BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2453|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2453
Author: Achadjian (R)
Amended: 7/2/14 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 6-0, 6/18/14
AYES: Wolk, Knight, DeSaulnier, Hernandez, Liu, Walters
NO VOTE RECORDED: Beall
SENATE NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER COMMITTEE : 8-0, 6/24/14
AYES: Pavley, Cannella, Evans, Fuller, Hueso, Lara, Monning,
Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Jackson
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 50-11, 5/28/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Paso Robles Basin Water District
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill authorizes, under the California Water
District Law, the governing board structure and powers of the
Paso Robles Basin Water District (district) in San Luis Obispo
County, with the district's boundaries to be established by the
San Luis Obispo County Local Agency Formation Commission.
ANALYSIS : Under existing law, special districts are separate
local governments formed to provide limited public services to a
geographically designated area. Most special districts provide
a focused governmental service, such as road maintenance, but
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some forms of special districts, such as Community Services
Districts, can provide a range of services. Unlike counties,
special districts are not confined to serving a contiguous area.
Like cities and counties, special districts have the
operational authorities to function and provide direct services.
Unlike cities and counties, however, special districts
typically do not have police powers, or the power to regulate
private behavior, but in some instances limited regulatory
powers are authorized.
Special districts are statutorily authorized in two manners.
The Legislature has enacted "principal acts," which authorize,
typically through local petition and approval by a county Local
Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), residents or local
officials to call for the formation of a special district. The
powers and authorities for each special district originate in
the principal act under which each district is formed. There
are some 50 different principal acts.
Occasionally the needs of a community are not adequately
addressed under the principal acts, and the Legislature
authorizes a special act district, in which the district
governing structure, authorities, and financing powers are
authorized directly in a special statutory provision. There are
some 125 special act districts in California.
Existing law authorizes some 20 types of special districts that
have statutory authority to provide water or exercise authority
over groundwater. Additionally, more than a dozen special act
districts exercise some form of groundwater authority.
Groundwater also can be managed under the police powers of local
agencies, such as through ordinances. The California Department
of Water Resources reports that 27 counties have adopted
groundwater management ordinances. Additionally, AB 3030
(Costa, Chapter 947, Statutes of 1992) established the
California Groundwater Management Act, which authorized but did
not require local agencies to put in place a groundwater
management plan. SB 1938 (Machado, Chapter 603, Statutes of
2002) furthered the goal of groundwater management by requiring
a groundwater management plan before local agencies can seek a
range of state funding.
This bill authorizes, under the California Water District Law,
the governing board structure and powers of the district in San
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Luis Obispo County, with the district's boundaries to be
established by the San Luis Obispo County Local Agency Formation
Commission. The district's formation shall comply with the
Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg LAFCO Act of 2000, with specified
exceptions, and the district's authority will be subject to
LAFCO review.
This bill establishes the governing and voting structure for the
district as follows:
The governing board of the district must include nine
landowner members, six of whom shall be elected by landowners,
and three of whom shall be elected by resident-voters.
Of the six directors elected by landowners, two directors must
elected by landowners owning 400 or more acres of land in the
district, two directors must be elected by landowners owning
between 40 and 399 acres of land in the district, and two
directors must be elected by landowners owning less than 40
acres of land in the district.
Landowner-voting is weighted, with each landowner-voter
casting one vote for each acre of land owned by the voter
within the district. Candidates for the landowner seats can
be drawn from any class of landowner.
Specifies the three remaining landowner seats elected by
registered voters in the district, with one-voter casting one
vote, be elected from among all eligible voters who reside
within the district.
Eligibility for the director seats is limited to landowners who
are residents of the districts or who reside within two miles of
the district boundary, or within the City of Paso Robles, the
Atascadero Mutual Water Company, the Templeton Community
Services District, the San Miguel Community Services District,
or the San Luis Obispo County Service Area 16.
The election of the district board is to be carried out
according to the terms of the Uniform District Election Law, and
shall be treated as a landowner-voter district. This bill
allows voting to be conducted by all mail ballots.
The bill requires that the participation of landowners in the
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election to be carried out as follows:
If the holder of title is a trust, any trustee of the trust
may vote on behalf of the trust;
If the holder of title is a corporation, the president, vice
president, secretary, or other duly designated officer may
vote on behalf of the corporation;
If the holder of title is a limited liability company (LLC),
any managing member may vote on behalf of the LLC; and
Any officer or partner with managerial responsibilities of a
legal entity not listed above, inclusive, may vote on behalf
of the entity.
This bill authorizes the Paso Robles Basin Water District to
exercise authority under the Groundwater Management component of
state water law and declares that the creation of the district
shall not modify the powers of the County of San Luis Obispo or
the San Luis Obispo County Flood and Water Conservation
District.
This bill allows the local LAFCO, when establishing the
district, to also incorporate any powers and authorities granted
to the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency Act that the
LAFCO deems appropriate.
Comments
This bill establishes the governance structure for a new water
district charged with managing the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin
and ensuring reliable and equitable access to water that is
essential to the residents and communities of the region. The
unique governance structure of this bill brings together
landowners and residents, with balanced representation, to
manage the often contentious challenges surrounding water. The
governance structure established in this bill results from
months of community deliberations and compromise, and represents
the best approach to building the community confidence needed to
manage the region's groundwater that is the primary - and often
the only - water source for area residents, farms and
businesses. This bill is uniquely tailored to the needs of the
region.
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FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/2/14)
California Association of Winegrape Growers
City of El Paso de Robles
Family Winemakers of California
Mesa Vinyard Management Inc.
Paso Robles Agricultural Alliance for Groundwater Solutions
Paso Robles Groundwater Basin Blue Ribbon Commission
Pro Water Equity, Inc.
Road Runner Farm
San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors
San Luis Obispo County Supervisor, Frank. R. Mecham
Vino Farms, LLC
Wine Institute
OPPOSITION : (Verified 7/2/14)
California Coastal Protection Network
California Labor Federation
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
California Teamsters Public Affairs Council
California Water Impact Network
Center for biological diversity
Clean Water Action California
Community Water Center
Defenders of Wildlife
Desal Response Group
Food & Water Watch
Moonrise Ranch
North Country Water
Planning and Conservation League
San Luis Obispo County Cattlemen's Association
San Luis Obispo County Supervisor, Debbie Arnold
Sierra Club California
Southern California Watershed Alliance
United Farm Workers
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the Paso Robles
Agricultural Alliance for Groundwater Solutions (PRAAGS) and the
California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG), "the latest
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update to the county's Paso Robles Groundwater Basin Model
indicates groundwater has been in decline for a number of years.
A conventional California Water District model, among others,
was considered and found not to meet the diverse needs of the
various local interests."
AB 2453 proposes to create a unique governing structure for the
Paso Robles Basin Water District should it be established by the
San Luis Obispo County Local Agency Formation Commission. The
governance structure proposed in the measure is a nine-member
board of directors, comprised of three at-large members elected
by registered voters in the district and six members elected on
the basis of acreage - two each from small, medium, and large
landowners, respectively.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : A coalition of environmental
organizations argue, while we support local management of
groundwater supply, the candidate qualification and voting
process to form and determine Paso Robles Basin Water District
directors proposed in AB 2453 are unfair to local residents who
do not own large acreage of land. As written, AB 2453
incorporates an acreage-based voting model to form and elect six
out of the nine water district directors and requires that those
running for the position of director be landowners themselves.
There would be nine directors elected to the board: two elected
by large landowners, two elected by medium landowners, two
elected by small landowners, and three members at large elected
by all registered voters. The vote to decide whether or not to
form this type of water district is strictly acreage-based.
This type of voting system and landownership requirements for
water district directors will send a signal to local residents
that their votes and opinions do not have the same weight as
their neighbors who own land or more land. We would like to see
a system where residents are treated equally regardless of the
amount of lands owned. This could be done by putting in place a
one-voter-one-vote system and removing the landownership
requirement for eligibility to be a director.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 50-11, 5/28/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Bigelow, Bocanegra, Bradford,
Ian Calderon, Ch�vez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dababneh,
Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman,
Hall, Harkey, Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Linder, Logue,
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Maienschein, Mansoor, Melendez, Muratsuchi, Nazarian,
Nestande, Olsen, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Quirk-Silva,
Ridley-Thomas, Salas, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk, Atkins
NOES: Ammiano, Fox, Gomez, Gonzalez, Roger Hern�ndez, Levine,
Medina, V. Manuel P�rez, Skinner, Stone, Williams
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Buchanan,
Campos, Chau, Fong, Lowenthal, Mullin, Pan, John A. P�rez,
Rendon, Rodriguez, Ting, Weber, Wieckowski, Yamada, Vacancy
AB:e 7/2/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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