Significant Legislation 2010

Senate Committee on Local Government

State Capitol, Sacramento, California 95814
(916) 651-4115
www.sen.ca.gov/locgov

October 1, 2010

TO: People Interested in Local Government, Public Finance, and Land Use

FROM: Senator Christine Kehoe, Vice Chair

SUBJECT: Local Government Bills During 2010

Now that the Governor has finished acting on the bills that the Legislature passed in 2010, I want you to know about some of the more interesting bills that the Senate Local Government Committee worked on this year. The urgency bills take effect on the day they were chaptered; regular bills will take effect on January 1, 2011.

These brief summaries cover a selection of the bills that the Committee has reviewed. If you want to read the Committee’s bill analyses or get a copy of a bill, please go to the Legislature’s official website www.leginfo.ca.gov. You can also use that website to retrieve other bill analyses, official histories, voting records, and any veto messages.

Local Finance & Infrastructure

SB 85 (Cogdill) modifies the property tax allocation formulas to increase annual allocations to specific counties. Status: Signed; Chapter 5, Statutes of 2010.

SB 1340 (Kehoe) authorizes contractual assessment financing for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Status: Signed; Chapter 649, Statutes of 2010.

SCA 18 (Liu) exempts stormwater and urban runoff management fees or charges from voter approval requirements. Status: Died on the Senate Floor.

AB 44 (Blakeslee) authorizes contractual assessment financing for renewable energy systems installed under electricity purchase agreements. Status: Signed; Chapter 564, Statutes of 2010.

AB 900 (de León) refunds property tax revenues collected by an excessive extraordinary property tax rate imposed by the City of Bell. Status: Signed; Chapter 223, Statutes of 2010.

AB 1755 (Swanson) authorizes contractual assessment financing for seismic strengthening improvements on real property. Status: Vetoed.

AB 2182 (Huffman) authorizes contractual assessment financing for septic and sewer improvements on real property. Status: Vetoed.

AB 2554 (Brownley) authorizes the Los Angeles County Flood Control District to impose property-related fees in unincorporated areas. Status: Signed; Chapter 602, Statutes of 2010.

Local Powers & Governance

* SB 501 (Correa) requires local officials and executive staff to file annual compensation disclosure forms. Status: Died on the Senate Floor; Unfinished Business.

SB 841, SB 842, and SB 843 (Senate Local Government Committee) are the annual Validating Act. Status: The Governor signed SB 841 (urgency) as Chapter 16, SB 842 (urgency) as Chapter 171, and SB 843 as Chapter 172; all Statutes of 2010.

SB 879 (Cox) revises the procedures for counties’ design-build contracting powers and extends the sunset date until January 1, 2016. Status: Signed; Chapter 629, Statutes of 2010.

SB 894 (Senate Local Government Committee) is the annual Local Government Omnibus Act, making 24 relatively minor and noncontroversial changes to the state laws affecting local agencies’ powers and duties. Status: Signed; Chapter 699, Statutes of 2010.

SB 902 (Ashburn) reduces the population threshold for counties that can regulate fire companies from 1 million to 400,000. Status: Signed; Chapter 67, Statutes of 2010.

SB 1005 (Cox) allows the Tahoe Forest Healthcare District and one other healthcare district to use design-build contracts. Status: Failed in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SB 1042 (Walters) repeals the 1917 law that allows counties to condemn private property for military bases. Status: Signed; Chapter 69, Statutes of 2010.

AB 155 (Mendoza) requires local public entities to get CDIAC’s approval or a completed state audit before filing federal bankruptcy petitions. Status: Died on the Senate Floor.

AB 827 (De La Torre) requires local governments to have performance reviews before giving raises to executive staff and prohibits automatic contract renewals and raises. Status: Vetoed.

AB 1451 (Ammiano) authorizes counties to issue local identification cards that meet statutory criteria. Status: Vetoed.

AB 1668 (Knight) extends the time for city councils to fill vacant elective offices from 30 days to 60 days. Status: Signed; Chapter 38, Statutes of 2010.

AB 1671 (Jeffries) allows county supervisors to fill a vacant board of supervisors seat if the governor does not appoint a replacement within 90 days. Status: Vetoed.

AB 1955 (De La Torre) requires local governments to adopt executive staff contracts in public and stops redevelopment activities in cities with excess compensation. Status: Failed on the Senate Floor (reconsideration granted).

* AB 2064 (Huber) requires local governments, state constitutional officers, and the Legislature to post their salaries and their employees’ salaries online. Status: Died in the Senate Governmental Organization Committee.

Land Use Planning & Development

SB 959 (Ducheny) reestablishes the Office of Planning and Research’s permit assistance duties. Status: Vetoed.

SB 1019 (Correa) extends the sunset date on the procedures for cities and counties to release subdivision performance securities to January 1, 2016. Status: Signed; Chapter 174, Statutes of 2010.

SB 1141 (Negrete McLeod) restores the requirement that every county with a public use airport must have an Airport Land Use Commission, with exceptions. Status: Vetoed.

SB 1174 (Wolk) creates the Future Sustainable Communities Pilot Project to pay for general plan updates for disadvantaged communities, using Proposition 84 bond funds. Status: Died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SB 1207 (Kehoe) expands the fire safety planning requirements in local general plans’ safety elements. Status: Vetoed.

SB 1445 (DeSaulnier) allows $4 increase in vehicle registration fees to pay for regional planning activities and expands the membership of OPR’s Planning Advisory and Assistance Council. Status: Died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 987 (Ma) expands the maximum area of a transit village development district. Status: Signed; Chapter 354, Statutes of 2010.

AB 1919 (Davis) requires subdivided lots to pay county survey monument preservation fund fees. Status: Died in the Senate Rules Committee.

AB 1965 (Yamada) extends the sunset date on the procedures for lot line adjustments on Williamson Act land to January 1, 2013. Status: Signed; Chapter 60, Statutes of 2010.

AB 2530 (Nielsen) allows counties to shorten Williamson Act contracts, revalue the contracted land, and receive the increased revenues. Status: Signed; Chapter 391, Statutes of 2010.

AB 2650 (Buchanan) prohibits medical marijuana establishments within 600 feet of schools. Status: Signed; Chapter 603, Statutes of 2010.

AB 2754 (John Pérez) grants civil service status to OPR’s clearinghouse and planning staff, and designates OPR as the state’s military liaison. Status: Vetoed.

Redevelopment

AB 1641 (Hall) clarifies that public housing may be included within redevelopment project areas. Status: Signed; Chapter 665, Statutes of 2010.

AB 1791 (Monning) allows redevelopment agencies to subsidize commercial development on vacant land at the former Fort Ord. Status: Vetoed.

AB 2531 (Fuentes) allows redevelopment agencies to pay for business development and job programs until January 1, 2018. Status: Vetoed.

LAFCOs & Boundary Changes

SB 1023 (Wiggins) creates expedited procedures to convert Resort Improvement Districts and Municipal Improvement Districts into Community Services Districts. Status: Signed; Chapter 68, Statutes of 2010.

AB 419 (Caballero) meshes the election laws with the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act. Status: Signed; Chapter 35, Statutes of 2010.

* AB 711 (Calderon) appropriates $45,000 as a loan to the East Los Angeles Residents Association to pay for the proposed city incorporation proceedings. Status: Signed; Chapter 25, Statutes of 2010 (urgency).

AB 853 (Arambula) expands planning for, and expedites city annexations of, disadvantaged communities. Status: Vetoed.

AB 2795 (Assembly Local Government Committee) makes nine changes to the state laws affecting LAFCOs. Status: Signed; Chapter 47, Statutes of 2010.

* This bill did not come to the Senate Local Government Committee.

Interim Hearings

On September 22, the Senate Local Government Committee and the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee held a joint hearing on Proposition 22, which will appear on the November 2 ballot. The summary report will be available later in October.

On October 20, the Committee will hold an oversight hearing in Santa Ana on “Transparency & Accountability: Pursuing the Public’s Right to Know,” and explore proposals to require public officials to report their compensation.

For copies of the Senate Local Government Committee’s detailed reference materials and other publications --- including citizen’s guides to joint powers agreements, special districts, and LAFCOs --- please go to the Committee’s website: www.sen.ca.gov/locgov