BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 792 (DeSaulnier) - Bay Area regional planning.
Amended: April 22, 2013 Policy Vote: T&H 10-0; G&F 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 23, 2013 Consultant: Mark McKenzie
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: SB 792 would require the San Francisco bay area's
"joint policy committee" (JPC) to prepare a plan for
consolidating the functions common to its member agencies and
develop and adopt a public outreach and participation plan for
adoption of the regional organization plan, as specified. The
bill would also require the inclusion of additional elements in
the region's Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS), and assign
responsibility for those elements to member entities of the JPC.
In addition, the bill would require the San Francisco Bay
Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) to relocate to a
building that will be occupied by other members of the JPC.
Fiscal Impact:
Potential reimbursable state mandate costs related to
duties imposed on the JPC and other regional government
member agencies. It is unclear whether the JPC or other
regional entities upon whom the state-mandated program is
imposed would have standing to bring a claim before the
Commission on State Mandates (see staff comments below). If
a successful claim were filed, General Fund reimbursements
could be significant.
Unknown, potentially significant costs to the BCDC to draft
an element pertaining to sea level rise in the SCS (General
Fund).
One-time costs to the BCDC, likely in the hundreds of
thousands, to prepare a consolidation plan in 2014 (General
Fund).
Unknown, primarily one-time costs to the BCDC to relocate
to a specified location (General Fund).
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Background: With nine counties and 101 cities, the San Francisco
Bay Area is home to several single-purpose regional agencies,
including the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the
Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), the
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the San Francisco
Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), and the San
Francisco Bay Region Regional Water Quality Control Board.
While each entity has a unique stand-alone function, existing
law requires these entities to cooperate in coordinating
regional planning, including the development of regional
planning documents such as regional transportation plans, the
regional housing needs assessment, the Ozone Attainment Plan,
the Clean Air Plan, and the San Francisco Bay Plan. These
coordinated efforts are performed through a joint policy
committee (JPC), which was originally formed voluntarily for
regional coordination between MTC and ABAG, but later codified
to include members of each of the nine counties in the region
and participation of BAAQMD and BCDC with the passage of SB 849
(Torlakson), Chapter 791 of 2004, and AB 2094 (DeSaulnier),
Chapter 442 of 2008.
SB 375 (Steinberg) Chap 728/2008, requires the Air Resources
Board (ARB) to provide each region that has a metropolitan
planning organization (MPO) with a greenhouse gas emission
reduction target for the automobile and light truck sector for
2020 and 2035, respectively. Each MPO, in turn, is required to
include within its regional transportation plan a sustainable
communities strategy (SCS) designed to achieve the ARB targets
for greenhouse gas emission reduction. Each MPO must submit its
SCS to ARB for review. ARB must accept or reject the MPO's
determination that the implementation of a submitted SCS
submitted would achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction
targets.
Proposed Law: SB 792 would require regional consolidation
planning by the member agencies of the JPC, place additional
requirements on these entities with respect to the SCS, and
require the JPC to conduct public outreach and participation
efforts in furtherance of adopting a regional organization plan.
Specifically, this bill would:
Require the next adopted SCS to include consideration of
local and regional air quality, sea level rise, priority
infrastructure needs, and the goals and policies related to
economic development opportunities and specified social
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equity goals.
Assign responsibility for these additional elements of
the SCS to ABAG, MTC, BAAQMD, and BCDC, as specified.
Require the member entities of the JPC to prepare a plan
for consolidating common functions that includes specified
elements, and submit the plan to each respective agency's
board by December 31, 2014
Require JPC member entities to report to the Legislature
on the adoption and implementation of the plan by December
31, 2015.
Require the JPC to develop and adopt public and
community outreach and inclusive participation policies
related to the regional organization plan, as specified.
Require the JPC to follow the Ralph M. Brown Act's open
meeting laws.
Require the JPC to appoint an advisory committee on
economic competitiveness comprised of members of the
business community, education interests, labor, local
government, and specified community organizations.
Require the JPC, in consultation with the advisory
committee, to adopt goals and policies related to the
inclusion of economic development opportunities in the SCS.
Require MTC to report biennially to the Legislature and
public on progress in implementing the new elements of the
SCS specified in this bill.
Require the BCDC to relocate to 390 Main Street in San
Francisco.
Related Legislation: SB 1149 (DeSaulnier), which died in this
Committee last year without a hearing, would have created a
regionally-elected Bay Area Regional Commission to improve
coordination among regional agencies.
Staff Comments: The California Constitution generally requires
the state to reimburse local agencies for costs associated with
state-mandates that impose a new program or higher level of
service on local agencies. Existing law specifies that cities,
counties, K-12 school districts, county offices of education,
and community college districts are local government entities
eligible to claim reimbursement. Special districts, joint
powers authorities, and other prospective claimants must meet
additional criteria to qualify for reimbursement: (1) the
claimant's interest must be direct; (2) the claimant must be
subject to the tax and spend limitations of the California
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Constitution, although the claimant may serve in a
representative capacity for costs incurred by eligible local
entities (e.g. a JPA may have standing to claim reimbursement on
behalf of county members); and (3) there must be an expenditure
of local government proceeds of taxes and not just a reduction
in those revenues.
This bill places new duties on regional entities and the rather
unique JPC, but not directly on local agencies that normally
have standing to bring a claim for reimbursement to the
Commission on State Mandates. Legislative Counsel has indicated
that this bill creates a state-mandated local program by
imposing new duties on the JPC. It does not appear, however,
that the JPC has standing to bring a claim before the Commission
for state reimbursement. As stated above, the JPC was
originally a voluntary partnership established by MTC and ABAG,
and later statutorily required to add BCDC and the BAAQMD, so
eligible local government claimants are several steps removed
from the mandates imposed by this bill. To the extent that the
requirements of the bill indirectly result in increased
expenditures of proceeds of taxes by those underlying local
government entities, this bill could theoretically create a
reimbursable state-mandated local program, but there is no known
similar precedent. The case noted above in which a JPA may have
standing in a representative capacity would be the closest
example of standing before the Commission. If the Commission
were to accept such a claim as valid, this bill could result in
unknown state-reimbursable costs to the General Fund.
The BCDC, as a state governmental agency, would incur costs as a
result of this bill. Specifically, the bill specifies that the
BCDC would be responsible for incorporating an element
pertaining to sea level rise in the Sustainable Communities
Strategy. The BCDC has conducted some preliminary work on the
issue of climate change and how sea level rise could impact the
San Francisco bay area, and the Commission is actively working
on scoping tasks needed to address regional sea level rise
adaptation planning in the next SCS. The fiscal impacts of
incorporating sea level rise into the SCS, as required by the
bill, are unknown at this time, but could be significant.
The bill would also require BCDC, and other JPC member entities,
to prepare a consolidation plan that includes a number of
specified elements, which must be submitted to each respective
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agency's board by December 31, 2014. Each entity must also
report to the Legislature on the adoption and implementation of
the plan within the subsequent year. These costs are also
unknown at this time, but staff estimates these duties could
result in costs to the BCDC in the hundreds of thousands in
2014.
The bill also requires BCDC to relocate to 390 Main Street in
San Francisco, which is a building that will be occupied by
other regional partners. Staff notes that the Department of
General Services has previously conducted a cost-benefit
analysis of this proposal, but determined the move to be
cost-prohibitive. Details of this analysis are not available at
this time, so fiscal impacts related to the move are unknown.