BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1156|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1156
Author: V. Manuel Pérez (D)
Amended: 6/27/13 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/26/13
AYES: Wolk, Knight, Beall, DeSaulnier, Emmerson, Hernandez, Liu
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 66-8, 5/30/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Palo Verde Irrigation District Act
SOURCE : Palo Verde Irrigation District
DIGEST : This bill changes the weighted vote formula for the
Palo Verde Irrigation Districts (PVID) elections to entitle
landowners one vote for every one acre of land owned.
ANALYSIS : The California Constitution provides that the right
to vote or serve in elected office may not be conditioned on a
landownership qualification (Article I, Section 22).
PVID was established in 1923, by the PVID Act (Act), a special
Act, and is comprised of mostly farmland occupying about 189
square miles of territory in Riverside and Imperial counties.
PVID manages and delivers water to land within its jurisdiction.
PVID is governed by a seven-member board of trustees elected at
large by property owners within the district.
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AB 1156
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Existing law limits voting rights in PVID to landowners and
establishes a weighted vote system based on the assessed value
of real property, including improvements made by landowners.
The current weighted vote system provides one vote for each $100
dollars of assessed property, including improvements, and
divides the total assessed value by 100 to determine the number
of votes for each landowner.
This bill modifies the weighted vote of a landowner in PVID.
Specifically, this bill:
1.Deletes provisions in existing law which uses the assessed
value of land and improvements to calculate a landowner's
weighted vote.
2.Entitles each land owner to one vote for every one acre owned.
3.Entitles a land owner that owns less than one acre of land to
cast one vote.
4.Requires PVID to hold a public hearing about the changes to
the weighted vote system.
5.Requires PVID to provide public notice by placing an
advertisement in a newspaper of general circulation, and by
first-class mail to each landowner voter in the district, as
specified.
Comments
The primary purpose of PVID is to distribute irrigation water to
farmland and to provide agricultural drainage. PVID users are
billed a flat annual charge of $52.00 per acre. This charge,
plus the average irrigation district assessment, results in a
current total annual water cost of about $61.00 per acre. In
2011 the United States Department of Energy and the Interior
identified the region encompassing PVID as a preferred location
for solar development. Solar projects typically utilize a
significant amount of land. Because of the potential increased
value of property, including land and improvements, as a result
of a landowner who invests in solar development, that landowner
could have a disproportionate share of the district's votes.
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AB 1156
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This bill ensures that the votes of irrigated landowners will
not be diluted by any potential large solar projects in the
district's service area. According to the author's office and
the sponsor, this bill is preventative since projects have yet
to be developed in PVID. However, the concern is that existing
law could create unequal voting power in favor of landowners who
participate in solar development. This bill's goal is to
prevent an unfair weighted voting system in the PVID.
Related Legislation
Senate Bill 614 (Wolk) deletes the landowner qualification in
statute for most irrigation district board members, but does not
address the districts that have unique statutes, like PVID.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/13/13)
Palo Verde Irrigation District (source)
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Western Growers
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 66-8, 5/30/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Atkins, Bigelow, Blumenfield,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Daly,
Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia,
Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Hagman, Hall,
Roger Hernández, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Logue,
Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Mitchell, Mullin, Muratsuchi,
Nazarian, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk,
Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner,
Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A.
Pérez
NOES: Dahle, Donnelly, Grove, Harkey, Linder, Mansoor,
Melendez, Morrell
NO VOTE RECORDED: Ammiano, Bloom, Holden, Nestande, Patterson,
Vacancy
AB:d 8/13/13 Senate Floor Analyses
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SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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