BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 450
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 1, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 450 (Jones-Sawyer and Bocanegra) - As Amended: April 25,
2013
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:4-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill:
1)Requires the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD),
beginning in 2015, to have district governing board members
elected by trustee area instead of at-large. The LACCD board
is to provide for the establishment of seven trustee areas by
July 1, 2014 and hold a public hearing prior to adopting the
boundaries of each trustee area.
2)Stipulates the four odd-numbered trustee district
representatives shall be elected in June 2015 and the three
even-numbered trustee district representatives shall be
elected in June 2017.
3)Requires the governing board of any community college district
to make any proposal for adjusting trustee district boundaries
following the decennial census available to the public prior
to adopting the boundaries, and to elicit public comment and
consider those comments.
FISCAL EFFECT
The district's costs to establish and adopt trustee areas would
be state-reimbursable from the General Fund (Prop. 98). The
LACCD estimates one-time costs of $325,000 for in-house staff
support, technical consulting and legal services, community
outreach and public hearings. While some of these costs appear
overstated, the actually cost could exceed $150,000,
particularly given the demographic complexity of the district
and the relatively short timeframe allowed in the bill for
AB 450
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adopting the trustee areas.
COMMENTS
1)Background . Under current law, a community college district
board generally can be organized so members are either elected
at-large or by trustee areas. In districts having trustee
areas, the district can be organized such that the registered
voters in the entire community college district vote for
trustees from each of the trustee areas, or the district can
be organized so that only the registered voters in a trustee
area vote for the trustees from that area. In either case,
candidates for a trustee area must reside in and be registered
to vote in that trustee area. The LACCD governing board
consists of seven members elected at-large by the voters of
the LACCD and one student member who is elected by students.
SB 976 (Polanco)/Chapter 129 of 2002, enacted the California
Voting Rights Act (CVRA) to address racial block voting in
at-large elections for local office in California. The CVRA
prohibits an at-large method of election from being imposed or
applied in a political subdivision in a manner that impairs
the ability of a protected class of voters to elect candidate
of its choice or its ability to influence the outcome of an
election, as a result of the dilution or the abridgement of
the rights of voters who are members of the protected class.
Since the enactment of the CVRA, a number of local
jurisdictions have converted or are in the process of
converting from an at-large method of election to
district-based elections. While some jurisdictions have done
so in response to litigation, other jurisdictions have begun
the process of changing election methods because they believe
they would be susceptible to a legal challenge under the CVRA,
and they wish to avoid the potential expense of litigation.
2)Purpose . The author contends that conversion to district
elections in the LACCD will "ensure that the governing boards
are representative of the ethnic and geographic diversities of
the populations they serve."
3)Prior Legislation . AB 684 (Block)/Chapter 614 of 2011,
established a procedure for the governing board of a community
college district to change election systems, including moving
from at-large elections to elections by trustee area, without
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voter approval, subject to specified conditions. AB 684 was
intended to provide a procedure for community college
districts to move from at-large elections to district-based
elections where such a move was justified under the CVRA. AB
684 is not available to the LACCD, however, due to separate
provisions of state law explicitly requiring the LACCD to
conduct at-large elections.
AB 2572 (Furutani)/Chapter 754 of 2012, authorized the LACCD
governing board, by majority vote, to decide that the trustee
candidate for each trustee seat who receives the most, though
not necessarily a majority, of votes in the initial election
is elected to office, thus avoiding the need for a run-off
election.
4)Opposition . The Los Angeles College Faculty Guild, AFT Local
1521, argues that the bill "would balkanize the governance of
the district, setting up a system of competing agendas where
each trustee cared more about the interests of the individual
college or colleges within their trustee area than about the
district as a whole." The LACCD is also opposed.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081