CC - Item 6B - Possible Opposition to Assembly Bill 1217 iE M E ROSEMEAD CITY COUNCIL
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STAFF REPORT
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
FROM: BILL R. MANIS,CITY MANAGER 8�°-.
DATE: SEPTEMBER 27, 2016
SUBJECT: POSSIBLE OPPOSITION TO ASSEMBLY BILL 1217 (REQUESTED BY
COUNCILMEMBER CLARK)
SUMMARY
This item is presented to the City Council at the request of Councilmember Clark. Please see a
proposed draft letter of opposition (Attachment A) and the language for Assembly Bill (AB)
1217 (Attachment B).
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Discuss and provide direction to staff.
FISCAL IMPACT - None
PUBLIC NOTICE PROCESS
This item has been noticed through the regular agenda notification process.
Prepared by:
Marc Donohue, City Clerk
Attachment A: Draft Letter of Opposition—City of Rosemead
Attachment B: AB 1217 Language
ITEM NUMBER: 6,B
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Attachment A
Draft Letter of Opposition — City of Rosemead
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September 27, 2016
The Honorable Edmund G. Brown,Jr.
Governor. State of California
State Capitol Building, First Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
Via Fax: 916-558-3177
RE: AB 1217(Daly) Orange County Fire Authority.
(As amended May 9, 2016)
Request for Veto
Dear Governor Brown:
The City of Rosemead respectfully requests your veto of Assembly Bill 1217.
This measure establishes the troubling legal precedent of state interference in the governance of a
joint powers authority (JPA). It is far from being, as it has been characterized, merely a district
bill. If that were true, the City of West Hollywood, and the City of Burlingame,jurisdictions far
beyond the borders of Orange County, would not be opposed.
Joint powers authorities, as you know, are set up by statute to be entirely self-governing. They
are empowered to set rules of membership and take various actions affecting their own
governance, including dissolution, as agreed upon by the local agencies who voluntarily formed
it in the first place. The agencies forming the joint powers authorities are therefore in the best
position to set the rules of governance, not the Legislature.
AB 1217 seeks to codify a rule that the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) has already
imposed on itself, namely preventing its board members from appointing alternates. This raises
the question of why this legislation is even necessary. At this point, its sole value is that of
establishing a legal precedent of state interference in the governance structure of a joint powers
authority, opening the door to future and far more intrusive state interference in the internal
affairs of these local agencies, in direct contradiction to the doctrine of subsidiarity.
AB 1217 was initially motivated by a local Orange County labor dispute pertaining to collective
bargaining negotiations then pending between OCFA and the local labor union. Although the
bill has been significantly amended from its original form seeking to reduce the size of the
OCFA Board, thereby disenfranchising a number of its member cities, labor continues to support
it.
We mention this not to criticize union influence, but to examine the likely results of approving a
measure of this type. For purposcs of analyzing the larger policy questions presented by this
measure, the specifics of the collective bargaining dispute in Orange County are irrelevant. The
heart of the matter is the likely consequences for all joint powers authorities — which by
definition are local agencies -- if this measure should meet with executive approval. One of the
consequences of that approval will be to embolden labor unions to use statewide legislation to
leverage the collective bargaining process, or execute an end run around it, anytime it fails to
achieve their goals, citing AB 1217 as the legal precedent for state incursion into IPA
governance—a precedent that, as of today, does not exist.
Another telling motivation for this measure is language which appeared in the June 23, 2016
version of the bill, but was removed in the face of vigorous objections from a combination of
Senate Republicans representing Orange County. the League of California Cities, and the cities
most directly affected:
Section 1. It is the intent of the Legislature to reevaluate the structure of the
Board of Directors of the Orange County Fire Authority within a reasonable
date of the effect of this act to consider the effectiveness of the size and
structure of the board
The objective was one of continued oversight and interference by the Legislature in the
governance and internal affairs of a local joint powers authority that was voluntarily formed by
local agencies with a common agenda. A hammer of this kind would have subverted the
credibility of joint powers law in California, which purports to empower local agencies to act
cooperatively to resolve their own challenges and problems without calling upon the state for
assistance. While the above language is no longer contained in AB 1217, it continues to inform
the lingering motive behind the bill: to use state legislation as a weapon against the duly
authorized exercise of local authority.
For these reasons, the City of Rosemead remains strongly opposed to this measure.
Sincerely,
Sandra Armcnta
Mayor
Cc: The Honorable Tom Daly, State Assembly
Tom Dyer, Chief Deputy Legislative Secretary, Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr
Jennifer Quan, League of California Cities, iauan(th cacities.or_
Meg Desmond, League of California Cities, mdesmond(acacities.ore
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Attachment B
AB 1217 Language
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 2, 2016
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 23,2016
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 9,2015
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE-2015-16 REGULAR SESSION
ASSEMBLY BILL No. 1217
Introduced by Assembly Member Daly
February 27,2015
An act to add Section 6536 6539 to the Government Code, relating
to joint powers.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1217,as amended, Daly. Orange County Fire Authority.
Existing law authorizes 2 or more public agencies,by agreement, to
form a joint powers authority to exercise any power common to the
contracting parties,as specified. Existing law authorizes the agreement
to set forth the manner by which the joint powers authority will be
governed.Existing law authorizes the board of supervisors of any county
to contract with any local agency within the county or with the state for
services relating to the prevention and suppression of fires.
This bill would prohibit the composition of the Board of Directors of
the Orange County Fire Authority from including alternate members.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the
necessity of a special statute for the Orange County Fire Authority.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
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AB1217 —2—
The people of the State of California do enact as follows.:
2 tit, ,h detwe of the D,.uld..f Dite lots,Rh.. Otattb..County Fh.,
3 • ..• -• . -.-. . .. • - •• .. •
5 the b.,a.el.
6 SEC. 2.
7 SECTION I. Section 6538 6539 is added to the Government
8 Code,to read:
9 6538:
0 6539. Notwithstanding any other law, the composition of the
1 Board of Directors of the Orange County Fire Authority shall not
2 include alternate members.
3 SEC. 3.
4 SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares that a special law
5 is necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable
6 within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California
7 Constitution because of the challenges faced as a result of the
8 current governance structure of the Orange County Fire Authority.
0
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