BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 184
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Date of Hearing: July 1, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Brian Maienschein, Chair
SB
184 (Committee on Governance and Finance) - As Amended June 15,
2015
SENATE VOTE: 36-0
SUBJECT: Local government: omnibus bill.
SUMMARY: Enacts the Local Government Omnibus Bill of 2015,
which proposes a number of non-controversial changes to existing
laws governing the powers and duties of local agencies.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, there are potential minor reimbursable mandate costs
related to provisions that eliminate the sunset on releasing
subdivision performance securities. The Senate Appropriations
Committee notes that no mandate claims have been filed in the 10
years that these provisions have been in statute, so it is
unlikely that local agencies would submit a reimbursement claim
in the future. The remaining provisions of this bill are
expected to have negligible fiscal impacts.
COMMENTS:
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1)Bill Summary. This bill enacts the Local Government Omnibus
Act of 2015, which includes the following provisions:
a) County recorders. County recorders accept and
officially record legal documents, notices, or papers.
Among the papers that they record are "instruments," which
are written papers signed by the persons who are
transferring real property.
Existing law, which governs county recorders, has not been
amended for many decades and uses the pronouns "he" and
"him" to refer to a county recorder. This bill replaces
outdated references to "he" and "him" with gender-neutral
terms.
Current law allows a county recorder to make marginal
notations on records to indicate whether "internal revenue
stamps" were affixed to specified documents. This bill
deletes the references to "internal revenue stamps" and
instead allows a recorder to make marginal notations as
part of the recording process.
Outdated existing law, pursuant to Section 14 of Article XI
of California's 1849 Constitution, which established a
wife's right to own property separately from her husband,
still requires county auditors to keep an index of the
separate property of married women. This bill repeals this
antiquated requirement.
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Current law allows a county recorder to keep a "general
grantor-grantee index" of specified recorded documents
relating to real property transfers. This bill allows a
county recorder to combine the general grantor-grantee
index in computerized or electronic format and requires
that the names of the grantors must be distinguished from
the names of the grantees by an easily recognizable mark or
symbol.
Existing law specifies the procedures that a county
recorder must follow to record an instrument that is
authorized by law to be recorded and deposited in the
recorder's office. Among those procedures is a requirement
that the recorder must endorse upon the document the "name
of the person at whose request it is recorded". More
recent statute specifies that the name of a person
requesting recording must be shown in the left hand margin
of a document. This bill deletes the outdated requirement
that a recorder must include a requestor's name in the
endorsement upon the document.
Read narrowly, existing law could be interpreted as
requiring a county recorder to use the mail to return a
recorded document to the person who submitted it for
recording. This bill clarifies that a county recorder may
immediately return a document that has been recorded to the
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party who submitted the document.
Current law requires that a deed or instrument executed to
convey fee title to real property must, before a recorder
accepts it for recording, note across the bottom of the
first page the name and address to which future tax
statements may be mailed. This bill deletes language
specifying that the information must appear "across the
bottom" of the page, allowing the tax statement declaration
to appear at the top of the page.
b) Subdivision Map Act - Payments for setting final
monuments. The Subdivision Map Act controls how counties
and cities approve the conversion of large landholdings
into separate parcels. The Act requires that an engineer
or surveyor making a survey for a final map or parcel map
must set sufficient durable monuments so that another
engineer or surveyor may readily retrace the survey. A
city or county may require a subdivider to provide a
deposit to ensure the payment of various fees and services
related to a final map or parcel map, including payment of
the cost of setting the final monuments. The Act requires
that if an engineer or surveyor's costs of setting final
monuments are to be paid from the deposit held by the city
or county, the payment must be made by the city or county's
"legislative body." As a result, an item approving the
release of funds from a subdivider's deposit must be placed
on the legislative body's agenda for approval. A local
legislative body must act before an engineer or surveyor
can receive payments from a subdivider's deposit can result
in substantial delays and unnecessary costs. This bill
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allows a local legislative body to designate a public
officer or employee, who is qualified to prepare or approve
parcel maps or final maps, to release or reduce the amount
of a deposit to pay an engineer or surveyor for setting
final monuments, subject to specified conditions and rules.
Counties and cities may impose conditions when they approve
proposed subdivisions, often requiring the subdividers to
install public works such as street lights. Sometimes
subdividers must provide assurances that the work will be
completed, including performance bonds, deposits, credit
instruments, liens, or other property interests. In 2006,
the Legislature adopted uniform procedures and time limits
by which counties and cities must either release the
securities provided for subdivision conditions or tell the
subdividers about the incomplete performance or
unsatisfactory work with a January 1, 2011, sunset clause
(AB 1460, Umberg, 2005). In 2010, the Legislature extended
the statute's sunset date, until January 1, 2016. This
bill repeals the sunset date in the statute governing the
timeframe and procedures for releasing subdivision
performance securities, thereby allowing the statute to
remain in effect indefinitely.
c) Clerks. Several statutes governing a local government's
powers to acquire, construct, maintain and operate sanitary
sewer systems assign specified duties to the local
government's clerk. Similarly, statutes governing
improvement districts assign specified duties to a local
government's clerk and contain statutory definitions and
uses of the term "clerk" which are ambiguous and could be
misinterpreted to refer to a county clerk, a court clerk,
or even a county registrar of voters. This bill clarifies
that the term "clerk," as used in several statutes
governing local governments' sanitary sewer functions and
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business improvement districts, means the clerk of the
local agency's legislative body.
d) County Auditors and Sanitation and Sewage Systems.
Cities, counties, special districts, and authorized public
corporations can collect fees for the sanitation and sewage
services and facilities they provide. Current law requires
officials to give written notice to affected property
owners and file a copy of this notice with "the auditor,"
if a local government wants to collect these fees as part
of its general taxes, or if it plans to place a lien on a
parcel of land to collect these charges." The Code defines
"auditor" as "the financial officer of the [local
government] entity" which is confusing, as these code
sections only relate to duties and powers of county
auditors. This bill adds the word "county" before the word
"auditor".
e) Small counties and job order contracting. Current law
allows counties to award annual contracts for "repair,
remodeling, or other repetitive work," these contracts are
commonly referred to as job order contracts, and contains
contracting requirements that apply only to counties with
fewer than 500,000 residents. These provisions prevail
over other statutes and create ambiguity about whether
smaller counties can use the job order contracting
authority that is established elsewhere under current law.
In 2007, the Legislature passed a bill to eliminate a
similar ambiguity over whether existing law allows smaller
counties to participate in the Public Construction Cost
Accounting Act (SB 206, Cox, 2007). This bill clarifies
that counties with fewer than 500,000 residents may award
contracts, pursuant to the provisions of a specified
statute governing counties' job order contracts.
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f) Public utility districts cross-reference correction.
The California Public Contract Code specifies rules that
public utility districts must follow when letting contracts
for certain types of work. Existing law contains an
erroneous cross-reference to the Public Utility Code
statutes that govern public utility districts. This bill
corrects the cross-reference.
g) California Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting
Act updates. The Public Contract Code establishes
procedures for public works projects, including limits on
the contracts' values. Counties, cities, special
districts, school districts, and community college
districts voluntarily adopt the standards and procedures of
the Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting Act
(UPCCAA), and can use higher limits for their contracts.
About 770 local agencies participate. The UPCCAA created
the Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting Commission
(the Commission), which is responsible for administering
the UPCCAA. The Commission consists of fourteen members,
thirteen of which are appointed by the State Controller and
one designated member of the Contractors' State License
Board. Seven members represent the public
sector (local governments). Six members represent the
private sector (public works contractors and unions).
The UPCCAA requires that two commission members must
represent school districts, one with an average daily
attendance over 25,000 and one with an average daily
attendance under 25,000. This bill repeals the language
specifying average daily attendance thresholds, thereby
allowing the Commission's two school representatives to
come from districts of any size.
The UPCCAA specifies that the members of the commission hold
office for terms of three years, and until their successors
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are appointed. This bill clarifies that the State
Controller may reappoint members for subsequent three-year
terms. This bill also increases, from 90 days to 120 days,
the period of time within which the Controller must appoint
a replacement to fill a vacancy on the Commission.
Commission members cannot receive compensation for serving on
the Commission, but must be reimbursed for travel and other
expenses necessarily incurred in the performance of their
duties. This bill specifies that the reimbursement rates
must conform to the Controller's travel guideline rates.
The UPCCAA requires the Commission, as part of its
deliberations and review, to take into consideration
relevant provisions of the Office of Management and Budget
Circular A-76, which relates to the performance of
commercial activities. This bill clarifies that the
Commission's consideration should include any periodical
revisions of that OMB circular.
The UPCCAA requires participating local agencies to adopt an
informal bidding ordinance that, among other things,
specifies the manner in which notices inviting informal
bids are to be sent to a list of qualified contractors,
construction trade journals, or both. This bill clarifies
the informal bid solicitation procedures and allows notices
inviting informal bids to be mailed, faxed, or emailed to
the appropriate contractors list or trade journals.
The UPCCAA requires a participating agency's governing body
to adopt plans, specifications, and working details for
public projects that exceed a specified value. This bill
allows the plans, specifications, and working details to be
prepared by a designated representative of the governing
body, which will accommodate the Division of the State
Architect's role in the plan approval process for school
districts.
The UPCCAA requires the Commission to prepare written
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findings after it reviews an agency's compliance with the
Act' provision. This bill requires that the written
finding must be presented to the agency within 30 days of
the Commission's review. The UPCCAA requires a local
agency to present the Commission's findings to its
governing board and requires the board to hold a hearing
within 30 days of receiving the findings. This bill
requires that the board must be presented with the findings
within 30 days and allows the board to hold a hearing
within 60 days of receiving the findings. For Commission
findings relating to non-accounting practices, this bill
requires the agency's board to notify the commission in
writing, within 60 days of receipt of written notice of the
findings, of the public agency's efforts to comply.
h) Summarily vacating public service easements. As a
condition of property development, cities and counties may
require developers to dedicate public service easements
that provide a legal basis for utilities and other public
facilities to occupy land within the development. In some
cases, these public service easements are never used for
the purposes for which they were originally intended.
Current law specifies the manner in which cities and
counties can summarily vacate public service easements that
are no longer needed. Proponents of this bill argue that
the procedures for summarily vacating public service
easements, which require a local legislative body to adopt
a "resolution of vacation" at a public hearing, can be
unnecessarily time consuming and costly. As an
alternative, this bill allows a local legislative body to
delegate the authority to vacate a public service easement
to a designated public officer or employee who is otherwise
qualified to prepare easements or approve parcel maps or
final maps. The designated officer or employee can vacate
an easement by recording a document that contains the same
information that must be stated in a "resolution of
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vacation," including a certification that all entities
having any right, title, or interest on the public service
easement being vacated have been notified of this action.
i) California Water District contracting authority.
California Water District Law requires that contracts
necessary to carry out a district's powers and purposes
must be executed by a district's president and secretary.
Existing law governing several other types of special
districts allow the districts' boards to delegate the power
to sign contracts to district officers and employees. This
bill grants California Water Districts' governing boards
the authority to delegate to district officers and
employees the power to sign contracts on the district's
behalf.
j) Paso Robles Basin Water District. Current law
authorizes, under the California Water District Law, the
governing board structure and powers of the Paso Robles
Basin Water District in San Luis Obispo County (AB 2453,
Achadjian, 2014). Existing law specifies that the
District's board must be comprised of nine directors, and
allows the District's board to adopt emergency regulations,
which become effective immediately upon adoption, by the
vote of only four or more board members. This bill
corrects this error by requiring that a supermajority vote
of seven members of the Paso Robles Basin Water District
Board is required to adopt an emergency ordinance.
2)Author's Statement. According to the author, "Each year local
officials discover problems with the state statutes that
affect counties, cities, special districts, and redevelopment
agencies, as well as the laws on land use planning and
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development. These minor problems do not warrant separate
(and expensive) bills. According to the Legislative Analyst,
in 2001-02 the cost of producing a bill was $17,890.
"The Senate Governance & Finance Committee responds by
combining several of these minor topics into an annual omnibus
bill. In 2014, for example, the Committee's omnibus bill was
SB 1462 which contained 10 proposals to change state law,
avoiding more than $160,000 in legislative costs (Chapter 201,
Statutes of 2014). Although this practice may violate a
strict interpretation of the single-subject and germaneness
rules as presented in Californians for an Open Primary v.
McPherson (2006) 38 Cal.4th 735, nevertheless it is an
expeditious and relatively inexpensive way to respond to
multiple requests."
3)Conflicting Legislation. Provisions of this bill conflict
with AB 679 (Allen) and AB 1105 (Daly) and may need amendments
to address the conflict, should the bills continue to move
through the legislative process.
4)Arguments in Support. Supporters argue that this bill makes
several non-controversial changes to the statutes governing
local governments that are proposed from a variety of
stakeholders and that these minor problems do not warrant
separate and expensive bills; therefore, the omnibus bill
offers a feasible vehicle to maintain the accuracy and
effectiveness of state law.
5)Arguments in Opposition. None on file.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
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Support
Air Conditioning Sheet Metal Association
Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Contractors Association
Association of California Water Agencies
California Building Industry Association
Construction Industry Force Account Council
California Legislative Conference of the Plumbing, Heating and
Piping Industry
Finishing Contractors Association of Southern California
National Electrical Contractors Association
United Contractors
Wall and Ceiling Alliance
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Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Misa Lennox / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958