HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/07/1991 B A K E R $ F I E L D
AGENDA
INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE
CITY/COUNTY
Thursday, March 7, 1991
12:00 Noon
Southwing Basement Conference Room
1. Air Quality Joint Powers Update (Randy Abbott)
2. Habitat Conservation Plan (Jack Hardisty)
3. Regional Forum (Joel Heinrichs)
4. Fair Housing (Jake Wager/Bill Mungary)
5. Ambulance Rates
6. Light Rail Video (Dale Mills)
Intergovernmental Relations Committee.- Meeting NOtes
Thursday..March 7, 1991; 12:00 Noon; South. wing Conference Room'
'DUe to thee lack of a quorUm (only Councilmember Brunni was in attendanbe;
.Councilmember Smith was ill and Councilmember'.McDermott was out of-the State)
-updates on the items on the agenda were discussed. No adtion was recommended or
taken.
Air Quality Joint Powers Update (Randy Abbott)
Randy Abbott of the County Resource Management Agency updated the group regarding the Valley-
wide Air Quality Authority. He explained that there would, be ameetinR on: March 20th at 2:00 p.m.-in
Hanford to discuss the issue of the format for selection of City representatives as part of the'Authority.
There are several possible forms being discussed ranging from the including selecting specific cities;
selecting a large, medium and small city; rotating membership between cities and various permutations,
of these Options. (Dale and the.Mayor are planning to attend this meeting to represent the City).
The County has requested information re. the City's position on the selection of city representatives.
There was also discussion of the public workshops on developing.an indirect source review rule for the
Unified San Joaquin Valley Air Basin Authority (copy .attached). The workshop for Bakersfield is
scheduled for Thursday March 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Kern County Public Services Building 2700 'M'
street. There were concerns expressed that public comments made at the workshop would not be
made part' of the record of the subsequent public hearings and rule making process of the authority.
Habitat Conservation Plan (Jack Hardisty)
Update on HCP by Jack Hardisty. City and County continuing to work on getting U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Section 10 A permit. It is anticipated that there will be HCP hearings before the City Council in May and
the Board of SuperviSors in June. It is anticipated that the fee will increase from $650 to $1000 per
acre.
Next phase is the implementation of the HCP. This will probably involve a Joint PoWers Authority
between City and County to begin HCP land acquisition.
Regional Forum (Joel Heinrichs)
The County is interested in establishing some type of forum to facilitate discussion of regional issues
(see attached report).
County staff will be meeting with the City Managers Association, School Districts and Special Districts.'
,Fair Housing (George Gonzales/Bill Mungary)
There is currently a request by the Kern County Weights and Measures Dept., Fair Housing Division
to add a new position aS part of the F.Y. 1991-92 Budget. This is being reviewed by City and County
staff and changes to the MOU are being recommended in lieu'.of funding the additional position
pending completion of the assessment by the Fair Housing ,Congress..There was some concern
expressed and discussion about the use of the 'Fair Housing Congress to perform the assessment.
Also discussed was the need to extend the existing MOU for an additional six months to allow sufficient.
time for the assessment to be performed.
Staff also informed the committee of the possibility of utilizing special HUD fair housing .funds for.a non-
profit organization to provide fair housing services. This would involve a 'Notice of 15unding Availability"
(NOFA) to be, circulated to potential non-profit groups who Would be interested in submitting a proposal
· for these funds. The Fair Housing Congress has expressed some interest in this process. There were
some concerns expressed re. the use of a non-profit to administer the' fair housing .program.
Ambulance Rates (John Stinson)
The City expressed some concern re. mixed signals from the County re. 'ambulance rate regulation by
the county. Fred Drew indicated that it is his intent to present the Board of Supervisors with a proposed
common rate for the Metro Bakersfield area Within the next 60-90 days. City Attorney, Larry Lunardini
said the City will litigate if the common 'rate is intended to included the City of Bakersfield.
Light Rail (Dale Mills)
A short informational light rail video was shown by Kern County Public Works.
Next Meeting
The Next Intergovernmental Committee meeting was set for Friday, April 19th, noon (County host).
NOTICE OF PUBLIC WORKSHOPS
ON DEVELOPING AN INDIRECT SOURCE'REVIEW RULE
UNIFIED SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY AIR B~ASIN AUTHORITY
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that· a series of public w~rkshoPs will be held to
discuss the proposed creation of an Indirect Source Review Rule as~fOl!ows:
20 ·Fe'bruary 1991 2:·00 pm San Joaquin County Public Health Auditorium,
(Wednesday) 160·1 East Hazelton Avenue, Stockton ~
· ~21 Febr.uary 1991 6:00 ~pm Auditorium,.CountY Center Three Court,
(ThurSday) n°rt'hwest corner of Scenic Drive and Oakdale
Road, Modesto
27 February 1991 10:00 am Room 301, Merced County Administration Bull-ding,
(Wednesday) 2222 "M" Street;~ Merced ~ ·
28 February 19'91 10:00 am ·Blanche Galloway Room, County'Library,
(ThursdaY) 121 North "G" ~Street, Madera
6 March 1991 6:00 pm Room 301, Hall of ~Records,
(Wednesday} Tulare 'and "M" Streets, Fresno
7 March 1991. '2:00 pm -Multi-purpose Room, Administration Building,
(Thursday). Kings County Government Center,
1400 West Lacey Boulevard, Hanford
13 March 1991 1:00 pm Ag Commissioner's Auditorium, County Civic Center,
(Wednesday) ~ 2500 Burrel Avenue, Visalia
14 March' 1991 7:00 pm Public Meeting'Room, Kern County Department of
(Thursday) Planning and Development Services,
2700 "M" Street, Suite 100, Bakersfield
The purpose of this proposed rule is to minimize air pollution related to
new indirect sources. An indirect source is any facility, building,
structure, installation, or combination thereof which attracts motor
vehicles. While the indirect source itself may not~ be a direct emitter of
air pollutants, the vehicles attracted to that location do emit a·ir
pollutants. The rule is directed toward new residential, commercial, and
industrial developments and any significant expansions thereof.
This rule reduces emissions from automobiles associated with indirect
sources by reducing~ the-vehicle trips and miles traveled, by requiring
mitigation and offsets of both on-site and off-site emissions, and/or
construction of local and regional projects funded by the. payment of
mitigation fees. Enforcement is accomplished by imposing conditions for
land use approvals, building permits, and/or conditions for authorities to
construct and permits to operate.
This rule can be reviewed at the San Joaquin County Air Pollution Control
District, 2321 West Washington Street, Suite 1,· Stockton, Phone (209) 468 -
3470.
GEARY TAYLOR ',/~?'?~, .'~'~'~..scorrJO~S .
MARY WEDDE~ : JOEL HEiNRiCHS
ROBERT SEVERS
Em~ ReLu~ns Olik'c~
COUNTY ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE
FebrUary 12, 1991
Board of Supervisors
Kern County Civic Center
1415 Truxtun Avenue
Bakersfield, CA 93301 .
REGIONAL FORUM,
The attached discussion paper is presented in response to the Board's referral to the Administrative.
Office ~egarding the need for the County to become more proactive with respect to regional.ism and
further, that a meetingof representatives of the Board, cities, school boards, and special districts
be held regarding regionahsm and funding. The paper presents background information on current
and projected local government finance issues and the current climate/status of regional governance ·
proposals. "
With the State's budget shortfall currently estimated to be '$10 billion, there can be little doubt that
all levels of government will be affected financially and perhaps su-ucrurally. What the final impact
of the State budget will have on the delivery of services is still unpredictable. However, the
Governor's proposed budget appears to demonstrate a recognition of the difficulties local
government entities are having in meeting theLr service responsibilities. Governor Wilson also
appears much more supportive of existing local governmental su-uctures than many in-the
Legislature. Thus, the proposed budget contemplates shifting general state programs to counties
and 'thereby strengthening their role as local regional governments:
A variety of local government organizations have been formed to address regional growth and local
government finance issues, and the corresponding legislation. Some organizations ale formal w/th
a joint powers agreement in place. Others are ad hoc, meeting only when a specific issue arises
that the organization wishes to address. Throughout jurisdictions, various commktees and advisory
groups composed of representatives of cities, counties and districts meet regularly to discuss items
of mutual interest. Organizations of this type serve to foster communications and service delivery
cooperation between governmental entities within specified regions.'
Kern County has 11 cities, 190 special districts, and 47 school districts. An alliance cOmposed of
representatives from each of these entities would be cumbersome,_ and possibly ineffectual. Thus,
it is recommended that the County Administrative office arrange to meet with representatives of the
cities, school d/scricrs and special distr/ccs to explore the degree of interest in forming a network,
or alliance, of local government entities. Also on the agenda would be the charge of the
1415 Truxtun Avenue. Room #704 BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA 93301 (805) 861-2371
Board of Supervisors
' February 1.2, 1991
Page 2
organization, the subject matter to be addressed, memberskip composition, and how such an
organization should be structured, operated .and funded.
Therefore, IT I$ RECOMMENDED that the Board authorize the County Adrnh'fistrative Office to
arran~ge to meet with other local government entities 'to discuss ~e formation of a local government
alliance and to report back to the Board the result.
tg County Administrative Officer
MW:AK:dmXregion
cc: All Departments
Richard RiRs
Jim Wise
February 12, 1991
DISCUSSION pAI'ER
REGIONALISM/LOCAL G'OVERNMENT ASSOCIATIONS
Prepared by .
Kern County Administrative Office
The State's budget shortfall for fiscal year 1991/92 is now estimated at $10 billion. The State's
fiscal crisis is' attributed to a variety of factors, among them: itatutory cost-of-living-increases
(COLAs), population .growth, an economic slow down, and changing population demographics
.'which have resulted in an increase in the number of people requiring government services without
a corresponding growth in revenues.
As the State acts. to balance its budget, there Can be little doubt that all levels of government will
. be affected financially, and perhaps structurally. With the fiscal health of counties and school
districts directly linked to the fiscal status of the State, counties and school districts will find it
difficult, if not impossible, to carry out their state and local program responsibilities as they have
in the past. How the roles of counties as service providers 'will change is unpredictable. However,
the most likely result will be a reduction in county service responsibilities and/or the realignment
of service responsibilities between the State and counties. Similarly, the sp=cific impact on schools
is difficult to predict, but continued difficulty in meeting the facility and program needs of an
expanding student population can be expected. In addition, further realignment in the distribution
of the available revenues between local government entities, the impos, ition of booking fees being
an example, is also a likely possibility. Thus, cities and special districts are likely to be directly or
indirectly affected by changes in the State's budget.
Local Government Finance
As previously noted, the fiscalhealth of counties and school districts is directly Linked to that'of the
state. Prior to the 1990/91 fiscal year, cities had been fairly well insulated from the recently
tightened State budget..However, cities were suddenly brought into the state/county budget crisis
with the passage of SB 2557, which provides for counties to charge jail booking fees and to recover
the cost of property tax administration.
While counties have long advocated for the ability to recover the cost of services provided to other
government entities, from the Perspective of cities, school and special districts, SB 2557 was merely
a mechanism for the state to backfill county revenues in.response to cuts in the State budget.
Although several pieces of legislation have already been introduced to repeal jail booking fees and
to exempt school districts from the property tax administration fees, the circumstances surrounding
the implementation of SB 2557 provide strong evidence that all local government entities will
continue to be affected by the State's fiscal problems and joint local government efforts to address
fiscal dilemmas are necessary. Clearly, fiscal issues, have a domino effect throughout all levels of
government, and on all types of services provided to the public.
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State and Local Fiscal Relationship
Counties have for many years Proposed changes in the fiscal relationship between the State-and
counties, the goal of which is to restore the fiscal health of counties through an improvement in
the' State's revenue generating abilities and program realignment. 'The County Administrative
Officers Associatiofi, a subgroup of the County Supervisors Association of California (CSAC), has
formulated.draft-proposals for basic structural and programmatic changes for this fiscal year as
follows:
· ~~ounr~es would assume responsibility for mental health
pro,rams, in their en~rety, along
t/ ~with a shift' from the State to the coUnties of 1/4 cent of the current Sales tax. Current ~
k.... Short-Doyle funding would cease.
· The State would assume financial responsibility for the general'assistance program, with
counties continuing program administration. The cost of administration would be shared
7S/25. The statewide general assistance program would be financed either by repealing the
sales tax exemption of .all entertainment services .or by adjusting the vehicle License fee
depreciation schedule, or both.
· Establish a State Public Defender Corffl. icts Office to assist in relieving some county financial
burden. The program is suggested to be financed' by repealing a portion of the capital gains
exemption on inherited property.
'° Place a cap on the percentage o~f a county's general purpose revenues which, the county can
be required to spend on State mandated programs so that a county continues to have
suffident discretionary revenues to fulfill local government service responsibilities.
· Also proposed, in addition to the above mentioned revenue generating measures, are: to
increase bank and corporation tax rates from 9.30/0 to 11.3°/~, increase the excise tax' on
alcoholic beverages, require business to wklthold income tax from independent contractors',
· suspend income tax indexing, accelerate world-wide corporations' estimated tax payments,
accelerate sales tax payments, and to change revenue recognition policy for tax revenues.
· ' In addition, a proposal to change the sales tax allocation from the sims formula to a
population based formula is contemplated.
These proposals are obviously not the only possible alternatives, nor are they known to be viable
alternatives for resolving the. State's and counties' fiscal problems and thus assisting in protecting
other local government entities from the state/county budget crisis. These proposals are, however,
representative of potential solutions that deserve further inquiry, discussion and possible advocacy
action.
On the behalf of eities, the League of California Cities has developed other proposals to gain
independence from the State budget crisis, among which is the repeal of SB 2SS7. Included in this
proposal is the replacement of lost revenue to counties by modifying the vehicle license fee
depreciation schedule. A group of county administrative officers and city managers are meeting to'
discuss other revenue raising and program realignment proposals.
Governor's 1991/92 Proposed Budl~et
School Districts within KeTM County have noted that if the Governor's budget is adopted .as
proposed, school.dista'icts would lose.S18 million. The SpeCific impacts of the' Governor's budget
on the ability of cities and counties to finance local discretionary and stare'mandated programs is
as yet unknown. Key items within the Governors proposed bu. dget affecting .the State/local fiscal
relationship and school districts are noted below:
'Education
· Funding of statutory enrollment growth in K-12 categorical programs,, adult education and
child development and nutrition programs..
· Funding for new program initiatives, including: preschool reform and expansion, a Healthy
Start program, early mental health counseling program, and drug abuse education programs.
· COLAs for 1991/92 are not budgeted.
· . The Mentor Teacher program is proposed to be suspended for one year.
· The suspension of Proposition 98 is proposed, wtfich would result in providing $1.4 billion
less than the minimum funding level would have otherwise been budgeted.
· An increase in the enrollment fee for community colleges is proposed.
· Local general obligation bonds for the financing of educational facilities would require a
simple majority, rather than two-thirds voter approval.
State/Local./~_Rela~°nshig ~al
· '. ~..(3Ounties would assume programmatic responsibility for mental he th an co
services programs. To replace Short-Doyle and AB 8 funding, counties would receive the
i' revenue resulting from a proposed change to the Vehicle License Fee and an adjustment to//
~'i the alcoholic. be, ye· ..' tax. ~.~
· Local general obligation bonds for the financing of criminal justice fac'ilities would require
a simple majority, rather than two-thirds voter approval.
· The administration has stated their intent to encourage legislation that would change the
current method for distribution of sales ,tax revenue to a per capita methodology to facilitate
removing fiscal motivations in land use decisions.
· A reduction in open space subvention funds (Williamson Act).
· A 4% decrease in county revenue stabilization fur~ding.
· . Local government is provided with the authority to increase the sales tax bY 1/2 cent for
drug enforcement and crime prevention.
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What the final impact on the delivery of services will be is still unpredictable, HoWever, the
GovernOrs proposed budget appears to' demonstrate a recognition of the difficulties-local
government entities are having in meeting theLr service responsibilities.
Re~ionalism
Many legislators envision regional governmental structures as. Viable and necessary to adequately
respond to the issues surrounding, the delivery, of local government services and the equitable
distribution of revenue. Regional government is also proposed as a means of managing growth and
its inherent problems, as well as benefits, on a region-wide basis..
During the 1990 legislative session flxirty bills were introduced relating to growth management
issues. Four of these bills would have directly affected the governance of Kern County:
AB '{242 (W. Brown) would have' created.seven regional development and infrastructure
.agencies t6 .supersede LAFCOs, APCDs, regional water quality control boards, and regional
transportation planning agencies~
SB 1332 (Presley) would have enacted the Subregional Planning Act,. allowing local officials
to create new subregional agencies to prepare plans. ~
SB 1770 (McCorquodale) would have created the San Ooaquin Valley Air Quality
Management District in place of eight separate air pollution control districts.
SB 2391 and SCA 51 (McCorquodale) would have 'authorized two new regional fiscal
authorities which could levy new taxes and fees to pay for public works projects. In' its
original form this bill would .not have impacted Kern County, however, the legislature's,
committee report recommended that the San Diego area and the eight county San doaquin
Valley also be authorized to form regional fiscal authorities.
None of these bills were enacted into law during the last session, either dying in committee, failing
house passage, or being vetoed by the Governor. However, two bills have already been
reintroduced in the 1991 legislative session: AB 4242 (Brown) has been reintroduced as AB 3; and
SB 1770 (McCorquodale) has been reinu'oduced as SB 124. Whether the remaining two bills noted
above will be reintroduced this session is not known' at tkis time. However, it is likely that
numerous bills regarding regional growth management/regional.ism will again be introduced.
The volume of past and anticipated growth management and regional governance legislation
provides a key to the interest and priority that this topic will continue to have in the current and
future Legislatures. State-wide, regional, and subregional planning will continue to be proposed
to address regional quality-of-life issues, fiscal/financing issues associated with infrastructure
requirements due to regional growth and to alleviate the "fiscalization of land use."
While there are many reasons for fiscal stress in counties, among the inajor factors that have
contributed are: (1) city incorporation and annexations that reduce property and sales tax revenues
available to counties, without an equal reduction in the cost of county services; and (2) growth in
redevelopment projects which negatively impact on the revenues of counties and other local
government entities. As cities and counties have found themselves in competition for revenue
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generating land uses, the conflicis-over annexations, incorporations, ankl the establishment 'of
· .redevelopment agencies have escalated. Thus, land use planning and regional growth issues and
problems have become intertwined with local government finance.
· Summary '
Both .the fiscal capacity and .organization structure of local governments are l.i.kely to change in the
.1990s. Kern County may need to form a network of local .governmental entities to develop
consensus on solutions for our region. Thisl network, or alliance, can be structured in a variety'of
ways and with a wide range of possible tasks.
AK:dmkregion
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