BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                    AB 1816


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          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING


          AB  
          1816 (Dahle)


          As Amended  April 25, 2016


          Majority vote


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          |Committee       |Votes|Ayes                  |Noes                 |
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          |                |     |                      |                     |
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          |----------------+-----+----------------------+---------------------|
          |Local           |9-0  |Eggman, Waldron,      |                     |
          |Government      |     |Alejo, Bonilla, Chiu, |                     |
          |                |     |Cooley, Beth Gaines,  |                     |
          |                |     |Gordon, Linder        |                     |
          |                |     |                      |                     |
          |                |     |                      |                     |
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          SUMMARY:  Authorizes the Tulelake Irrigation District  
          (District), to adopt a resolution to make changes to the  
          qualifications for directors.  Specifically, this bill:   


          1)Authorizes the District's Board of Directors to adopt a  
            resolution that authorizes a person, who owns land in the  
            District and resides within the residency area, to be a  
            director of any division in the District.  










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          2)Authorizes registered voters in the District to request, in  
            writing, that all of the directors, who are appointed or  
            elected subsequent to the receipt of the request, be required  
            to meet all of the requirements in existing law for directors  
            to be registered voters, landowners, and residents within the  
            division they represent.  Requires the request to be submitted  
            to the District's Board of Directors.  


          3)Requires, if the Board of Directors determines that at least  
            25% of the registered voters in the District have signed the  
            request submitted under 2), above, all of the directors  
            following the receipt of the request to meet all of the  
            requirements under existing law for directors to be registered  
            voters, landowners, and residents within the division they  
            represent.  


          4)Defines the following terms:


             a)   "District" to mean "Tulelake Irrigation District,  
               originally formed as Tule Lake Irrigation District."  


             b)   "Residency area" to mean "land within the District or  
               land within one mile of any district boundary."  


          EXISTING LAW:   


          1)Requires that each voter of an irrigation district be a  
            resident registered to vote in the district.  


          2)Requires that each director of an irrigation district be a  
            voter, a landowner in the district, and a resident of the  
            division of the district that he or she represents at the time  








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            of nomination or appointment and through the entire term,  
            unless elected at a formation hearing.  


          FISCAL EFFECT:  None


          COMMENTS:  


          1)Irrigation District Voter and Director Qualifications.   
            California's 93 irrigation districts function under a range of  
            statutes that are a hybrid of registered voter and  
            landowner-voter type districts.  In general, registered voters  
            are eligible to vote in district elections, but directors  
            (also referred to as board members) must be landowners of the  
            district.  Originally drafted in 1897, the provisions  
            requiring directors to be landowners in the Irrigation  
            District Law were drafted to recognize that landowners (at  
            that time) were the only ones affected by the decisions that  
            irrigation district boards made.  The Legislature has  
            recognized landowners' special concerns for irrigation  
            districts' operations by creating unique separate statutes  
            that preserve the landowner requirement to vote in districts  
            that primarily deliver agricultural water.  Some of these  
            districts have landownership, but not residency requirements.   
            These provisions in current law for individual irrigation  
            districts either contain a process to allow the irrigation  
            district to internally change to a landowner voter district,  
            pursuant to a resolution of the governing board and a protest  
            process, or make the change statutorily, as this bill would do  
            for the District.  However, the Legislature has not passed a  
            bill limiting voting to landowners for an individual  
            irrigation district in over 15 years.  


            Historically, irrigation districts only provided irrigation  
            water services to agricultural land.  However, as California's  
            population has grown, more and more residential and commercial  








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            development is encroaching on agricultural land.  In response  
            to this growth, many irrigation districts began providing  
            retail water service to residential customers that live within  
            their jurisdictions in the absence of traditional retail water  
            suppliers in the area.  This trend has caused the Legislature  
            to reevaluate these landowner restrictions, both uniformly and  
            on a case-by-case basis.  


          2)Are the Landowner Qualifications Constitutional?  The  
            California Constitution provides that the right to vote or  
            serve in elected office may not be conditioned on a  
            landownership qualification.  However, in 1973, the United  
            States (U.S.) Supreme Court ruled in Salyer Land Co. v. Tulare  
            Water District that the California statute requiring a  
            landownership qualification did not violate the Equal  
            Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.  The court ruled  
            there was no violation because those districts do not exercise  
            normal governmental authority and their activities  
            disproportionally affect landowners.  


            The California Supreme Court, in Choudhry v. Free (1976) 17  
            Cal. 3d 660, declared unconstitutional a section of the  
            Irrigation District Law requiring potential board candidates  
            to be landowners.  The court ruled that this section was  
            unconstitutional as applied to the Imperial Irrigation  
            District and its board of directors, the real parties in  
            interest, because it deprived the irrigation candidates and  
            voters, including petitioner voters, of equal protection.  The  
            court's opinion gave two reasons it did not extend its ruling  
            to other irrigation districts.  First, the Imperial Irrigation  
            District was singular at that time among irrigation districts  
            in that it had more residents, land, and employees than any  
            other irrigation district and it was providing retail water  
            service.  Second, neither respondents nor real parties in  
            interest had opposed petitioners' claim that Water Code  
            Section 21100 was unconstitutional, and numerous irrigation  
            districts in the state that would have been affected by a  








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            finding of unconstitutionality did not have the opportunity to  
            present their views or offer evidence regarding the  
            characteristics and operation of irrigation districts in  
            general.  


          3)Bill Summary.  Under existing law, directors of the District  
            are registered voters, landowners, and residents within the  
            division they represent.  The Legislature has authorized  
            several irrigation districts:  Pixley Irrigation District,  
            Hills Valley Irrigation District, Stratford Irrigation  
            District, and Byron-Bethany Irrigation District, to allow  
            nonresident and nonvoter landowners to serve on the board of  
            directors, if the board passes a resolution.  There are  
            protections in existing law that establish protest proceedings  
            for resident voters in each of the Districts, if they do not  
            want nonresident and nonvoter landowners to serve as  
            directors.  


            This bill mirrors provisions in existing law for several other  
            irrigation districts and authorizes the District to adopt a  
            resolution in a public hearing to allow nonvoter nonresident  
            landowners who live within one mile of the District's  
            boundaries to serve as a director.  This bill also includes  
            the ability for registered voters to protest the change to  
            allow landowners of the District, who are residents within the  
            residency area defined by this bill, to serve on the board.   
            According to the District, there are 200 landowners within the  
            residency area defined by this bill, who would then qualify to  
            be a director.  This bill is sponsored by the District.  


          4)The District.  The Tulelake Irrigation District is located  
            within the Upper Klamath Basin and includes land in both Modoc  
            and Siskiyou counties.  The District has an exterior boundary  
            that includes 96,000 acres, and its northern boundary is  
            contiguous to the border between California and Oregon.  The  
            District's governing body is a five-member board of directors.  








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             According to Modoc County Local Agency Formation Commission's  
            municipal service review, the District was formed in 1952, and  
            entered into a contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in  
            1956 for repayment of construction charges and the transfer to  
            the District the maintenance of the facilities used to deliver  
            water to District lands.  In 1957, the Board of Directors  
            approved the formation of an improvement district to operate  
            and maintain pumps, dikes, and drainage facilities already  
            constructed by landowners and to apportion all charges among  
            several landowners according to the number of acres of land  
            owned.  The District only provides water services for  
            agricultural purposes and is financed by assessments on  
            landowners.  


          5)Author's Statement.  According to the author, "The current  
            system of qualifying and electing directors of TID [Tulelake  
            Irrigation District] is failing.  The current residency  
            requirements preclude those with an interest in the proper  
            functioning of the irrigation district from running.   
            Directors who may wish to step down are concerned that a  
            dearth of potential candidates exists and are therefore  
            continuing to serve long past their preferred tenure.  TID  
            exists in the very rural northern part of the state and  
            provides no municipal services.  The TID leadership has come  
            to the realization that candidates for board seats will more  
            likely be found once potential candidates realize that the  
            operations and governance of the irrigation district are  
            directly tied to the farmland that they own and operate."    


          6)Prior Legislation.  The Assembly Local Government Committee  
            has heard a number of bills addressing qualification  
            requirements for both voters and directors of irrigation  
            districts.  There have been several legislative attempts that  
            have sought to limit landowner qualifications for board  
            directors.  SB 614 (Wolk), Chapter 784, Statutes of 2013,  
            would have removed the landownership requirement from the list  
            of qualifications to serve as a director of an irrigation  








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            district, if the district provided water for agricultural  
            purposes and water for municipal or industrial purposes.  SB  
            1939 (Alarcón), Chapter 1041, Statutes of 2000, deleted the  
            landowner qualification for board members of irrigation  
            districts that provide electricity.  AB 2279 (Dymally) of 2004  
            would have deleted the landowner qualification for board  
            members of most irrigation districts, but failed passage in  
            the Senate Local Government Committee.  AB 159 (Salinas),  
            Chapter 847, Statutes of 2006, removed the landowner  
            requirement for irrigation districts that are required to  
            submit an urban water management, and thus, provide 3,000 or  
            more acre-feet of water to residential customers or that have  
            more than 3,000 customers.  


            Several bills seeking to make changes to voter and director  
            qualifications for individual irrigation districts were never  
            heard by a policy committee or failed passage.  SB 1189  
            (Florez) of 2006, which was never heard by the Senate Local  
            Government Committee, would have required voters to be  
            landowners instead of registered voters in the Alpaugh  
            Irrigation District.  When AB 1189 was before the Legislature,  
            the Alpaugh Irrigation District only had 131 registered  
            voters, and only six of those registered voters were  
            landowners eligible to serve on the board.  AB 286  (Matthews)  
            of 2005, which failed passage in the Senate Local Government  
            Committee, would have allowed the Board of Directors of the  
            Banta-Carbona Irrigation District to adopt a resolution to  
            allow non-resident landowners to serve on the board.  This  
            introduced version of this bill was nearly identical to AB 386  
            (Dahle) of 2015, which was never heard by the Committee.  


          7)Policy Considerations.  The Legislature may wish to consider  
            that there are other approaches to widening the pool of  
            eligible directors besides allowing nonvoter and nonresident  
            landowners to serve as directors.  










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             a)   Resident Non-landowner Directors.  The principal acts  
               for almost all other types of special districts do not  
               require landownership as a qualification for office.  The  
               Legislature may wish to consider allowing resident voters,  
               who are not landowners, to be eligible to serve on the  
               board as a director.  The Legislature has established an  
               exemption to the landowner requirements in existing law for  
               the South Bay Irrigation District.  


             b)   Size and Divisions.  Existing law provides a process for  
               irrigation districts to change the number of divisions or  
               the method of electing directors.  Due to the expressed  
               challenges by the District in getting five directors to  
               serve, who are registered voters, landowners, and residents  
               within the division, the Legislature may wish to consider,  
               if a three-member board or removing the divisions in the  
               District would help remedy these challenges.  


          8)Arguments in Support.  The District argues "The District has  
            had difficulty finding landowners who are willing and eligible  
            to serve on its Board of Directors given the current  
            requirement that Directors live in the Division they  
            represent."  




          Arguments in Opposition.  None on file.


          Analysis Prepared by:                                             
                          Misa Lennox / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958  FN:  
          0002858












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