BILL ANALYSIS
AB 642
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 27, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Nancy Skinner, Chair
AB 642 (Huber) - As Amended: April 13, 2009
SUBJECT : Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy
SUMMARY : Creates the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy
(Conservancy) within the Natural Resources Agency (NRA).
EXISTING LAW : establishes the California Bay-Delta Authority and
assigns responsibility for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program's
Ecosystem Restoration Program (ERP) to the Department of Fish
and Game (DFG). The 2006 Budget Act transferred funding and
responsibility for CALFED to the Secretary of NRA; DFG continues
to oversee the ERP.
THIS BILL :
1)Creates the Conservancy within the NRA.
2)Defines Delta sustainability program (Program) as "a
comprehensive Delta program intended to sustain the ecosystem
of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Suisun Marsh and to
preserve and enhance agriculture and the economic viability of
the Delta."
3)Establishes the governing board (board) for the Conservancy to
include 9 voting members and three ex officio non-voting
members as follows:
a) Five members, each of whom must be a member of the Board
of Supervisor of the five Delta counties (Solano, Yolo,
Sacramento, San Joaquin and Contra Costa), appointed by
each county Board of Supervisors;
b) Two public members who reside in a Delta county,
appointed by the Governor;
c) Two public members who reside in a Delta county,
appointed by the Legislature, one by the Senate Rules
Committee and one by the Speaker of the Assembly; and,
d) Three ex officio non-voting members: Director DFG, chair
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of the Delta Protection Commission (DPC), Secretary of NRA,
or designees.
4)Provides for 3-year, staggered terms for all board members,
who may be reappointed at the end of a term.
5)Requires public members to reflect either the diversity of
interests in the Delta or statewide interests as they relate
to the authorities and mission of the Conservancy.
6)Limits the Conservancy's jurisdiction to the Delta and Suisun
Marsh; the board may take or fund an action outside of this
jurisdiction if the action is consistent the goals established
by the Legislature for the Conservancy.
7)Requires annual reports to the Legislature and Governor on
progress toward its implementation of the Delta sustainability
program intended to restore and manage habitat
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : In the last decade, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
has suffered a substantial ecosystem decline. The Delta is, at
once, the heart of California's water system and the most
valuable estuary ecosystem on the west coast of North and South
America. For a number of complex factors, the populations of
Delta fish species have dropped to near-extinction levels,
resulting in court-ordered restrictions on water exports to the
San Francisco Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern
California. Federal, state and local agencies have worked on
ecosystem restoration projects for more than 15 years. The
CALFED Bay-Delta Program, a project of federal and state
agencies, has largely failed to make sufficient progress to head
off the ecosystem decline. After fishery agencies reported the
Delta ecosystem crisis in 2005, ecosystem restoration efforts
have accelerated, including an effort by the NRA to create a
"Bay-Delta Conservation Plan" in order to secure permits under
the federal Endangered Species Act for the state and federal
water project exports.
1)Delta Vision Task Force recommends creation of a conservancy
this session
The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force (Task Force), created by
the Governor in 2006, has recommended, among other things, the
establishment of a Delta conservancy to coordinate restoration
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of the Delta ecosystem as early as possible in the 2009
legislative session. The Task Force also recommended an
11-member conservancy comprised of local (five members
representing Delta counties nominated by the Delta Protection
Commission and appointed by the Governor) and state officials
(Secretary of NRA, Director of Finance, two members with
business or land trust experience appointed by the Governor).
The remaining members would be legislatively-appointed and
ex-officio members.
Importantly, the Task Force has recommended restoration of
interconnected habitats on the order of 100,000 acres within the
Delta and its watersheds by 2100, pursuant to a proposed
California Delta Ecosystem and Water Plan (Plan), developed by a
yet-to-be created Delta Ecosystem and Water Council (Council),
an overarching policy, planning, and regulatory oversight body.
This bill does not reference this Plan or Council though it
references a "Comprehensive Delta sustainability program"
intended to "sustain the ecosystem" of the Delta and "to
preserve and enhance agriculture and the economic viability of
the Delta." Restoration is conspicuously absent from this
program.
2)AB 642 closely tracks AB 13 with important exceptions
With key exceptions, this bill borrows generously from the
language in AB 13 (Salas), which also establishes a Delta
Conservancy, approved by this committee on April 20, 2009. AB
642 does not give the Conservancy any express powers or
authority with respect to land or water restoration, acquisition
or management. Additionally, all nine members of the board must
either be Delta county supervisors (five) or residents of the
Delta (four), with a majority of the board comprised of the
former. This bill, sponsored by San Joaquin County (County), is
the product of a resolution adopted by the County Board of
Supervisors that declared that "The County will protect its
ability to govern, as an elected body, from proposed usurpation
through governance by a non-elected, appointed board or
council." Any Delta governance, the resolution states, must
include elected representatives from the County, and Delta
counties must comprise a majority of any governing body.
AB 13 also creates a Delta Conservancy; however, its board
composition closely mirrors the recommendations of the Task
Force with one major exception: the legislatively-appointed
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members are voting members. Both the Task Force and AB 13
propose that the majority of the Board be comprised of either
gubernatorial appointees or a combination of gubernatorial and
legislative appointees and executive branch membership. This is
consistent with most if not all of the state's conservancy
boards. Moreover, as a state entity sustained by either General
Fund or state bond revenues, which is likely to be the case for
any Delta conservancy, it is appropriate that the majority of
any governing board be comprised of members appointed by
statewide elected officials held accountable by the state's
electorate.
3)Dual referral
This bill will be heard in Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife
Committee should it be approved by this committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors (sponsor)
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Dan Chia / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092