Amended in Senate June 5, 2014

Amended in Assembly April 24, 2014

Amended in Assembly April 1, 2014

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 2549

Introduced by Assembly Member Ridley-Thomas

begin insert

(Coauthor: Senator Correa)

end insert

February 21, 2014

An act to add begin delete and repeal Section 53083.2 of the Government Code, relating to local government. end delete begin insert Section 19967 to the Business and Professions Code, relating to gambling. end insert

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 2549, as amended, Ridley-Thomas. begin delete City of Milpitas. end delete begin insert Gambling: moratorium: City of Milpitas. end insert

begin delete

Existing law declares that it is the policy of the state to protect and promote the sound development of economic opportunity in cities and counties, and the general welfare of the inhabitants of those communities through the employment of all appropriate means. Existing law requires each local agency, as defined to include a city, to provide specified information to the public before approving an economic development subsidy, as defined, within its jurisdiction, and to review, hold hearings, and report on those subsidies at specified intervals.

end delete begin delete

This bill would authorize the City of Milpitas, on or before April 1, 2015, to organize an independent local commission, composed of the city manager, as an ex officio member, and 7 specified members appointed by the Milpitas City Council, to investigate and study issues related to employment, revenues, and economic activity in order to identify and recommend ways to raise revenues for specified purposes.

end delete begin delete

This bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2017.

end delete begin insert

Existing law, the Gambling Control Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of various legalized gambling activities and establishments by the California Gambling Control Commission and the investigation and enforcement of those activities and establishments by the Department of Justice.

end insert begin insert

Under the Gambling Control Act, a city, county, or city and county, may authorize controlled gambling consistent with state law, as provided. However, until January 1, 2020, existing law prohibits the governing body and the electors of a city, county, or city and county from authorizing or expanding any legal gaming beyond that permitted on January 1, 1996. Additionally, until January 1, 2020, existing law prohibits the commission from issuing a gambling license for a gambling establishment that was not licensed to operate on December 31, 1999, except as specified.

end insert begin insert

This bill would, notwithstanding the moratorium described above, authorize the City of Milpitas, upon approval of the electors, to authorize controlled gambling within that city subject to specified conditions, including, among others, that controlled gambling may only be conducted by a gambling establishment licensed by the commission and operating in the County of Santa Clara on or before January 1, 2013, that elects to change its location to the City of Milpitas from another location in the County of Santa Clara.

end insert

This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City of Milpitas.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee:  begin delete no end delete begin insert yes end insert . State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:

(a) Recent losses of local funding have degraded public safety
in the City of Milpitas (city) as the city has cut employment. Since
the 2011-12 fiscal year, the city has laid off 110 employees,
including 12 firefighters, and has been unable to fill 147 other
positions that would otherwise begin delete had end delete begin insert have end insert been filled, including 13
police officer positions.

(b) A lack of economic development tools has stopped
investment in previously approved critical infrastructure in the
city. Two hundred twenty million dollars begin insert ($220,000,000) end insert worth
of road, water, and sewer improvements, which had been approved
in the capital improvement plan of the city, cannot be constructed.
Other projects, including infrastructure begin delete projects end delete begin insert projects, end insert have
been delayed due to significant funding shortfalls in the city’s
general fund to maintain streets. The city’s annual shortfall to
maintain its Metropolitan Transit Commission-mandated Pavement
Condition Index goal of 70 is begin delete $4 million end delete begin insert four million five hundred
thousand dollars ($4,500,000) end insert per year.

(c) A lack of economic development tools has stopped
previously approved development projects in the city, including
a 120-room hotel and a low- and moderate-income senior housing
project. With respect to the latter project, the project developer
had agreed to employ 100 full-time medical and caregiver
positions. Both projects had completed permits and land use
reviews, including reviews under the California Environmental
Quality Act.

(d) The begin delete city desires to ensure the greatest amount of citizen
participation to increase economic activity in the McCarthy Ranch
area of the city near the Newby Island landfill in order to find new
revenue sources to replace the funds, restore losses of firefighters
and police officers, maintain and upgrade critical infrastructure,
and generate employment and economic activity through previously
approved private investment. end delete begin insert Milpitas City Council adopted an
entertainment overlay to its zoning ordinance on March 16, 2010,
that would allow for operation of a licensed gambling
establishment in specific areas in the City of Milpitas. Although
the Legislature enacted the moratorium on the expansion of
gambling in the Gambling Control Act, the Legislature retains the
power to create exceptions to the moratorium to determine where
gambling may take place consistent with factual and legal
circumstances. end insert

begin insert

(e) Gambling establishments are significant sources of tax
revenues within their jurisdictions that can fund staffing, economic
development, and public infrastructure projects, including those
that have suffered in the City of Milpitas as a result of cuts in the
city’s budget.

end insert

begin delete

SEC. 2.  

Section 53083.2 is added to the Government Code, to
read:

53083.2.  

(a) On or before April 1, 2015, the City of Milpitas
may organize an independent local commission to investigate and
study issues related to employment, revenues, and economic
activity in order to identify and recommend ways to raise revenues
to increase city staff to adequate levels, to invest in infrastructure
and development projects, and to increase economic activity in
the McCarthy Ranch area of the City of Milpitas near the Newby
Island landfill.

(b) The commission shall be composed of seven people
appointed by the Milpitas City Council, as follows:

(1) One member of the business community who is also a
member of the Milpitas Chamber of Commerce.

(2) One employee of the City of Milpitas Fire Department.

(3) One employee of the City of Milpitas Police Department.

(4) One member of a local union that is unaffiliated with public
employee unions representing workers for the City of Milpitas.

(5) One owner of real property within the McCarthy Ranch area
of the City of Milpitas near the Newby Island landfill.

(6) Two residents of the City of Milpitas.

(c) The city manager of the City of Milpitas shall be an ex
officio member of the commission and report on the commission’s
activities to the Milpitas City Council.

(d) The commission shall elect its own chairperson.

(e) Within one year of the City of Milpitas forming the
commission, the commission’s authority shall cease.

(f) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2017,
and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that
is enacted before January 1, 2017, deletes or extends that date.

end delete

begin insert

begin insert SEC. 2. end insert   

end insert

begin insert Section 19967 is added to the end insert begin insert Business and Professions
Code end insert begin insert , to read: end insert

begin insert

begin insert 19967. end insert   

(a) Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter,
including, but not limited to, Sections 19961, 19961.06, 19962,
and 19963, the City of Milpitas may authorize controlled gambling
within that city pursuant to this section.

(b) The City of Milpitas may authorize controlled gambling in
that city if a majority of the electors voting thereon have
affirmatively approved a measure that complies with subdivision
(c) of Section 19960.

(c) (1) Controlled gambling authorized pursuant to this section
shall be conducted only by a gambling establishment licensed by
the commission and operating in the County of Santa Clara on or
before January 1, 2013, that elects to change its location to the
City of Milpitas from another location in the County of Santa
Clara.

(2) A gambling establishment shall do both of the following
prior to relocating to the City of Milpitas from another location
in the County of Santa Clara:

(A) Apply for, and receive, a license from the City of Milpitas.

(B) Upon receipt of the license described in subparagraph (A),
provide notice to the commission and the department of the
gambling establishment’s intent to relocate to the City of Milpitas
from another location in the County of Santa Clara. The notice
required by this paragraph shall be provided at least three months
before the gambling establishment relocates to, or offers controlled
gambling in, the City of Milpitas.

(d) Notwithstanding any law or regulation, if the conditions of
subdivision (c) are satisfied, the commission and the department
shall authorize a gambling establishment’s relocation to the City
of Milpitas from another location in the County of Santa Clara.

(e) The Legislature finds and declares that a special law is
necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable within
the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California
Constitution because of the unique circumstances in the City of
Milpitas, described in Section 1 of this act. There is a rational
relationship between authorizing controlled gambling within the
entertainment overlay designated by the city’s zoning ordinance
and reversing the city’s financial crisis. This act simply allows the
voters in the City of Milpitas to act effectively on the question of
whether to authorize controlled gambling in that jurisdiction
consistent with provisions of the Gambling Control Act and under
the city’s financial circumstances. Should the voters in the City of
Milpitas adopt such an ordinance, the city can then compete to
attract one of the three licensed gambling establishments operating
in the County of Santa Clara to move within the county to the City
of Milpitas. This exception to the moratorium in the Gambling
Control Act is not arbitrary because it respects the Legislature’s
policy, adopted in the moratorium, to not authorize new licenses.
Moreover, the circumstances in the City of Milpitas outweigh any
consideration of a more general law creating an even greater
exception to the policy adopted by the Legislature in the
moratorium.

end insert

begin delete

SEC. 3.  

The Legislature finds and declares that a special law
is necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable
within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California
Constitution because of the unique circumstances in the City of
Milpitas, where parcels on the west side of Interstate 880 and to
the east of Coyote Creek in the McCarthy Ranch area of Milpitas
near the Newby Island landfill, the San Francisco Bay area, and
the regional water pollution control plant face particular challenges
to economic development as a result of their restrictive location.

end delete