BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNANCE AND FINANCE
Senator Robert M. Hertzberg, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
------------------------------------------------------------------
|Bill No: |AB 204 |Hearing |6/10/15 |
| | |Date: | |
|----------+---------------------------------+-----------+---------|
|Author: |O'Donnell |Tax Levy: |No |
|----------+---------------------------------+-----------+---------|
|Version: |4/9/15 |Fiscal: |No |
------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Consultant|Weinberger |
|: | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
OVERSIGHT BOARDS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Prohibits oversights boards in Los Angeles County from being
consolidated into a single countywide oversight board unless a
successor agency adopts a resolution dissolving the board.
Background and Existing Law
Until 2011, the Community Redevelopment Law allowed local
officials to set up redevelopment agencies (RDAs), prepare and
adopt redevelopment plans, and finance redevelopment activities.
Citing a significant State General Fund deficit, Governor
Brown's 2011-12 budget proposed eliminating RDAs and returning
billions of dollars of property tax revenues to schools, cities,
and counties to fund core services. Among the statutory changes
that the Legislature adopted to implement the 2011-12 budget, AB
X1 26 (Blumenfield, 2011) dissolved all RDAs. The California
Supreme Court's 2011 ruling in California Redevelopment
Association v. Matosantos upheld AB X1 26, but invalidated AB X1
27 (Blumenfield, 2011), which would have allowed most RDAs to
avoid dissolution.
AB X1 26 established successor agencies to manage the process of
unwinding former RDAs' affairs. With limited exceptions, the
city or county that created each former RDA now serves as that
RDA's successor agency. Each successor agency has an oversight
board that is responsible for supervising it and approving its
AB 204 (O'Donnell) 4/9/15 Page 2
of ?
actions. The Department of Finance (DOF) can review and request
reconsideration of an oversight board's decisions.
Until July 1, 2016, each successor agency's seven-member
oversight board is comprised of:
One member appointed by the county board of supervisors.
One member appointed by the mayor for the city that
formed the former RDA.
One member appointed by the largest special district, by
property tax share, within the territorial jurisdiction of
the former RDA.
One member appointed either by the elected county
superintendent of education to represent schools or, if a
superintendent is appointed, by the county board of
education.
One member to represent community college districts, who
is appointed by the Chancellor of the California Community
Colleges.
One member of the public, who is appointed by the county
board of supervisors.
One member representing the employees of the former
redevelopment agency appointed by the mayor or chair of the
board of supervisors, from the recognized employee
organization representing the largest number of former
redevelopment agency employees employed by the successor
agency at the time, as specified.
On July 1, 2016, in each county in which there is more than one
oversight board, those oversight boards must be consolidated
into a single seven-member oversight board comprised of:
One member appointed by the county board of supervisors.
One member appointed by the city selection committee
established pursuant to a specified statute.
One member appointed by the independent special district
selection committee established pursuant to a specified
statute.
AB 204 (O'Donnell) 4/9/15 Page 3
of ?
One member appointed either by the elected county
superintendent of education to represent schools or, if
superintendent is appointed, by the county board of
education.
One member appointed by the Chancellor of the California
Community Colleges to represent community college districts
in the county.
One member of the public appointed by the county board
of supervisors.
One member appointed by the recognized employee
organization representing the largest number of successor
agency employees in the county.
Local officials in Los Angeles County worry that consolidating
the county's 71 oversight boards into a single countywide
oversight board will place overwhelming administrative burdens
on that oversight board. They want the Legislature to prevent
all oversight boards in Los Angeles County from being
consolidated into a single board next year.
Proposed Law
Assembly Bill 204 requires that an oversight board within Los
Angeles County must continue to independently operate until its
successor agency adopts a resolution dissolving its oversight
board and the oversight board approves that resolution. AB 204
specifies that a successor agency's oversight board ceases to
exist after a successor agency resolution to dissolve its
oversight board is adopted and approved. The bill specifies
that, after a successor agency's oversight board is dissolved,
the successor agency will be overseen by the oversight board
established pursuant to the statute creating a single countywide
oversight board on July 1, 2016.
AB 204 makes additional technical and conforming changes to the
statutes governing successor agencies' oversight boards.
State Revenue Impact
AB 204 (O'Donnell) 4/9/15 Page 4
of ?
No estimate.
Comments
1. Purpose of the bill . Stakeholders in the redevelopment
dissolution process in Los Angeles County worry about the
massive volume of work that would be handled by a single
countywide oversight board after state law consolidates the
county's 71 oversight boards next year. Officials note that the
countywide oversight board will not have the same level of
detailed, institutional knowledge about any particular successor
agency's operations that individual oversight boards currently
possess. This may make it difficult for the countywide board to
act expeditiously in approving some successor agencies' actions.
Administrative gridlock and slow response times will make it
difficult to complete the complex property disposition
functions, financial transactions, and tax distributions that
are a needed to smoothly unwind former RDAs' affairs in Los
Angeles County. By preventing all 71 success or agencies from
simultaneously becoming answerable to a single oversight board,
AB 204 avoids placing a potentially counterproductive burden on
the redevelopment wind-down process in Los Angeles County.
2. Discretionary for all agencies ? Not every successor agency
in Los Angeles County still has complicated business left to
complete and a countywide board would doubtless be able to
administer the wind-down process of several successor agencies
starting immediately. However, AB 204 leaves it up to each
successor agency to decide when it is appropriate to consolidate
its oversight board into the single countywide board. The
Committee may wish to consider amending AB 204 to ensure that
the oversight board consolidation process in Los Angeles is not
unnecessarily delayed past the time at which the countywide
board could be reasonably expected to take on an individual
oversight board's additional workload. For example, the bill
could leave the dissolution of an individual oversight board up
to the discretion of only those successor agencies that have
pending property disposition transactions or those that meet
other criteria demonstrating that they would place a significant
administrative burden on the countywide oversight board.
3. Let's be clear . One change that AB 204 makes to the laws
AB 204 (O'Donnell) 4/9/15 Page 5
of ?
governing oversight boards is to delete the word "only" from the
current statutory requirement that, on and after July 1, 2016,
each county must have "only one oversight board" appointed in a
specified manner. This change could lead to confusion over
whether any counties other than Los Angeles can form a
countywide oversight board without consolidating all of the
other oversight boards within the county. To avoid any
misinterpretations, the Committee may wish to consider amending
AB 204 to clarify that Los Angeles County is the only county
that is being exempted from the July 1, 2016 date by which all
other counties must have only one oversight board for all
successor agencies within a county.
4. Trailer bill alternative ? After Governor Brown revised his
proposed State Budget last month, the Department of Finance
released draft language of a budget trailer bill which includes
an alternative approach to restructuring Los Angeles County's
oversight boards. Under the proposal released by the Department
of Finance, on July 1, 2016, the 71 oversight boards in Los
Angeles County would be consolidated into five oversight boards
that would be responsible for successor agencies within each of
Los Angeles' five county supervisor districts.
5. Special legislation . The California Constitution prohibits
special legislation when a general law can apply (Article IV,
§16). AB 204 contains findings and declarations explaining the
need for legislation that applies only to Los Angeles County.
Assembly Actions
Assembly Local Government Committee: 9-0
Assembly Housing & Community Development Committee: 6-0
Assembly Floor: 78-0
AB 204 (O'Donnell) 4/9/15 Page 6
of ?
Support and
Opposition (6/4/15)
Support : American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, AFL-CIO; American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees, District Council 36; Cities of Alhambra,
Bell Gardens, Cerritos, Downey, Lakewood, Long Beach.
Montebello, Paramount, Santa Monica, Signal Hill, Torrance,
Whittier; County of Los Angeles; Downtown Long Beach Associates;
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti; Los Angeles County Division,
League of California Cities.
Opposition : Unknown.
-- END --