CHAPTER _______

An act to amend Section 30952.1 of the Streets and Highways Code, relating to toll bridges.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1284, Baker. Bay Area state-owned toll bridges: Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee.

Existing law specifies the powers and duties of the Department of Transportation, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the Bay Area Toll Authority with respect to the collection and expenditure of toll revenue from the 7 state-owned toll bridges within the geographic jurisdiction of the commission. Existing law requires the department and the authority to form the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee, consisting of the Director of Transportation, the Executive Director of the authority, and the Executive Director of the California Transportation Commission to review and provide program direction for seismic retrofit and replacement projects on those toll bridges. Existing law provides that the committee is not a state body or a local agency for the purposes of the open meeting laws applicable to either state bodies or local agencies known as the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act and the Ralph M. Brown Act, respectively.

This bill would delete that provision and would provide that the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee is subject to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 30952.1 of the Streets and Highways Code is amended to read:

30952.1.  

(a) The authority and the department shall establish a Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee, which shall consist of the director, the authority’s executive director, and the Executive Director of the California Transportation Commission. The committee may establish a project management team to assist it in performing the duties required of it under this section and Section 30952.05.

(b) The Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee shall review project status, program costs, and schedules; resolve project issues; evaluate project changes; develop and regularly update cost estimates, risk assessments, and cashflow requirements for all phases of the toll bridge projects; and provide program direction.

(c) In addition to the duties described in subdivision (b), the committee shall review project staffing levels and structures, and consultant and contractor services related to the Benicia-Martinez Bridge construction project, as described in Section 30917, and the state toll bridge seismic retrofit program, as described in Section 188.5.

(d) Expenses incurred by the department, the authority, and the California Transportation Commission for costs directly related to duties required by this section, Section 30952, and Section 30952.05 shall be reimbursed by toll revenue collected pursuant to Section 30916, 31010, or 31011.

(e) The Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee shall be subject to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Article 9 (commencing with Section 11120) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code).

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