BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                    AB 1362


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          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING


          AB  
          1362 (Gordon)


          As Amended  January 19, 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:  Authorizes a city selection committee to make  
          appointments to the board of trustees of specified mosquito  
          abatement and vector control districts, subject to specified  
          requirements.  Specifically, this bill:  


          1)Authorizes a city council that may appoint a trustee, pursuant  
            to existing law, to a newly formed or existing mosquito  
            abatement and vector control district that is in a single  
            county and contains incorporated and unincorporated territory,  








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            to adopt a resolution requesting city appointments be made by  
            a city selection committee.  


          2)Provides a city selection committee may only be used to make  
            appointments if a majority of city councils located within the  
            mosquito abatement and vector control district adopt  
            respective resolutions.  


          3)Authorizes a city selection committee to decrease the total  
            number of city appointments made by the city selection  
            committee, if a majority of city councils within the district  
            make this request in an adopted resolution.  


          4)Prohibits the total number of appointments made by a city  
            selection committee from exceeding the number of incorporated  
            cities, wholly or in part, in the district.  


          5)Prohibits the appointments made by the city selection  
            committee from affecting the appointments made by a county  
            board of supervisors, pursuant to existing law for these  
            specified districts.  


          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  








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            incorporated 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 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 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  








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            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  
            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.  For example in a mosquito and vector  
            control district located in a single county which contains  
            unincorporated and incorporated territory the board of  
            supervisors is authorized to make one appointment and each  
            individual city is authorized to make one appointment.  This  
            leads to a large variation in the size of a mosquito abatement  
            and vector control district board of trustees.  


            This bill authorizes a city selection committee to make  
            appointments in a newly formed or existing mosquito abatement  
            and vector control district that is located in a single county  
            and contains incorporated and unincorporated territory if a  
            majority of city councils within the district adopt a  
            resolution.  A majority of city councils must also adopt a  
            resolution to permit the city selection committee to decrease  
            the number of appointments.  This bill prohibits the  
            appointments made by a city selection committee from exceeding  
            the number of incorporated cities within the district.  


          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  








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            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.  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:   


             a)   Equal Representation.  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.  


             b)   Statewide Problem.  This bill affects districts that are  
               located in a single county and contain incorporated and  
               unincorporated territory.  The Legislature may wish to  
               consider if there is evidence of a statewide problem.  


             c)   Role of the Board of Trustees.  Current law grants  
               flexibility to a board of trustees to change the size of a  
               board by ordering an increase or decrease to the number of  
               trustees representing the unincorporated area of a county.   








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               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.  


          5)Prior Legislation.  AB 991 (Devore) of 2005 would have reduced  
            the size of the Orange County Vector Control District's board  
            of trustees, and would have required the county board of  
            supervisors to appoint one trustee and the 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  
            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  








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            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:  
          0002554