BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1217|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1217
Author: Daly (D)
Amended: 8/2/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FIN. COMMITTEE: 7-0, 6/29/16
AYES: Hertzberg, Nguyen, Beall, Hernandez, Lara, Moorlach,
Pavley
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 47-25, 5/26/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Orange County Fire Authority
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill prohibits the Orange County Fire Authority
from appointing alternates for its governing board's members.
ANALYSIS: Existing law, the Joint Exercise of Powers Act,
allows two or more public agencies to use their powers in common
if they sign a joint powers agreement. Sometimes an agreement
creates a new, separate government called a joint powers
authority (JPA).
This bill, notwithstanding any other law, prohibits the
composition of the Board of Directors of the Orange County Fire
Authority (OCFA), which is a JPA, from including alternate
members.
AB 1217
Page 2
Background
OCFA is a JPA formed on March 1, 1995, to provide fire
protection and related services to 18 member cities and the
unincorporated area within Orange County. Because five
additional cities have become members of OCFA since its
formation, OCFA now operates within 23 cities and the
unincorporated area in Orange County. OCFA operates a
full-service emergency response agency. The Authority manages
71 fire stations that serve more than 1.7 million residents
within a land area of approximately 571 square miles. In fiscal
year 2013-14, OCFA personnel responded to more than 113,000
incidents.
OCFA's joint powers agreement has been amended four times - in
1999, 2010, 2013, and 2015 - since the agreement took effect in
1995. The joint powers agreement establishes a 25-member board
of directors to govern OCFA. The board is comprised of one
voting member from each member city and two voting members from
Orange County. Until last year, each member jurisdiction could
name an alternate member to OCFA's board, making 49 people
eligible to attend OCFA board meetings (25 members plus 24
alternates). The most recent amendment to OCFA's joint powers
agreement, which took effect last year, eliminated the alternate
member positions on OCFA's board.
To ensure that the governance changes OCFA members approved last
year cannot be reversed, representatives of OCFA's employees
want the Legislature to codify those changes in state law.
Comments
Purpose of the bill. In response to concerns that the size and
structure of OCFA's Board of Directors created governance
challenges, previous versions of this bill would have decreased
the board's size and restructured the process by which member
agencies appointed representatives to the board. Conversations
prompted by this bill's previous versions led a majority of
OCFA's member agencies to conclude that the Authority could
AB 1217
Page 3
address some of the governance concerns raised about the board
by eliminating the 24 alternate board member positions.
Although the member agencies approved an amendment to the
Authority's joint powers agreement that eliminated the alternate
board member positions, advocates for reforming OCFA's
governance structure remain concerned that these changes could
easily be undone by the subsequent approval of another amendment
to the joint powers agreement. This bill is now a
narrowly-focused bill that simply codifies in state law the
changes that OCFA's member agencies approved last year. In
practice, this bill makes no change to the existing structure or
function of OCFA's governing board. This bill benefits all of
the residents who rely on OCFA's services by simply preventing
OCFA from restoring an unwieldy board structure that made
consensus and governance difficult.
Precedent. The purpose of the Joint Exercise of Powers Act is
to allow California government agencies to work collaboratively
through a mutually-agreeable governance structure established
pursuant to a joint exercise of powers agreement. Having the
Legislature override a joint powers agreement to dictate a
particular JPA's governing structure is an unprecedented erosion
of the broad, flexible authority granted by the Joint Exercise
of Powers Act. In practice, this bill has little substantive
effect on OCFA, because it merely codifies the existing
structure of OCFA's governing board, as approved by the member
agencies. However, passing this bill may invite similar
proposals asking the Legislature to impose more substantial
statutory constraints on other joint powers agreements, further
eroding a fundamental purpose of the joint exercise of powers
act, which is to provide for local control over commonly-held
local governmental powers without the need for legislative
involvement.
Special legislation. The California Constitution prohibits
special legislation when a general law can apply (Article IV,
§16). This bill contains findings and declarations explaining
the need for legislation that applies only to the OCFA.
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Page 4
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified8/1/16)
AFSCME District Council 36
City of Santa Ana
Orange County Employees Association
Orange County Labor Federation
Orange County Professional Firefighters Association
United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the
Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United State and
Canada, Local 582
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/5/16)
Association of California Cities - Orange County
California Association of Joint Powers Authorities
City of Aliso Viejo
City of Buena Park
City of Burlingame
City of Calimesa
City of Costa Mesa
City of Cypress
City of Dana Point
City of Fillmore
City of Fountain Valley
City of La Canada Flintridge
City of La Palma
City of Laguna Hills
City of Laguna Niguel
City of Laguna Woods
City of Lake Elsinore
City of Lake Forest
City of Lincoln
City of Los Alamitos
City of Menifee
City of Mission Viejo
City of Moorpark
City of Norwalk
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Page 5
City of Orland
City of Placentia
City of Plymouth
City of Rancho Cordova
City of Rancho Mirage
City of Rancho Santa Margarita
City of Rocklin
City of Salinas
City of San Carlos
City of San Clemente
City of San Juan Capistrano
City of Seal Beach
City of Stanton
City of Tehachapi
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Tustin
City of Villa Park
City of West Hollywood
City of Westminster
City of Yorba Linda
League of California Cities
Orange County Council of Governments
Orange County Fire Authority
Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District
Orange County Sanitation District
Orange County Supervisor Lisa A. Bartlett
Public Agency Risk Sharing Authority
Schools Excess Liability Fund
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: Supporters argue that this bill
prevents OCFA from restoring an unwieldy board structure that
made consensus and governance difficult.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: Opponents argue that this bill sets
a precedent that erodes a purpose of the joint exercise of
powers act, which is to provide for local control over
commonly-held local governmental powers without the need for
legislative involvement.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 47-25, 5/26/15
AYES: Alejo, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos,
AB 1217
Page 6
Chau, Chiu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman,
Frazier, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gomez,
Gonzalez, Gray, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer,
Lopez, Low, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, O'Donnell,
Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas,
Santiago, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Weber, Williams, Wood,
Atkins
NOES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Brough, Chang,
Dahle, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Grove, Hadley, Jones, Kim,
Lackey, Levine, Maienschein, Mayes, Melendez, Obernolte,
Olsen, Patterson, Steinorth, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bloom, Chávez, Chu, Gipson, Gordon, Harper,
Linder, Mathis
Prepared by:Brian Weinberger / GOV. & F. / (916) 651-4119
8/5/16 11:03:42
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