BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1362
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
1362 (Gordon)
As Amended January 4, 2016
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Local |9-0 |Maienschein, | |
|Government | |Gonzalez, Alejo, | |
| | |Chiu, Cooley, Gordon, | |
| | |Holden, Linder, | |
| | |Waldron | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Establishes an appointment process for the board of
trustees of a mosquito abatement and vector control district
that is located within a single county and contains both
incorporated territory, including every city in the county, and
unincorporated territory, as specified. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires, within 30 days of formation, the board of trustees
of a mosquito abatement and vector control district that is
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located entirely within a single county and contains both
incorporated territory, including every city within the
county, and unincorporated territory to be appointed as
follows:
a) Authorizes the county board of supervisors to appoint
one person;
b) Authorizes a city selection committee to appoint up to
the total number of trustees as there are incorporated
cities within the district; and,
c) Requires the board of supervisors to appoint additional
trustees, if the appointments listed in a) and b) above,
result in a less than five-member board.
2)Makes other technical changes.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes the Mosquito Abatement and Vector Control District
Law, which requires a legislative body of at least five
members known as the board of trustees to govern every
mosquito abatement and vector control district.
2)Requires a board of trustees to be appointed, within 30 days
after the effective date of formation, in a district that is
located entirely within a single county and contains both
incorporated territory and unincorporated territory, as
follows: a) the board of supervisors may appoint one person
to the board; and, b) the city council of each city that is
located in whole or in part within the district may appoint
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one person to the board.
3)Authorizes a board of trustees to adopt a resolution
requesting that the board of supervisors of any county that
contains territory within the district to increase or decrease
the number of members on the board of trustees who represent
the unincorporated territory of that county, and requires that
within 60 days of receiving the resolution the board of
supervisors order the increase or decrease.
FISCAL EFFECT: None
COMMENTS:
1)Mosquito Abatement and Vector Control Districts. There are 65
mosquito abatement and vector control districts in California.
Mosquito abatement and vector control districts stand as
guardians against epidemics, public health emergencies, and
economic disasters. These districts have a long history of
applying science to counter public health threats, and
continue to do so as Californians face threats like the West
Nile virus.
In 2002, the Senate Local Government Committee appointed a
"Working Group on Revising the Mosquito Abatement District
Law" to update the law which had not undergone a comprehensive
review since 1939. The working group agreed to maintain the
method of appointing trustee boards, but changed the method
for increasing or decreasing the size of boards. Due to the
rewrite in 2002, current law authorizes a board of trustees to
change a board's size by directing a county board of
supervisors to increase or decrease the number of trustees
representing the unincorporated area of the county. The
working group rejected draft language that would have allowed
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the underlying city councils and county board of supervisors
to trigger changes in the size of the board of trustees.
2)Bill Summary. Existing law establishes an appointment process
for a mosquito abatement and vector control district, which
must be done within 30 days of the effective date of
formation. Each district must have at least five trustees;
however the appointment process established by current law
determines city and county appointments based on the territory
contained in the district. If a district includes a part of a
city or county, that respective governing body is authorized
to make an appointment. This leads to a large variation in
the size of a mosquito abatement and vector control district
board of trustees.
This bill establishes an appointment process for a newly
formed mosquito and vector control district that has all of
the following characteristics: a) the district is located in
a single county; b) the district contains incorporated
territory, including every city in the county; and, c) the
district contains unincorporated territory. Under the
appointment process established by this bill, the county board
of supervisors may appoint one person to the board of
trustees, and the city selection committee to appoint up to
the total number of trustees as there are incorporated cities
within the county.
3)Author's Statement. According to the author, "AB 1362 would
grant a mosquito abatement district which has countywide
boundaries the option to utilize its existing city selection
committee to appoint Trustees to the district, rather than
each city council doing so independently. This reduces
pressure on each individual city to appoint a representative,
and increases collaboration between neighboring cities by
authorizing the city selection committee to make shared
decisions on local governance. Additionally, AB 1362 would
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provide the city selection committee with the ability to
determine the size of the mosquito district board. This
process adds an additional level of oversight and
accountability to the appointment process, while retaining the
city councils' authority to appoint members. Other benefits
include reducing the costs associated with meeting expenses
and stipends for each member's service, streamlining board
communication, reducing duplicative work, and providing more
transparency on the Board's representation and
decision-making."
4)Policy Considerations. The Legislature may wish to consider
the following in order to better align the author's stated
intent with the language contained in the bill:
a) If the author's intent is to provide mosquito abatement
and vector control districts with the option to use a city
selection committee process to determine city appointments,
the Legislature may wish to make the provisions of this
bill clearly permissive.
b) If the author's intent is to allow existing districts to
use this new appointment method, then the Legislature may
wish to make that clear in the provisions of the bill.
c) If the author's intent is to allow for a decrease in the
size of an existing board of trustees, the Legislature may
wish to consider the following:
i) What will the process be to determine if a city
selection committee will make the city appointments and
which governing body will make that determination?
Current law grants flexibility to a board of trustees to
change the size of a board by ordering an increase or
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decrease to the number of trustees representing the
unincorporated area of a county. The author may wish to
consider the role trustee boards should have in
determining the size of their board given this provision
in current law.
ii) Will there be adequate representation among cities?
The Legislature may wish to ensure that there will be
adequate representation among all cities, especially if
the number of city appointments is less than the number
of cities within the district. The city selection
committee process for some special districts requires
appointments to alternate between cities or guarantees
seats among geographic groupings to ensure diverse and
fair representation.
iii) Is there evidence of a statewide problem? This bill
affects districts that are located in a single county and
contain incorporated territory, including every city
within the county, and unincorporated territory. There
are an estimated eight districts in the state in this
category.
5)Prior Legislation. AB 991 (Devore) of 2005 would have reduced
the size of the Orange County Vector Control District's board
of trustees to 11 members, and would have required the Orange
County Board of Supervisors to appoint one trustee and the
Orange County City Selection Committee to appoint 10 members,
as specified. AB 991 failed passage in the Local Government
Committee.
6)Arguments in Support. According to Supervisor Don Horsley,
"In San Mateo County, the existing countywide mosquito
abatement district is comprised of 21 members - one
representative from the Board of Supervisors and one
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representative from each of the 20 cities in the county. This
is a very large board that can be difficult to manage and
challenging for each jurisdiction to keep consistently filled
with trustees. For instance, our board currently has four
vacant seats. In addition, the recent history of the San
Mateo County Mosquito District proved that a larger board does
not necessarily offer greater oversight. Rather than
completely overhauling the governance structure of this
special district, creating the option of having a more focused
representative board could produce a more effective management
tool. In San Mateo County, I believe the appointment process
outlined in AB 1362 would be a good fit for the board of
trustees of the mosquito and vector control district."
7)Arguments in Opposition. According to the Mosquito and Vector
Control Association of California, "The nexus of this proposal
is reported to come from San Mateo County's concerns with the
size of its district's board of trustees. However, as a
statewide association comprised of over 60 member agencies,
including many large urban districts with diverse populations,
our members have not raised concerns as to the size of their
board of trustees. In fact, 2015 marks the centennial
anniversary of the creation of mosquito control districts in
California, and we believe that the addition of a city
selection process for trustee appointments is not necessary.
As we continue to work with you on your concerns related by
the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, we believe that the
issues in that specific county and district should be
addressed on their own, as opposed to opening a governance
structure that would be statewide."
Analysis Prepared by:
Misa Lennox / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958 FN:
0002547
AB 1362
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