BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 549 (Levine) - State park system
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|Version: June 30, 2015 |Policy Vote: N.R. & W. 9 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: July 13, 2015 |Consultant: Marie Liu |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 549 would make numerous changes to the operations
of state parks in regards to contracts, agreements, and
donations. This bill would also require the Department of Parks
and Recreation (DPR) to develop a statewide policy for the
assessment of fees.
Fiscal
Impact:
Unknown ongoing staffing costs, potentially minor to the low
hundreds of thousands of dollars (special fund*) to review
additional agreements and contracts.
Unknown limited-term staffing costs, potentially minor to the
low hundreds of thousands of dollars, (special fund*) to
develop the required statewide fee plan.
Unknown costs, between minor and the low hundreds of thousands
of dollars, (special fund*) to hold public meetings outside of
regularly scheduled State Park Commission meetings to develop
the statewide fee plan.
AB 549 (Levine) Page 1 of
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Unknown revenue increases (special fund*) for additional
donations and benefits of agreements with DPR.
Unknown revenue losses (special fund*) for free and reduced
costs access and use of state park units, which may be offset
by the benefits of agreements.
* State Parks and Recreation Fund
Background: Under existing law DPR is authorized to enter into agreements
with qualified nonprofits and contracts with companies for
certain services and operations at state parks.
DPR is required to provide parking facilities for recreational
vehicles in all parks which camping is allowed.
Proposed Law:
This bill would make a number of changes to the operation of
state parks, particularly in regards to contracts, agreements,
and donations. Specifically, this bill would:
Allow DPR to entire into agreements with qualified nonprofit
organizations for the acquisition, installation, and operation
of camping cabins or parking for recreational vehicles and
associated facilities.
Expand what DPR may receive as gifts to include buildings,
facilities, and other improvements.
Allow DPR to also enter into agreements with an educational
institution or tribal government for the maintenance and
operation of a state park unit.
Allow DPR to enter into agreements for restoration, repair,
educational services, research services, interpretive
services, recreational services, or visitor services in
addition to agreements for maintenance or operation with
specified entities.
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Allow DPR to provide free or reduced cost access to, and use
of, park facilities to entities that have entered into
agreements to provide services to the park, so long as the
value of the agreement exceeds the value of the park access or
use.
Require DPR to develop a statewide policy for the assessment
of fees that balances the state's goal of sustainable revenue
generation to support state parks with preserving affordable
public access to public lands. In developing this policy, DPR
would be required to conduct public workshops and may seek the
assistance of the Parks and Recreation Commission. DPR would
be required to report to the Legislature on the policy by
December 31, 2016.
Change the date by which DPR must annually report to the
Legislature regarding its revenue generation program from July
1st to December 31st.
Raises the limit of contracts from $500,000 to one million.
Explicitly subject renewals of concession contracts to
competitive bidding requirements.
Related
Legislation: SB 204 (Pavley) would make a number of changes to
the operation of state parks. SB 204 is currently in the
Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Staff
Comments: This bill expands the types of agreements that can be
entered into by DPR and with whom. Additionally, this bill
explicitly requires that concession contracts be subject to
competitive bidding. DPR currently has staff to review both
agreements and concession contracts. While DPR has indicated
that its existing personnel can absorb the workload increase
AB 549 (Levine) Page 3 of
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under this bill, staff believes the workload costs would be
dependent on the number of additional agreements and contracts
that are proposed to DPR, which are unknown. If there is a
notable increase in the number of agreements or contracts
requested, which presumably is the goal since these changes are
part of greater efforts at DPR to improve its fiscal
sustainability, DPR may need additional personal to enter into,
then provide oversight on, contracts and agreements.
This bill would require DPR to develop a statewide policy for
the assessment of fees. While the development of such a plan is
within DPR's existing authority, it has not done so. As this
bill requires an activity that has not been done already, this
bill will result in additional workload to DPR. Staff believes
that these costs are unknown but could be between minor and in
the low hundreds of thousands of dollars for an additional PY.
The bill would require the statewide fee policy to be developed
with public meetings. To the extent possible, DPR would use
existing Parks and Recreation Commission meetings to meet this
requirement. However, given that the bill would require DPR to
report to the Legislature on the policy by December 31, 2016,
DPR may need to have additional meetings to assure that the
meetings on the policy are held in a timely and geographically
balanced manner. DPR estimates that each additional meeting
would cost $35,000. Staff believes that no more than three
additional meetings would be needed.
This bill would allow DPR to provide free or reduce cost access
to, and use of, park and beach facilities to entities that have
entered into agreements for the maintenance, operation,
restoration, repair, or enhancement of a park unit or beach or
to provide research, educational, interpretive, recreational, or
visitor services. The free or reduced cost access or use would
be required to be less than the value of the agreement, as
determined by DPR. Despite this requirement, there may be costs
associated with this allowance to the extent that the free or
reduced cost access or use displaces full-paying visitors or
uses of the park or beach.
This bill expands the types of donations that can be received by
DPR, thereby potentially increasing revenues to the State Park
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and Recreation Fund.
Proposed Author
Amendments: The author has submitted a number of technical
amendments to the committee, including amendments to delete
intent language regarding coastal parks and modify the review of
contracts that are anticipated to involve investments or sales
in excess of $1 million. These amendments will be processed
while the bill is on the suspense file.
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