BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                        
                       SENATE LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE
                        Senator Patricia Wiggins, Chair


          BILL NO:  SB 673                      HEARING:  5/6/09
          AUTHOR:  Cox                          FISCAL:  No
          VERSION:  2/27/09                     CONSULTANT:  Detwiler

                      PUBLIC UTILITY DISTRICTS' GOVERNANCE

                           Background and Existing Law  

          Locally elected boards of directors govern the 53 public  
          utility districts (PUDs).  The state law that governs PUDs  
          describes how the districts elect their directors at-large.  
           Candidates must identify themselves as running for the  
          office of "director at large" number one, number two, and  
          so on.  At the election, the candidates who declared for a  
          seat with a designated number run for just that seat.  The  
          candidate with the highest vote total for a given seat  
          prevails.

          The Tahoe City PUD serves portions of Placer and El Dorado  
          counties in the Lake Tahoe basin.  The District notes that  
          the PUD at-large elections aren't truly at large.  The two  
          or three candidates who get the most votes throughout a PUD  
          don't necessarily win election to the board of directors  
          because they must declare for a seat with a designated  
          number.  The District wants the Legislature to allow PUDs  
          to conduct elections that are truly at large.


                                   Proposed Law  

          Senate Bill 673 declares that a director at large on a  
          public utility district's board of directors may be  
          determined by either those candidates receiving the  
          greatest number of votes districtwide or for a seat with a  
          designated number.


                                     Comments  

          1.   Local choice  .  The state law that describes how PUDs  
          elect directors at large doesn't rely on districtwide  
          election results like city councils and other special  
          districts.  If there are two open seats, with two  
          candidates for each seat with a designated number, the  




          SB 673 -- 2/27/09 -- Page 2



          candidate who came in second in District One may have  
          received more votes than the candidate who won in District  
          Three.  SB 673 allows PUDs to choose between the current  
          unusual method and a districtwide at large method like most  
          other local governments.

          2.   Clarity is good  .  Although SB 673 allows public utility  
          districts to run their at large elections in two different  
          ways, the bill isn't clear about the procedures that a  
          district would use to make that choice.  The Committee may  
          wish to consider an amendment that requires a public  
          utility district that wants to rely on districtwide at  
          large elections to adopt an ordinance that adopts that  
          approach.


                         Support and Opposition  (4/30/09)
           
          Support  :  Tahoe City Public Utility District.

           Opposition  :  Unknown.