BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 288 (Levine) - California Coastal Commission: meeting
notices.
Amended: January 9, 2014 Policy Vote: NR&W 8-1
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: June 23, 2014 Consultant:
Marie Liu
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 288 would require the California Coastal
Commission (commission) to make all meeting notices available in
English and Spanish and allow notices to also be translated into
other languages.
Fiscal Impact:
Annual costs between $15,840 and $52,800 from the General
Fund to the commission for Spanish translation services.
Ongoing cost pressures at least in the thousands to tens of
thousands of dollars from the General Fund for translation
services into languages other than Spanish and English and
for the translation of additional documents.
Background: A major function of the commission is to make permit
decisions regarding development in the coastal zone. Any hearing
at which a permit application will be heard must be noticed at
least 10 days in advance to: (1) all affected cities and
counties, (2) all public agencies which have jurisdiction by law
over the proposed development, (3) all persons who have
requested notice, and (4) all persons known by the executive
director to have a particular interest in the development.
Hearing notices are required to have a number of elements
including the number assigned to the permit application; a
description of the application's proposed development and
location; and the date, time and place at which the application
will be heard by the commission. Permit applications are
organized in the agenda by geographic region.
Any details about the proposed permit are not in the agenda, but
in the staff reports which describe the project in detail,
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discuss the potential impacts of the project, as well as staff
recommendations for commission action on the project.
Proposed Law: This bill would require, notwithstanding any other
law, that the commission make meeting notices available in both
English and Spanish and may also make the notice available in
any other language.
Staff Comments: The translation services required by this bill
are most likely to require an outside contract which typically
ranges between $0.12 and $0.40 per word. Staff notes that
agendas are not static documents and the commission often will
often make revisions to the agenda up until the day before the
hearing. Assuming an average number of 11,000 words need to be
translated per agenda (including revisions), translation costs
to Spanish could range between $15,840 and $52,800 annually.
This bill also poses cost pressures should the commission choose
to translate into additional languages. Staff notes that while
the commission has dealt with issues that garnered the
participation and testimony by non-fluent English speakers, the
commission is not aware of any requests for a translated agenda.
The goal of the author is to increase access to, and
participation in, commission activities. However, staff notes
that the agenda alone gives minimal information about the
project. The more critical information is found in the staff
reports, which are publically available and linked to the agenda
on the commission's website. This bill does not address the
translation of staff reports. However, should the availability
of an agenda in Spanish (or other language) prompt requests for
translated staff reports, the commission could have cost
pressures for additional translation services. The commission
estimates that staff reports would likely cost between $1,000
and $5,000 per report and language depending on the length of
the report and the terms of the translation contract.
.
Staff notes that the commission heavily relies of the General
Fund for its budget and has minimal discretionary funds. For
over two decades, the commission's budget has fallen far behind
the pace of inflation and at times the commission has lost
significant numbers of staff due to budget cuts, straining their
core functions. The Legislature has taken some steps in the past
several years to stabilize the commission, including additional
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funding in the past two budget cycles, though this funding was
dedicated exclusively for the development and updating of local
coastal plans.
Staff notes that the notwithstanding clause is overly broad and
recommends that instead of a notwithstanding clause, the bill
should specify that this translation requirement is in addition
to any other notice requirements.