BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE
Senator Dave Cox, Chair
BILL NO: SB 1205 HEARING: 4/7/10
AUTHOR: Corbett FISCAL: Yes
VERSION: 3/24/10 CONSULTANT:
Weinberger
BAY AREA DISASTER RECOVERY AUTHORITY
Background and Existing Law
The Association of Bay Area Governments is a voluntary
council of governments (COG) created by the Bay Area's nine
counties and 101 cities through a joint powers agreement.
Like other COGs, ABAG prepares long-term regional plans and
has other statutory planning duties.
The regional threat posed by earthquakes and other major
natural disasters is among the most significant challenges
confronting Bay Area planners. To improve the chances of
securing funding for long-term disaster recovery planning
projects and to improve the effectiveness of disaster
planning efforts, local officials want ABAG to create a
separate authority to focus specifically on planning for
long-term disaster recovery in the Bay Area.
Proposed Law
Senate Bill 1205 creates the San Francisco Bay Area
Disaster Recovery Authority with jurisdiction extending
throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The jurisdiction of
the Authority is not subject to the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg
Local Government Reorganization Act.
SB 1205 contains extensive legislative declarations
regarding the need to create a regional entity to generate
and allocate resources for development of long-term
disaster recovery plans, protocols, and mitigation projects
for the San Francisco Bay Area. The bill expresses the
Legislature's intent that the Authority should complement
existing efforts by cities, counties, districts, and other
local, regional, and state entities, related to addressing
the bill's goals.
Purposes . SB 1205 requires the Authority to create a
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long-term regional recovery plan, to be implemented before
and after an earthquake or other disaster occurs in the Bay
Area, by cooperating with various stakeholders in the Bay
Area, including the cities, counties, special districts,
school districts, emergency operators, hospitals, members
of the public, private business, and nongovernmental
organizations.
Governance . SB 1205 requires the Authority to be governed
by a board consisting of all members of the ABAG Regional
Planning Committee and the following members, appointed by
ABAG:
At least four members representing lifeline
infrastructure districts such as water and wastewater,
power and energy, telecommunications, and transit.
A member representing a school district or county board
of education.
A member representing a nonprofit service delivery
agency.
A member of the Bay Area Super-Urban Area Security
Initiative.
At least four members representing private sector
business, economics, and planning organizations.
Board members serve at the pleasure of the appointing
authority and the appointing agency must fill vacancies
within 90 days.
SB 1205 specifies that board members must exercise their
independent judgment on behalf of the interests of the
residents, the property owners, and the public as a whole
in furthering the bill's intent and purposes.
The board elects its own chair and vice chair. The Chair
must fix the time and place of the board's first meeting.
After the first meeting, the board must hold meetings at
times and places determined by the board.
Within six months of the board's first meeting, the board
must convene a Bay Area Disaster Recovery Administrative
Committee to assist and advise the board in carrying out
its functions. The Administrative Committee must meet
regularly. The Authority determines the Administrative
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Committee's membership based upon criteria that provide a
broad representation of community and agency interests and
geographical diversity within the Authority's jurisdiction
over the long-term disaster recovery in the San Francisco
Bay Area.
SB 1205 requires the Authority to comply with the Brown
Act, the Public Records Act, and the Political Reform Act.
Powers . SB 1205 authorizes the Authority to raise funds
and award grants to public and private entities, including
owners or operators of public and private property within
the San Francisco Bay area, for the purposes of maintaining
and enhancing the region's resiliency following a disaster
by reducing the potential loss of life, property damage, or
environmental degradation, and accelerating economic
recovery from those disasters. Grants awarded by the
Authority may be used to support all phases of planning,
construction, monitoring, operation, and maintenance for
eligible projects. The bill requires the Authority, in
reviewing and assessing projects, solicit input from its
Administrative Committee. SB 1205 requires the Authority
to give priority to projects that address either of the
following:
The highest priority mitigation strategies identified in
the Federal Emergency Management Agency's most recent
multijurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Additional needs identified in the recovery plan.
In addition, the Authority may:
Sue and be sued.
Engage counsel and other professional services.
Enter into contracts.
Enter into joint powers agreements.
Use interim or temporary staff, as specified.
SB 1205 prohibits the Authority from acquiring or owning
real property.
Finances . SB 1205 specifies that the Authority must be
funded through gifts, donations, grants, state or local
bonds, assessments, other appropriate funding sources, and
other types of financial assistance from public and private
sources.
In addition, the Authority can:
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Apply for and receive grants from federal and state
agencies.
Solicit and accept gifts, fees, grants, and allocations
from public and private entities.
Receive and manage a dedicated revenue source.
Deposit or invest moneys in banks or financial
institutions.
SB 1205 requires regular audits of the Authority's accounts
and records. The board must maintain accounting records
and must report accounting transactions in accordance with
generally accepted accounting principles adopted by the
Government Accounting Standards Board of the Financial
Accounting Foundation for both public reporting purposes
and for reporting of activities to the State Controller.
SB 1205 requires the board to provide for annual financial
reports. The board must make copies of the annual financial
reports available to the public.
Automatic termination . The provisions of SB 1205 terminate
on January 1, 2030.
Comments
1. Be prepared . The failure to properly manage and plan
for disasters can have catastrophic and lasting
consequences throughout a region. The San Francisco Bay
Area will experience a major earthquake in the future.
While the Bay Area has focused on risk mitigation
strategies and emergency response preparation, there has
been less attention to the long-term recovery period that
will follow a major disaster such as an earthquake. After
implementing short-term disaster response plans to address
the region's immediate life and safety needs, what happens
in the months and years following the disaster will
determine whether the region recovers and persists as a
vibrant community and driver of the nation's prosperity, or
whether the region suffers long-term depopulation and
economic decline. SB 1205 improves the Bay Area's
long-term disaster recovery capacity by creating a regional
Authority focused exclusively on generating and allocating
resources for the Bay Area's long-term disaster planning
and recovery efforts.
2. Innovation or duplication ? The San Francisco Bay
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Area's residents and elected officials have been thinking
regionally for years. The Bay Area is home to several
single-purpose regional agencies, including ABAG. As early
as 1970, ABAG's groundbreaking comprehensive regional plan
included an earthquake hazards and planning component.
Today, ABAG is a leader among planning agencies for its
earthquake and hazards planning program. The Committee
may wish to consider whether the Bay Area needs yet another
regional government agency. Why can't ABAG already do what
SB 1205 proposes that the new Authority should do?
3. DIY . If Bay Area officials want a separate Authority
to address regional disaster planning, the Joint Exercise
of Powers Act already allows them to create a separate
government organization to exercise powers that the member
agencies hold in common. ABAG, itself, is such a joint
powers agency. The Committee may wish to consider why the
Legislature should play any role in establishing a regional
authority that Bay Area officials can create themselves.
4. Hybrid governance . SB 1205 requires the Authority's
governing board to be composed of all 34 members of its
Regional Planning Committee plus at least 11 other members
appointed by ABAG. The Regional Planning Committee's
membership and the additional ABAG appointees are a mix of
public officials and representatives of private entities,
including: the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the Sierra
Club, the Homebuilders Association of Northern California,
the California Teachers Association, and other private
sector business, economics, and planning organizations. SB
1205 allows these non-governmental representatives to
exercise governmental powers, including the power to
allocate public funds. The Committee may wish to consider
amending SB 1205 to require that the Authority's governing
board be comprised of a fixed number of public officials,
with private sector representatives participating in an
advisory capacity.
5. Room for improvement . While the bill's intentions are
clear, some of its language is not. The Committee may wish
to consider the following amendments:
Change the name "Bay Area Post Recovery Authority" to the
"Bay Area Disaster Recovery Authority" (page 2, line 10).
Delete the definition of the term "elected official,"
which is not used in the bill (page 7, lines 6 and 7).
Replace references to the governing board members'
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"appointing authority" and "appointing agency" with
references to "ABAG" (page 8, lines 25-27).
Add a sentence to the language that lists the Authority's
sources of funding to clarify that nothing in the Title
being added by SB 1205 is intended to allow the Disaster
Recovery Authority to either incur debt or raise revenue
by levying taxes, assessments, or fees (page 11, line
19).
6. Mandate . The California Constitution requires the
state to reimburse local governments for the costs of new
or expanded state mandated local programs. Because SB 1205
imposes new duties on the Association of Bay Area
Governments, Legislative Counsel says that the bill imposes
a new state mandate. SB 1205 disclaims the state's
responsibility for providing reimbursement by citing ABAG's
authority to charge its members for its costs in
implementing the bill's provisions.
Support and Opposition (4/1/10)
Support : Association of Bay Area Governments, County of
Solano, Cities of Brisbane, Hercules, and Los Gatos, South
San Francisco City Council Member Richard Garbarino, Union
City Mayor Mark Green, San Mateo County Supervisor Rose
Jacobs Gibson, Napa County Supervisor Mark Luce, Clayton
City Council Member Julie Pierce, Clayton Mayor Hank
Stratford.
Opposition : Unknown.