Federal/State/Local: Election Recap/Update
Attached please find:
- Report from the County's Federal Lobbyist, Alcalde & Fay: Election 2016: Results and Analysis
(Alcalde&Fay2016 Election Analysis.pdf)
- Report from the County's State Lobbyist, Nielsen Merksamer: 2016 Legislation and Legislative Issues for Contra Costa County
(NielsenMerksamer 2016 Leg Issues.pdf)
- Metropolitan Transportation Commission: 2016 Election Readout: SF Bay Area Ballot Measures
(MTC Election Readout_ 11.09.16_1236PM.pdf)
- Politico.com: Elaine Chao Tapped to be Trump's Transportation Secretary
(Elaine Chao - Transportation Secretary Nomination - POLITICO.pdf)
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In developing transportation related legislative issues and proposals to bring forward for consideration by TWIC, staff receives input from the Board of Supervisors (BOS), references the County's adopted Legislative Platforms, coordinates with our legislative advocates, partner agencies and organizations, and consults with the Committee itself.
Recommendations are summarized in the Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s) section at the end of this report. Specific recommendations, if provided, are underlined in the report below. This report includes three sections, 1) LOCAL, 2) STATE, and 3) FEDERAL.
1) LOCAL
a) Accessible Transit Issues: As discussed at previous TWIC meetings and at the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA), there may be a general understanding amongst decision makers that the manner in which accessible transit is administered and provided in the County should be reviewed. With the failure of Measure X, how this issue will be addressed is not known. A small working group of staff from the transit districts, the County, and CCTA has been meeting to discuss options.
Staff will report out from this working group, discuss the issue and requests direction from TWIC.
RECOMMENDATION: DISCUSS any local issues of note and take ACTION as appropriate.
2) STATE
a) Legislative Report
If available, the legislative report from the County's legislative advocate, Mark Watts, will be attached (December TWIC Report). Mr. Watts will be present at the December meeting to discuss state legislation and other items of interest to the Committee.
b) Senate Bill 632/School Safety
Beginning in 2014 the County initiated an effort to reform/revise school zone statutes in order to increase safety around schools. Legislation was drafted and went through the County's annual platform develop process.
That effort resulted in SB 632 (Cannella, Baker, Bonilla) being introduced in 2015. Due to the technical nature of legislation, the Senate Committee on Transportation & Housing (Senate T&H) referred the legislation to the California Traffic Control Device Committee (CTCDC).
The CTCDC formed a "School Zone Subcommittee" to respond to the Senate referral and invited Contra Costa County staff to participate. The work of the subcommittee resulted in the attached (CTCDC to Senate T&H ReSchool Zone-SB632.pdf) draft response to the Senate T&H. County staff believes, and went on record (CCCounty to CTCDC ReSchool Zone-SB632.pdf) with the CTCDC on many occasions, that there are numerous technical and procedural problems with the CTCDC's handling of the issue and proposed response to the Senate T&H. The input did not have any effect on the dialog or outcome.
Staff recommends that TWIC discuss this issue with staff, our legislative advocate, and direct that a letter be sent from the Board of Supervisors to our Legislative Delegation and Senate T&H leadership highlighting the following issues:
- In the past the CTCDC has found numerous, substantial problems with "When Children Are Present" signage. Those findings were not mentioned in the letter to the Senate T&H and no changes were recommended to Senate T&H.
- At the outset of the CTCDC process the Committee agreed that the existing statutes included arbitrary figures for the establishment of school zones, and that any recommendation would not include any arbitrary figures. The recommendation provided to Senate T&H continues the use of arbitrary figures in conflict with the earlier agreement.
- In defense of the CTCDC, the issue that was taken up is deceptively complex and it is clear that there were not enough resources or time for the Committee to give the bill and underlying issues the necessary attention.
- We urge the Senate Committee to reject the input from the CTCDC and refer the issue to Caltrans and the California Department of Public Health for a comprehensive study with appropriate resources, analysis and outreach. The numerous, fundamental changes in state transportation policy (complete streets, active transportation, safe routes to school, health in all policies, greenhouse gas reduction, vision zero/toward zero deaths) and public health data now available strongly suggest that the subject statutes be revisited in an appropriate manner.
c) Grant Award - Highway Safety Improvement Program
In August TWIC approved grant applications under the Federal Highway Administrations Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), which is administered by Caltrans. In November, the County was informed that five project grants for $5.6 million were approved. The details are in the attached table: HSIP Cycle 8 Awards - CC County.pdf.
A portion of the local share was assumed to be gas tax revenue. With the reductions in state revenue staff needs to determine how the local match will be funded. Staff will report out the impact of reduced state funding and the resulting local match strategy for the HSIP grants at the December TWIC meeting.
d) Advocacy Discussion
The California State Association of Counties (CSAC) regularly provides material (press releases, talking points, sample tweets) to member agencies for use in advocating for issues of common interest. Staff would like to discuss with, and receive direction from the Committee and the Board of Supervisors on how to best and most appropriately use these materials. Attached (CSAC Streets and Roads Advocacy Package.pdf) is a recent example of materials.
RECOMMENDATION: DISCUSS any state issues of note, DIRECT staff to bring a draft letter regarding SB 632 to the full Board of Supervisors, and take other ACTION as appropriate.
3) FEDERAL
No written report in December.
RECOMMENDATION: DISCUSS any federal issues of note and take ACTION as appropriate.
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