise revenue by imposing
special taxes, benefit assessments, service fees and
charges. To raise capital, the Agency can use general
obligation bonds, revenue bonds, and benefit assessment
bonds.
The bill designates Alameda County as the agency's
principal county for the purposes of the
Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government Reorganization Act
of 2000, giving Alameda County's Local Agency Formation
Commission exclusive jurisdiction over the matters
authorized and required by that Act.
SB 1337 modifies the Alameda County Flood Control and Water
Conservation District's boundaries to exclude the Zone 7
Water Agency's territory. The bill declares that authority
for providing flood protection to the western portion of
Alameda County, including all other zones within the
Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation
District remain with the District and that authority
remains unchanged by the Zone 7 Water Agency Act.
SB 1337 declares that its provisions and procedures of law
are not subject to the Special Assessment Investigation,
Limitation and Majority Protest Act of 1931.
SB 1337 allows the Agency to initiate validation
proceedings pursuant to specified statutes.
SB 1337 -- 4/18/12 -- Page 5
State Revenue Impact
No estimate.
Comments
1. Purpose of the bill . SB 1337 completes the Zone 7
Water Agency's decades-long evolution towards independence.
The former Senate Local Government Committee's publication
"What's So Special About Special Districts?" declares that
the answer to the question posed in its title is: focused
services. Independent special district governance allows a
community to provide needed services to a focused
geographic area in a manner that is responsive to local
priorities and circumstances. SB 1337 resolves some of the
complications that result from Zone 7's semi-autonomous
relationship with Alameda County. In particular, it grants
thousands of water users in Contra Costa County the
opportunity to vote for Zone 7 board members, thereby
giving them a voice in decisions that affect their water
service. The bill also advances the fundamental purpose of
special district governance by providing Zone 7 Water
Agency officials with the complete autonomy and flexibility
that they needs to best serve the Agency's residents.
2. Leave it to LAFCO ? SB 1337 modifies the Alameda County
Flood Control and Water Conservation District's boundaries
to exclude the Zone 7 Water Agency's territory. This
boundary change may produce unintended consequences by
altering tax revenue allocations, impeding county-wide
flood control activities, or producing other jurisdictional
conflicts. The bill does not propose a similar exclusion
for the Zone 7 Water Agency's new territory in Contra Costa
County. The Legislature has delegated much of its
authority over special districts' boundaries to a local
agency formation commission (LAFCO) in each county. By
establishing the new Zone 7 Water Agency through
legislation, SB 1337 allows the new Agency to circumvent
the LAFCO process for detachment from the District and
formation of the new Agency. However, changing the
boundary of an existing Alameda County special district is
an action that legislators may prefer to leave in the hands
of the Alameda County LAFCO. The Committee may wish to
SB 1337 -- 4/18/12 -- Page 6
consider deleting the changes that SB 1337 makes to the
statutory description of the Alameda County Flood Control
and Water Conservation District's boundaries.
3. Similar, but not identical . SB 1337's language largely
replicates the provisions of the Alameda County Flood
Control and Water Conservation District's principal act.
However, the bill also contains some new provisions that
are not found in the laws that currently govern Zone 7.
Most notably, SB 1337:
Grants the Zone 7 Water Agency extensive powers
related to electricity generation, transmission,
distribution, and sale.
Exempts the Zone 7 Water Agency from the provisions
of the Special Assessment Investigation, Limitation
and Majority Protest Act of 1931.
To ensure that the new Zone 7 Water Agency is governed by
statutes that more closely resemble the statutes under
which it currently operates, the Committee may wish to
consider amending SB 1337 to delete the two new provisions
listed above.
4. Technical amendments . To clarify SB 1337's provisions,
the Committee may wish to consider making these technical
amendments:
On page 5, line 7, after "agency" insert: "and"
On page 8, line 36, after "Water" insert:
"Conservation"
On page 9, line 23, strike out "operate and" and
insert: "operate,"
On page 11 , line 19, strike out "shall" and
insert: "shall,"
On page 12, line 12, strike out "2014," and
insert: "2014"
On page 15, line 29, after "from" insert: "the"
Support and Opposition (4/19/12)
Support : Zone 7 Water Agency, Dublin San Ramon Services
District, Roz Rogoff.
Opposition : Unknown.
SB 1337 -- 4/18/12 -- Page 7