BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 1572
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: fletcher
VERSION: 5/29/12
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 26, 2012 URGENCY: YES
SUBJECT:
Service authorities for freeway emergencies: San Diego County
DESCRIPTION:
This bill dissolves the existing San Diego County motorist aid
body and replaces it with the San Diego County Association of
Governments (SANDAG).
ANALYSIS:
Under current law, a county board of supervisors and the city
councils of a majority of the cities having a majority of the
population of cities within the county may establish a service
authority for freeway emergencies (SAFE). The county and cities
may designate the county transportation commission or the
council of governments as the SAFE, or the county and cities can
designate a seven-member SAFE, with the county board of
supervisors naming two members and the cities jointly naming the
other five. San Diego constituted its SAFE through the board
and city councils naming seven members.
Once constituted, a SAFE may impose a surcharge of $1 per year
on the registration of vehicles in the county, the revenues from
which it must use for the implementation, maintenance, and
operation of a system of call boxes on freeways, expressways,
unincorporated county roads, and state highway routes that
connect these roads. The Department of Transportation
(Caltrans) and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) must each
review and approve plans for implementation of a system of call
boxes proposed for any state highway route and receive
reimbursement from the SAFE for all costs incurred due to review
and approval of the plan.
If the funds from the $1 vehicle registration surcharge exceed
the amount needed to implement, maintain, and operate the call
box system, the SAFE may use the excess funds to provide
AB 1572 (FLETCHER) Page 2
additional motorist aid services or support, including, but not
limited to:
Changeable message signs.
Lighting for call boxes.
Support for traffic operations centers.
Freeway service patrols.
This bill :
1.Dissolves, effective January 1, 2013, the SAFE created in San
Diego County and makes SANDAG its successor for all the
remaining responsibilities of the San Diego SAFE for
operational, administrative, and maintenance tasks for the
call box system.
2.Directs the San Diego SAFE, in consultation with SANDAG, to
develop a plan to transition its responsibilities to SANDAG
between this bill's effective date and January 1, 2013.
3.Prohibits San Diego SAFE from spending any funds or entering
into any contracts during this transition period, unless
SANDAG approves those expenditures in writing.
4.Requires SANDAG to post on its website its detailed budget as
to how it spends the funds collected from the $1 surcharge on
vehicle registrations in San Diego County.
5.Requires SANDAG by January 1, 2013 to disburse any reserves in
the San Diego County's SAFE funds that are in excess of $4
million to the cities in San Diego County and to the county in
proportion to the fees paid by vehicle owners within those
jurisdictions in the 2010-11 fiscal year. The cities and
county must use funds received to implement, maintain, and
operate call boxes and to provide additional motorist aid.
6.Is an urgency measure.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . Since legislation enacted in 1985 authorized SAFEs,
California has installed over 15,000 call boxes on 6,300 miles
of highway. Call boxes provide a direct communication link to
the CHP and are available to motorists to seek assistance for,
for example, mechanical breakdowns, flat tires, traffic
accidents, or other incidents.
AB 1572 (FLETCHER) Page 3
A seven-member board governs the San Diego SAFE. The San
Diego County Board of Supervisors and the 18 cities within the
county appoint these directors, and San Diego SAFE contracts
with TeleTranTek Services (T-Cubed) for its staffing
requirements. In fact, the owner of T-Cubed serves as the
Executive Director of the SAFE.
San Diego County was the first county to implement a SAFE. At
its height, the San Diego call box system had almost 1,800
call boxes on state highways and county roads. Since then,
the number of call boxes in place has declined to
approximately 1,425 call boxes. San Diego SAFE is considering
further reductions that would bring the total installed call
boxes down to just over 900, due in part to the high cost of
maintaining the call boxes and the drop in motorists' usage of
the call boxes.
The author introduced this bill in response to what he
believes is San Diego SAFE's questionable spending practices,
including advertising gimmicks and continually increasing
consultant expenditures. The author offers as evidence that
San Diego SAFE contracted with a private company (T-Cubed) to
manage the county's call boxes and renewed the contract six
times "without once having a fair and competitive bid
process." Proponents further note that despite a dramatic
decline in call box use, San Diego SAFE has consistently
increased annual payments to the managing firm. Furthermore,
the author points out that San Diego SAFE has approximately
$12 million sitting idly in reserves, approximately $8 million
which this bill would return to the county and cities in San
Diego, while $4 million would transfer to SANDAG to perform
its SAFE duties.
2.Why SANDAG ? This bill dissolves the SAFE and names SANDAG as
the successor agency. SANDAG is governed by a board of
directors composed of mayors, councilmembers, and county
supervisors from each of the region's 19 local governments.
As the regional planning agency for transportation, SANDAG
allocates millions of dollars annually in local, state, and
federal funds for the region's transportation network. SANDAG
is also responsible for developing the regional transportation
plan to implement a long-range vision for buses, rail,
highways, and major streets. Naming SANDAG as the successor
to the SAFE is consistent with how SAFEs are administered
throughout the state.
AB 1572 (FLETCHER) Page 4
3.Distribution of excess reserves . This bill distributes
approximately $8 million in San Diego SAFE reserves to the
cities in San Diego County and to the county in proportion to
the fees paid by vehicle owners within those jurisdictions.
The cities and county must use these funds on call boxes and
additional motorist aid. The bill includes this distribution
to counter San Diego SAFE's disproportionate use of its
revenues outside of cities like San Diego, Carlsbad, El Cajon,
and La Mesa that have contributed the bulk of its revenues.
The author cites the specific example of San Diego, which has
forty percent of the county's vehicle registrations but has
received only about one percent of the motorist aid. This
bill attempts to counter this disparity by giving local
jurisdictions the funds, input, and oversight that they have
lacked for years.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 74 - 0
Appr: 17 - 0
Trans: 14 - 0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 20,
2012)
SUPPORT: Automobile Club of Southern California
Chula Vista Council Member Steve Casta�eda
City of El Cajon
National City
San Diego City Council Member Sherri S. Lightner
San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce
OPPOSED: None received.