BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 691
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Date of Hearing: May 15, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 691 (Muratsuchi) - As Amended: April 22, 2013
Policy Committee: Natural
ResourcesVote:6-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires specified local trustees of granted public
lands to prepare and submit an assessment on addressing see
level rise to the State Lands Commission (SLC). This bill
provides various exemptions to this requirement.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Potential redirection of an unknown amount of granted public
trust revenue offset by potential future state savings
resulting from planning and preventative measures.
This bill would require certain local trustees of granted
public lands to submit planning information relating to sea
level rise to the State Lands Commission.
This bill however exempts trustees if gross annual revenues
are less than $250,000 and requires the SLC to provide an
exemption if the revenues derived from the trustee's granted
public lands or available through third-party funding are not
sufficient to pay for the cost of the plan. This bill also
exempts trustees from using the revenue for this purpose if it
is not allowed by the deeded trust or if the granted lands are
not subject to sea level rise.
2)Minor, absorbable (special fund) costs to the SLC to make
copies available to other state agencies and post the
information on their website.
COMMENTS
AB 691
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1)Rationale. According to the author, a local trustee's failure
to plan for sea level rise may be considered a breach of trust
responsibilities since the trustee has a fiduciary duty to the
people of California to take reasonable steps under the
circumstances to take and keep control of and to preserve the
trust property. To assist in avoiding such a breach, this
bill will require a local trustee to assess the impacts of sea
level rise on granted public trust lands and describe how the
local trustee proposes to protect those lands. The local
trustee is in the best position to conduct this assessment
because it has the administrative control over its granted
trust land and, in most cases, generates revenues off of the
land, which must be used for purposes such as managing and
preserving the trust assets.
1)Background. For over 100 years, the Legislature has granted
public trust lands to local trustees so they can be managed
locally for the benefit of the people of California. There
are over 80 trustees in the state, including the ports of Los
Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland,
Richmond, Benicia, and Eureka. While these trust lands are
managed locally, the SLC has oversight authority to ensure
those local trustees are complying with the Public Trust
Doctrine and the applicable granting statutes.
On August 10, 2009, as part of its oversight responsibilities,
the SLC sent out 104 surveys regarding sea level rise to all
of its grantees and lessees of major facilities along the
coast and San Francisco Bay. Of the 104 surveys sent out,
only 40 responses were received. A majority of these
responses provided information indicating that trustees had
not yet begun to comprehensively consider the impacts of sea
level rise.
On July 23, 2010, SLC staff resurveyed its grantees and
lessees. Twenty-seven responses were received, of which 13
were first responders. Approximately half of these responses
indicated that no action to address sea level rise had been
considered
Analysis Prepared by : Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
AB 691
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