BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1943|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 1943
Author: Linder (R), et al.
Amended: 6/8/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANS. & HOUSING COMMITTEE: 11-0, 6/14/16
AYES: Beall, Cannella, Allen, Bates, Gaines, Galgiani, Leyva,
McGuire, Mendoza, Roth, Wieckowski
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 4/21/16 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Parking: county transportation commissions
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill provides Riverside County Transportation
Commission (RCTC) with the authority to enforce parking
regulations on property it owns, and to contract with private
vendors for parking enforcement services.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes county transportation commissions to coordinate
public transportation services within counties, reduce traffic
congestion, avoid redundant public transportation services,
and provide adequate transit options for all residents.
2)Authorizes certain public entities to impose parking
regulations on property they own. These entities include
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cities and counties, public schools, parks, municipal
airports, hospitals, harbor districts, rapid transit
districts, public transportation agencies, transit development
boards, and county transportation commissions.
3)Gives public transportation agencies the ability to enforce
the parking laws and regulations on property they own in the
manner of other public entities, such as cities and counties.
4)Establishes procedures regarding the enforcement of parking
violations and for the removal of vehicles.
This bill:
1)Expands the definition of a "public transportation agency" to
include certain county transportation commissions.
2)Authorizes the RCTC to enter into contracts with private
vendors for the enforcement of parking regulations, including
vehicle removal.
Background
Existing code provides an exhaustive catalogue of public
entities that are authorized to regulate parking on property
they own. AB 953 (Roth, Chapter 192, Statutes of 2014) added
county transportation commissions to this list. However, the
provision conveying enforcement authority is directed to "public
transportation agencies," which are defined in terms of the
services they provide. Since county transportation commissions
do not directly provide or operate transportation services, they
do not fall under a "public transportation agency" as defined in
this section. Thus these entities may lack the authority to
enforce parking rules that they are explicitly authorized to
establish.
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A limited fix for a limited problem. While the authority gap
described above would appear to be a serious issue for county
transportation commissions across the state, nearly all of these
entities are adequately covered by existing law. One common way
that this occurs is when a commission is also authorized to
serve as an additional type of entity, such as a congestion
management authority, a consolidated agency, or a toll
authority, and derives the necessary enforcement powers from
this designation. In other cases, parking facilities are
operated by the transit provider, not the commission, so
authority to enforce parking regulations at the commission level
is unnecessary.
Consequently, RCTC is currently the only county transportation
commission that owns and operates parking facilities without
adequate authority to enforce parking rules. This bill
therefore expands the existing definition of "public
transportation agency" so that it includes county transportation
commissions created pursuant to the code section that
establishes them in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San
Bernardino counties. Due to the limited scope of the problem
and the fact that county transportation commissions are not all
established in the same code section, this specific approach to
closing the enforcement gap appears to be the most
straightforward solution.
Other changes. This bill also makes several non-substantive
changes to existing law and provides RCTC with the authority to
contract with private vendors for parking enforcement, including
towing.
Comments
Purpose. According to the author, this bill corrects a
technicality in the law that prevents county transportation
commissions from being able to enforce parking restrictions at
the facilities they own. The author claims that this will
streamline the management of transit facilities and provide more
consistent parking regulations than possible under current law.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
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Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified 6/15/16)
Riverside County Transportation Commission
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/15/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 4/21/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto,
Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper,
Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim,
Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Rodriguez, Salas,
Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner,
Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Ridley-Thomas
Prepared by:Sarah Carvill / T. & H. / (916) 651-4121
6/17/16 15:03:36
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