BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNANCE AND FINANCE
Senator Robert M. Hertzberg, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
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|Bill No: |AB 1816 |Hearing |6/15/16 |
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|Author: |Dahle |Tax Levy: |No |
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|Version: |5/24/16 |Fiscal: |No |
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|Consultant|Favorini-Csorba |
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Tulelake Irrigation District
Allows certain non-residents to serve on the Tulelake Irrigation
District Board of Directors.
Background
Irrigation Districts. California's 93 irrigation districts
function under a collection of statutes known as the Irrigation
District Law that describe their governance structure and
authority. In general, these districts are governed by a five
member board of directors, with each member representing a
division within the district. In most cases, registered voters
are eligible to vote in district elections, but directors (also
referred to as board members) must be voters, landowners, and
residents in the division of the district they represent. This
landowner requirement reflects the historical role of irrigation
districts to exclusively provide irrigation water to
agricultural land. However, as California's population has
grown, more and more residential and commercial 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,
or providing electricity services.
Recognizing this trend, the Legislature has taken steps in the
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past few decades to allow registered voters who do not own land
to be directors in some districts. Specifically, the
Legislature deleted the landowner qualification for board
members of irrigation districts that provide electricity (SB
1939, Alarcón, 2000) and removed the landowner requirement for
irrigation districts that provide 3,000 or more acre-feet of
water to residential customers or that have more than 3,000
customers (AB 159, Salinas, 2006).
However, the Legislature has also provided specific exemptions
from the residency requirement for directors by enacting special
legislation for four districts: Pixley Irrigation District,
Hills Valley Irrigation District, Stratford Irrigation District,
and Byron-Bethany Irrigation District. The Legislature
authorized all of these districts to have non-resident directors
in 1994.
Tulelake Irrigation District. The Tulelake Irrigation District
(TID) spans 96,000 acres of land in both Modoc and Siskiyou
counties, near the Oregon border. The District was formed in
1952 to deliver water to TID lands from U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation projects. In 1957, TID took over operation and
maintenance of existing water infrastructure that landowners had
already constructed. TID only provides water services for
agricultural purposes and is financed by assessments on
landowners, based on the number of acres owned. TID's governing
body is a five member board of directors, each representing a
division of the district. Currently, TID directors must meet
all the criteria required by irrigation district statutes, such
as being a resident and landowner in the division that he or she
represents.
LAFCOs. The Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act creates a local agency
formation commission (LAFCO) in each county to control the
boundaries of cities, county service areas, and most special
districts. The courts repeatedly refer to LAFCOs as the
Legislature's watchdog over boundary changes. LAFCOs are
responsible for coordinating logical and timely changes in local
governmental boundaries, conducting special studies that review
ways to reorganize, simplify, and streamline governmental
structures, and preparing a sphere of influence for each city
and special district within each county. The Cortese-Knox
Hertzberg Act establishes procedures for local government
changes of organization, including city incorporations,
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disincorporations, annexations to a city or special district,
and city and special district consolidations. LAFCOs regulate
boundary changes by approving or denying applications by other
public agencies or individuals for these procedures.
In the case of special districts that span more than one county,
the LAFCO for the county in which the majority of the assessed
value lies has exclusive jurisdiction over the boundaries of the
special district; accordingly, Modoc LAFCO has jurisdiction over
TID.
TID currently encompasses about 400 landowners. However, 158 of
them reside outside of the district's boundaries, including 16
landowners that reside within one mile of the district's
boundaries, along a surrounding ridge. Because they live
outside of the district, these landowners are ineligible to
serve on the board. The TID board of directors wants to expand
the pool of candidates that are eligible to sit on the board of
directors.
Proposed Law
Assembly Bill 1816 authorizes the TID board of directors to
adopt a resolution that authorizes a person to be a director if
the person:
Is a registered voter in California,
Lives within the "residency area," defined as the land
within the district's boundaries or within one mile of any
boundary, and
Owns property within the division or is a property
owner's legal representative.
AB 1816 defines legal representative to mean the person
authorized to act on behalf of a corporation that is allowed to
own property in California. It also requires a legal
representative to present to the district a copy of his or her
authority to represent the corporation prior to declaring
candidacy or being appointed to the board.
AB 1816 requires that, upon written request by at least 25% of
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the registered voters in the district, all directors must meet
the requirements in current law for directors of irrigation
districts.
State Revenue Impact
No estimate.
Comments
1. Purpose of the bill . Currently, directors of the Tulelake
Irrigation District must be residents, landowners, and
registered voters in the division that they represent. These
stringent requirements, coupled with the unique topography of
TID and the surrounding area, have drastically reduced the
number of candidates that are eligible to serve on the board.
Specifically, more than one third of the landowners in the
district reside outside of the boundaries of the district,
making them ineligible. In one division, there are currently
only two potential candidates for a division seat. AB 1816
allows landowners who reside within one mile of TID's boundaries
to sit on the board of directors, expanding the pool of
candidates while maintaining a close connection between the
directors and the agricultural activities in the district.
These simple changes are consistent with previous efforts to
allow more candidates to run for irrigation board seats and
promote democratic ideals by ensuring robust electoral
competition.
2. Close, but no cigar . With rare exceptions, elected officials
must reside within the boundaries of the agency that they
represent. Of the 93 irrigation districts in California, only
four allow for directors to reside outside the district that
they represent. LAFCOs were formed in each county to act as an
arm of the Legislature to determine boundaries while considering
local conditions. While the current TID boundaries may limit
the pool of candidates, Modoc LAFCO has the ability to expand
its boundaries to encompass the residency area described in AB
1816, or to include any other relevant territory based on local
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conditions. For example, the LAFCO might determine that there
are more logical changes to TID's boundaries than simply
expanding the district one mile in all directions. Yet TID has
not applied to Modoc LAFCO to increase its jurisdiction.
Moreover, all of the other districts that allow directors to
reside outside of the district were given that authority prior
to the comprehensive changes to local government
boundary-setting that the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act enacted.
AB 1816 chips away at the role of LAFCOs, potentially setting an
undesired precedent. The Committee may wish to consider whether
this bill is necessary given the option to pursue a boundary
change through LAFCO.
3. Equal representation . The California Supreme Court, in
Choudhry v. Free (1976), 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 because it deprived the irrigation
candidates and voters of fairness and equality in the electoral
process. It did not, however, seek to determine whether this
was the case for all irrigation districts that have landowner
requirements for technical reasons. AB 1816 maintains the
landowner requirement for holding office, raising questions
about the fairness of the electoral process. Furthermore, AB
1816 authorizes directors to reside outside of the district but
does not authorize residents in that area to vote, with the
potential side effect that some director candidates may not be
able to vote in their own election. The Committee may wish to
consider whether eliminating the landowner requirement within
the current boundaries could achieve the same goal of increasing
the pool of candidates while potentially improving the
representativeness of the board and avoiding an absurd result.
4. Prior Legislation . AB 1816 is similar to AB 386 (Dahle,
2015), which would have authorized landowners in the district
that live within 10 miles of the boundaries of the district to
serve as candidates on the board. However, AB 386 also included
significant changes to the voting structure in the district that
would have required a resident to own property in order to vote,
and would have weighted votes based on the number of acres
owned. AB 386 was never heard in the Assembly Local Government
Committee.
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Assembly Actions
Assembly Local Government Committee: 9-0
Assembly Floor: 77-0
Support and
Opposition (6/9/16)
Support : Tulelake Irrigation District (sponsor); Association of
California Water Agencies; Ben DuVal Farms, Inc; City of
Tulelake; Frey Farms; Gold Dust Potato Processors, Inc; Jeff and
Leslie Boyd Farms; JW Farming, LLC; Klamath Water Users
Association; McKoen & Son; Modoc County Board of Supervisors;
Modoc County Farm Bureau; Nicholas Scott; Potato Karma; Seus
Family Farms, Inc; Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors;
Staunton Farms; Tally Ho Farms; WJB, LLC.
Opposition : Unknown.
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