SB 275 Senate Bill - Bill Analysis

BILL ANALYSIS

SB 275
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SENATE THIRD READING
SB 275 (Local Government)
As Amended August 23, 1999
2/3 vote. Urgency

SENATE VOTE : 39-0

LOCAL GOVERNMENT 8-0 APPROPRIATIONS 21-0

SUMMARY : Makes 20 relatively minor, non-controversial changes
to the laws affecting local agencies' powers and duties, as well
as to the state statutes on land use and redevelopment.
Specifically, this bill provides for the following:

1)County treasurers' candidates qualifications. Adds county
treasurers and tax collectors to the list of county officers
that must meet candidates' qualifications.

2)County treasurers and tax collectors' continuing education.
Adds public administration and governmental accounting to the
list of acceptable continuing education courses for county
treasurers and tax collectors.

3)Treasurer's reports. Authorizes a county auditor, rather than
the county treasurer, to file certain monthly financial
reports with the county supervisors if the county treasurer
and county auditor have a written agreement.

4)Citizens Option for Public Safety (COPS) hearing. Makes minor
changes in hearing and reporting requirements for the COPS
Program.

5)Historical landmark acquisition, cross-reference. Corrects an
erroneous cross-reference to "subdivision (d)" but there is no

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such subdivision in that section (Government Code 37361).

6)Local Agency Formation Commissions' (LAFCOs) use of e-mail for
notices. Allows LAFCOs to send special district selection
notices and official resolutions by electronic mail, provided
that the other agencies agree and that the LAFCO executive
office keeps written evidence that the recipients received the
messages.

7)Tolling time limits during LAFCO reconsiderations. Expands
the tolling provision in LAFCO's reconsideration procedures to
apply to all deadlines for filing lawsuits.

8)Community services district formation error. Corrects a
typographical error in Government Code 61107, where the code
refers to "a resolution or application" instead of "a
resolution of application".

9)Annual planning report, cross-reference. Corrects a statutory
cross-reference.

10)Adult zoning statutory format. Moves the existing adult
zoning provision from the basic section on zoning to a new
statutory location without changing its contents.

11)Permit Streamlining Act, cross-reference. Corrects statutory
cross-references in the Permit Streamlining Act.

12)Subdivision Map Act fees cross-reference. Corrects
cross-references to the Mitigation Fee Act.

13)Final subdivision map notices. Requires the clerk, not the
legislative body, to give notice of the city engineer's
pending approval of final subdivision maps.

14)Map Act cross-references. Corrects cross-references in the
Subdivision Map Act.

15)Ventura County's Vehicle License Fee (VLF) offset for no/low
cities. Repeals the subvention language in the Trial Court
Funding statute (Government Code 77202.5), creates the
calculation in Ventura County's Tax Equity Allocation formula
(Revenue and Taxation Code 98.02 [j]) and inserts Ventura
County's subvention in the VLF allocation law (Revenue and
Taxation Code 11005 [b]).

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16)Appointments to Ventura Regional Sanitation District's
governing board. Allows the Triunfo County Sanitation
District to participate in selecting a special district
official to serve as a member of the board of directors of the
Ventura Regional Sanitation District.

17)Deadlines for burglar bar safety release devices. Extends
the deadline for adopting regulations regarding burglar bar
safety devices from September 1, 1999 to January 1, 2000 and
extends the date for which regulations are to take effect from
October 1, 1999 to February 1, 2000.

18)Fire district cross-reference. Corrects a reference to the
Code of California Regulations.

19)Boundary change negotiations. Changes the starting date of a
150-day period for discussion of property tax sharing to the
date when the auditor provides the property tax information
needed to begin the discussions.

20)Cancellation of property taxes. Defines "city" to include
counties, cities, special districts, school districts, and
joint powers agencies for the purpose of defaulted Mello-Roos
bonds.

FISCAL EFFECT : No state cost.

COMMENTS : Each year local officials discover problems with the
state statutes that affect counties, cities, special districts,
and redevelopment agencies, as well as the laws on land use
planning and development. These problems are relatively minor
and do not warrant separate and expensive bills. According to
the Legislative Analyst, the cost of producing a bill is about
$14,000.

The Senate Local Government Committee responds by combining
several of these minor topics into an annual "omnibus bill."
For example, the Committee's 1998 omnibus bill, SB 1649 (Local
Government Committee), Chapter 896, Statutes of 1998, contained
23 non-controversial statutory changes, saving over $300,000 in
legislative costs. Although this practice may violate a strict
interpretation of the single-subject and germaneness rules
expressed in Harbor v. Deukmejian (1987) 43 Cal. 3d 1078, it is
an expeditious and relatively inexpensive way to respond to

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multiple, non-controversial requests.

Please see the policy committee analysis for more comprehensive
discussion of this bill.

Analysis Prepared by : Hubert Bower / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958

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