BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2196
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Date of Hearing: April 4, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Jim Frazier, Chair
AB 2196
(Low) - As Introduced February 18, 2016
SUBJECT: Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
SUMMARY: Makes non-substantive changes to the enabling statutes
for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA).
Specifically, this bill:
1)Changes all references to VTA as the name of the organization.
2)Uses the term "territory" to refer to VTA's area of
jurisdiction.
3)Clarifies that the representatives on the VTA Board of
Directors from the cities may be either mayors or city council
members.
4)Changes several outdated references to board of supervisors to
board of directors to reflect the correct governing board of
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VTA.
5)Deletes obsolete provisions that relate to one-time events
that occurred to form the Santa Clara County Transit District
in the 1970s and that occurred to implement the merger of the
Transit District and the Congestion Management Agency to form
VTA in the mid-1990s.
6)Deletes provisions relating to situations where there is not
an agreement to submit a labor dispute to arbitration, which
are now inoperable and have been superseded by SB 1038
(Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), Chapter 46, Statutes
of 2012.
7)Clarifies that the administrative head of VTA is a general
manager, not an executive director.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Creates the Santa Clara Valley Transit District and the Santa
Clara Valley Transportation Authority with various and duties
relative to transportation projects, planning and services,
and the operation of public transit in the County of Santa
Clara.
2)Defines the Santa Clara Valley Transit District as meaning the
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.
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3)Designates that the governing board of the district shall
consists of 12 members, with two representatives of the
county who shall be members of the Board of Supervisors, five
representatives of the city of San Jose who shall be city
council members, and five council members selected from among
the cities in the county other than the City of San Jose
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown, this bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS: The Santa Clara County Transit District was created
through state legislation in 1969 to provide public transit
service for the communities of Santa Clara County. In 1989, the
Santa Clara County Congestion Management Agency was created to
implement the county's congestion management program.
Additionally, in the 1980's the Santa Clara County Traffic
Authority was established to oversee the Measure A, a voter
approved, half cent sales tax measure. In the mid-1990s Santa
Clara County reorganized the various transportation agencies and
created the VTA to manage and operate the county's transit
system, serve as the congestion management agency, develop the
county's transportation plan, and implement local sales tax
measures approved by voters.
According to the author, AB 2196 is a clean-up bill, making
various non-substantive changes to current VTA statues. A
comprehensive review and clean-up of the underlying statues
governing VTA has not been done since the reorganization of the
agency occurred. This bill is intended to update provisions
that are outdated, delete provisions that are obsolete or
inoperable, and modify provisions that are inconsistent.
Double Referral: This bill will be referred to the Assembly
Committee on Local Government should it pass out of this
committee.
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Previous Legislation: SB 374 (Alquist), Chapter 791, Statues of
1996, designated VTA to be the successor agency to the Traffic
Authority, thereby assuming responsibility for the management of
the local sales tax program.
AB 2442 (Cortese), Chapter 254, Statutes of 1994, created VTA by
reorganizing and merging the Santa Clara County Transit District
with the Santa Clara County Congestion Management Agency.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (Sponsor)
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Melissa White / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093
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