BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON
ELECTIONS AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Ben Allen, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SCA 8 Hearing Date: 7/7/15
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|Author: |Mendoza |
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|Version: |5/11/15 |
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|Urgency: | |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Darren Chesin |
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Subject: Charter counties: board of supervisors: redistricting
DIGEST
This bill, if approved by the voters, requires any charter
county with a population greater than two million residents
after the 2020 U.S. census to have a governing body comprised of
at least seven members.
ANALYSIS
Existing law :
1)Requires, pursuant to the California Constitution, that if a
county adopts its own voter-approved charter, it must have a
directly elected board of supervisors with at least five
members. The Constitution allows charter counties to elect
their supervisors by districts, from districts, or at large.
This bill :
1)Requires that in a charter county with a population of more
than two million residents at a decennial U.S. census,
beginning with the 2020 U.S. census, the county charter must
provide for a governing body of seven or more members.
2)Caps expenditures for the governing body and its staff, in a
charter county with a population of more than 2 million
residents, at either the amount budgeted for the 2020-21
fiscal year or the amount that has the same proportion to
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total county expenditures as the governing body and staff
expenditures had to the total county budget in the 2020-21
fiscal year, whichever is less.
3)Repeals, on January 1, 2021, the authority for any county
charter to provide for a governing body elected at-large or
at-large by district.
4)Repeals, on January 1, 2021, constitutional language
specifying the manner in which some charter counties can
prescribe their governing bodies' compensation by ordinance.
5)Makes additional non-substantive changes to current law.
BACKGROUND
Affected Counties . There are 14 charter counties in California:
Alameda, Butte, El Dorado, Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange, Placer,
Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo,
Santa Clara, and Tehama. San Francisco, a city and county,
elects its 11 supervisors by districts. The other charter
counties all elect their five-member boards of supervisors by
districts.
Five counties have populations of more than two million
residents: Los Angeles (10.1 million), San Diego (3.2 million),
Orange (3.1 million), Riverside (2.3 million), and San
Bernardino (2.1 million).
Are Some Supervisorial Districts Too Large ? In large counties,
some observers complain that the size of the supervisorial
districts result in unrepresentative democracy. Each Los
Angeles County supervisor represents nearly two million
constituents, which is larger than the countywide population in
53 of California's 58 counties. The extreme ratio between
constituents and supervisors can lead to political alienation
and a lack of political responsiveness. Some observers also
suggest that five-member boards of supervisors provide few
opportunities to increase the diversity of the members to better
represent demographic changes in California's most populous
counties.
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Although voters can amend their county's charter to expand the
number of supervisors, there are no recent successes:
1)On November 6, 1962, Los Angeles County voters rejected
Proposition D, which would have expanded the Board of
Supervisors from five members to seven members.
2)At the November 2, 1976 General Election, Los Angeles County
voters rejected Proposition B, which would have expanded the
Board of Supervisors from five members to nine members.
3)Proposition C on the November 3, 1992 ballot, would have
increased the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors from
five to nine members, failed by a margin of about two-to-one.
4)On the March 26, 1996 primary ballot, voters in Orange County
rejected Measure U, a charter proposal to expand the board of
supervisors from five members to nine members.
5)On November 7, 2000, more than 64% of Los Angeles County
voters rejected Measure A, which would have increased the
number of county supervisors from five to nine.
COMMENTS
1)According to the author : SCA 8 is a bipartisan measure that
will require that any county that has two million or more
residents based upon the 2020 Census, to add two seats to
their board of supervisors. While counties have the ability
to address the issue of adequate representation on county
boards, only a few such ballot attempts have been made in the
last 150 years - all unsuccessfully. Since the 1950s, four of
them have taken place in Los Angeles and once in Orange county
and rejected each time for inadequate cost controls. SCA 8
has strong and effective cost control by requiring funding of
the expanded board at the 2020-21, pre-expansion levels.
As a statewide measure, SCA 8 reduces the historic ability of
individual incumbents or groups of incumbents to kill local
measures to expand a board, as in 2000 when Los Angeles County
Supervisors responded to SCA 7 (Polanco) that sought to expand
the LA County Board. They instead placed County Measure A on
the ballot to expand to nine members and insisted on a vacuous
cost control mechanism. Once on the ballot, the majority of
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the five board incumbents raised funds and campaigned against
Measure A - using the lack of effective cost control and the
near doubling of the members as a platform - to ensure its
defeat.
SCA 8 is designed to have the most minimal impact on a
county's authority to manage itself as it restricts itself to
expanding the Board by two members if the population of the
county exceeds two million people. The affected County
retains all of its existing powers.
Expanding the number of supervisorial seats for the state's
largest counties will provide the opportunity for these bodies
to be more responsive and reflective of the needs of the
people they represent and serve. This constitutional
amendment is about increasing representation and
accountability in our county governments by bringing them a
little closer to home and to the people they represent.
County boards of supervisor members carry out legislative and
executive branch responsibilities for their constituents.
They oversee a majority of vital services to our residents
including healthcare, public safety, traffic, social services,
public works, parks, and libraries among others. However,
although elected, the number of members on county board of
supervisors has not changed since their creation more than 150
years ago, despite dramatic changes in the state's population,
demographics and their increased responsibilities for the
services they oversee for their constituents. These types of
services require constant attention to the concerns of their
constituents in the delivery of these services.
SCA 8 will bring about better delivery of services for
residents and accountability to make sure the services are
fairly and efficiently provided.
As amended, SCA 8 would currently cover five counties, Los
Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, and San Diego.
Santa Clara may join the list if its population exceeds two
million in 2020.
2)Proposed Author's Amendments . The author has informed the
committee that he wishes to amend this bill to include general
law counties with a population of more than two million. Such
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an amendment would have the effect of including Riverside
County within it provisions. The proposed amendments would
also clarify that the seven board members be elected by
district, require that the members reside in the district, and
that they be subject to existing statutes that relate to
apportioning population of governing body districts.
3)Is This the Best Approach ? Some observers note that
increasing the size of a county governing board addresses only
part of the problem when discussing the ability of county
governments to properly function. As the author notes,
members of county boards of supervisors carry out legislative
and executive branch responsibilities for their constituents.
Since San Francisco is both a city and county, it is the only
county in California with an elected mayor or county
executive. However, some or all of the counties in 25 other
states also have elected county executives or mayors. An
elected county executive relieves the governing board from the
responsibility of overseeing the day-to-day operations of
administrative agencies and allows them to function more like
a traditional legislative body. Furthermore, an elected
county executive is accountable to the voters in the entire
county rather than just those within a supervisorial district.
RELATED/PRIOR LEGISLATION
SCA 7 (Polanco) of 1999-2000, which was held in Assembly
Elections Committee, would have expanded the minimum number of
supervisors for Los Angeles County from five to nine.
PRIOR ACTION
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|Senate Governance and Finance | 4-2 |
|Committee: | |
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POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: Los Amigos of Orange County
Los Angeles County Chicano Employees Association
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Oppose: California State Association of Counties
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
Orange County Board of Supervisors
San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors
Urban Counties Caucus
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