BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 935
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 935 (Frazier)
As Amended April 25, 2013
Majority vote
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 7-2 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Achadjian, Levine, Alejo, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Bradford, Gordon, Mullin, | |Bradford, |
| |Frazier | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Eggman, Gomez, Hall, |
| | | |Holden, Pan, Quirk, Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Melendez, Waldron |Nays:|Harkey, Bigelow, |
| | | |Donnelly, Linder, Wagner |
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SUMMARY : Revises the membership of the Board of the San
Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Increases from five to seven, the number of board members on
the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation
Authority (WETA) by giving one additional appointment each to
the Senate Rules Committee and the Speaker of the Assembly.
2)Establishes requirements for two of the three existing
appointments to WETA made by the Governor, as specified:
a) Requires the Governor to appoint a bona fide labor
representative; and,
b) Requires the Governor to appoint one resident of the
City and County of San Francisco selected from a list of
three nominees provided by the San Francisco County
Transportation Authority.
3)Requires the Senate Rules Committee to make two appointments
to WETA, as follows:
a) One resident of Contra Costa County selected from a list
of three nominees provided by the Contra Costa
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Transportation Authority; and,
b) One resident of San Mateo County selected from a list of
three nominees provided by the San Mateo County
Transportation Authority.
4)Requires the Speaker of the Assembly to make two appointments
to WETA, as follows:
a) One resident of Solano County selected from a list of
three nominees provided by the Solano Transportation
Authority; and,
b) One resident of Alameda County selected from a list of
three nominees provided by the Alameda Transportation
Authority.
5)Requires the Governor, Senate Rules Committee, and Speaker of
the Assembly to appoint a resident of the counties, as
specified above, if the respective authorities fail to submit
the list of three nominees within 45 days of a vacancy.
6)Establishes the initial terms for the additional appointees,
as follows:
a) A two-year term for the additional member appointed by
the Senate Rules Committee; and,
b) A six-year term for the additional member appointed by
the Speaker of the Assembly.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Repeals the San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority
(BAWTA) and establishes a new replacement entity, WETA, to
consolidate and operate ferry services in the San Francisco
Bay Area and to plan and respond to emergencies or disasters
affecting the transportation system in the San Francisco Bay
Area.
2)Requires the WETA board to consist of five members, as
follows:
a) Three members appointed by the Governor and confirmed by
the Senate;
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b) One member appointed by the Senate Rules Committee; and,
c) One member appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly.
3)Requires each member of the board to be a resident of a county
in the Bay Area region.
4)Requires the Governor to designate the chairperson and the
vice chairperson of the board.
5)Establishes a six-year term for board members and staggers the
terms following the expiration of the terms of the initial
appointments, as specified.
6)Requires the appointing entity to immediately fill a vacancy
for the unexpired portion of the term in which the vacancy
occurs.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, there is a negligible fiscal impact.
COMMENTS : BAWTA was established by SB 428 (Perata), Chapter
1011, Statutes of 1999, to develop a comprehensive plan for
developing and enhancing ferry services throughout the Bay Area.
When Bay Area interests realized that implementation of the
plans required an organization focused on operations and
emergency water transit services, they successfully enacted SB
976 (Torlakson), Chapter 734, Statutes of 2007, that replaced
BAWTA with WETA, and also replaced the 11-member BAWTA board
with a five-member WETA board.
This bill expands the membership of the WETA board from five to
seven members to include two additional appointments, one by the
Senate Rules Committee and one by the Speaker of the Assembly.
Current law requires that all of the appointed members are
residents of a Bay Area county. This bill requires that the two
appointments by the Speaker of the Assembly are residents from
Solano and Alameda counties and that the two appointments by the
Senate Rules Committee are residents from Contra Costa and San
Mateo counties. This bill would require that of the three
gubernatorial appointments, one is a resident from the City and
County of San Francisco and one is a bona fide labor
representative.
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Instead of allowing the appointing entities to choose from any
Bay Area county resident, this bill requires that their
appointments are selected from a list of three nominees created
by the transportation authority in each of the respective
counties, as specified. If the list is not provided within a 45
day time frame then the Governor, Senate Rules Committee, and
Speaker of the Assembly can appoint a resident from each of the
respective counties.
The author and supporters argue that this bill will provide
representation for the counties served by the nine existing
terminals and the seven expansion sites considered in WETA's
recently adopted Short Range Transit Plan. This bill is
author-sponsored.
Currently WETA has 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. Proposed routes include
four in Contra Costa County, one in San Mateo County, one in
Alameda County, and one in the City and County of San Francisco.
According to WETA, the Contra Costa County Ferry Subcommittee
includes WETA staff, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority,
and representatives from the cities of Antioch, Martinez,
Hercules and Richmond. The goal of the Subcommittee is to study
the implementation of ferry expansion services to Contra Costa
County.
The Legislature may wish to consider whether it is timely for
this bill to require representation of a board member from a
county that currently does not have a ferry route, and if that
county should have the same number of guaranteed board seats as
other counties like the City and County of San Francisco, which
is the destination for every ferry route. The Legislature may
wish to consider, if the WETA board is to be established based
on county representation, other factors like the number of
terminals, the number of ferry routes per year, or the
percentage of total ridership in each county when evaluating the
representation of counties on the WETA board.
AB 2433 (Hill), Chapter 305, Statutes of 2012, established a
schedule for staggering the terms of WETA board members. The
analysis for the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee
noted that the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors requested an
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amendment to promote direct geographic representation on the
WETA board; however, the amendment was never taken by the
author.
Support arguments: Supporters argue that it is important for
the board to represent the counties affected by WETA board
decisions, including those counties with expansion sites under
consideration.
Opposition arguments: Opponents may argue that this bill
prematurely guarantees representation for a county that
currently does not have a ferry route.
Analysis Prepared by : Misa Yokoi-Shelton / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958
FN: 0000352