BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE
Senator Lois Wolk, Chair
BILL NO: SB 235 HEARING: 3/16/11
AUTHOR: Negrete McLeod FISCAL: No
VERSION: 3/14/11 TAX LEVY: No
CONSULTANT: Detwiler
WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICTS' GOVERNING BOARDS
Allows water conservation districts to reduce the size of
their governing boards.
Background and Existing Law
Most of the 3,300 special districts rely on about 50
principal acts which spell out their powers, finances, and
governance. The Water Conservation District Law of 1931 is
the principal act for the 11 water conservation districts
(WCDs), which have elected boards of directors with three,
five, or seven members. One WCD has a three-member board,
four districts have five-member boards, and six have
seven-member boards.
Special legislation allows the two WCDs in Ventura County
to change the size of their boards of directors and
reapportion their electoral divisions. Proceedings start
with either a board resolution or a voter petition. The
WCD's board must send the proposal to the county board of
supervisors. After giving public notice, the county
supervisors must hold a public hearing and then call an
election on the proposal. State law requires
majority-voter approval to change the size of the WCD's
board (AB 2934, Henson, 1965).
The San Bernardino Valley WCD covers 78 square miles and
about 98,000 registered voters, including the San
Bernardino County communities of Highland, Loma Linda,
Redlands, and San Bernardino. The District has a
seven-member board of directors, elected by divisions.
Three directors' terms end in December 2011; four in
December 2013. To help reduce its costs, the District
wants to reduce the size of its board of directors from
seven to five. However, there are no statutory procedures
for changing the size of the governing boards of the WCDs
SB 235 -- 3/14/11 -- Page 2
that are not in Ventura County.
Proposed Law
Senate Bill 235 allows water conservation districts with
seven-member boards of directors to decrease the number of
directors to five members.
Proceedings start when a district's governing board adopts,
by majority vote of the board's membership, a resolution
which includes a map and description of the five proposed
electoral divisions. The district's secretary must call a
public hearing that can't be less than 30 days or more than
60 days after the board adopts its resolution. The
district's secretary must publish a public notice in a
general circulation newspaper once a week for three weeks.
At its public hearing, the district's board must consider
any comments and then either disapprove the proposal or
order the decrease in the board's size. That decision is
subject to referendum by the district's voters.
Decreasing the number of directors and changing their
electoral divisions doesn't affect the existing directors'
terms of office and the existing directors continue to
serve until their terms end. Decreasing the size of a
district's board can't occur within 180 days of a
director's election.
SB 235 doesn't apply to the water conservation districts in
Ventura County.
State Revenue Impact
No estimate.
Comments
1. Purpose of the bill . To cut costs, the San Bernardino
Valley Water Conservation District wants to reduce the size
of its governing board, but there's no statutory procedure.
Only the two WCDs in Ventura County can shrink their
boards, but they need voter approval. If SB 235 let all
WCDs to use the existing procedures for the WCDs in Ventura
SB 235 -- 3/14/11 -- Page 3
County, the elections might cost more than the resulting
savings. Instead, the bill provides for public notices, a
public hearing, and the opportunity of a referendum. SB
235 balances government efficiency with public
transparency.
2. Says who ? State laws try to balance the costs of local
government with a commitment to accountability. In some
cases, state law requires voter approval before local
governments can change their governance structures.
Cities, for example, must get majority-voter approval
before changing the number of council members. Similarly,
fire protection districts need majority-voter approval if
they want to increase or decrease the size of their boards.
SB 235 allows some water conservation districts to reduce
the size of their boards without voter review, although a
referendum is possible. The Committee may wish to consider
whether a governing board's size is the kind of decision
that a local government should share with its voters.
3. Who knows ? If legislators let WCDs shrink their boards
without elections, the Committee may wish to consider
whether the public notice and the public hearing required
by SB 235 adequately substitutes for voter review. The
bill requires a WCD to publish three weekly notices before
the public hearing. While that's more notice than for most
hearings, it is enough? The Committee may wish to consider
whether a WCD should mail public hearing notices to all of
its registered voters. The Committee may wish to consider
requiring a WCD to submit its decision to voter review if
the protests at the hearing reach 10% or 25% of the
registered voters.
4. Fewer directors or fewer districts ? Both the San
Bernardino Valley WCD and the San Bernardino Valley
Municipal Water District (MWD) overlay the Bunker Hill
basin, although the MWD is nearly five times as large as
the WCD. In 2005, the Local Agency Formation Commission
(LAFCO) for San Bernardino County completed a two-year
municipal service review of the Bunker Hill basin and
determined that the MWD and the WCD should consolidate. In
2006, the MWD applied to the LAFCO for approval to
consolidate the two districts. After lawsuits and
opposition by the WCD, the LAFCO denied the consolidation
in 2010. Now the WCD wants to cut costs by cutting the
size of its governing board. The Committee may wish to
SB 235 -- 3/14/11 -- Page 4
consider whether a better alternative is to cut the number
of special districts in San Bernardino County.
Support and Opposition (3/10/11)
Support : San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation
District.
Opposition : Unknown.