Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 9, 2010

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AROUND THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

MountainViews-News Saturday, October 9, 2010 

DUARTE

GREATEST HITS: Local Government Bills During 2010

MONROVIA

Public Hearing 
Set on Duarte 
Development 
Code, Zoning 
Map Draft

A two year-long public process 
to update the City of Duarte 
Development Code and Zoning 
Map is coming to a conclusion. 
The Duarte City Council will 
hold a public hearing on Oct. 
12 at 7 p.m. to review the final 
draft provisions for proposed 
zone districts, permitted 
uses, development and design 
standards administration 
and implementation of the 
development code and zoning 
map changes. The hearing, in 
which the public is invited to 
participate with questions and 
comments, will take place at 
Duarte City Council Chambers, 
1600 Huntington Dr.

 The recently completed final 
draft of the new Development 
Code would replace the current 
Zoning Code, originally 
adopted in 1962 and last 
updated in 1991. It is intended 
to create a modern, streamlined 
development regulation 
that will attract economic 
development, result in high-
quality construction, and serve 
as a functional tool.

 The accompanying 
draft Zoning Map reflects land 
uses and vision established by 
the 2007 General Plan. 

 Since project start-up, more 
than a dozen workshops and 
community meetings, and 
public hearings have been 
held, including workshops on 
zone districts, hillside, parking, 
residential uses and sign related 
issues. The City Council 
held a public workshop on 
September 14 and the Planning 
Commission held two public 
hearings in July and August 
to review the code and zoning 
map, and to receive public 
input. Community input from 
these workshops and meetings 
has been incorporated into 
the new code. To assist with 
the process, the City hired 
the consulting firm of Hogle-
Ireland. 

 

The public is encouraged to 
contact the City of Duarte 
Planning Division at (626) 357-
7931, ext. 230 or 235, prior to 
the City Council meeting, to 
learn more about the proposed 
changes or to arrange to 
review the Draft Development 
Code. Copies of the draft 
Development Code and Zoning 
Map are available for public 
review at the City Planning and 
Building counter, as well as the 
Duarte Library. 

 The draft may also be viewed on-
line on the City’s website at www.
accessduarte.com.

(Monrovia City Manager’s Report)

 This was an eventful week no 
doubt, and it provides a great 
study for any practitioner or 
student of public administration 
and/or municipal government.

 This chapter of the story began 
last Wednesday, September 22, 
as a petition containing 562 
signatures was submitted by 
Cyrus Kemp and John Jogminas 
to the Office of the City Clerk. 
The reason for the petition was 
to repeal a lawfully enacted 
tax on real property that was 
established by Monrovia voters 
in 1950. This property tax 
override - levied at a rate of 1/8 
of 1% of assessed value - was 
established expressly for the 
purpose of funding pension 
costs for municipal employees.

Mr. Kemp, and more recently Mr. 
Jogminas, have each been vocal 
critics of the City of Monrovia. 
They decided earlier this year 
that, along with a third resident, 
they would seek to repeal the 
tax. They also proposed an idea 
to require a vote of the electorate 
to ratify any significant land use 
decision made by the Council. 
Previously, Mr. Kemp has 
alternately tried to push other 
ballot initiatives; most notably, 
measures drafted by the attorney 
for the Monrovia Police Officers' 
Association during and after the 
City's contentious negotiations 
with the union in 2008.

 The property tax override 
generates about $4.2 million per 
year that funds a major portion 
of the City's retirement costs. As 
the City of Bell scandal unfolded 
this summer, and as the tone 
of federal and State election 
campaigns got nastier and 
alienated more and more voters, 
the petitioners moved forward 
with gathering signatures 
presuming a groundswell of 
support for their cause.

 Now, if you strongly disagree 
with the City of Monrovia and 
most everything it does, and you 
are wholly focused on repealing 
this tax, it might not occur to 
you what the consequences of its 
repeal might be. Then again, you 
just might not care.

 Based on the feedback from 
residents who were contacted 
during the signature gathering 
period, however, it was nice to 
know that lots of Monrovians 
do indeed care what happens 
to their community and the 
services they depend on. 
Obviously, no one likes to pay 
taxes; but I think most folks 
in Monrovia see the nexus 
between the local taxes they pay 
and the quality level of service 
they receive.

 For example, the repeal of this 
tax would not affect the City's 
existing pension commitments 
and liabilities - after all, this is 
not a pension reform initiative. 
(Besides, the City is already at 
the threshold of restructuring 
retirement benefits. And, I 
might add, we were on this path 
even before the Bell debacle.)

 To the contrary, the success of 
this proposed ballot measure 
would essentially mean that 
the City would have to cut 
an additional $4.2 million 
in services to make good on 
such existing commitments. 
Keeping in mind that 2/3 of 
the General Fund budget is 
police and fire services, the 
likely cuts would either be 
the wholesale elimination of 
"quality of life" services, such 
as the public library, parks and 
children's recreation services, 
or the contracting out and 
downsizing of our Police and 
Fire Departments.

 Given these drastic and 
negative consequences, as well 
as the overwhelmingly positive 
feedback from Monrovia 
residents via last year's Citizen 
Satisfaction Survey, neither 
the Council nor I were worried 
that the voters of Monrovia - 
who have recently supported 
taxes for saving the hillsides, 
renovating public schools, and 
building a new public library - 
would cut off their nose to spite 
the community's face.

 The proposed measure 
deserved attention - to be sure 
- given that, under the terms 
of another initiative (Prop 218), 
the petitioners only needed to 
secure the signatures of 397 
registered voters. And with 
the existing political climate, 
it seemed that garnering the 
requisite number of signatures 
would be easy enough.

Still, there were other 
issues involved here; and 
the petitioners' inability to 
understand and appreciate them 
- despite being wholly aware of 
them - ultimately damaged their 
effort.

 First, was the City's position 
that any repeal of the 1950 tax 
would be challenged by the 
City as unconstitutional under 
the law. Unfortunately, the 
Pasadena Star News was unable 
to represent the key facts of the 
City's argument.

 Suffice it to say that, under the 
US Constitution, a government 
(or even the electorate itself) may 
not enact a law that materially 
damages the terms of an existing 
agreement. This "Contract 
Clause" is a fundamental tenet 
of constitutional law.

 How does it apply here? 
The City Council, pursuant 
to the 2008 labor agreement 
with the Monrovia Police 
Officers' Association (MPOA), 
authorized the sale of Pension 
(continued on page 10)

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.

From the Senate Committee 
on Local Government, Senator 
Christine Kehoe, Vice Chair

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 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 

Proposed Ballot Measure Rejected


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