BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE
Senator Lois Wolk, Chair
BILL NO: SB 751 HEARING: 5/1/13
AUTHOR: Yee FISCAL: Yes
VERSION: 4/11/13 TAX LEVY: No
CONSULTANT: Ewing
METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATIONS' ACTIONS AND VOTES
Requires specified public agencies to publicly report the
vote of each member of a legislative body.
Background and Existing Law
State and federal laws require local agencies to develop
regional plans for transportation, air quality, and
sustainable growth. Federal law designates specified
agencies as Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs).
California's 18 MPOs are made up of cities and counties and
charged with various planning and related responsibilities.
The largest MPO is the Southern California Association of
Governments, representing six counties and 191 cities.
State law also establishes transportation planning
agencies, with related transportation planning
responsibilities.
The Ralph M. Brown Act establishes procedures to ensure
public access to information maintained by local agencies
and that the decisions made by public agencies are done in
an open and transparent fashion to retain public control
over those agencies. For closed meetings and meetings
conducted by teleconference, the Brown Act requires local
agencies' legislative bodies to report the votes of
individual officials. These provisions enable the public
to be aware of how individual boards members vote when the
vote is not taken in the public's presence. State law does
not require local agencies to report individual officials'
votes that are cast during open meetings.
Critics have raised concern that for local agencies with
large legislative bodies, the absence of either a roll call
vote or a specific tally and report of the votes of each
member of a board, it can be difficult to determine who
voted for or against a measure when actions are taken. For
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example, the minutes of a May 17, 2012 meeting of the
Association of Bay Area Governments report that a motion
received 27 ayes and 5 nays, without listing the votes of
individual members.
Proposed Law
Senate Bill 751 requires local agencies that are both a
Metropolitan Planning Organization and a transportation
planning agency to publicly report any action taken and to
report the individual vote or abstention of each member
present.
State Revenue Impact
No estimate.
Comments
1. Purpose of the bill . Senate Bill 751 would improve the
ability of the public and others who monitor legislative
meetings of local agencies to be certain of how members
voted on an issue when action is taken. Existing law
requires local agencies to report the vote or abstention of
every member present for meetings that are either closed or
for meetings that utilize teleconferencing. But the law
does not require agencies to report the vote of individual
members at other public meetings. When local agencies with
many board members vote on an agenda item, keeping track of
who voted how can be difficult. SB 751 puts in place
reasonable provisions to improve public accountability by
requiring those agencies to clearly report the vote or
abstention of each member present.
2. What's the problem here ? The Brown Act does not require
local agencies to report on the votes of individual
members, other than for closed sessions and meetings that
utilize teleconferencing. However, local agencies must
report the action taken. When issues are raised, local
agencies can voluntarily adopt requirements to report the
specific votes of individual board members. For example,
the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voluntarily
adopted a rule requiring a roll call vote on non-consent
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items and announcement of the roll call. The Board adopted
the rule in recognition that it can be difficult for the
public to monitor voting given acoustical and other
distractions during busy board meetings. SB 751 places a
new requirement on local agencies that would be better
addressed through the discretion of the locally elected
board.
3. Where to draw the line ? Under Senate Bill 751 the
requirement to report individual votes or abstentions when
actions are taken would only apply to local agencies that
are both a Metropolitan Planning Organization and a
transportation planning agency. By applying that
requirement only to agencies that are both an MPO and a
transportation planning agency, the bill excludes other
large regional entities, such as some Councils of
Governments. Additionally, the bill excludes other local
agencies, including cities, counties and special districts,
for which public reporting of individual votes and
abstentions also may help the public understand how their
individual elected officials vote on specific issues. The
author intends to amend the bill to expand the reporting
requirement to all local agencies.
4. Brown Act ? Senate Bill 751 amends Article 11 of the
Government Code, which deals with transportation. Other
statutory requirements for voting and vote reporting are in
the Ralph M. Brown Act, which requires meetings of local
legislative bodies to be open and public. Under state
constitutional mandate provisions, the state has reimbursed
local governments for costs resulting from certain
provisions of the Brown Act. Under recently enacted
Proposition 30, the voters approved language specifying
that the state would not be responsible for paying local
agencies' costs associated with following open meeting
procedures in the Brown Act. Whether the costs associated
with Brown Act compliance are a reimbursable state mandate
is determined by the Commission on State Mandates. The
author intends to amend the bill to place its provisions in
the Brown Act.
Support and Opposition (4/25/13)
Support : Orange County Business Council.
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Opposition : Unknown.