BILL NUMBER: SB 878 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 25, 2012
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 4, 2012
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 9, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Senator DeSaulnier
FEBRUARY 18, 2011
An act to add Section 66536.3 to the Government Code,
relating to regional planning. relating to
transportation.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 878, as amended, DeSaulnier. Regional planning: Bay
Area. California Transportation Commission.
Existing law creates the California Transportation Commission and
imposes various duties on the commission, including, but not limited
to, assisting the Legislature in formulating and evaluating state
policies and plans for transportation programs in the state. Under
existing law, there is also a Department of Transportation and its
duties include, among others, supporting the commission in
coordinating and developing, in cooperation with local and regional
entities, comprehensive balanced transportation planning and policy
for the movement of people and goods within this state. Existing law
requires the state transportation improvement program to include a
listing of all capital improvement projects that are expected to
receive a specified allocation of state transportation funds from the
commission. Under existing law, the commission is required to
biennially adopt and submit a state transportation improvement
program to the Governor and the Legislature.
This bill would require the commission to undertake a study to
assess the appropriateness of establishing an office of inspector
general to ensure that the department and transportation agencies
with projects funded completely or in part from funds in the state
transportation improvement program are operating efficiently,
effectively, and in compliance with the state and federal laws
governing the performance of transportation agencies. The bill would
require the commission to consult with specified federal and state
agencies in this regard and would require the commission to prepare a
written report regarding the advisability of creating an office of
inspector general and to submit it to the Governor and the
Legislature by January 31, 2014.
(1) The Metropolitan Transportation Commission Act creates the
Metropolitan Transportation Commission as a regional agency in the
9-county Bay Area with comprehensive regional transportation planning
and other related responsibilities, including development of a
regional transportation plan with a sustainable communities strategy.
Existing law requires a joint policy committee of the commission,
the Association of Bay Area Governments, the Bay Area Air Quality
Management District, and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and
Development Commission to coordinate the development and drafting of
major planning documents prepared by the 4 agencies.
This bill would require the joint policy committee to submit a
written report to the Legislature by January 31, 2014, on, among
other things, methods and strategies for developing and implementing
a multiagency set of policies and guidelines relative to the Bay Area
region's sustainable communities strategy, including recommendations
on organizational reforms for the regional agencies. The bill would
require the joint policy committee to prepare a written 10-year
regional economic development strategy to consist of specified
components for submission to the Legislature by June 30, 2014. The
bill would require the joint policy committee to adopt goals and
policies related to, among other things, the inclusion of economic
development opportunities in the plans of the regional entities and
in its own plans. The bill would require the joint policy committee
to appoint a specified advisory committee and to consult with that
committee with respect to the economic development strategy. The bill
would also require the member agencies to report on public outreach
efforts that they individually or jointly perform. The bill would
require public meetings in each of the region's 9 counties. By
imposing new duties on local agencies, the bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates
determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these
statutory provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes no .
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. (a) The
California Transportation Commission shall undertake a study to
assess the appropriateness of establishing an office of inspector
general within state government to ensure the Department of
Transportation and transportation agencies with projects funded
completely or in part from funds in the state transportation
improvement program are operating efficiently, effectively, and in
compliance with federal and state laws governing the performance of
transportation agencies.
(b) In carrying out this study, the commission shall review the
federal Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.3), the
experience of other states that have an office of inspector general,
and the experience of local transportation agencies that have an
office of inspector general, and shall consult with the Bureau of
State Audits, the Inspector General of the United States Department
of Transportation, and other individuals and organizations that may
have relevant information related to an office of inspector general.
(c) The commission shall prepare a written report regarding the
advisability of creating an office of inspector general and shall
submit the written report to the Governor and the Legislature by
January 31, 2014.
(d) A report to the Legislature pursuant to this section shall be
submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares
all of the following:
(a) The Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San
Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma share the
shoreline of the San Francisco Bay estuary system.
(b) The transportation technologies of the 19th and 20th centuries
progressively integrated the movement of people and goods among the
nine counties, beginning with ferryboats plying the San Francisco Bay
and the rivers flowing into it; the passenger railroad service
between San Jose and San Francisco beginning in 1864; the interurban
rail networks linking the communities within the East Bay and the
communities of the North Bay; the Golden Gate Bridge and the San
Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, erected as public works projects during
the Great Depression to facilitate the movement of motor vehicles
throughout the region; the construction of the regional freeway
network after World War II; and the creation of the Bay Area Rapid
Transit District in 1957 and the inauguration of BART transit service
in 1972.
(c) The investments in a multimodal transportation network created
an integrated regional manufacturing, financial, and technology
economy as well as opportunities for housing a growing population.
Regional business, governmental, and conservation interests
recognized that the infrastructure investments and the dynamic
economy they support created unintended consequences, including the
degradation of the atmosphere, despoiling of the shoreline shared by
the counties, land use decisions often inconsistent and at cross
purposes with neighboring communities, and a continuing need to
rationalize the transportation system and to marshal resources for
its expansion, maintenance, and operations.
(d) Various institutional reforms were initiated during the
mid-20th century to address the unintended consequences of economic
development, including the formation of the Bay Area Air Quality
Management District in 1955; the formation of a voluntary council of
governments, the Association of Bay Area Governments, in 1961 to
enhance the coordination of policy decision across municipal and
county boundaries; the formation of the San Francisco Bay
Conservation and Development Commission in 1965 with the mission of
persevering in protection of San Francisco Bay and its estuary system
from destructive and ill-planned encroachment; and the establishment
of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in 1970, California's
first statutorily created regional transportation planning agency, to
plan the region's transportation infrastructure, to prioritize
transportation investments, and to organize and manage the allocation
of financial resources necessary to implement the regional
transportation plan.
(e) The accomplishments of the above-referenced regional
institutions are among the most significant in the state and nation
and have been acknowledged by emulation or peer recognition. The
Legislature recognized that the accomplishments of the special
purpose regional institutions are noteworthy, but a new benchmark,
the integration of regional planning and environmental regulations,
is necessary to achieve the goals of sustainable communities as
called for in Senate Bill 375 of the 2007-08 Regular Session (Chapter
728, Statutes of 2008). To this end, it is necessary to direct the
imagination and talent of the San Francisco Bay area's most
significant regional institutions to addressing the new benchmarks
and expectations established by SB 375.
SEC. 2. Section 66536.3 is added to the
Government Code, to read:
66536.3. (a) The joint policy committee shall prepare a written
report for submission to the Senate Committee on Transportation and
Housing and the Assembly Committees on Transportation and Local
Government on or before January 31, 2014, addressing all of the
following:
(1) Methods and strategies for developing and promulgating a
multiagency set of policies and guidelines governing the sustainable
communities strategy required pursuant to subparagraph (B) of
paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 65080.
(2) Methods and strategies for improving the efficiency and
effectiveness of policy setting and managerial coordination among the
regional agencies constituting the joint policy committee.
(3) Methods and strategies for ensuring that the public in the
nine counties of the region has an opportunity to comment on the
proposed polices and standards that will be promulgated by the joint
policy committee for implementing the sustainable communities
strategies. When preparing the strategies, there shall be included
criteria to assess the transparency in regional decisionmaking.
(4) Recommendations on organizational reform to effectuate the
above requirements, including recommendations as to whether such a
regional organization shall be established by legislation, a joint
exercise of power agreement, or some other institutional arrangement
specifying the terms of interagency collaboration that address the
sustainable communities requirements. The report should include the
criteria for selecting the recommended institutional arrangement.
(b) In developing the report required by subdivision (a), the
joint policy committee shall be guided by the following principles:
(1) Increasing public access to the regional process at the
community level.
(2) Respecting the integrity of the existing regional agencies.
(3) Providing policy oversight to ensure the development of a
coherent multifunctional regional plan.
(4) Integrating regional management and reducing the duplication
of overhead functions, including, but not limited to, human resources
and procurement, in order to achieve cost savings.
(c) The joint policy committee shall also prepare a written
10-year regional economic development strategy for the region for
submission to the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing and
the Assembly Committees on Transportation and Local Government on or
before June 30, 2014. The goal of the economic development strategy
shall be to ensure that the regional economy is capable of adapting
to changes in technology, market demand, and direction of the
national and international economy. The strategy shall include, but
not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) The development of a socioeconomic profile of each county.
(2) Identification of the types and locations of major clusters of
firms that are both competitive and complementary enterprises for
each county.
(3) Identification of the sectors of the economy where there is
underinvestment and a workforce with high unemployment or
underemployment.
(4) Identification of counties or communities within counties
where investment in specific sectors of the economy would enhance the
probability of increasing the employment opportunities for the
unemployed or underemployed.
(5) Identification of the public and private investments that are
needed to facilitate the development of new, or enhancement of
existing, sectors of the regional economy.
(6) Identification of institutional reforms that may be
appropriate to foster economic growth, especially in communities with
structural unemployment or underemployment.
(7) Identification of the social equity issues within the region
and the extent to which these issues may be addressed by the economic
development strategy.
(8) A profile of the unique regional environmental amenities as
well as the social and cultural amenities that are found to
contribute to employers being attracted to and remaining in the
region.
(d) The joint policy committee shall adopt goals and policies
related to the inclusion of economic development opportunities in the
plans of the regional entities and in its own plans. The goals and
policies shall also promote amenities that are special to the region
and contribute to the region's quality of life.
(e) The joint policy committee shall appoint an advisory committee
with members from the business community, including, but not limited
to, representatives of small businesses, technology and
manufacturing sectors, community colleges, public and private
universities, labor, local governments, and other organizations
involved with the private economy. The joint policy committee shall
consult with the advisory committee and coordinate the preparation of
the economic development strategy as described in subdivision (c)
with regional entities, private organizations, and university
research institutions with specialized knowledge in economic
development.
(f) The activities associated with development of the reports in
subdivisions (a) and (c) shall include public meetings in each of the
region's counties. In addition, communication with the public in
that regard shall include the use of conventional media as well as
social media.
(g) The member agencies of the joint policy committee shall also
prepare a written report identifying the public outreach and
community outreach efforts that they individually or jointly perform
under federal and state law when carrying out the respective missions
of their agencies. The report shall identify the criteria they use
to determine the communities and groups that will be the subject of
outreach. The report shall identify the actions and methods that the
agencies employ to ensure that policy decisions are made in a
transparent and accessible fashion. The report prepared by each
agency shall be submitted to the Senate Committee on Transportation
and Housing and the Assembly Committees on Transportation and Local
Government on or before January 31, 2014, and may be incorporated
with the other reports required by subdivisions (a) and (c).
SEC. 3. If the Commission on State Mandates
determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs
shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of
Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.