[Approved by Governor September 21, 2016. Filed with Secretary of State September 21, 2016.]
AB 1794, Cristina Garcia. Central Basin Municipal Water District.
Existing law, the Municipal Water District Law of 1911, provides for the formation of municipal water districts and grants to those districts’ specified powers. Existing law permits a district to acquire, control, distribute, store, spread, sink, treat, purify, recycle, recapture, and salvage any water for the beneficial use of the district, its inhabitants, or the owners of rights to water in the district. Existing law requires the board of directors of a district to consist of 5 members and each director to be a resident of the division from which the director is elected.
This bill would require the board of directors of the Central Basin Municipal Water District to be composed of 8 directors until the directors elected at the November 8, 2022, election take office, when the board would be composed of 7 directors, as prescribed. By imposing new duties on the district, this bill would create a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.
This bill would make its operation contingent on the enactment of SB 953 of the 2015-16 Regular Session.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Chapter 1.6 (commencing with Section 71265) is added to Part 3 of Division 20 of the Water Code, to read:
For the purposes of this chapter:
(a) “District” means the Central Basin Municipal Water District.
(b) “Large water purveyor” means a public water system that is one of the top five purveyors of water as measured by the total purchase of potable and recycled water from the district for the three prior fiscal years.
(c) “Public water system” has the same meaning as in Section 116275 of the Health and Safety Code.
(d) “Relevant technical expertise” means employment or consulting for a total period of at least five years, prior to the date of first appointment, in one or more positions materially responsible for performing services relating to the management, operations, engineering, construction, financing, contracting, regulation, or resource management of a public water system.
(e) “Small water purveyor” means a public water system with less than 5,000 connections.
(a) Except as provided in subdivision (c) and notwithstanding any other provision of this division, the board of directors of the district shall be composed of seven directors as follows:
(1) Four directors, one director elected for each division established pursuant to subdivision (d) by the voters of the division. Each director shall be a resident of the division from which he or she is elected. An election pursuant to this paragraph shall be in accordance with the Uniform District Election Law (Part 4 (commencing with Section 10500) of Division 10 of the Elections Code).
(2) Three directors appointed by the water purveyors of the district in accordance with Section 71267.
(b) The district shall be subject to Section 84308 of the Government Code.
(c) Until the directors elected at the November 8, 2022, election take office, the board of directors shall be composed of eight directors as follows:
(1) Five directors in accordance with Section 71250.
(2) Three directors appointed by the water purveyors of the district pursuant to Section 71267.
(d) The board of directors shall divide the district into four divisions in a manner as to equalize, as nearly as practicable, the population in the respective divisions pursuant to Section 71540.
(a) The general manager of the district shall notify each water purveyor of the district and provide a 60-day period during which the district will accept nominations for appointment of individuals to the board of directors.
(b) Individuals nominated for appointment to the board of directors shall demonstrate eligibility and relevant technical expertise.
(c) (1) The three directors appointed by the water purveyors shall be selected by the water purveyors of the district every four years as follows:
(A) One director shall be selected by all large water purveyors from the nominees of large water purveyors. Each large water purveyor shall have one vote.
(B) One director shall be selected by all cities that are water purveyors of the district from the nominees of cities. Each city shall have one vote.
(C) One director shall be selected by all of the water purveyors of the district from any nominee. The vote of each purveyor shall be weighted to reflect the number of service connections of that water purveyor within the district. If the selection of a director under this subparagraph would result in a violation of paragraph (2), the first eligible candidate receiving the next highest number of votes shall be selected.
(2) The appointment of directors pursuant to paragraph (1) shall not result in any of the following:
(A) The appointment of three directors that are all employed by or representatives of entities that are all large water purveyors.
(B) The appointment of three directors that are all employed by or representatives of entities that are all cities.
(C) The appointment of three directors that are all employed by or representatives of entities that are all small water purveyors.
(3) Each nominee for director who receives the highest number of votes cast for each office described in paragraph (1) is appointed as a director to the board of directors and shall take office in accordance with Section 71512. The general manager shall collect the votes and report the results to the water purveyors. Votes for an appointed director are public records.
(d) Each appointed director shall live or work within the district.
(e) In order to ensure continuity of knowledge, the directors appointed at the first purveyor selection shall classify themselves by lot so that two of them shall hold office until the selection of their successors at the first succeeding purveyor selection and one of them shall hold office until the selection of his or her successor at the second succeeding purveyor selection.
(f) (1) The term of a director appointed pursuant to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) is terminated if the appointed director no longer is employed by or a representative of a large water purveyor.
(2) The term of a director appointed pursuant to subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) is terminated if the appointed director no longer is employed by or a representative of a city.
(3) The term of a director appointed pursuant to subparagraph (C) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) is terminated if the appointed director no longer is employed by or a representative of a water purveyor.
(g) (1) An appointed director shall not do any of the following:
(A) Hold an elected office.
(B) Hold more than 0.5 percent ownership in a company regulated by the Public Utilities Commission.
(C) Hold more than one consecutive term of office on the board.
(2) An appointed director shall be subject to all applicable conflict-of-interest and ethics provisions and shall recuse himself or herself from participating in a decision that could have a direct material benefit on the financial interests of the director.
(h) A vacancy in an office of appointed director shall be filled in accordance with the selection process described in subdivisions (a) to (c), inclusive.
(i) (1) An appointed director shall be eligible for all of the following:
(A) Reimbursement for travel and conference expenses pursuant to the Central Basin Municipal Water District Administrative Code.
(B) Compensation for up to 10 meetings per month at the per meeting rate provided by the Central Basin Municipal Water District Administrative Code.
(C) Health insurance benefits, if those benefits are not provided by the director’s employer.
(2) An appointed director shall not be eligible to receive communication or car allowances. For purposes of this paragraph, “car allowances” does not include travel expenses incurred as described in paragraph (1).
(3) An appointed director may waive the reimbursement and compensation described in paragraph (1) and may be required to reimburse his or her employer for any compensation received.
If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
This act shall only become operative if Senate Bill 953 of the 2015-16 Regular Session is enacted and becomes effective.
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