In developing transportation related legislative issues and related proposals to bring forward for consideration by the Transportation, Water, and Infrastructure Committee (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.
This report includes three sections, 1) LOCAL, 2) STATE, and 3) FEDERAL.
1) LOCAL
Accessible Transit: The issue of accessible transit is of ongoing interest to the County. During the development of Measure X and continuing into 2017, County staff has been advocating for a review and improvements to the accessible system consistent with the position of the Board of Supervisors. One obstacle in making progress on this topic was highlighted in a sales tax transportation expenditure plan report to the BOS in 2015, "...accessible transit responsibilities are diffused (geographically and organizationally) throughout the county resulting in no single agency or organization falling naturally into a leadership role...". The accessible transit portion of that report starts at the bottom of the page here:
http://64.166.146.245/public//print/ag_memo_pdf_popup.cfm?seq=22697&rev_num=0&mode=CUSTOM#page=17
In March, the Committee directed staff to reach out to CCTA on the status of the planned accessible transit study. Staff will bring an verbal update to April Committee meeting and is requesting guidance.
Status of Transportation Funding and County Road Projects: In February, the Committee received a report regarding the status of County road project and maintenance activities entitled "Reduction in State Gas Tax and the Impact to County of Contra Costa Streets and Roads" In summary, due to declining revenues, substantial cuts are necessary. That report is available here:
http://64.166.146.245/docs/2017/TWIC/20170202_865/875_02-13-17TWICAGNDApkt.pdf#page=65
Due to rapid movement at the State on Senate Bill 1 (discussed below) staff will bring a verbal update to the Committee on this issue.
RECOMMENDATION: DISCUSS local legislation and issues of note and take ACTION as appropriate.
2) STATE
Legislative Report
The legislative report from the County's legislative advocate, Mark Watts, is attached (April TWIC State Leg Report.pdf). Mr. Watts is unable to be present at the April meeting, County staff will coordinate with him to bring updates to the Committee.
School Siting Update: The California Department of Education (CDE) initiated an effort to revise Title 5 which contains the language that addresses school site selection and design. The County has been engaged on this issue for a number of years due to our experience with school sites in East Contra Costa County.
March 28, 2017
- The BOS approved a letter (03-28-17 SIGNED - PITCH to CDE-TomTorlaksonReSchools-Title5.pdf) signed by the Planning Integration Team For Community Health (PITCH) member Departments, Public Works, Health Services, Conservation and Development.
- The California Department of Education (CDE) gave a presentation in Sacramento regarding the Title 5 update. CDE staff took questions and comments. County staff provided testimony as follows: 1) summarized the letter from PITCH that was approved that morning, 2) indicated that the guidance in Title 5 is ignored by some districts, and 3) that without reform of school siting practices the State may face a situation that played out in Manitoba, Canada. A new school opened without adequate pedestrian infrastructure, a student (Carina Denisenko) was killed by a car when attempting to cross a street. In response, the provincial legislature passed a new law, "The Public Schools Amendment Act (Pedestrian Safety at New Schools)" aka "Carina's Law".
April 3, 2017
- County staff met with Oakley Union Elementary School District staff regarding their school population projections and plans for new school sites. The meeting was positive, the District has two idle sites which are both within the Urban Limit Line and the city limits of Oakley.
State Legislation
Please see the attached document, Positions on Legislation of Interest – 2017 for a summary of bills being tracked by staff and our legislative advocate. Bills of particular interest to the County are highlighted in the table and summarized below:
Senate Constitutional Amendment 2 (SCA-2) Motor vehicle fees and taxes: restriction on expenditures: appropriations limit: This legislation was originally packaged with the Assembly and Senate Transportation Funding bills (AB1/SB1) and discussed at the BOS. This Constitutional Amendment will protect transportation revenues from being "raided" for purposes other than transportation.
Senate Constitutional Amendment 6 (SCA-6) Local transportation measures: special taxes: voter approval: Similar to SCA-2, this legislation was originally packaged with AB1/SB1 and discussed at the BOS. This Constitutional Amendment will lower the threshold to 55% for transportation related taxes.
AB-342 Vehicles: automated speed enforcement: five-year pilot program: TWIC previously supported investigating the proposal which has been in development for a number of years until the printing of this years formal bill. Further, related direction was provided by TWIC to staff in conjunction with our Complete Streets/Vision Zero implementation effort, "Directed staff to proceed with implementation of complete streets processes per Board Resolution 2016/374 and include vision zero and automated speed enforcement concepts in the implementation."
RECOMMENDATION: DISCUSS state legislation and issues of note and take ACTION as appropriate.
3) FEDERAL
No written staff report in April.
Attached is a report (Federal Budget Update.pdf) from the California State Association of Counties describing the proposed elimination and cuts in the Trump administration's budget proposal. Transportation, water, infrastructure related excerpts are included below:
Among other things, the administration’s proposal would eliminate FY 17 funding for:
TIGER Grants ($499 million);
Western Drought Relief Efforts ($100 million).
Programs that are targeted for FY 17 cuts include:
Community Development Block Grants ($1.5 billion cut);
Capital Investment Program/Transit ($447 million cut);
RECOMMENDATION: DISCUSS any federal issues of note and take ACTION as appropriate.
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