BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 935 Page 1 Date of Hearing: May 1, 2013 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Mike Gatto, Chair AB 935 (Frazier) - As Amended: April 25, 2013 Policy Committee: Local GovernmentVote:7-2 Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: SUMMARY This bill revises the membership of the Board of the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA). Specifically, this bill: 1)Increases from five to seven, the number of board members on WETA. 2)Increases from one to two each the number of board members appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules and the Speaker of the Assembly. Requires the appointments of Senate Rules to be from Contra Costa and San Mateo Counties, respectively and requires the appointments of the Speaker to be from Solano and Alameda Counties respectively. 3)Establishes requirements two of the three existing appointments to WETA made by the Governor. a) Requires the Governor to appoint one resident of the City and County of San Francisco. b) Requires the Governor to appoint one representative of labor. FISCAL EFFECT Negligible fiscal impact. COMMENTS 1)Purpose . The author argues this bill gives the affected AB 935 Page 2 counties a voice on the board which is appropriate given that all these are all counties that play an important role in WETA and have increasing interests in the new routes that are being determined to each of the respective counties. According to the author, the current board does not specifically represent those counties affected by WETA board decisions. 2)Support . Supporters, including the transportation authorities from the counties of San Mateo, Contra Costa and Solano, argue the proposed expansion of the Bay Area's ferry system will necessitate adequate representation from the counties that will be affected by WETA decisions. 3)Background . AB 428 (Perata), Chapter 1011, Statutes of 1999, established the WETA to develop a comprehensive plan for developing and enhancing ferry services throughout the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. SB 976 (Torlakson), Chapter 734, Statutes of 2007, expanded its responsibilities to integrate emergency waterborne transit services in the event of catastrophic emergency road closures. WETA administers Proposition 1B (Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port Security Bond Act of 2006) funds allocated for waterborne transit security. Currently, the five members of the board of directors each serve six-year terms. The governor appoints three board members, the Senate Rules Committee appoints one, and the Speaker of the Assembly appoints one. The governor designates the chair and vice-chair. This bill changes the board of directors from a majority appointed by the Governor to a majority appointed by the Legislature. Within the WETA boundaries, there are nine ferry terminals, one in Solano County, four in the City and County of San Francisco, one in San Mateo County, and three in Alameda County. WETA states there are six proposed ferry routes, four traveling from Contra Costa County to San Francisco, one in San Mateo County going to San Francisco, one and Alameda County to San Francisco route and one within the City and County of San Francisco AB 935 Page 3 Analysis Prepared by : Roger Dunstan / APPR. / (916) 319-2081