RECEIVE legislative update and RECOMMEND Board positions on relevant legislation.

Staff will present a state legislative update and a revised bill list for consideration and recommendation to the Board.

2017's Senate Bill (SB) 1 created the biggest funding opportunity in several years. TAMC Staff and Agency legislative analyst Gus Khouri continue to pursue funding through that bill.  With regards to the updated bill list, some legislation would have funding impacts on the agency if enacted.

Attached are an updated bill list (attachment 1) and an April report on state legislative activities (attachment 2).

New bills suggested for the Executive Committee's consideration in recommending positions to the Board include the following bills (and the staff's recommended position):

• AB 1905 (Greyson): CEQA: judicial review: transportation projects (watch)
  • This bill would prohibit a court from staying or enjoining a transportation project that would reduce total vehicle miles traveled, that is included in a sustainable communities strategy and for which an environmental impact report has been certified, unless the court makes specified findings.
  • This measure could reduce the potential for CEQA challenges for certain transit, bicycle or pedestrian projects. 
    
• AB 2006 (Eggman): Agricultural Worker Clean Transportation Investment Program (support)
  • Establishes a program to be administered by the Air Resources Board to fund the deployment of near-zero-emission and zero-emission vehicles to be used for agricultural vanpools serving disadvantaged or low-income communities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, funded through from the cap and trade Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
  • This program would help with the purchase of vans for rideshare programs and help reduce emissions that lead to global warming, both of which would help to meet state-required Regional Transportation Plan goals.
    
• AB 2249 (Cooley): Contract thresholds for public projects: local agencies (support)
  • This bill would authorize public projects of $60,000 or less to be performed by the employees of a public agency, authorize public projects of $200,000 or less to be let to contract by informal procedures, and require public projects of more than $200,000 to be let to contract by formal bidding procedures.
  • Current state public contract codes requires that a formal bidding process be utilized for public works contracts that are less than $5,000. This requirement is very costly, considering that conducting a formal bidding process can often cost more than the total contract cost in staff and bidder time. The federal required minimum for a formal bidding process is only $100,000. 
    
• AB 2363 (Friedman): Speed limits (watch)
  • This bill would allow Caltrans or a local authority to round speed limits within the 85th percentile of traffic speed, based on an engineering study and other factors, and allows for speed limits to be reduced by 5 mph.
  • While not a current issue for TAMC, this bill could be interesting from a traffic management and safety perspective.
• AB 2615 (Carillo): State highway system: accessibility for bicycles and pedestrians (support)
  • This bill would require Caltrans, to the extent possible and where feasible, to partner with the California Department of Parks and Recreation and other appropriate public agencies in order to develop strategies and plans to maximize safe and convenient access for bicycles and pedestrians to any parks adjacent or connected to the state highway system.
  • Caltrans has an adopted complete streets policy but there is room for improvement in developing coordinated connections between the state highway and non-state highway facilities. This bill will promote a more integrated set of bicycle and pedestrian facilities linking trails and local roads to state highways.
    

AB 1759 (McCarty), formerly related to withholding transportation funds if housing element production requirements were not met, was gutted and amended and no longer relates to transportation. It will be removed from future bill lists.

Staff will present a verbal update at the meeting.