BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2455
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 2455 (Williams)
As Amended June 17, 2014
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |70-3 |(May 1, 2014) |SENATE: |31-0 |(August 26, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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Original Committee Reference: L. GOV.
SUMMARY : Allows, until January 1, 2025, the Santa Rita Hills
Community Services District (District) to change the size of its
board of directors.
The Senate amendments :
1)Allow the District, if the board of directors has been reduced
to three members, to increase the board to five members, as
specified.
2)Require the District to hold a public hearing regarding the
proposal to increase the number of directors. Require notice
of the public hearing to be given by placing a display
advertisement at least one-eighth page in a newspaper of
general circulation for three weeks, pursuant to existing law,
and by United States first-class mail to each landowner voter
in the district, as specified. Require the envelope or cover
of the mailing to include the name of the local agency and the
return address of the sender and the mailed notice to be in at
least 10-point type.
3)Require the public hearing to be held at least 45 days after
mailing the notice pursuant to 2) above.
4)Require the District board of directors to receive and
consider at the hearing any written or oral comments regarding
the proposed increase in the number of directors.
5)Require the District board of directors, after receiving and
considering the comments, by a majority vote, on the record,
to do one of the following:
a) Disapprove the proposal; or,
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b) Adopt a resolution that orders the increase in the
number of members of the board to five members. Prohibits
the board from subsequently reducing the number of
directors back to three directors.
6)Make changes to the sunset date to repeal provisions of the
bill on January 1, 2025.
7)Require a petition signed by a majority of voters requesting a
reduction in the number of board directors to be submitted to
the board of directors prior to the board adopting a
resolution to propose the reduction.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Community Services District (CSD) Law which
requires a CSD board of directors to consist of five members
and establishes four-year terms.
2)Authorizes the board of directors to be elected at large, by
division, or from divisions, if a majority of the voters
voting on the question are in favor at a general district or
special election. Requires a CSD candidate for the board of
directors to be a voter of the district. Requires a CSD
candidate for the board of directors that is elected by
division to be a voter from that division.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill:
1)Allowed the District board of directors to consist of three
members, instead of five as required by current law, until
January 1, 2035.
2)Required the District board of directors, prior to reducing
the board, to adopt by a majority vote a resolution proposing
to reduce the number of directors to three members.
3)Required the District to hold a public hearing regarding the
proposal to reduce the number of directors.
4)Required notice of the public hearing to be given by placing a
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display advertisement at least one-eighth page in a newspaper
of general circulation for three weeks, pursuant to existing
law, and by United States first-class mail to each landowner
voter in the district, as specified. Required the envelope or
cover of the mailing to include the name of the local agency
and the return address of the sender and the mailed notice to
be in at least 10-point type.
5)Required the public hearing to be held at least 45 days after
mailing the notice pursuant to 4) above.
6)Required the District board of directors to receive and
consider at the hearing any written or oral comments regarding
the proposed reduction in the number of directors.
7)Required the District board of directors, after receiving and
considering the comments, by a majority vote, on the record,
to do one of the following:
a) Disapprove the proposal; or,
b) Adopt a resolution that orders the reduction in the
number of members of the board to three members.
8)Prohibited a reduction in the number of directors from
affecting the term of office of any director. Required a
director currently holding office as of the effective date of
the reduction in the number of member of the board to continue
to be the director until the office becomes vacant by means of
term expiration or otherwise.
9)Made conforming changes within CSD Law.
10)Found and declared that a special statute is necessary
because of the unique circumstances applicable only to the
District.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS :
1)Author's statement. According to the author, "This bill
addresses a district specific problem. The District is facing
a declining pool of candidates to serve on their board of
directors. As such, this bill allows them to temporarily
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reduce their board membership from five to three members.
"The District is a 'roads' district formed in 2009 by a vote
of property owners. It was created to serve a small community
of Santa Rita Hills which consists of 39 parcels in Santa
Barbara County. The power and responsibilities granted to the
District include the act to acquire, construct, improve and
maintain streets, roads, bridges and sidewalks. Any road
improvements or infrastructure constructed by the District
must be related to the authorized services and any significant
costs for construction will be financed by benefit assessments
approved by landowners within the District.
"Because much of the district is comprised of parcels of land,
there are only between 10-12 actual voters residing in the
district, some of which are in the process of moving outside
the district. Additionally, Santa Barbara County currently
has a restriction that prohibits new residences from being
built in the district until upgrades in road access is
provided, thereby limiting the potential for new registered
voters within the district.
"At present day, the board currently has one vacancy and
consists of only four members. The vacancy was created by a
member who moved out of the area. Additionally, one of the
four remaining board members continues to travel for military
support out of the county; therefore the board has a bare
quorum of three with which to conduct business. Additional
vacancies are expected in the near future leaving the board in
a situation where they may lose quorum to conduct business.
As required by law, the board gave notice to the county about
their board vacancy last year. To date, the county has been
unable to find a replacement for the resignation."
2)Purpose of this bill. There are over 300 CSDs in California
that provide up to 32 different services, including water,
garbage collection, wastewater management, security, fire
protection, and public recreation. SB 135 (Kehoe), Chapter
249, Statutes of 2005, required all CSDs to have a five-member
board of directors, as part of the rewrite of the CSD Law.
The board of directors are elected by resident voters for
four-year terms.
This bill allows the District to decrease their board of
directors to three members and to increase their board of
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directors back up to five members, until January 1, 2025.
Under this bill the board would have to comply with a number
of hearing and notification requirements in order to pass a
resolution with a majority vote to reduce or increase their
board membership. This bill also requires a petition signed
by a majority of voters requesting a reduction in the board of
directors prior to the passage of a resolution. This bill
would not impact the term of any board member currently in
office. This bill is sponsored by the District.
3)Local government governance structure and previous
legislation. In some cases, state law requires voter approval
before a local government can change their governance
structure. For example, cities must get majority-voter
approval to change the number of council members.
Additionally, current law requires a majority-voter approval
in fire protection districts to increase or decrease the size
of their boards.
The Legislature has authorized special districts to increase
or decrease the size of boards
of directors by both amending the principal act, like for
water conservation districts (SB 235 (Negrete McLeod), Chapter
122, Statutes of 2011), and by making specific exceptions for
individual special districts. For example, SB 210 (Local
Government Committee), Chapter 176, Statutes of 2001,
authorized the Sawyers Bar County Water District (Siskiyou
County) to decrease the size of their board from five to three
members. Sawyers Bar only had 14 registered voters at the
time SB 210 was making its way through the process. SB 210
authorized their board of directors to reduce its membership
if a majority of the district's voters signed a petition
requesting that reduction. Alternatively, instead of
requiring direct action from the voters, SB 235 authorized
water conservation districts with a board consisting of seven
directors to reduce the number of directors to five by a
resolution adopted by two-thirds of the board. The hearing
and notification requirements in SB 235 and the petition
requirements in SB 210 are substantially similar to this bill.
4)Policy considerations. The Legislature may wish to consider
the following issues:
a) Other options. Given the current governance challenges
faced by the District, the Legislature may wish to consider
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if the District should be consolidated or dissolved instead
of just reducing board membership. The Legislature may
wish to consider if this bill is attempting to provide a
temporary solution for a longstanding systemic issue that
may be better addressed by the Santa Barbara Local Agency
Formation Commission.
b) What will change? The Legislature may wish to ask the
author what circumstances outlined in the reasoning
provided for the purpose of the bill will change to warrant
the need to return back to a five-member board within the
next 10 years?
c) Purpose of the District. The District continues to face
challenges with fulfilling the purpose of the District to
design and construct a system of roads to provide access to
existing parcels within the CSD. The Legislature may wish
to consider whether the purpose of the District can
actually be fulfilled in light of the broader challenges
and if this bill will address any of those issues.
5)Arguments in support. Supporters argue that this bill allows
the district to reduce the size of their board until the
current requirements can be more easily met in the future -
once the roads are improved and property owners are allowed to
build their residences.
6)Arguments in opposition. None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Misa Yokoi-Shelton / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958
FN:
0004014