BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1172|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1172
Author: Galgiani (D)
Amended: 6/23/09 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE : 3-2, 7/8/09
AYES: Wiggins, Kehoe, Wolk
NOES: Cox, Aanestad
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/14/09 (Consent) - See last page
for vote
SUBJECT : Eastern San Joaquin County Water District
SOURCE : Central San Joaquin Water Conservation District
Stockton-East Water District
DIGEST : This bill allows a local agency formation
commission (LAFCO) to increase the number of members on the
board of directors of a consolidated water conservation
district to seven, nine or eleven, as specified, and may
provide an alternative schedule for reducing the size of
the consolidated district's board until the number of
members' equals five, seven, or nine, as specified. This
bill also allows the Eastern San Joaquin County Water
District to continue to collect acreage charges, ground
water assessments, and stream-delivered water charges in
successive years in accordance with constitutional
requirements, as specified. This bill states that these
provisions become operative on the effective date set by
CONTINUED
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the San Joaquin County LAFCO for the consolidation of the
Stockton-East Water District and the Central San Joaquin
Water Conservation District.
ANALYSIS :
I. Governance . Water conservation districts' boards of
directors can have three, five, or seven members who are
elected by registered voters by districts. With
majority-voter approval, a district can change the size
of its board.
Where state law provides for alternative methods of
selecting a district's governing body or for varying the
size of a district's governing body, the LAFCO can
designate how to select the members of the consolidated
district's board.
Unlike many other special districts' principal acts, the
Water Conservation District Law does not allow
consolidated districts to have temporarily expanded
boards of directors and allow the LAFCO to sort out the
board's subsequent contraction.
This bill allows a local agency formation commission to
increase the number of members on the board of directors
of a consolidated water conservation district to seven,
nine, or eleven. The LAFCO may provide an alternative
schedule for reducing the size of the consolidated
district's board. If the LAFCO does not provide a
schedule, this bill reduces the size of the consolidated
district's board of directors as the board members'
terms expire, until the number of members equals five,
seven, or nine, as determined by the LAFCO. If a
vacancy occurs on the consolidated district's
temporarily expanded board, the board may choose not to
fill the vacancy and thereby reduce the number of board
members.
II. Eastern San Joaquin County Water Agency . Proposition
218 (1996) imposed constitutional limits on local
officials' ability to impose, increase, and extend
taxes, assessments, and fees, including property-related
fees. When a city or special district that has taxes,
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assessments, and fees annexes more territory, a 1999
Attorney General's opinion explained that local
officials can collect those charges in the newly annexed
territory without complying with Proposition 218's
complex requirements for three reasons:
A. Nothing in the historical record suggests that
Proposition 218's requirements were to be added to
the boundary changes' statutory requirements for
public notices, protest hearings, and possible
elections.
B. The statutes implementing Proposition 218 are
consistent with constitutional requirements.
C. Trying to mesh the constitutional requirements
with the boundary change statutes "would be virtually
impossible" and "present an administrative
imbroglio."
Special legislation allows the Stockton-East Water
District to levy annual "ground water assessments" and
charge customers for "stream-delivered water," but
imposes statutory limits on the amounts [AB 2030
(Monagan), 1971]. In addition to the regular powers of
water conservation districts, the Central San Joaquin
Water Conservation District has special statutory
authority to collect a uniform charge per acre. The
special legislation set a minimum annual charge of $10
per parcel and a maximum charge of up to $2.50 an acre
[AB 641 (Johnston), Chapter 444, Statutes of 1983].
Officials from the Stockton-East Water District and the
Central San Joaquin Water Conservation District intend
to call their proposed consolidated district the Eastern
San Joaquin County Water District. The consolidated
district may want to collect the Stockton-East Water
District's current ground water assessments and
stream-delivered water from the property in the Central
San Joaquin Water Conservation District. Conversely,
the consolidated district may want to collect the
Central San Joaquin Water Conservation District's
current uniform acreage charges from the property in the
Stockton-East Water District.
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This bill renames the chapter in the Water Conservation
District Law that applies only to the Central San
Joaquin Water Conservation District so that it applies
to the Eastern San Joaquin County Water District. This
bill amends the special legislation that applies only to
the Stockton-East Water District so that it applies to
the Eastern San Joaquin County Water District.
This bill allows the Eastern San Joaquin County Water
District to continue to collect acreage charges, ground
water assessments, and stream-delivered water charges in
successive years in accordance with constitutional
requirements, provided that those charges and
assessments followed the statutorily required procedures
at the time that the charges and assessments were
established.
These provisions become operative on the effective date
set by the San Joaquin County LAFCO for the
consolidation of the Stockton-East Water District and
the Central San Joaquin Water Conservation District.
Comments
The Stockton-East Water District and the Central San
Joaquin Water Conservation District (San Joaquin County)
are two of the 13 special districts that operate under the
Water Conservation District Law of 1931. The Stockton-East
Water District covers the City of Stockton and
unincorporated communities east to the Stanislaus County
line. Stockton-East sells irrigation water to farmers and
ranchers and wholesales water supplies to the City of
Stockton, the California Water Services Company, and some
smaller agencies. The Central San Joaquin Water
Conservation District serves agricultural areas south of
the Stockton-East Water District and east to the Stanislaus
County line. Both districts have seven-member boards of
directors.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/9/09)
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Central San Joaquin Water Conservation District (co-source)
Stockton-East Water District (co-source)
Association of California Water Agencies
San Joaquin County LAFCO
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill Berryhill,
Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Brownley,
Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro,
Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore,
Duvall, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong,
Fuller, Furutani, Galgiani, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall,
Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman,
Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Krekorian, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande,
Niello, Nielsen, John A. Perez, V. Manuel Perez,
Portantino, Price, Ruskin, Salas, Silva, Skinner,
Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres,
Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada
NO VOTE RECORDED: Ammiano, Fuentes, Gaines, Garrick,
Saldana, Smyth, Bass
AGB:mw 7/9/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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