BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1096
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 19, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
SB 1096 (Elections & Constitutional Amendments Committee) - As
Amended: May 1, 2012
SENATE VOTE : 37-0
SUBJECT : Citizens Redistricting Commission.
SUMMARY : Makes various substantive and technical changes to
provisions of state law that govern the operations of the
Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC). Specifically, this
bill :
1)Moves up the deadline by four and one-half months for each of
the steps involved in accepting and reviewing applications
from individuals who are interested in serving on the CRC, and
in establishing the CRC from the pool of qualified applicants.
2)Requires the State Auditor, instead of the Secretary of State
(SOS), to provide support functions to the CRC while it is
being formed until the CRC's staff and office are fully
functional.
3)Provides that the three-person panel that reviews applications
for the CRC shall be made up only of auditors who are employed
by the Bureau of State Audits (BSA), instead of being made up
of auditors who are licensed by the California Board of
Accountancy (CBA) and employed by the state.
4)Clarifies that the CRC has the authority to fill all vacancies
on the CRC. Extends the amount of time, from 30 to 90 days,
that the CRC has to fill a vacancy that occurs on or after
December 31 of a year ending in the number two.
5)Makes a requirement that the CRC take public comment on any
map for at least 14 days applicable only to the first
preliminary statewide maps created by the CRC. Requires those
first preliminary maps of congressional, State Senatorial,
Assembly, and State Board of Equalization (BOE) districts to
be publicly displayed no later than July 1 in each year ending
in the number one, and prohibits the CRC from displaying any
other maps for public comment during the 14 day public comment
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period. Requires a public comment period of at least seven
days for all other preliminary statewide maps, and requires a
public comment period of at least three days for any final
statewide maps. Requires all maps created by the CRC to
comply with specified constitutional criteria for the creation
of districts, to the extent practicable.
6)Provides that a requirement that the CRC provide at least 14
days of public notice for most meetings applies only to
meetings held for the purpose of receiving public input
testimony. Allows the CRC to hold meetings with only three
days' notice in the month of August in the year ending in the
number one, instead of in September of that year.
7)Provides that a statewide outreach program to solicit broad
public participation in the redistricting process, for which
the Governor is required to include funding in his or her
budget in each year ending in the number nine, shall include
the solicitation of applicants to the CRC.
8)Requires the Governor to make meeting space available to the
CRC, in addition to making office space available.
9)Extends, from 10 to 12 days, the amount of time that a bill
must be in print prior to final passage by the Legislature if
that bill proposes to amend specified provisions of state law
that govern the formation and operations of the CRC.
Prohibits the Legislature from amending those specified
provisions in a year ending in the number nine.
10)Makes corresponding and technical changes.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the CRC, and gives it the responsibility for
establishing the district lines for State Senate, Assembly,
Congress, and the BOE.
2)Establishes a process for the application for serving on, and
the selection of members of, the CRC. Provides that the
application process shall begin by January 1 in each year
ending in the number zero. Provides for applications to be
reviewed by a panel comprised of three auditors employed by
the state and licensed by the CBA.
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3)Allows the CRC to hire commission staff, legal counsel, and
consultants as needed. Requires the SOS to provide support
functions to the CRC until its staff and office are fully
functional. Requires the Governor to make adequate office
space available for the operation of the CRC.
4)Requires the CRC to fill any vacancy on the CRC within 30 days
after the vacancy occurs.
5)Requires the CRC to establish and implement an open hearing
process for public input and deliberation. Requires the
hearing process to include hearings to receive public input
before the CRC draws any maps and following the drawing and
display of any CRC maps. Requires public comment to be taken
for at least 14 days from the date of public display of any
map.
6)Requires the CRC to comply with the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting
Act, and requires the commission to provide not less than 14
days' public notice for each meeting, except meetings held in
September in the year ending in the number one, which may be
held with three days' notice.
7)Requires the Governor, in each year ending in the number nine,
to include amounts of funding in his or her proposed budget
that are sufficient to meet the estimated expenses of the
State Auditor, the CRC, and the SOS in implementing the
redistricting process for a three-year period. Provides that
the funding shall include, but not be limited to, adequate
funding for a statewide outreach program to solicit broad
public participation in the redistricting process.
8)Provides that specified provisions of the Government Code that
govern the formation and operations of the CRC may be amended
only if all of the following conditions are met:
a) By the same vote required for the adoption of the final
set of redistricting maps, the CRC recommends amendments to
carry out the purpose and intent of those provisions of
code;
b) The exact language of the amendments provided by the CRC
is enacted as a statute approved by a two-thirds vote of
each house of the Legislature and signed by the Governor;
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c) The bill containing the amendments provided by the CRC
is in print for 10 days before final passage by the
Legislature;
d) The amendments further the purposes of the ballot
measure that created the CRC; and,
e) The amendments are not passed by the Legislature in a
year ending in the numbers zero or one.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
This bill represents several common sense improvements
to the statutes governing the California Citizens
Redistricting Commission and the redistricting process
negotiated with numerous interested parties.
Specifically, starting the application and selection
process for commissioners four and one-half months
earlier would give future commissions more time to
hire staff and consultants in an open, public process.
The Commission would also have more time to conduct
additional public education and outreach. SB 1096
also addresses many procedural issues such as noticing
requirements for meetings that will assist future
commissioners' ability to complete their mission.
2)Background on the CRC : Proposition 11, which was approved by
the voters at the 2008 statewide general election, created the
CRC, and gave it the responsibility for establishing district
lines for the Assembly, Senate, and BOE. Proposition 11 also
modified the criteria to be used when drawing district lines.
Proposition 20, which was approved by the voters at the 2010
statewide general election, gave the CRC the responsibility
for establishing lines for California's congressional
districts, and made other changes to the procedures and
criteria to be used by the CRC. The CRC consists of 14
registered voters, including five Democrats, five Republicans,
and four others, all of whom are chosen according to
procedures specified in Proposition 11.
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Proposition 11 placed the general structure of the CRC and the
criteria to be used by the CRC when drawing district
boundaries in the California Constitution, but put most of the
specifics about the formation and operation of the CRC into
statute. As a general rule, statutory provisions of
initiative measures can be amended only by another statute
that becomes effective only when approved by the electors,
unless the initiative statute permits amendment without voter
approval. Proposition 11 allows the statutory provisions of
that measure to be amended without voter approval only if all
of the following conditions are met:
a) The CRC recommends amendments to the statutory
provisions by the same vote required for the adoption of
the final set of maps;
b) The exact language of the amendments provided by the CRC
is enacted as a statute approved by a two-thirds vote of
each house of the Legislature and signed by the Governor;
c) The bill containing the amendments provided by the CRC
is in print for 10 days before final passage by the
Legislature;
d) The amendments further the purposes of Proposition 11;
and,
e) The amendments are not passed by the Legislature in a
year ending in the numbers zero or one.
On June 7, 2012, the CRC met and unanimously approved the
language contained in the current version of this bill.
3)Applicant Review Panel : Proposition 11 provided for the
creation of a three-person panel to review applications for
the CRC and to create a pool of 60 of the most qualified
applicants to the CRC. The members of the CRC ultimately are
chosen from the applicants remaining in that pool after four
specified Legislative leaders exercise their authority to
strike applicants from the pool. Under the provisions of
Proposition 11, the three-person review panel is to be made up
of auditors who are licensed by the CBA and employed by the
state. This bill instead provides that the review panel will
be made up only of auditors who are employed by the BSA.
Although the number of auditors who are employed by the BSA is
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smaller than the number of auditors who are licensed by the
CBA and employed by the state, this policy change is
consistent with regulations adopted by the BSA to implement
Proposition 11. In adopting those regulations, the BSA
decided to exclude auditors from other agencies from serving
on the review panel due to concern that auditors from other
agencies would "remain under the control of those agencies
and, therefore, the independence contemplated by �Proposition
11] would be lost."
4)Arguments in Support : The CRC, in support of this bill,
writes:
In 2011, for the first time in California history, the
independent CRC drew State Assembly, Senate,
Congressional and Board of Equalization districts.
After participating in that historic process, and in
the litigation immediately following, we evaluated our
experience and concluded that there are several common
sense improvements that can be made to the statutes
governing the Commission and the redistricting
process?.
The foremost critical issue is that of time.
Commissioners, interested organizations and the
general public all concurred that the original
seven-month time frame from the date the full
Commission was seated until the adoption of the final
maps created unnecessary hurdles?. Starting the
application and selection process for Commissioners
four-and-a-half months earlier would give future
Commissions more time to hire staff and consultants in
an open, public process. The Commission would also be
able to conduct public education and outreach?.
SB 1096 requires one set of preliminary district maps
for public review and comment on or before July 1st in
years ending in one. The current Commission had no
such requirement, but did produce a preliminary map on
June 10, 2011. The requirement to provide at least
one preliminary district map will guarantee that the
public will have the ability and time to review the
maps and respond to the Commission.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
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Support
California Common Cause
California Forward
Citizens Redistricting Commission
League of Women Voters of California
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094