BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 184 Page 1 Date of Hearing: June 26, 2013 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT K.H. "Katcho" Achadjian, Chair SB 184 (Committee on Governance and Finance) - As Amended: June 10, 2013 SENATE VOTE : 35-0 SUBJECT : Local government: omnibus bill. SUMMARY : Enacts the Local Government Omnibus Act of 2013, which proposes thirteen technical, noncontroversial changes to state laws affecting local agencies' powers and duties. Specifically, this bill : 1)Provides that a lot, parcel, or unit satisfies the requirement that it be improved with a completed residential structure if it is improved with a completed residential structure at the time it is conveyed by the subdivider. 2)Requires an agency to provide the officially adopted facsimile signature to the county recorder by a letter from the agency. Provides that a facsimile signature shall continue to be valid until the agency notifies the county recorder that the facsimile signature is revoked. 3)Replaces references to "he and him" with the term "city attorney." 4)Grants special districts the authority, currently granted to a city and county, to use the State Controller's debt collection program, to request that the Controller withhold state payments to collect debts. 5)Repeals the requirement that the property owner or agency of an owner shall record the Mills Act contract with the county in which the property is located within six months of entering into the contract. 6)Adds a cross-reference, Title 6 of the Penal Code, to the current definition of "abuse of office or position." 7)Removes county from the definition of "city" and adds county throughout current law that governs infrastructure financing SB 184 Page 2 districts (IFDs). 8)Makes changes within the Subdivision Map Act and adds the date signed and seal number to the information required by current law for the licensee who prepares a parcel or final map. 9)Adds "domestic partner" to the definition of "family member" in the Public Cemetery District Law. Clarifies the definition of a "domestic partner" to mean, "two adults who have chosen to share one another's lives in an intimate and committed relationship of mutual caring, and are qualified and registered with the Secretary of State as domestic partners in accordance with Division 2.5 of the Family Code." 10)Repeals existing law that requires the Ventura County Resource Conservation District to be split into three divisions. 11)Authorizes a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors serving on the Baldwin Hills Conservancy governing board to appoint a designee. 12)Repeals existing law that allows a management district plan to provide that real property which is exempt by law from real property taxation to be included within the boundaries of the district but shall not be subject to assessment on real property. 13)Makes the following changes to the Kings River Conservation District Act: a) Provides the candidate receiving the highest number of votes cast for the office of director for a specific division shall be declared elected; b) Requires all vacancies occurring in the office of director to be filled pursuant to the Government Code. Allows the oath of office to be taken before the secretary, any member of the board or any officer authorized by law to administer oaths; c) Repeals existing law that authorizes the board to submit to the voters a measure to issue bonds and establishes new procedures; d) Requires the board, if they deem necessary for the SB 184 Page 3 district to incur bonded indebtedness, by resolution to state the purpose for the proposed debt to be incurred, the amount, and a hearing time and place; and, e) Establishes public notice, hearing, and election requirements to create improvement districts. 14)Makes findings and declarations. 15)Makes other technical and clarifying changes. EXISTING LAW : 1)Requires any person who intends to sell or lease subdivided lands to file with the Department of Real Estate an application for a public subdivision report making various disclosures relevant to the sale or lease of the property. Exempts a person that intends to sell or lease subdivided lands from the requirement to file a notice of intention if the proposed offering of subdivided land meets specified criteria. 2)Authorizes a city or county, if a person or entity owes money to the city or county, to request that the State Controller withhold money that the person or entity would otherwise receive from a personal income tax refund, corporate income tax refund, sales tax refund, state lottery winnings, or a claim for payment of money from unclaimed property held by the state. Authorizes special districts to request that the State Controller withhold money from tax refunds, lottery winnings, or unclaimed property payments to collect debts from unpaid bridge tolls, high-occupancy toll lane fees, or other charges on account of nonpayment of bridge toll or high occupancy toll lane fees. 3)Authorizes a county recorder to accept facsimile signatures on recorded liens that are adopted by the local agency. 4)Establishes the Mills Act that authorizes property owners and local jurisdictions to preserve historical properties, as specified. Establishes recording requirements for a property owner entering into a Mills Act contract. 5)Requires local agency employment contracts to contain a provision to reimburse the local agency for specified salary, legal, and settlement costs if an employee is convicted of a SB 184 Page 4 crime involving an abuse of his or her office or position. Defines "abuse of office or position" to mean, "an abuse of public authority, including, but not limited to, waste, fraud, and violation of the law under color of authority or a crime against public justice, including, but not limited to, a crime described in Title 5 (commencing with Section 67) or Title 7 (commencing with Section 92) of Part 1 of the Penal Code." 6)Defines "city" to include county for purposes of IFD statutes. 7)Establishes the Subdivision Map Act which governs cities and counties approval of requests to convert large properties into marketable parcels. 8)Defines "family member" in the Public Cemetery District Law to mean "any spouse, by marriage or otherwise, child or stepchild, by natural birth or adoption, parent, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, parent-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, nephew, niece, aunt, uncle, first cousin, or any person denoted by the prefix 'grand' or 'great,' or the spouse of any of these persons." 9)Establishes the Ventura Resource Conservation District as three divisions and requires that three members of the board of directors are elected from each division. 10)Requires the Balwin Hill Conservancy to be governed by thirteen voting members and seven nonvoting members. Requires one of the voting members to be a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors whose district the majority of Baldwin Hills area is located within. 11)Establishes the Property and Business Improvement District Law of 1994 (PBID Law) that allows property owners to petition a city or county to establish an improvement district and levy assessments on property and business owners to finance. Requires, pursuant to the PBID Law, a management district plan to provide that real property which is exempt by law from real property taxation to be included within the boundaries of the district but not subject to assessments on real property. 12)Establishes the Kings River Conservation District. FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed fiscal. SB 184 Page 5 COMMENTS : 1)The Local Government Omnibus Act of 2013 compiles thirteen sets of noncontroversial changes to state laws affecting local agencies and land use into a single bill. Each year, local officials discover problems with the state statutes that affect counties, cities, and special districts as well as the laws on land use planning and development. Legislators respond by combining several of these minor topics into an annual "omnibus bill." According to the author, the Senate Governance and Finance Committee, sending a bill through the legislative process costs around $18,000. By drafting one omnibus bill, instead of thirteen small clean-up bills, the Committee's measure avoids roughly $216,000 in legislative costs. Although the practice may violate a strict interpretation of the single-subject and germaneness rules, it is an expeditious and relatively inexpensive way to respond to multiple requests. Furthermore, the Senate Governance and Finance Committee conducts a very public review of each item. More than 100 public officials, trade groups, lobbyists, and legislative staffers see each proposal before it goes into the Committee's bill. According to the Senate Governance and Finance Committee, "Should any item in this bill attract opposition, the Committee will delete it. In this transparent process, there is no hidden agenda. If it's not consensus, it's not omnibus." 2)This bill proposes the following thirteen changes to current law affecting local agencies: a) Subdivided Lands Act clarification . Existing law requires any person who intends to sell or lease subdivided lands to file with the Department of Real Estate an application for a public subdivision report making various disclosures relevant to the sale or lease of the property. Current law also specifies that a person who intends to sell or lease subdivided lands is not required to file a notice of intention with the Department if the proposed offering of subdivided land satisfies specified criteria. Among the criteria is a requirement that each lot, parcel or unit of the subdivision must be sold or offered for sale improved with a completed residential structure and with SB 184 Page 6 all other improvements completed that are necessary to occupancy. According to the author, practitioners note that a bulletin issued by the Department of Real Estate in 1981 clarified that a subdivider who intends to sell lots with residential dwellings could enter into contracts to sell the lots with residences before construction is complete. This bill clarifies that a lot, parcel or unit satisfies the requirement that it be improved with a completed residential structure if it is improved with a completed residential structure at the time it is conveyed by the subdivider. b) Facsimile signatures on recorded government liens . A county recorder must accept for recordation any document that is authorized or required by law to be recorded. With some exceptions, current law generally requires that each instrument, paper, or notice must contain an original signature or be a certified copy of the original. However, existing law allows a county recorder to accept facsimile signatures on liens recorded by government agencies that have officially adopted those signatures. According to the author, Napa County's Recorder notes that ambiguity in current statutory language creates confusion about how agencies should submit facsimile signatures to county recorders. This bill clarifies that a government agency must provide an officially adopted facsimile signature to a county recorder by letter and that a facsimile signature remains valid until the governmental agency notifies the county recorder that the facsimile signature is revoked. c) Gender-neutral references to city attorneys . Some statutes that govern city attorneys still use the pronouns "he" and "him" to refer to a city attorney. This bill replaces outdated references to "he" and "him" with the gender-neutral term "the city attorney." d) State collection of debts owed to special districts . Current law authorizes a city or county, if a person or entity owes money to a city or county, to request that the State Controller withhold money that the person or entity would otherwise receive from a personal income tax refund, SB 184 Page 7 corporate income tax refund, sales tax refund, state lottery winnings, or a claim for payment of money from unclaimed property held by the state. The Controller can withhold money only when the debt has been reduced to a judgment, is contained in a court order, is from a bench warrant for a fine, penalty, or assessment, or is a lien for delinquent unsecured property taxes. Special districts can only request that the State Controller withhold money from tax refunds, lottery winnings, or unclaimed property payments to collect debts from unpaid bridge tolls, high-occupancy toll lane fees, or other charges on account of nonpayment of bridge toll or high occupancy toll lane fees. Supporters argue that special districts could benefit from the same revenue collection efficiency that benefits cities and counties when they ask the Controller to collect debts by withholding state payments. This bill expands special districts' existing authority to use the State Controller's debt collection program, giving special districts the same statutory authority that cities and counties have to request that the Controller withhold state payments to collect debts. e) Recording requirements for Mills Act contracts . The Mills Act authorizes property owners and local officials to preserve historical properties with voluntary contracts that restrict the use of qualified historical properties in historic zones, and reduced property tax assessments for the contracted properties, based on statutory formulas instead of their acquisition prices. AB 654 (Hueso), Chapter 278, Statutes of 2011, repealed language requiring property owners to send copies of their historical property preservation contracts to the State Office of Historical Preservation. AB 654 replaced the repealed language with a requirement that a property owner must, within six months of entering into a contract, record the contract with the county where the property is located. Other statutory language that was enacted as part of the original Mills Act already requires the clerk of a city council or board of supervisors, no later than 20 days after a city or county enters into a contract with a property owner, to record a copy of the contract with the SB 184 Page 8 county recorder. This bill repeals the duplicative requirement that a property owner must record a Mills Act contract, leaving in place the long-standing requirement that city or county officials must record a contract within 20 days of entering into the contract. f) "Abuse of office" definition . Current law requires a local agency's employment contracts to contain a provision to reimburse the local agency for specified salary, legal, and settlement costs if an employee is convicted of a crime involving an abuse of his or her office or position. For the purposes of this requirement, current law defines "abuse of office" to mean "an abuse of public authority, including, but not limited to, waste, fraud, and violation of the law under color of authority or a crime against public justice, including, but not limited to, a crime described in Title 5 (commencing with Section 67) or Title 7 (commencing with Section 92) of Part 1 of the Penal Code." This bill adds a cross-reference to Title 6 of the Penal Code to more accurately define the phrase "abuse of office." g) Counties and Infrastructure Financing Districts . Cities and counties can create IFDs and issue bonds to pay for community scale public works: highways, transit, water systems, sewer projects, flood control, child care facilities, libraries, parks, and solid waste facilities. To repay the bonds, IFDs divert property tax increment revenues from other local governments (not schools) for 30 years. The statutes governing IFDs only use the term "city" because "city" is defined, for the purposes of the IFD statutes, to include a county and a city and county. This bill removes counties from the definition of a city and inserts the term "county" throughout the statutes governing IFDs. h) Subdivision Map Act Update . The Subdivision Map Act controls how local officials approve the division of property into smaller parcels. To approve a major subdivision, local officials approve a tentative map, the SB 184 Page 9 subdivider fulfills the conditions, and then local officials issue the final map. For a minor subdivision (lot split), the local officials approve and issue a final parcel map. When the county surveyor or city engineer approves a parcel map, he or she must sign the map, indicate his or her registration number, and stamp the map with his or her seal. When the county surveyor or city engineer approves a final map, he or she must sign the map and indicate his or her registration number, and stamp the map with his or her seal. Additionally, existing law requires the licensed professional who prepared a parcel map or final map to include a specified statement on the map. This bill will provide additional information on the statement about the timing of a map's completion and the identification of the licensee who prepared a map. This bill provides more information of the licensee who prepared a map by including the "date signed" and the actual "seal" of the licensee. i) Subdivision Map Act Correction . The Subdivision Map Act controls how counties and cities approve requests to convert large properties into marketable parcels. When a major subdivision creates five or more parcels, current law requires a two-stage process involving both a tentative map and a final map. A minor subdivision with fewer parcels needs only a parcel map, but local officials can require a tentative parcel map and a final parcel map. Counting the number of parcels determines if a proposed subdivision is a major subdivision or a minor subdivision. The Map Act excludes certain types of divisions when counting parcels. To address inconsistent statutory language, SB 194, Senate Governance & Finance Committee), Chapter 382, Statutes of 2011, amended a section of the Subdivision Map Act that excluded land conveyed to or from a government agency, public entity, public utility, or land conveyed to a subsidiary of a public utility for conveyance to the public utility from being counted as a parcel. County officials found that SB 194 inadvertently eliminated the statute's frequently-used exemption for specified real property transactions involving local governments and public utilities. This bill repeals the changes made by SB 194 and restores SB 184 Page 10 the exact wording of the statute as it read before January 1, 2012. j) Public Cemetery District Law's Definition of "Family Member. " In 2003, the Legislature modernized and recodified the Public Cemetery District Law, which governs California's 250 cemetery districts. The Public Cemetery District Law defines the term "family member" as, "any spouse, by marriage or otherwise, child or stepchild, by natural birth or adoption, parent, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, parent-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, nephew, niece, aunt, uncle, first cousin, or any person denoted by the prefix "grand" or "great," or the spouse of any of these persons." Current law establishes a statewide domestic partnership registry and requires that registered domestic partners have the same rights, protections, and benefits as are granted to spouses. This bill clarifies that a domestic partner is included in the Public Cemetery District Law's definition of "family member." aa) Ventura Resource Conservation District's Board of Directors . The 98 resource conservation districts (RCDs) in California conserve soil and water, control runoff, stabilize soil, protect water quality, reclaim water, and develop water storage facilities and distribution systems. RCDs are governed by five-, seven-, or nine-member boards. The number of directors may be changed by resolution adopted by a majority of the members of the board of directors. The special act governing the Ventura County Resource Conservation District splits the District into three divisions and requires that three members of the board of directors must be elected from each division. This bill eliminates the District's three divisions and reduces the size of the governing board to seven directors who are elected at-large which will allow the District to follow general current laws that govern the size and election of a resource conservation district's board of directors. bb) Baldwin Hills Conservancy Governing Board . Existing law establishes the Baldwin Hills Conservancy to acquire and manage public lands within the Baldwin Hills area, and to SB 184 Page 11 provide recreational, open space, wildlife habitat restoration and protection, and lands for educational uses within the area. The Conservancy's governing board consists of 13 voting members and seven nonvoting members. One of the voting members is the member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors whose district the majority of the Baldwin Hills area is located within. Some of the Board's voting members, including the Secretary of the Resources Agency, the Director of Parks and Recreation, the Director of Finance, and the Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Parks can name a designee to sit on the board. The Los Angeles county supervisor who sits on the Conservancy's board is not authorized to name a designee to sit on the board. This bill authorizes the Los Angeles County supervisor who sits as a voting member of the Baldwin Hills Conservancy's governing board to name a designee to sit on the board. cc) Property and Business Improvement District Assessments on Tax-Exempt Property . Proposition 218 (1996) requires owners of real property to approve benefit assessments in a weighted ballot protest proceeding; property owners vote in proportion to their proposed assessments, which reflect how much their property benefits from the proposed public works or public services. The Property and Business Improvement District Law of 1994 allows property owners to petition a city or county to set up an improvement district (PBID) and levy assessments on property owners, business owners, or both, to pay for certain improvements and activities. Current law allows a PBID's management plan to provide that "real property which is exempt by law from real property taxation may nevertheless be included within the boundaries of the district but shall not be subject to assessment on real property." According to the author, practitioners that work with PBIDs note that this language is ambiguous and appears to conflict with Proposition 218's special benefit requirements by allowing tax-exempt parcels that benefit from PBID activities and improvements to be excluded from the assessment. This bill deletes the ambiguous language in the Property and Business Improvement District Law that conflicts with Proposition 218. SB 184 Page 12 dd) Kings River Conservation District's elections . The Kings River Conservation District (Fresno County) is a special district established by a special act that provides flood control, water resource management, and power generation services. The District is governed by a seven-member elected board of directors. SB 1090 (Governance & Finance Committee), Chapter 330, Statutes of 2012, included amendments to the District's statutes governing its board elections and inadvertently reenacted some antiquated statutory language that had been repealed by AB 1892 (Porter) of 1965. According to the author, district officials want to repeal the statute that contains the outdated language and add some cross-references to more modern statutes governing district elections. This bill repeals outdated statutory language relating to the King's River Conservation District's elections, requires the District's board to fill board vacancies pursuant to a specified section of the Government Code, and specifies that the District's elections to approve bonded indebtedness must be conducted pursuant to the statutes that govern irrigation districts' bond elections. 3)Because provisions of this bill conflict with those contained in AB 80 (Committee on Budget), SB 33 (Wolk), and SB 75 (Committee on Budget) the author may wish to amend the bill to avoid any chaptering out issues that could occur because of the conflict. 4)Support arguments : Supporters argue that this bill provides clarity and makes noncontroversial changes for local agencies. Opposition arguments : None REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : SB 184 Page 13 Support California Association of Counties California Association of Public Cemeteries California Land Surveyors Association California Special Districts Association Civitas Advisors Inc. Kings River Conservation District Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors MuniServices Napa County Recorder Opposition None on file Analysis Prepared by : Misa Yokoi-Shelton / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958