BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1284
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Date of Hearing: April 6, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Jim Frazier, Chair
AB 1284
(Baker) - As Introduced February 27, 2015
SUBJECT: Bay Area state-owned toll bridges: Toll Bridge
Program Oversight Committee
SUMMARY: Repeals provisions that exempt the Toll Bridge Project
Oversight Committee (TBPOC) from open meeting laws.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Directs the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and
the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to
establish the TBPOC to consist of the Caltrans director, MTC's
executive director, and the executive director of the
California Transportation Commission (CTC).
2)Assigns TBPOC with the responsibility to: review the Toll
Bridge Seismic Safety Retrofit Program's project status,
costs, and schedules; resolve project issues; evaluate project
changes; develop and regularly update cost estimates, risk
assessments, and cash flow requirements; and provide program
direction.
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3)Specifically exempts TBPOC from state and local open meeting
laws.
4)Declares that it is California's policy that public agencies
exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business and that
the proceedings of public agencies should be conducted openly
so that the public may remain informed.
5)Generally requires, under the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act,
that all meetings of a state body, as defined, be open and
public and that all persons be permitted to attend and
participate in any meeting of a state body.
6)Similarly requires, under the Ralph M. Brown Act, that all
meetings of a local government body be open and public and
that all persons be permitted to attend and participate in any
meeting.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: AB 144 (Hancock), Chapter 71, Statutes of 2005,
established TBPOC to provide project oversight and project
control for the Toll Bridge Seismic Safety Retrofit Program in
California. Provisions of AB 144 specifically exempted the
committee from both state and local agency open meeting act
requirements for reasons that are not clear from the bill's
historical documents.
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The author introduced this bill to provide more transparency to
TBPOC deliberations. The author cites problems that have
plagued the East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
and related investigations as evidence of the need for greater
accountability. The author believes that subjecting TBPOC to
open meeting law requirements will lead to greater transparency
which will, in turn, lead to greater accountability.
Although TBPOC is specifically exempted from open meeting
statutes, it voted in May of last year to adopt open meeting
policies. These policies reflect many, but not all, of the
requirements set forth in existing law to govern meetings of
state and local government bodies. According to MTC, while it
has "taken important steps to open our process, we have done so
in a way that balances the need for openness with the need to
conduct business as efficiently as possible. In short, we
believe we are now in full compliance with the spirit of
Bagley-Keene while maintaining some differences from the law's
literal provisions."
One notable difference between existing open meeting laws and
TBPOC's open meeting policy is the manner in which closed
sessions are addressed. Existing law allows for public agencies
to meet in closed session but only under narrow, specified
circumstances and within prescribed notifications procedures.
TBPOC's open meeting policy, on the other hand, provides for
broad closed sessions, as determined necessary by the members of
the committee, and allows the committee to limit reporting on
closed sessions at subsequent regular meetings.
The work of the TBPOC will be ending shortly. All of the
state-owned toll bridges under its oversight have achieved
seismic safety and the one remaining project, the demolition of
the old east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, is
due to be completed next year.
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Committee concerns:
1)Membership of the TBPOC is made up of employees of two state
agencies (Caltrans and CTC) and one local agency (MTC). By
deleting the current exemption from open meeting laws, the
bill creates ambiguity that should be resolved because it is
not clear whether TBPOC should be governed by statutes that
apply to state bodies or to local bodies. The bill should be
amended to clarify which provisions the author believes should
govern the TBPOC.
2)Members of the TBPOC are the director of Caltrans and the
executive directors of CTC and of MTC. Caltrans is not
defined as a state body under open meeting laws and the
executive directors of CTC and MTC are staff to, not members
of, the state and local bodies they represent, respectively.
Consequently, it is not clear that TBPOC would naturally be
considered a state or local body subject to open meeting laws.
Again, to eliminate this ambiguity the bill should be amended
to identify which definition of either a state or local body
the author believes applies to TBPOC for purposes of
subjecting it to open meeting law requirements. Simply
deleting the exemption does not provide this clarity.
Double referral: This bill will be referred to the Assembly
Local Government Committee
should it pass out of this committee.
AB 1284
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Janet Dawson / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093