BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 184| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- UNFINISHED BUSINESS Bill No: SB 184 Author: Senate Governance and Finance Committee Amended: 8/8/13 Vote: 21 SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 7-0, 04/17/13 AYES: Wolk, Knight, Beall, DeSaulnier, Emmerson, Hernandez, Liu SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8 SENATE FLOOR : 35-0, 5/2/13 (Consent) AYES: Anderson, Beall, Berryhill, Block, Calderon, Cannella, Corbett, De León, DeSaulnier, Emmerson, Evans, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Hancock, Hernandez, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Knight, Lara, Leno, Lieu, Liu, Monning, Nielsen, Padilla, Pavley, Price, Roth, Steinberg, Wright, Wyland, Yee NO VOTE RECORDED: Correa, Walters, Wolk, Vacancy, Vacancy ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 8/19/13 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Local government: omnibus bill SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill, the Local Government Omnibus Act of 2013, proposes 13 non-controversial changes to state laws governing local governments' powers and duties. Assembly Amendments add four more non-controversial changes and make clarifying and technical changes. CONTINUED SB 184 Page 2 ANALYSIS : Each year, local officials discover problems with the state statutes that affect counties, cities, special districts, and redevelopment agencies, as well as the laws on land use planning and development. These minor problems do not warrant separate (and expensive) bills. According to the Legislative Analyst, in 2001-02 the cost of producing a bill was $17,890. Legislators respond by combining several of these minor topics into an annual "omnibus bill." In 2012, for example, the local government omnibus bill was SB 1090 (Senate Governance and Finance Committee, Chapter 330) which contained 12 noncontroversial statutory changes, avoiding about $200,000 in legislative costs. Although this practice may violate a strict interpretation of the single-subject and germaneness rules as presented in Californians for an Open Primary v. McPherson (2006), it is an expeditious and relatively inexpensive way to respond to multiple requests. This bill, the "Local Government Omnibus Act of 2013," proposes the following changes to the state laws affecting local agencies' powers and duties: 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. Existing 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 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 CONTINUED SB 184 Page 3 structure if it is improved with a completed residential structure at the time it is conveyed by the subdivider. 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. State collection of debts owed to special districts . If a person or entity owes money to a city, county, or court that city, county or court can request that the 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 (Government Code Section 12419.8). 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 ask the Controller to 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 (Government Code Section 12419.12, enacted by AB 1175, Torlakson, Chapter 515, Statutes of 2009). California Special CONTINUED SB 184 Page 4 Districts Association staff notes 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 Controller's debt collection program, giving special districts the same statutory authority that cities, counties and courts have to request that the Controller withhold state payments to collect debts. 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 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. Gender-neutral references to city attorneys . Some statutes that govern city attorneys have not been amended for many decades and use the masculine pronouns "he" and "him" to refer to a city attorney (Government Code Section 41802, Section 41803, and Section 41805). The League of California Cities' General Counsel notes that this gender-specific language does not conform to current usage. CONTINUED SB 184 Page 5 This bill replaces outdated references to "he" and "him" with the gender-neutral term "the city attorney." "Abuse of office" definition . State 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/her office or position (AB 1344, Feuer, Chapter 692, Statutes of 2011). For the purposes of this requirement, Government Code Section 53243.4 defines "abuse of office" as either: An abuse of public authority, including, but not limited to, waste, fraud, and violation of the law under color of authority. 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. The Local Government Omnibus Act of 2012 (SB 1090, Senate Governance and Finance Committee, Chapter 330) added the cross-reference to Title 5 of the Penal Code. Assembly Local Government Committee staff notes that the current definition excludes important crimes that are contained in Title 6 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." Counties and Infrastructure Financing Districts . Cities and counties can create Infrastructure Financing Districts (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, but not schools, for 30 years. California State Association of Counties staff notes that the statutes governing IFDs only use the term "city" because "city" is defined, for the purposes of the IFD statutes, as including a county and a city and county. The exclusive use of the term "city" throughout the IFD statutes may mislead some readers into thinking that counties are not CONTINUED SB 184 Page 6 authorized to use IFDs. This bill removes counties from the definition of a city and inserts the term "county" throughout the statutes governing IFDs. Subdivision Map Act Update . The Subdivision Map Act (Government Code Section 66410, et seq.) controls how local officials approve the division of property into smaller parcels. To approve a major subdivision, local officials approve a "tentative map," the 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/she must sign the map, indicate his/her registration number, and stamp the map with his/her seal (Government Code Section 66450 [a]). When the county surveyor or city engineer approves a final map, he/she must sign the map and indicate his/her registration number, and stamp the map with his/her seal. Additionally, state law requires the licensed professional who prepared a parcel map or final map to include a specified statement on the map. The California Land Surveyor's Association wants this statement to provide additional information about the timing of a map's completion and the identification of the licensee who prepared a map. This bill amends Government Code Sections 66442.5 and 66449 to provide more complete information of the licensee who prepared a map by including the "date signed" and the actual "seal" of the licensee. 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 CONTINUED SB 184 Page 7 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 the exact wording of the statute as it read before January 1, 2012. 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 (Health & Safety Code 9000, et seq., recodified by SB 341, Senate Local Government Committee, Chapter 57, Statutes of 2003). 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. State law establishes a statewide domestic partnership registry (AB 26, Migden, Chapter 588, Statutes of 1999) and requires that registered domestic partners have the same rights, protections, and benefits as are granted to spouses (AB 205, Goldberg, Chapter 421, Statutes of 2003). Cemetery District officials note that the Public Cemetery District Law's definition of "family member" omits domestic partners. This bill clarifies that a domestic partner is included in the Public Cemetery District Law's definition of "family member." 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 CONTINUED SB 184 Page 8 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. 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 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. 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, CONTINUED SB 184 Page 9 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. 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, 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. Comments This bill compiles 13 noncontroversial changes to state laws affecting local agencies and land use into a single bill. Sending a bill through the legislative process costs around $18,000. By avoiding eight other bills, the Committee's measure avoids over $140,000 in legislative costs. Although the practice may violate a strict interpretation of the single-subject and germaneness rules, the Committee insists on 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. Should CONTINUED SB 184 Page 10 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. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No SUPPORT : (Verified 8/20/13) California Association of Public Cemeteries California Land Surveyors Association California Special Districts Association California State Association of Counties Civitas Advisors, Inc. County of Los Angeles County Recorders Association of California Kings River Conservation District Napa County Recorder, John Tuteur ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 8/19/13 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mitchell, Morrell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez NO VOTE RECORDED: V. Manuel Pérez, Vacancy, Vacancy AB:nl 8/21/13 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED SB 184 Page 11 CONTINUED