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, AB 288 (Levine) Page 1 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 AB 288 (Levine) Page 2 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.