AB 727: Castaic Lake Water Agency: board of directors.
- Session Year: 2015-2016
- House: Assembly
- Latest Version Date: 2016-01-04
(1)Existing
Existing law, the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law, creates the Castaic Lake Water Agency and authorizes the agency to acquire water and water rights, including water from the State Water Project, and to provide, sell, and deliver water at wholesale for municipal, industrial, domestic, and other purposes. The law authorizes the agency to construct, operate, and maintain works to develop hydroelectric energy and to contract for the sale of the right to use falling water for electrical energy purposes.
This bill would authorize the agency to construct, operate, and maintain works to develop energy projects and to contract for the sale of the right to use facilities or real property for electric energy purposes.
(2)Existing law authorizes the agency to develop, treat, distribute, and reclaim water, and to store and recover water from groundwater basins located outside the boundaries of the agency.
This bill would authorize the board of directors of the agency to adopt and carry out a plan to finance or reimburse the agency for advancing net costs of remediating groundwater contamination.
(3)Existing law authorizes the agency to establish and impose a facility capacity fee for the right to make a new retail connection to the water distribution system of any retail water distributor within the agency that obtains water supplies from the agency. Existing law requires the proceeds of the facility capacity fee to be used exclusively by the board of directors of the agency for the annual capital budget of the agency, which is the sum annually projected by the board of directors to be reasonably necessary for prescribed purposes. Existing law authorizes the board of directors to adopt a multiyear capital budget, not to encompass more than 3 agency fiscal years.
This bill would define a facility capacity fee and authorize the agency to establish and impose the fee on any person who makes a new retail connection or has an existing retail connection to the water distribution system. This bill would eliminate payments of capital costs to the State of California for purposes of the State Water Project from being a component of the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency. This bill would eliminate the authorization to adopt a multiyear capital budget.
(4)purposes. Existing law authorizes the board of directors, directors of the agency, by majority vote, to appoint from its members one vice president.
This bill would authorize the board of directors to appoint from its members one or more vice presidents.
(5)Existing law requires the board of directors of the agency to annually adopt a resolution of intention to form new water service areas, or to continue, amend, or modify water service areas previously established.
This bill would not require the board of directors to adopt this resolution if there is no change from the previous year to the water service areas or to the existing facility capacity fees.
(6)Existing law provides that until July 1, 1991, or the date the board of directors finds and declares by resolution that there is more than 25,000 acre-feet of potable water available each year from the agency, whichever is later, the agency is required to allocated water of the agency to each purveyor on a specified percentage basis and that the allocation of agency water after this date is to be with respect to agency water service areas.
This bill would repeal these provisions.
(7)Existing law authorizes the agency to prescribe methods for the construction of works and for the letting of contracts for the construction of works, structures, or equipment, or the performance or furnishing of labor, materials, or supplies, for carrying out specified provisions. Existing law requires all contracts for any improvement or unit of work when the cost estimate exceeds $5,000 to be let to the lowest responsible bidder or bidders. Existing law authorizes the agency to have work done by force account without advertising for bids and to purchase in the open market materials and supplies when the estimated cost of the work does not exceed $5,000.
This bill would revise the cost estimate limit for the purpose of these provisions to $75,000.
(1)Existing law, the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law, creates the Castaic Lake Water Agency and authorizes the agency to acquire water and water rights, including water from the State Water Project, and to provide, sell, and deliver water at wholesale for municipal, industrial, domestic, and other purposes. The law authorizes the agency to construct, operate, and maintain works to develop hydroelectric energy and to contract for the sale of the right to use falling water for electrical energy purposes.
This bill would authorize the agency to construct, operate, and maintain works to develop energy projects and to contract for the sale of the right to use facilities or real property for electric energy purposes.
(2)Existing law authorizes the agency to develop, treat, distribute, and reclaim water, and to store and recover water from groundwater basins located outside the boundaries of the agency.
This bill would authorize the agency to exercise these powers over groundwater basins located both within and outside the boundaries of the agency. This bill would authorize the board of directors of the agency to adopt and carry out a plan to finance or reimburse the agency for advancing net costs of remediating groundwater contamination.
(3)Existing law authorizes the agency to establish and impose a facility capacity fee for the right to make a new retail connection to the water distribution system of any retail water distributor within the agency that obtains water supplies from the agency. Existing law requires the proceeds of the facility capacity fee to be used exclusively by the board of directors of the agency for the annual capital budget of the agency, which is the sum annually projected by the board of directors to be reasonably necessary for prescribed purposes. Existing law authorizes the board of directors to adopt a multiyear capital budget, not to encompass more than 3 agency fiscal years.
This bill would define a facility capacity fee and authorize the agency to establish and impose the fee on any person who makes a new retail connection or has an existing retail connection to the water distribution system. This bill would eliminate payments of capital costs to the State of California for purposes of the State Water Project from being a component of the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency. This bill would eliminate the authorization to adopt a multiyear capital budget.
(4)Existing law authorizes the board of directors, by majority vote, to appoint from its members one vice president.
This bill would authorize the board of directors to appoint from its members one or more vice presidents.
(5)Existing law requires the board of directors of the agency to annually adopt a resolution of intention to form new water service areas, or to continue, amend, or modify water service areas previously established.
This bill would not require the board of directors to adopt this resolution if there is no change from the previous year to the water service areas or to the existing facility capacity fees.
(6)Existing law provides that until July 1, 1991, or the date the board of directors finds and declares by resolution that there is more than 25,000 acre-feet of potable water available each year from the agency, whichever is later, the agency is required to allocated water of the agency to each purveyor on a specified percentage basis and that the allocation of agency water after this date is to be with respect to agency water service areas.
This bill would repeal these provisions.
(7)Existing law authorizes the agency to prescribe methods for the construction of works and for the letting of contracts for the construction of works, structures, or equipment, or the performance or furnishing of labor, materials, or supplies, for carrying out specified provisions. Existing law requires all contracts for any improvement or unit of work when the cost estimate exceeds $5,000 to be let to the lowest responsible bidder or bidders. Existing law authorizes the agency to have work done by force account without advertising for bids and to purchase in the open market materials and supplies when the estimated cost of the work does not exceed $5,000.
This bill would revise the cost estimate limit for the purpose of these provisions to $75,000.
(1)Existing law, the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law, creates the Castaic Lake Water Agency and authorizes the agency to acquire water and water rights, including water from the State Water Project, and to provide, sell, and deliver water at wholesale for municipal, industrial, domestic, and other purposes. The law authorizes the agency to construct, operate, and maintain works to develop hydroelectric energy and to contract for the sale of the right to use falling water for electrical energy purposes.
This bill would authorize the agency to construct, operate, and maintain works to develop energy projects and to contract for the sale of the right to use facilities or real property for electric energy purposes.
(2)Existing law authorizes the agency to develop, treat, distribute, and reclaim water, and to store and recover water from groundwater basins located outside the boundaries of the agency.
This bill would authorize the agency to exercise these powers over groundwater basins located both within and outside the boundaries of the agency. This bill would authorize the board of directors of the agency to adopt and carry out a plan to finance or reimburse the agency for advancing net costs of remediating groundwater contamination.
(3)Existing law authorizes the agency to establish and impose a facility capacity fee for the right to make a new retail connection to the water distribution system of any retail water distributor within the agency that obtains water supplies from the agency. Existing law requires the proceeds of the facility capacity fee to be used exclusively by the board of directors of the agency for the annual capital budget of the agency, which is the sum annually projected by the board of directors to be reasonably necessary for prescribed purposes. Existing law authorizes the board of directors to adopt a multiyear capital budget, not to encompass more than 3 agency fiscal years.
This bill would define a facility capacity fee and authorize the agency to establish and impose the fee on any person who makes a new retail connection or has an existing retail connection to the water distribution system. This bill would eliminate payments of capital costs to the State of California for purposes of the State Water Project from being a component of the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency. This bill would eliminate the authorization to adopt a multiyear capital budget.
(4)Existing law authorizes the board of directors, by majority vote, to appoint from its members one vice president.
This bill would authorize the board of directors to appoint from its members one or more vice presidents.
(5)Existing law requires the board of directors of the agency to annually adopt a resolution of intention to form new water service areas, or to continue, amend, or modify water service areas previously established.
This bill would not require the board of directors to adopt this resolution if there is no change from the previous year to the water service areas or to the existing facility capacity fees.
(6)Existing law provides that until July 1, 1991, or the date the board of directors finds and declares by resolution that there is more than 25,000 acre-feet of potable water available each from the agency, whichever is later, the agency is required to allocated water of the agency to each purveyor on a specified percentage basis and that the allocation of agency water after this date is to be with respect to agency water service areas.
This bill would repeal these provisions.
(7)Existing law authorizes the agency to prescribe methods for the construction of works and for the letting of contracts for the construction of works, structures, or equipment, or the performance or furnishing of labor, materials, or supplies, for carrying out specified provisions. Existing law requires all contracts for any improvement or unit of work when the cost estimate exceeds $5,000 to be let to the lowest responsible bidder or bidders. Existing law authorizes the agency to have work done by force account without advertising for bids and to purchase in the open market materials and supplies when the estimated cost of the work does not exceed $5,000.
This bill would revise the cost estimate limit for the purpose of these provisions to $75,000.
(a)The Castaic Lake Water Agency shall have power to prescribe methods for the construction of works and for the letting of contracts for the construction of works, structures, or equipment, or the performance or furnishing of labor, materials, or supplies, necessary or convenient for carrying out any of the purposes of this act or for the acquisition or disposal of any real or personal property; provided, that all contracts for any improvement or unit of work, when the cost according to the estimate of the engineer will exceed seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000), shall be let to the lowest responsible bidder or bidders as provided in this article. The board shall first determine whether the contract shall be let as a single unit or divided into severable parts. The board shall advertise for bids by three insertions in a daily newspaper of general circulation published in the agency or by two insertions in a nondaily newspaper of general circulation published in the agency or, if no newspaper is published in the agency, in any newspaper of general circulation distributed in the agency, inviting sealed proposals for the construction or performance of the improvement or work. The call for bids shall state whether the work shall be performed in one unit or divided into parts. The work may be let under a single contract or several contracts, as stated in the call. The board shall require the successful bidders to file with the board good and sufficient bonds to be approved by the board conditioned upon the faithful performance of the contract and upon the payment of their claims for labor and material. The bonds shall comply with Title 3 (commencing with Section 9000) of Part 6 of Division 4 of the Civil Code. The board may reject any bid.
(b)In the event all proposals are rejected or no proposals are received, or the estimated cost of the work does not exceed seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) or the work consists of channel protection, maintenance work, or emergency work, the board may have the work done by force account without advertising for bids. In case of an emergency, if notice for bids to let contracts will not be given, the board shall comply with Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 22050).
(c)The agency may purchase in the open market without advertising for bids, materials and supplies for use in any work, either under contract or by force account; provided, however, that materials and supplies for use in any new construction work or improvement, except work referred to in subdivision (b), shall not be purchased if the cost exceeds seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000), without advertising for bids and awarding the contract to the lowest responsible bidder.
SEC. 2.SECTION 1.Section 11 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 170 of the Statutes of 1998, is amended to read:Sec. 11.The board of directors shall be the governing body of the agency. The board shall hold its first meeting as soon as possible after the appointment and certification of the first board of directors. The board shall choose one of its members to be president, and shall thereupon provide for the time and place of holding its meetings and the manner in which its special meetings may be called. All legislative sessions of the board, whether regular or special, shall be open to the public. A majority of the board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. At its first meeting in the month of January of each odd-numbered year, the board shall choose one of its members president. The board, by majority vote, may appoint from its members one or more vice presidents and may define the duties of a vice president.
SEC. 3.Section 15 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 910 of the Statutes of 1989, is amended to read:Sec. 15.The agency may acquire water and water rights, including, but not limited to, water from the State of California under the State Water Resources Development System, and provide, sell, and deliver that water at wholesale only, for municipal, industrial, domestic, and other purposes, through a transmission system to be acquired or constructed by the agency. To carry out these purposes, the agency shall have the following powers:
(a)To have perpetual succession.
(b)To sue and be sued, except as otherwise provided herein or by law, in all actions and proceedings in all courts and tribunals of competent jurisdiction.
(c)To adopt a seal and alter it at pleasure.
(d)To take by grant, purchase, gift, devise, or lease, hold, use, enjoy, and to lease or dispose of real and personal property of every kind, within or without the agency.
(e)To acquire, or contract to acquire, waterworks or a waterworks system, water rights, waters, lands, and rights and privileges and to construct, complete, extend, add to, repair, maintain, improve, and operate waterworks or a waterworks system, conduits, pipelines, reservoirs, works, machinery, and other property or facilities useful or necessary to import, store, treat, reclaim, conserve, convey, or supply water for the benefit and use of residents and owners of property within the agency, and otherwise for authorized agency purposes.
(f)To lease of and from any person, firm, public or private corporation, or public agency, with the privilege of purchasing or otherwise, all or any part of water storage, transportation or distribution facilities, existing waterworks or a waterworks system, and to carry on and conduct waterworks or a waterworks system; also to sell for use within the area of the agency at wholesale only water of the agency to cities, to other public corporations and public agencies, and to water corporations as defined in the Public Utilities Code, and to any mutual water companies engaged in distributing water to its members for use, without any preference, and the agency may, whenever the board finds that there is a surplus of water above that which may be required by those consumers within the agency, sell or otherwise dispose of that surplus water to any persons, firms, public or private corporations, public agencies, or other consumers.
(g)To exercise the right of eminent domain to take any property necessary or desirable for any facility reasonably required for the importation and transmission of water in the area of the agency. The agency in exercising that power, shall in addition to the damage for the taking, injury, or destruction of property, also pay the cost of removal, reconstruction, or relocation of any structure, railways, mains, pipes, conduits, wires, cables, or poles of any public utility which is required to be removed to a new location. No action in eminent domain to acquire property outside the boundaries of the agency shall be commenced unless the board of supervisors of each affected county has consented to the acquisition by resolution.
(h)To issue bonds, borrow money, and incur indebtedness as authorized by law or in this act provided; also to refund (by the issuance of the same obligations following the same procedure) or retire any indebtedness or lien that may exist against the agency or property thereof.
(i)To issue negotiable promissory notes bearing interest at a rate not exceeding the maximum rate per annum authorized by Section 27; provided, however, that the notes shall be general obligations of the agency payable from revenues and taxes in the same manner as bonds of the agency; and provided further that the maturity shall not be later than five years from the date thereof and that the total aggregate amount of the notes outstanding at any one time may be at least equal to seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) but shall not otherwise exceed the lesser of either one million dollars ($1,000,000) or 2 percent of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the agency, or, if that assessed valuation is not obtainable, 2 percent of the county auditors estimate of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the agency evidenced by his or her certificate.
(j)To cause taxes to be levied, in the manner hereinafter provided, for the purpose of paying any obligation of the agency, including its formation expenses and any warrants issued therefor.
(k)To restrict the use of agency water during any emergency caused by drought, or other threatened or existing water shortage, and to prohibit the wastage of agency water or the use of agency water during those periods, for any purpose other than household uses or such other restricted uses as may be determined to be necessary by the agency; to prohibit the use of agency water during those periods for specified uses which the agency may from time to time find to be nonessential.
(l)To prescribe and define by ordinance, the restrictions, prohibitions, and exclusions referred to in subdivision (k). Every ordinance relating to the matters referred to in this subdivision shall be in full force and effect forthwith upon adoption, but shall be published once in full within 10 days after adoption in a newspaper of general circulation published in the agency or, if no such newspaper is published in the agency, in a newspaper of general circulation distributed in the agency.
(m)To make contracts, to employ labor, and do all acts necessary for the full exercise of the foregoing powers.
(n)To provide by ordinance of its board of directors for the pensioning of employees and the creation of a special fund for the purpose of paying those pensions, and the accumulation of contributions to the fund from the revenues of the agency, the wages of employees, voluntary contributions, gifts, donations, or any source of revenue not inconsistent with the general powers of the board, and to contract with any insurance corporation or any other insurance carrier for the maintenance of a service covering the pension of the employees, and to provide in the ordinance for the terms and conditions under which the pensions shall be awarded, and for the time and extent of service of employees before the pensions shall be available to them.
(o)To join with one or more public agencies, private corporations, or other persons for the purpose of carrying out any of the powers of the agency, and for that purpose to contract with such other public agencies or private corporations or persons for the purpose of financing those acquisitions, constructions, and operations. The contracts may provide for contributions to be made by each party thereto and for the division and apportionment of the expenses of the acquisitions and operations, and the division and apportionment of the benefits, the services and products therefrom, and may provide for any agency to effect the acquisitions and to carry on the operations, and shall provide in the powers and methods of procedure for the agency the method by which the agency may contract. The contracts with other public agencies or private corporations or persons may contain such other and further covenants and agreements as may be necessary or convenient to accomplish the purposes thereof. Particularly, but not exclusively, the agency may contract with the State of California for delivery of water under the State Water Resources Development System. The term public agency, as used in this subdivision, shall be deemed to mean and include the United States of America or any department or agency thereof, the State of California or any department or agency thereof, a county, city, public corporation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, or other public district of this state. The term private corporation, as used in this subdivision, shall be deemed to mean and include any private corporation organized under the laws of the United States of America or of this or any other state thereof. Contracts mentioned herein include those made with the United States, under the Federal Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902, (43 U.S.C. Sec. 371 et seq.) and all acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto or any other act of Congress heretofore or hereafter enacted permitting cooperation. Any such contract with the United States of America or any department or agency thereof, or with any private corporation organized under the laws of the United States of America, by which the agency, or an improvement district thereof, incurs an indebtedness or liability exceeding in any year the income and revenue for that year, shall not be executed without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors of the agency, or an improvement district thereof, voting at a special election to be held for that purpose, the election to be called and held, so far as practicable, in the same manner as bond elections for the agency. The exact form of the contract need not be available at the time of the special election, but the (1) purpose of the contract; (2) maximum amount of the indebtedness created thereby; (3) maximum term of repayment; and (4) maximum interest rate on the indebtedness shall be known and included in the proposition or measure submitted to the qualified electors of the agency, or an improvement district thereof, at the special election.
(p)To issue bonds under Section 28 for the purpose of providing money required to be paid by this agency to the State of California or any agency thereof under any contract which shall be made with it, or as all or part of the terms and conditions under which the corporate area of the agency may be annexed to and become a part of any metropolitan water district organized under the Metropolitan Water District Act. The amount of the bonds may include expenses of all proceedings for the authorization, issuance, and sale of the bonds.
(q)To disseminate information concerning the rights, properties, and activities of the agency.
(r)To construct, operate, and maintain works to develop energy projects, for use by the agency in the operation of its works or as a means of assisting in financing the construction, operation, and maintenance of its projects for the control, conservation, diversion, and transmission of water and to enter into contracts for the sale of the energy for a term not to exceed 100 years. The energy may be marketed only at wholesale to any public agency or private entity, or both, or the federal or state government.
(s)To contract, in connection with the construction and operation of the works of the agency, for the sale of the right to use facilities or real property for electric energy purposes with any public agency or private entity engaged in the retail distribution of electric energy, for a term not to exceed 100 years.
(t)To develop, treat, distribute, and reclaim water, and to store and recover water from groundwater basins located outside the boundaries of the agency and, in exercising that power, to make and enter into contracts allowing that storage and recovery.
SEC. 4.Section 26.1 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 562 of the Statutes of 1991, is amended to read:Sec. 26.1.(a)(1)In addition to the other powers provided in this act, the agency may establish and impose a facility capacity fee on any person who makes a new retail connection or has an existing retail connection to the water distribution system of any retail water distributor within the agency that obtains all, or any portion, of its water supplies from the agency. The necessity for the fee, and the amounts thereof, shall be determined, established, imposed, collected, and used in the manner provided in this section.
(2)As used in this act, a facility capacity fee means a fee for public facilities in existence at the time a fee is imposed and for new public facilities to be acquired or constructed in the future that are of proportional benefit to the person or property being charged, including supply or capacity contracts for rights or entitlements, real property interests, and entitlements and other rights of the agency involving capital expense relating to its use of existing or new public facilities. A facility capacity fee does not include a commodity charge.
(b)If the board of directors determines that its existing water importation, transportation, and delivery facilities and other related works, property, and improvements are not adequate for the purpose of receiving, importing, transporting, and delivering additional needed quantities of water available from the State Water Resources Development System or from other sources, the board of directors may adopt and carry out a plan for any of the following purposes:
(1)To obtain additional facilities, works, property, improvements, and supplies of water.
(2)To increase or enlarge, as may be appropriate, its existing capacity and facilities for obtaining, importing, transporting, and delivering additional quantities of water to retail water distributors within the agency which are in need of additional water supplies.
(3)To finance or reimburse the agency for advancing the cost of acquiring facilities, works, property, improvements, and supplies of water and to allocate that cost among lands within water service areas of the agency which, by reason of new development or new construction thereon, will need a new or expanded retail connection, or will result in expanded use of water at the retail connection, and will be benefited by making the additional supplies of agency water available for purchase by the retail water distributors that will supply those lands with water.
(4)To finance or reimburse the agency for advancing net costs for capital facilities for remediating groundwater contamination, which originated solely from the land within a given water service area.
(c)(1)Prior to adopting any plans pursuant to subdivision (b), the board of directors shall hold at least one public hearing, at which oral or written presentations may be made, as part of a regularly scheduled meeting to establish water service areas within the agency.
(2)Notwithstanding any other notice requirements of this act, notice of the time and place of the hearing and meeting, including a general explanation of the matters to be considered, and a statement that the data required by this subdivision is available, shall be mailed at least 14 days prior to the hearing to any interested party who files a written request with the agency for mailed notice of the hearing on those plans and on allocation of the costs thereof. Any written request for that mailed notice shall be valid only for one year from the date on which it is filed with the agency unless a renewal request is filed. Renewal requests for the mailed notices shall be filed on or before April 1 of each year. The board of directors may establish a reasonable annual charge for sending the notices based on the agencys estimated cost of providing the service.
(3)At least 10 days prior to the hearing, the agency shall make available to the public data indicating the cost, or estimated cost, to acquire, construct, and provide the water importation, transportation, and delivery facilities and other works, property, and improvements necessary to obtain and provide the additional water to those retail water distributors who will serve water to the lands on which the new developments and new construction will be located, and the proposed method and basis for allocating the costs as among those lands. The agency may transmit this data electronically to interested parties upon written request.
(d)(1)Following the public hearing or hearings, the board of directors shall make both of the following determinations:
(A)The extent of the need for the additional property and supplies of water to be supplied by the agency.
(B)Whether existing facilities and other works and improvements of the agency are adequate to import, receive, transport, and deliver those additional quantities of water.
(2)If the board of directors determines that there is a need or that the agencys existing facilities, works, property, and improvements are inadequate to serve that water, or both, the board of directors shall adopt the plan or plans specified in subdivision (b).
(e)In making its determinations as to how to allocate the costs of the plan or plans within water service areas of the agency, the board of directors shall determine the amount of the facility capacity fee to be imposed for the delivery facilities of the retail water distributors that will supply those lands with imported or local water. The facility capacity fee shall be fixed and determined pursuant to a method and basis whereby the fee is as nearly as reasonably practicable an amount proportionate to the benefit to the land, including consideration of the volume of water to be delivered.
(f)The board of directors may contract with the counties, or cities on or after January 1, 1992, in which the agency is located for the collection of the facility capacity fee along with building permit fees or other fees related to the improvement of property, or may contract for collection of the facility capacity fee by the retail water distributor.
(g)The proceeds of the facility capacity fee imposed and collected pursuant to this section shall be used exclusively by the board of directors for the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency, as described in Section 29.1, for purposes authorized by this section as specified in the plans adopted pursuant to subdivisions (b), (d), and (e).
(h)Any action taken by the board of directors pursuant to this section shall be taken only by resolution.
(i)Any judicial action or proceeding to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul any resolution imposing a facility capacity charge of the agency, or a resolution modifying or amending an existing charge imposed by the agency, shall be commenced within 120 days of the effective date of the resolution. Any action or proceeding shall be brought pursuant to Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 860) of Title 10 of Part 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
SEC. 5.Section 29.1 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 3 of Chapter 1119 of the Statutes of 1987, is amended to read:Sec. 29.1.(a)For any agency fiscal year commencing on or after July 1, 1987, the board of directors shall divide all lands within the agency into separate, nonoverlapping water service areas. The water service areas shall be fixed, formed, and established following a public hearing and notice pursuant to Section 29.3. The purpose for the formation of water service areas is to provide a source of and to apportion moneys, not to exceed the amount permitted annually by law, for, and only for, the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency. The funding and apportioning of the facility capacity fee capital budget shall be on the principle of benefit received by the lands and people within each water service area. Projected use of water in any way to be made available by the agency within a water service area during any agency fiscal year, as well as the agencys existing property, plant, and distribution facilities, shall be deemed by the board of directors to be the principal benefits to be considered in determining the proportion of the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency to be collected from sources within each water service area. Different schedules of rates, charges, fees, assessments, and taxes to fund the facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency, or a portion thereof, may be fixed and established in each water service area, except that tax rates within any individual water service area shall be uniform. The lands within each water service area need not be contiguous.
(b)Any ad valorem tax or tax rate set or determined by the board of directors, though part of the benefit determination process within water service areas, is valid so long as the tax proceeds are applied in accordance with constitutional restrictions. Allocations by the board of directors of the burden of ad valorem taxes between or among water service areas may, at the option of the board of directors, be conducted outside the hearing process set forth and described in Sections 29.2 to 29.4, inclusive.
(c)As used in this act, the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency means that sum annually projected by the board of directors to be reasonably necessary (1) for payments for acquisition of other water imported into the agency or for local water for new and expanded uses, (2) for payments in any way concerning agency bonded indebtedness or for lands and facilities, within or outside the agency, useful or necessary to bank, store, transport, treat, and distribute water currently or eventually to be made available by the agency within water service areas thereof for new and expanded uses, and (3) for payment to agency budget reserve accounts for the above uses or purposes in future agency fiscal years. Moneys collected by the agency for the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency shall only be utilized for capital, as that term is utilized under general accounting principles. The board of directors in its budgetary processes during any fiscal year may shift capital moneys between or among capital accounts, including reserve accounts. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency as derived from all water service areas of the agency shall be funded in strict accordance with constitutional and statutory restrictions, as existing from time to time, on legally permissible rates, charges, fees, assessments, and taxes.
SEC. 6.Section 29.2 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 4 of Chapter 1119 of the Statutes of 1987, is amended to read:Sec. 29.2.(a)Except as provided in subdivision (b), the board of directors shall annually adopt a resolution of intention to form new water service areas, or to amend or modify water service areas previously established. The resolution shall contain all of the following:
(1)The proposed boundary description of each proposed water service area.
(2)The additional capacity that will be provided to the lands and people within each proposed water service area during a specific, identified agency fiscal year.
(3)The proposed annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency for that fiscal year, and the portion thereof proposed to be obtained from facility capacity fees within each proposed water service area.
(4)The proposed charges, fees, assessments, and tax rates proposed to be fixed, levied, or collected within or from each proposed water service area for the proposed annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency.
(5)The date, time, and location for a public hearing concerning the formation, amendments, or modification of the water service areas.
(b)The board of directors shall not be required to adopt a resolution pursuant to this section if there is not a change from the previous year to the water service areas or the existing facility capacity fees.
SEC. 7.Section 29.4 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 6 of Chapter 1119 of the Statutes of 1987, is amended to read:Sec. 29.4.(a)The board of directors shall at the public hearing concerning water service areas, which hearing may be adjourned and continued from time to time, hear and consider any objections or comments concerning the proposed water service areas as described in the agencys resolution of intention concerning the areas. At or following the hearing, the board of directors may make any changes in the proposals set forth in the resolution of intention that are deemed by the board of directors to be proper; provided, except that if additional land is to be included within or described land is to be excluded from a proposed water service area, or if any proposed described benefit within a proposed water service area is to be materially changed, or if any proposed charge, fee, assessment, or tax rate within a proposed water service area is to be increased by 15 percent or more, the hearing shall be continued for at least 30 days and mailed notice of that continuance shall be given to the affected property owners not waiving that notice by mailing the notice not less than 21 days in advance of the continued hearing.
(b)Absent any need to continue the public hearing, the board of directors shall thereafter find and determine whether it is in the best interest of the agency and each proposed water service area that the water service area be either fixed, formed, established, modified, or amended. When all those findings and determinations are made, the board of directors shall by resolution do the following:
(1)Determine each water service area and describe the land in that area.
(2)Fix the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency.
(3)Describe additional capacity that will be provided to the lands and people within each water service area.
(4)Fix, levy, and apportion within each water service area the charges, fees, assessments, and tax rates to be collected therefrom for the purpose of equitably matching those charges, fees, assessments, and tax rates with projected benefits within each water service area.
SEC. 8.Section 29.5 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as added by Section 12 of Chapter 832 of the Statutes of 1986, is repealed.SEC. 9.Section 29.6 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as added by Section 2 of Chapter 170 of the Statutes of 1998, is repealed.SEC. 10.Section 29.7 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as added by Section 3 of Chapter 170 of the Statutes of 1998, is amended to read:Sec. 29.7.Notwithstanding any other law, the board of directors may adopt a facility capacity fee as part of its annual facility capacity fee capital budget and may allow the facility capacity fee for any water service area to remain in effect until the board, subject to applicable notice and hearing requirements, changes or repeals the fee by resolution.
(a)The Castaic Lake Water Agency shall have power to prescribe methods for the construction of works and for the letting of contracts for the construction of works, structures, or equipment, or the performance or furnishing of labor, materials, or supplies, necessary or convenient for carrying out any of the purposes of this act or for the acquisition or disposal of any real or personal property; provided, that all contracts for any improvement or unit of work, when the cost according to the estimate of the engineer will exceed seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) ($75,000), shall be let to the lowest responsible bidder or bidders as provided in this article. The board shall first determine whether the contract shall be let as a single unit or divided into severable parts. The board shall advertise for bids by three insertions in a daily newspaper of general circulation published in the agency or by two insertions in a nondaily newspaper of general circulation published in the agency or, if no newspaper is published in the agency, in any newspaper of general circulation distributed in the agency, inviting sealed proposals for the construction or performance of the improvement or work. The call for bids shall state whether the work shall be performed in one unit or divided into parts. The work may be let under a single contract or several contracts, as stated in the call. The board shall require the successful bidders to file with the board good and sufficient bonds to be approved by the board conditioned upon the faithful performance of the contract and upon the payment of their claims for labor and material. The bonds shall comply with Title 3 (commencing with Section 9000) of Part 6 of Division 4 of the Civil Code. The board may reject any bid.
(b)In the event all proposals are rejected or no proposals are received, or the estimated cost of the work does not exceed seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) or the work consists of channel protection, maintenance work, or emergency work, the board may have the work done by force account without advertising for bids. In case of an emergency, if notice for bids to let contracts will not be given, the board shall comply with Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 22050).
(c)The agency may purchase in the open market without advertising for bids, materials and supplies for use in any work, either under contract or by force account; provided, however, that materials and supplies for use in any new construction work or improvement, except work referred to in subdivision (b), shall not be purchased if the cost exceeds seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000), without advertising for bids and awarding the contract to the lowest responsible bidder.
SEC. 2.Section 11 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 170 of the Statutes of 1998, is amended to read:Sec. 11.The board of directors shall be the governing body of the agency. The board shall hold its first meeting as soon as possible after the appointment and certification of the first board of directors. The board shall choose one of its members to be president, and shall thereupon provide for the time and place of holding its meetings and the manner in which its special meetings may be called. All legislative sessions of the board, whether regular or special, shall be open to the public. A majority of the board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. At its first meeting in the month of January of each odd-numbered year, the board shall choose one of its members president. The board, by majority vote, may appoint from its members one or more vice presidents and may define the duties of a vice president.
SEC. 3.Section 15 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 910 of the Statutes of 1989, is amended to read:Sec. 15.The agency may acquire water and water rights, including, but not limited to, water from the State of California under the State Water Resources Development System, and provide, sell, and deliver that water at wholesale only, for municipal, industrial, domestic, and other purposes, through a transmission system to be acquired or constructed by the agency. To carry out these purposes, the agency shall have the following powers:
(a)To have perpetual succession.
(b)To sue and be sued, except as otherwise provided herein or by law, in all actions and proceedings in all courts and tribunals of competent jurisdiction.
(c)To adopt a seal and alter it at pleasure.
(d)To take by grant, purchase, gift, devise, or lease, hold, use, enjoy, and to lease or dispose of real and personal property of every kind, within or without the agency.
(e)To acquire, or contract to acquire, waterworks or a waterworks system, water rights, waters, lands, and rights and privileges and to construct, complete, extend, add to, repair, maintain, improve, and operate waterworks or a waterworks system, conduits, pipelines, reservoirs, works, machinery, and other property or facilities useful or necessary to import, store, treat, reclaim, conserve, convey, or supply water for the benefit and use of residents and owners of property within the agency, and otherwise for authorized agency purposes.
(f)To lease of and from any person, firm, public or private corporation, or public agency, with the privilege of purchasing or otherwise, all or any part of water storage, transportation or distribution facilities, existing waterworks or a waterworks system, and to carry on and conduct waterworks or a waterworks system; also to sell for use within the area of the agency at wholesale only water of the agency to cities, to other public corporations and public agencies, and to water corporations as defined in the Public Utilities Code, and to any mutual water companies engaged in distributing water to its members for use, without any preference, and the agency may, whenever the board finds that there is a surplus of water above that which may be required by those consumers within the agency, sell or otherwise dispose of that surplus water to any persons, firms, public or private corporations, public agencies, or other consumers.
(g)To exercise the right of eminent domain to take any property necessary or desirable for any facility reasonably required for the importation and transmission of water in the area of the agency. The agency in exercising that power, shall in addition to the damage for the taking, injury, or destruction of property, also pay the cost of removal, reconstruction, or relocation of any structure, railways, mains, pipes, conduits, wires, cables cables, or poles of any public utility which is required to be removed to a new location. No action in eminent domain to acquire property outside the boundaries of the agency shall be commenced unless the board of supervisors of each affected county has consented to the acquisition by resolution.
(h)To issue bonds, borrow money, and incur indebtedness as authorized by law or in this act provided; also to refund (by the issuance of the same obligations following the same procedure) or retire any indebtedness or lien that may exist against the agency or property thereof.
(i)To issue negotiable promissory notes bearing interest at a rate not exceeding the maximum rate per annum authorized by Section 27; provided, however, that the notes shall be general obligations of the agency payable from revenues and taxes in the same manner as bonds of the agency; and provided further that the maturity shall not be later than five years from the date thereof and that the total aggregate amount of the notes outstanding at any one time may be at least equal to seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) but shall not otherwise exceed the lesser of either one million dollars ($1,000,000) or 2 percent of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the agency, or, if that assessed valuation is not obtainable, 2 percent of the county auditors estimate of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the agency evidenced by his or her certificate.
(j)To cause taxes to be levied, in the manner hereinafter provided, for the purpose of paying any obligation of the agency, including its formation expenses and any warrants issued therefor.
(k)To restrict the use of agency water during any emergency caused by drought, or other threatened or existing water shortage, and to prohibit the wastage of agency water or the use of agency water during those periods, for any purpose other than household uses or such other restricted uses as may be determined to be necessary by the agency; to prohibit the use of agency water during those periods for specified uses which the agency may from time to time find to be nonessential.
(l)To prescribe and define by ordinance, the restrictions, prohibitions, and exclusions referred to in subdivision (k). Every ordinance relating to the matters referred to in this subdivision shall be in full force and effect forthwith upon adoption, but shall be published once in full within 10 days after adoption in a newspaper of general circulation published in the agency or, if no such newspaper is published in the agency, in a newspaper of general circulation distributed in the agency.
(m)To make contracts, to employ labor, and do all acts necessary for the full exercise of the foregoing powers.
(n)To provide by ordinance of its board of directors for the pensioning of employees and the creation of a special fund for the purpose of paying those pensions, and the accumulation of contributions to the fund from the revenues of the agency, the wages of employees, voluntary contributions, gifts, donations, or any source of revenue not inconsistent with the general powers of the board, and to contract with any insurance corporation or any other insurance carrier for the maintenance of a service covering the pension of the employees, and to provide in the ordinance for the terms and conditions under which the pensions shall be awarded, and for the time and extent of service of employees before the pensions shall be available to them.
(o)To join with one or more public agencies, private corporations, or other persons for the purpose of carrying out any of the powers of the agency, and for that purpose to contract with such other public agencies or private corporations or persons for the purpose of financing those acquisitions, constructions, and operations. The contracts may provide for contributions to be made by each party thereto and for the division and apportionment of the expenses of the acquisitions and operations, and the division and apportionment of the benefits, the services and products therefrom, and may provide for any agency to effect the acquisitions and to carry on the operations, and shall provide in the powers and methods of procedure for the agency the method by which the agency may contract. The contracts with other public agencies or private corporations or persons may contain such other and further covenants and agreements as may be necessary or convenient to accomplish the purposes thereof. Particularly, but not exclusively, the agency may contract with the State of California for delivery of water under the State Water Resources Development System. The term public agency, as used in this subdivision, shall be deemed to mean and include the United States of America or any department or agency thereof, the State of California or any department or agency thereof, a county, city, public corporation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, or other public district of this state. The term private corporation, as used in this subdivision, shall be deemed to mean and include any private corporation organized under the laws of the United States of America or of this or any other state thereof. Contracts mentioned herein include those made with the United States, under the Federal Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902, (43 U.S.C. Sec. 372 371 et seq.) and all acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto or any other act of Congress heretofore or hereafter enacted permitting cooperation. Any such contract with the United States of America or any department or agency thereof, or with any private corporation organized under the laws of the United States of America, by which the agency, or an improvement district thereof, incurs an indebtedness or liability exceeding in any year the income and revenue for that year, shall not be executed without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors of the agency, or an improvement district thereof, voting at a special election to be held for that purpose, the election to be called and held, so far as practicable, in the same manner as bond elections for the agency. The exact form of the contract need not be available at the time of the special election, but the (1) purpose of the contract; (2) maximum amount of the indebtedness created thereby; (3) maximum term of repayment, repayment; and (4) maximum interest rate on the indebtedness shall be known and included in the proposition or measure submitted to the qualified electors of the agency, or an improvement district thereof, at the special election.
(p)To issue bonds under Section 28 for the purpose of providing money required to be paid by this agency to the State of California or any agency thereof under any contract which shall be made with it, or as all or part of the terms and conditions under which the corporate area of the agency may be annexed to and become a part of any metropolitan water district organized under the Metropolitan Water District Act. The amount of the bonds may include expenses of all proceedings for the authorization, issuance, and sale of the bonds.
(q)To disseminate information concerning the rights, properties, and activities of the agency.
(r)To construct, operate, and maintain works to develop energy projects, for use by the agency in the operation of its works or as a means of assisting in financing the construction, operation, and maintenance of its projects for the control, conservation, diversion, and transmission of water and to enter into contracts for the sale of the energy for a term not to exceed 100 years. The energy may be marketed only at wholesale to any public agency or private entity, or both, or the federal or state government.
(s)To contract, in connection with the construction and operation of the works of the agency, for the sale of the right to use facilities or real property for electric energy purposes with any public agency or private entity engaged in the retail distribution of electric energy, for a term not to exceed 100 years.
(t)To develop, treat, distribute, and reclaim water, and to store and recover water from groundwater basins located both within and outside the boundaries of the agency and, in exercising that power, to make and enter into contracts allowing that storage and recovery.
SEC. 4.Section 26.1 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 562 of the Statutes of 1991, is amended to read:Sec. 26.1.(a)(1)In addition to the other powers provided in this act, the agency may establish and impose a facility capacity fee on any person who makes a new retail connection or has an existing retail connection to the water distribution system of any retail water distributor within the agency that obtains all, or any portion, of its water supplies from the agency. The necessity for the fee, and the amounts thereof, shall be determined, established, imposed, collected, and used in the manner provided in this section.
(2)As used in this act, a facility capacity fee means a fee for public facilities in existence at the time a fee is imposed and for new public facilities to be acquired or constructed in the future that are of proportional benefit to the person or property being charged, including supply or capacity contracts for rights or entitlements, real property interests, and entitlements and other rights of the agency involving capital expense relating to its use of existing or new public facilities. A facility capacity fee does not include a commodity charge.
(b)If the board of directors determines that its existing water importation, transportation, and delivery facilities and other related works, property, and improvements are not adequate for the purpose of receiving, importing, transporting, and delivering additional needed quantities of water available from the State Water Resources Development System or from other sources, the board of directors may adopt and carry out a plan for any of the following purposes:
(1)To obtain additional facilities, works, property, improvements, and supplies of water.
(2)To increase or enlarge, as may be appropriate, its existing capacity and facilities for obtaining, importing, transporting, and delivering additional quantities of water to retail water distributors within the agency which are in need of additional water supplies.
(3)To finance or reimburse the agency for advancing the cost of acquiring facilities, works, property, improvements, and supplies of water and to allocate that cost among lands within water service areas of the agency which, by reason of new development or new construction thereon, will need a new or expanded retail connection, or will result in expanded use of water at the retail connection, and will be benefited by making the additional supplies of agency water available for purchase by the retail water distributors that will supply those lands with water.
(4)To finance or reimburse the agency for advancing net costs for capital facilities for remediating groundwater contamination, which originated solely from the land within a given water service area.
(c)(1)Prior to adopting any plans pursuant to subdivision (b), the board of directors shall hold at least one public hearing, at which oral or written presentations may be made, as part of a regularly scheduled meeting to establish water service areas within the agency.
(2)Notwithstanding any other notice requirements of this act, notice of the time and place of the hearing and meeting, including a general explanation of the matters to be considered, and a statement that the data required by this subdivision is available, shall be mailed at least 14 days prior to the hearing to any interested party who files a written request with the agency for mailed notice of the hearing on those plans and on allocation of the costs thereof. Any written request for that mailed notice shall be valid only for one year from the date on which it is filed with the agency unless a renewal request is filed. Renewal requests for the mailed notices shall be filed on or before April 1 of each year. The board of directors may establish a reasonable annual charge for sending the notices based on the agencys estimated cost of providing the service.
(3)At least 10 days prior to the hearing, the agency shall make available to the public data indicating the cost, or estimated cost, to acquire, construct, and provide the water importation, transportation, and delivery facilities and other works, property, and improvements necessary to obtain and provide the additional water to those retail water distributors who will serve water to the lands on which the new developments and new construction will be located, and the proposed method and basis for allocating the costs as among those lands. The agency may transmit this data electronically to interested parties upon written request.
(d)(1)Following the public hearing or hearings, the board of directors shall make both of the following determinations:
(A)The extent of the need for the additional property and supplies of water to be supplied by the agency.
(B)Whether existing facilities and other works and improvements of the agency are adequate to import, receive, transport, and deliver those additional quantities of water.
(2)If the board of directors determines that there is a need or that the agencys existing facilities, works, property, and improvements are inadequate to serve that water, or both, the board of directors shall adopt the plan or plans specified in subdivision (b).
(e)In making its determinations as to how to allocate the costs of the plan or plans within water service areas of the agency, the board of directors shall determine the amount of the facility capacity fee to be imposed for the delivery facilities of the retail water distributors that will supply those lands with imported or local water. The facility capacity fee shall be fixed and determined pursuant to a method and basis whereby the fee is as nearly as reasonably practicable an amount proportionate to the benefit to the land, including consideration of the volume of water to be delivered.
(f)The board of directors may contract with the counties, or cities on or after January 1, 1992, in which the agency is located for the collection of the facility capacity fee along with building permit fees or other fees related to the improvement of property, or may contract for collection of the facility capacity fee by the retail water distributor.
(g)The proceeds of the facility capacity fee imposed and collected pursuant to this section shall be used exclusively by the board of directors for the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency, as described in Section 29.1, for purposes authorized by this section as specified in the plans adopted pursuant to subdivisions (b), (d), and (e).
(h)Any action taken by the board of directors pursuant to this section shall be taken only by resolution.
(i)Any judicial action or proceeding to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul any resolution imposing a facility capacity charge of the agency, or a resolution modifying or amending an existing charge imposed by the agency, shall be commenced within 120 days of the effective date of the resolution. Any action or proceeding shall be brought pursuant to Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 860) of Title 10 of Part 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
SEC. 5.Section 29.1 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 3 of Chapter 1119 of the Statutes of 1987, is amended to read:Sec. 29.1.(a)For any agency fiscal year commencing on or after July 1, 1987, the board of directors shall divide all lands within the agency into separate, nonoverlapping water service areas. The water service areas shall be fixed, formed, and established following a public hearing and notice pursuant to Section 29.3. The purpose for the formation of water service areas is to provide a source of and to apportion moneys, not to exceed the amount permitted annually by law, for, and only for, the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency. The funding and apportioning of the facility capacity fee capital budget shall be on the principle of benefit received by the lands and people within each water service area. Projected use of water in any way to be made available by the agency within a water service area during any agency fiscal year, as well as the agencys existing property, plant, and distribution facilities, shall be deemed by the board of directors to be the principal benefits to be considered in determining the proportion of the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency to be collected from sources within each water service area. Different schedules of rates, charges, fees, assessments, and taxes to fund the facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency, or a portion thereof, may be fixed and established in each water service area, except that tax rates within any individual water service area shall be uniform. The lands within each water service area need not be contiguous.
(b)Any ad valorem tax or tax rate set or determined by the board of directors, though part of the benefit determination process within water service areas, is valid so long as the tax proceeds are applied in accordance with constitutional restrictions. Allocations by the board of directors of the burden of ad valorem taxes between or among water service areas may, at the option of the board of directors, be conducted outside the hearing process set forth and described in Sections 29.2 to 29.4, inclusive.
(c)As used in this act, the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency means that sum annually projected by the board of directors to be reasonably necessary (1) for payments for acquisition of other water imported into the agency or for local water for new and expanded uses, (2) for payments in any way concerning agency bonded indebtedness or for lands and facilities, within or outside the agency, useful or necessary to bank, store, transport, treat, and distribute water currently or eventually to be made available by the agency within water service areas thereof for new and expanded uses, and (3) for payment to agency budget reserve accounts for the above uses or purposes in future agency fiscal years. Moneys collected by the agency for the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency shall only be utilized for capital, as that term is utilized under general accounting principles. The board of directors in its budgetary processes during any fiscal year may shift capital moneys between or among capital accounts, including reserve accounts. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency as derived from all water service areas of the agency shall be funded in strict accordance with constitutional and statutory restrictions, as existing from time to time, on legally permissible rates, charges, fees, assessments, and taxes.
SEC. 6.Section 29.2 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 4 of Chapter 1119 of the Statutes of 1987, is amended to read:Sec. 29.2.(a)Except as provided in subdivision (b), the board of directors shall annually adopt a resolution of intention to form new water service areas, or to amend or modify water service areas previously established. The resolution shall contain all of the following:
(1)The proposed boundary description of each proposed water service area.
(2)The additional capacity that will be provided to the lands and people within each proposed water service area during a specific, identified agency fiscal year.
(3)The proposed annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency for that fiscal year, and the portion thereof proposed to be obtained from facility capacity fees within each proposed water service area.
(4)The proposed charges, fees, assessments, and tax rates proposed to be fixed, levied, or collected within or from each proposed water service area for the proposed annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency.
(5)The date, time, and location for a public hearing concerning the formation, amendments, or modification of the water service areas.
(b)The board of directors shall not be required to adopt a resolution pursuant to this section if there is not a change from the previous year to the water service areas or the existing facility capacity fees.
SEC. 7.Section 29.4 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 6 of Chapter 1119 of the Statutes of 1987, is amended to read:Sec. 29.4.(a)The board of directors shall at the public hearing concerning water service areas, which hearing may be adjourned and continued from time to time, hear and consider any objections or comments concerning the proposed water service areas as described in the agencys resolution of intention concerning the areas. At or following the hearing, the board of directors may make any changes in the proposals set forth in the resolution of intention that are deemed by the board of directors to be proper; provided, except that if additional land is to be included within or described land is to be excluded from a proposed water service area, or if any proposed described benefit within a proposed water service area is to be materially changed, or if any proposed charge, fee, assessment, or tax rate within a proposed water service area is to be increased by 15 percent or more, the hearing shall be continued for at least 30 days and mailed notice of that continuance shall be given to the affected property owners not waiving that notice by mailing the notice not less than 21 days in advance of the continued hearing.
(b)Absent any need to continue the public hearing, the board of directors shall thereafter find and determine whether it is in the best interest of the agency and each proposed water service area that the water service area be either fixed, formed, established, modified, or amended. When all those findings and determinations are made, the board of directors shall by resolution do the following:
(1)Determine each water service area and describe the land in that area.
(2)Fix the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency.
(3)Describe additional capacity that will be provided to the lands and people within each water service area.
(4)Fix, levy, and apportion within each water service area the charges, fees, assessments, and tax rates to be collected therefrom for the purpose of equitably matching those charges, fees, assessments, and tax rates with projected benefits within each water service area.
SEC. 8.Section 29.5 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as added by Section 12 of Chapter 832 of the Statutes of 1986, is repealed.SEC. 9.Section 29.6 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as added by Section 2 of Chapter 170 of the Statutes of 1998, is repealed.SEC. 10.Section 29.7 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as added by Section 3 of Chapter 170 of the Statutes of 1998, is amended to read:Sec. 29.7.Notwithstanding any other law, the board of directors may adopt a facility capacity fee as part of its annual facility capacity fee capital budget and may allow the facility capacity fee for any water service area to remain in effect until the board, subject to applicable notice and hearing requirements, changes or repeals the fee by resolution.
(a)The Castaic Lake Water Agency shall have power to prescribe methods for the construction of works and for the letting of contracts for the construction of works, structures, or equipment, or the performance or furnishing of labor, materials, or supplies, necessary or convenient for carrying out any of the purposes of this act or for the acquisition or disposal of any real or personal property; provided, that all contracts for any improvement or unit of work, when the cost according to the estimate of the engineer will exceed five seventy-five thousand dollars ($5,000), ($75,000) shall be let to the lowest responsible bidder or bidders as provided in this article. The board shall first determine whether the contract shall be let as a single unit or divided into severable parts. The board shall advertise for bids by three insertions in a daily newspaper of general circulation published in the agency or by two insertions in a nondaily newspaper of general circulation published in the agency or, if no newspaper is published in the agency, in any newspaper of general circulation distributed in the agency, inviting sealed proposals for the construction or performance of the improvement or work. The call for bids shall state whether the work shall be performed in one unit or divided into parts. The work may be let under a single contract or several contracts, as stated in the call. The board shall require the successful bidders to file with the board good and sufficient bonds to be approved by the board conditioned upon the faithful performance of the contract and upon the payment of their claims for labor and material. The bonds shall comply with Title 3 (commencing with Section 9000) of Part 6 of Division 4 of the Civil Code. The board may reject any bid.
(b)In the event all proposals are rejected or no proposals are received, or the estimated cost of the work does not exceed five seventy-five thousand dollars ($5,000), ($75,000) or the work consists of channel protection, maintenance work, or emergency work, the board may have the work done by force account without advertising for bids. In case of an emergency, if notice for bids to let contracts will not be given, the board shall comply with Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 22050).
(c)The agency may purchase in the open market without advertising for bids, materials and supplies for use in any work, either under contract or by force account; provided, however, that materials and supplies for use in any new construction work or improvement, except work referred to in subdivision (b), may shall not be purchased if the cost exceeds five seventy-five thousand dollars ($5,000), ($75,000), without advertising for bids and awarding the contract to the lowest responsible bidder.
SEC. 2.Section 11 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 170 of the Statutes of 1998, is amended to read:Sec. 11.The board of directors shall be the governing body of the agency. The board shall hold its first meeting as soon as possible after the appointment and certification of the first board of directors. The board shall choose one of its members to be president, and shall thereupon provide for the time and place of holding its meetings and the manner in which its special meetings may be called. All legislative sessions of the board, whether regular or special, shall be open to the public. A majority of the board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. At its first meeting in the month of January of each odd-numbered year, the board shall choose one of its members president. The board, by majority vote, may appoint from its members one or more vice president presidents and may define the duties of the a vice president.
SEC. 3.Section 15 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 910 of the Statutes of 1989, is amended to read:Sec. 15.The agency may acquire water and water rights, including, but not limited to, water from the State of California under the State Water Resources Development System, and provide, sell, and deliver that water at wholesale only, for municipal, industrial, domestic, and other purposes, through a transmission system to be acquired or constructed by the agency. To carry out these purposes, the agency shall have the following powers:
(a)To have perpetual succession.
(b)To sue and be sued, except as otherwise provided herein or by law, in all actions and proceedings in all courts and tribunals of competent jurisdiction.
(c)To adopt a seal and alter it at pleasure.
(d)To take by grant, purchase, gift, devise, or lease, hold, use, enjoy, and to lease or dispose of real and personal property of every kind, within or without the agency.
(e)To acquire, or contract to acquire, waterworks or a waterworks system, water rights, waters, lands, and rights and privileges and to construct, complete, extend, add to, repair, maintain, improve, and operate waterworks or a waterworks system, conduits, pipelines, reservoirs, works, machinery, and other property or facilities useful or necessary to import, store, treat, reclaim, conserve, convey, or supply water for the benefit and use of residents and owners of property within the agency, and otherwise for authorized agency purposes.
(f)To lease of and from any person, firm, public or private corporation, or public agency, with the privilege of purchasing or otherwise, all or any part of water storage, transportation or distribution facilities, existing waterworks or a waterworks system, and to carry on and conduct waterworks or a waterworks system; also to sell for use within the area of the agency at wholesale only water of the agency to cities, to other public corporations and public agencies, and to water corporations as defined in the Public Utilities Code, and to any mutual water companies engaged in distributing water to its members for use, without any preference, and the agency may, whenever the board finds that there is a surplus of water above that which may be required by those consumers within the agency, sell or otherwise dispose of that surplus water to any persons, firms, public or private corporations, public agencies, or other consumers.
(g)To exercise the right of eminent domain to take any property necessary or desirable for any facility reasonably required for the importation and transmission of water in the area of the agency. The agency in exercising that power, shall in addition to the damage for the taking, injury, or destruction of property, also pay the cost of removal, reconstruction, or relocation of any structure, railways, mains, pipes, conduits, wires, cables or poles of any public utility which is required to be removed to a new location. No action in eminent domain to acquire property outside the boundaries of the agency shall be commenced unless the board of supervisors of each affected county has consented to the acquisition by resolution.
(h)To issue bonds, borrow money, and incur indebtedness as authorized by law or in this act provided; also to refund (by the issuance of the same obligations following the same procedure) or retire any indebtedness or lien that may exist against the agency or property thereof.
(i)To issue negotiable promissory notes bearing interest at a rate not exceeding the maximum rate per annum authorized by Section 27; provided, however, that the notes shall be general obligations of the agency payable from revenues and taxes in the same manner as bonds of the agency; and provided further that the maturity shall not be later than five years from the date thereof and that the total aggregate amount of the notes outstanding at any one time may be at least equal to seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) but shall not otherwise exceed the lesser of either one million dollars ($1,000,000) or 2 percent of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the agency, or, if that assessed valuation is not obtainable, 2 percent of the county auditors estimate of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the agency evidenced by his or her certificate.
(j)To cause taxes to be levied, in the manner hereinafter provided, for the purpose of paying any obligation of the agency, including its formation expenses and any warrants issued therefor.
(k)To restrict the use of agency water during any emergency caused by drought, or other threatened or existing water shortage, and to prohibit the wastage of agency water or the use of agency water during those periods, for any purpose other than household uses or such other restricted uses as may be determined to be necessary by the agency; to prohibit the use of agency water during those periods for specified uses which the agency may from time to time find to be nonessential.
(l)To prescribe and define by ordinance, the restrictions, prohibitions, and exclusions referred to in subdivision (k). Every ordinance relating to the matters referred to in this subdivision shall be in full force and effect forthwith upon adoption, but shall be published once in full within 10 days after adoption in a newspaper of general circulation published in the agency or, if no such newspaper is published in the agency, in a newspaper of general circulation distributed in the agency.
(m)To make contracts, to employ labor, and do all acts necessary for the full exercise of the foregoing powers.
(n)To provide by ordinance of its board of directors for the pensioning of employees and the creation of a special fund for the purpose of paying those pensions, and the accumulation of contributions to the fund from the revenues of the agency, the wages of employees, voluntary contributions, gifts, donations, or any source of revenue not inconsistent with the general powers of the board, and to contract with any insurance corporation or any other insurance carrier for the maintenance of a service covering the pension of the employees, and to provide in the ordinance for the terms and conditions under which the pensions shall be awarded, and for the time and extent of service of employees before the pensions shall be available to them.
(o)To join with one or more public agencies, private corporations, or other persons for the purpose of carrying out any of the powers of the agency, and for that purpose to contract with such other public agencies or private corporations or persons for the purpose of financing those acquisitions, constructions, and operations. The contracts may provide for contributions to be made by each party thereto and for the division and apportionment of the expenses of the acquisitions and operations, and the division and apportionment of the benefits, the services and products therefrom, and may provide for any agency to effect the acquisitions and to carry on the operations, and shall provide in the powers and methods of procedure for the agency the method by which the agency may contract. The contracts with other public agencies or private corporations or persons may contain such other and further covenants and agreements as may be necessary or convenient to accomplish the purposes thereof. Particularly, but not exclusively, the agency may contract with the State of California for delivery of water under the State Water Resources Development System. The term public agency, as used in this subdivision, shall be deemed to mean and include the United States of America or any department or agency thereof, the State of California or any department or agency thereof, a county, city, public corporation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, or other public district of this state. The term private corporation, as used in this subdivision, shall be deemed to mean and include any private corporation organized under the laws of the United States of America or of this or any other state thereof. Contracts mentioned herein include those made with the United States, under the Federal Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902, (43 U.S.C. Sec. 372 et seq.) and all acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto or any other act of Congress heretofore or hereafter enacted permitting cooperation. Any such contract with the United States of America or any department or agency thereof, or with any private corporation organized under the laws of the United States of America, by which the agency, or an improvement district thereof, incurs an indebtedness or liability exceeding in any year the income and revenue for that year, shall not be executed without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors of the agency, or an improvement district thereof, voting at a special election to be held for that purpose, the election to be called and held, so far as practicable, in the same manner as bond elections for the agency. The exact form of the contract need not be available at the time of the special election, but the (1) purpose of the contract; (2) maximum amount of the indebtedness created thereby; (3) maximum term of repayment, and (4) maximum interest rate on the indebtedness shall be known and included in the proposition or measure submitted to the qualified electors of the agency, or an improvement district thereof, at the special election.
(p)To issue bonds under Section 28 for the purpose of providing money required to be paid by this agency to the State of California or any agency thereof under any contract which shall be made with it, or as all or part of the terms and conditions under which the corporate area of the agency may be annexed to and become a part of any metropolitan water district organized under the Metropolitan Water District Act. The amount of the bonds may include expenses of all proceedings for the authorization, issuance, and sale of the bonds.
(q)To disseminate information concerning the rights, properties, and activities of the agency.
(r)To construct, operate, and maintain works to develop hydroelectric energy projects, for use by the agency in the operation of its works or as a means of assisting in financing the construction, operation, and maintenance of its projects for the control, conservation, diversion, and transmission of water and to enter into contracts for the sale of the energy for a term not to exceed 100 years. The energy may be marketed only at wholesale to any public agency or private entity, or both, or the federal or state government.
(s)To contract, in connection with the construction and operation of the works of the agency, for the sale of the right to use falling water facilities or real property for electric energy purposes with any public agency or private entity engaged in the retail distribution of electric energy, for a term not to exceed 100 years.
(t)To develop, treat, distribute, and reclaim water, and to store and recover water from groundwater basins located both within and outside the boundaries of the agency and, in exercising that power, to make and enter into contracts allowing that storage and recovery.
SEC. 4.Section 26.1 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 562 of the Statutes of 1991, is amended to read:Sec. 26.1.(a)(1)In addition to the other powers provided in this act, the agency may establish and impose a charge referred to as a facility capacity fee, and which is in the nature of a connection fee, for the right to make fee on any person who makes a new retail connection or has an existing retail connection to the water distribution system of any retail water distributor within the agency that obtains all, or any portion, of its water supplies from the agency. The necessity for the fee, and the amounts thereof, shall be determined, established, imposed, collected, and used in the manner provided in this section.
(2)As used in this act, a facility capacity fee means a fee for public facilities in existence at the time a fee is imposed and for new public facilities to be acquired or constructed in the future that are of proportional benefit to the person or property being charged, including supply or capacity contracts for rights or entitlements, real property interests, and entitlements and other rights of the agency involving capital expense relating to its use of existing or new public facilities. A facility capacity fee does not include a commodity charge.
(b)If the board of directors determines that its existing water importation, transportation, and delivery facilities and other related works, property, and improvements are not adequate for the purpose of receiving, importing, transporting, and delivering additional needed quantities of water available from the State Water Resources Development System or from other sources, the board of directors may adopt and carry out a plan for any of the following purposes:
(1)To obtain additional facilities, works, property, improvements, and supplies of water.
(2)To increase or enlarge, as may be appropriate, its existing capacity and facilities for obtaining, importing, transporting, and delivering additional quantity quantities of water to retail water distributors within the agency which are in need of additional water supplies.
(3)To finance or reimburse the agency for advancing the cost of acquiring facilities, works, property, improvements, and supplies of water and to allocate that cost among lands within water service areas of the agency which, by reason of new development or new construction thereon, will need new water service a new or expanded retail connection, or will result in expanded use of water at the retail connection, and will be benefited by making the additional supplies of agency water available for purchase by the retail water distributors that will supply those lands with water.
(4)To finance or reimburse the agency for advancing net costs for capital facilities for remediating groundwater contamination, which originated solely from the land within a given water service area.
(c)(1)Prior to adopting any plans pursuant to subdivision (b), the board of directors shall hold at least one public hearing, at which oral or written presentations may be made, as part of a regularly scheduled meeting to establish water service areas within the agency.
(2)Notwithstanding any other notice requirements of this act, notice of the time and place of the hearing and meeting, including a general explanation of the matters to be considered, and a statement that the data required by this subdivision is available, shall be mailed at least 14 days prior to the hearing to any interested party who files a written request with the agency for mailed notice of the hearing on those plans and on allocation of the costs thereof. Any written request for that mailed notice shall be valid only for one year from the date on which it is filed with the agency unless a renewal request is filed. Renewal requests for the mailed notices shall be filed on or before April 1st of each year. The board of directors may establish a reasonable annual charge for sending the notices based on the agency's estimated cost of providing the service.
(3)At least 10 days prior to the hearing, the agency shall make available to the public data indicating the cost, or estimated cost, to acquire, construct, and provide the water importation, transportation, and delivery facilities and other works, property, and improvements necessary to obtain and provide the additional water to those retail water distributors who will serve water to the lands on which the new developments and new construction will be located, and the proposed method and basis for allocating the costs as among those lands. The agency may transmit this data electronically to interested parties upon written request.
(d)(1)Following the public hearing or hearings, the board of directors shall make both of the following determinations:
(A)The extent of the need for the additional property and supplies of water to be supplied by the agency.
(B)Whether existing facilities and other works and improvements of the agency are adequate to import, receive, transport, and deliver those additional quantities of water.
(2)If the board of directors determines that there is a need or that the agency's existing facilities, works, property, and improvements are inadequate to serve that water, or both, the board of directors shall adopt the plan or plans specified in subdivision (b).
(e)In making its determinations as to how to allocate the costs of the plan or plans within water service areas of the agency, the board of directors shall determine the amount of the facility capacity fee to be imposed for and upon each new connection to the delivery facilities of the retail water distributors that will supply those lands with imported or local water. The facility capacity fee shall be fixed and determined pursuant to a method and basis whereby the fee is as nearly as reasonably practicable an amount proportionate to the benefit to the land, including consideration of the volume of water to be delivered to the new retail connection delivered.
(f)The board of directors may contract with the counties, or cities on or after January 1, 1992, in which the agency is located for the collection of the facility capacity fee along with building permit fees or other fees related to the improvement of property, or may contract for collection of the facility capacity fee by the retail water distributor.
(g)The proceeds of the facility capacity fee imposed and collected pursuant to this section shall be used exclusively by the board of directors for the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency, as described in Section 29.1, for purposes authorized by this section as specified in the plans adopted pursuant to subdivisions (b), (d), and (e).
(h)Any action taken by the board of directors pursuant to this section shall be taken only by resolution.
(i)Any judicial action or proceeding to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul any resolution imposing a facility capacity charge of the agency, or a resolution modifying or amending an existing charge imposed by the agency, shall be commenced within 120 days of the effective date of the resolution. Any action or proceeding shall be brought pursuant to Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 860) of Title 10 of Part 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
SEC. 5.Section 29.1 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 3 of Chapter 1119 of the Statutes of 1987, is amended to read:Sec. 29.1.(a)For any agency fiscal year commencing on or after July 1, 1987, the board of directors shall divide all lands within the agency into separate, nonoverlapping water service areas. The water service areas shall be fixed, formed, and established following a public hearing and notice pursuant to Section 29.3. The purpose for the formation of water service areas is to provide a source of and to apportion moneys, not to exceed the amount permitted annually by law, for, and only for, the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency. The funding and apportioning of the facility capacity fee capital budget shall be on the principle of benefit received by the lands and people within each water service area. Projected use of water in any way to be made available by the agency within a water service area during any agency fiscal year, as well as the agencys contract interests pursuant to the State Water Resources Development System and the agencys existing property, plant, and distribution facilities, shall be deemed by the board of directors to be the principal benefits to be considered in determining the proportion of the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency to be collected from sources within each water service area. Different schedules of rates, charges, fees, assessments, and taxes to fund the facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency, or a portion thereof, may be fixed and established in each water service area, except that tax rates within any individual water service area shall be uniform. The lands within each water service area need not be contiguous.
Any
(b)Any ad valorem tax or tax rate set or determined by the board of directors, though part of the benefit determination process within water service areas, is valid so long as the tax proceeds are applied in accordance with constitutional restrictions. Allocations by the board of directors of the burden of ad valorem taxes between or among water service areas may, at the option of the board of directors, be conducted outside the hearing process set forth and described in Sections 29.2 to 29.4, inclusive.
As
(c)As used in this act, the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency means that sum annually projected by the board of directors to be reasonably necessary (1) for payments of capital costs to the State of California, including its agencies or departments, in any way for purposes of the State Water Resources Development System as from time to time amended, (2) for payments for acquisition of other water imported into the agency or for local water, (3) water for new and expanded uses, (2) for payments in any way concerning agency bonded indebtedness or for lands and facilities, within or outside the agency, useful or necessary to bank, store, transport, treat, and distribute water currently or eventually to be made available by the agency within water service areas thereof, thereof for new and expanded uses, and (4) (3) for payment to agency budget reserve accounts for the above uses or purposes in future agency fiscal years. Moneys collected by the agency for the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency shall only be utilized for capital, as that term is utilized under general accounting principles. The board of directors in its budgetary processes during any fiscal year may shift capital moneys between or among capital accounts, including reserve accounts. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency as derived from all water service areas of the agency shall be funded in strict accordance with constitutional and statutory restrictions, as existing from time to time, on legally permissible rates, charges, fees, assessments, and taxes.
SEC. 6.Section 29.2 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 4 of Chapter 1119 of the Statutes of 1987, is amended to read:Sec. 29.2.The (a)Except as provided in subdivision (b), the board of directors shall annually adopt a resolution of intention to form new water service areas, or to continue, amend, amend or modify water service areas previously established. The resolution shall contain all of the following:
(a)
(1)The proposed boundary description of each proposed water service area.
(b)
(2)The projected benefits to be received by additional capacity that will be provided to the lands and people within each proposed water service area during a specific, identified agency fiscal year.
(c)
(3)The proposed annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency for that fiscal year, and the portion thereof proposed to be obtained from sources facility capacity fees within each proposed water service area.
(d)
(4)The proposed charges, fees, assessments, and tax rates proposed to be fixed, levied, or collected within or from each proposed water service area for the proposed annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency.
(e)
(5)The date, time, and location for a public hearing concerning the formation, continuation, amendments, or modification of the water service areas.
(b)The board of directors shall not be required to adopt a resolution pursuant to this section if there is not a change from the previous year to the water service areas or the existing facility capacity fees.
SEC. 7.Section 29.4 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as amended by Section 6 of Chapter 1119 of the Statutes of 1987, is amended to read:Sec. 29.4.(a)The board of directors shall at the public hearing concerning water service areas, which hearing may be adjourned and continued from time to time, hear and consider any objections or comments concerning the proposed water service areas as described in the agencys resolution of intention concerning the areas. At or following the hearing, the board of directors may make any changes in the proposals set forth in the resolution of intention that are deemed by the board of directors to be proper; provided, except that if additional land is to be included within or described land is to be excluded from a proposed water service area, or if any proposed described benefit within a proposed water service area is to be materially changed, or if any proposed charge, fee, assessment, or tax rate within a proposed water service area is to be increased by 15 percent or more, the hearing shall be continued for at least 30 days and mailed notice of that continuance shall be given to the affected property owners not waiving that notice by mailing the notice not less than 21 days in advance of the continued hearing.
Absent
(b)Absent any need to continue the public hearing, the board of directors shall thereafter find and determine whether it is in the best interest of the agency and each proposed water service area that the water service area be either fixed, formed, and established or continued, established, modified, or amended. When all those findings and determinations are made, the board of directors shall by resolution do the following:
(a)
(1)Determine each water service area and describe the land in that area.
(b)
(2)Fix the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency.
(c)
(3)Describe generally the benefits proposed to be received by additional capacity that will be provided to the lands and people within each water service area.
(d)
(4)Fix, levy, and apportion within each water service area the charges, fees, assessments, and tax rates to be collected therefrom for the purpose of equitably matching those charges, fees, assessments, and tax rates with projected benefits within each water service area.
SEC. 8.Section 29.5 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as added by Section 12 of Chapter 832 of the Statutes of 1986, is repealed.Sec. 29.5.Until the later of (1) the date the board of directors finds and declares by resolution based on substantial evidence that there is on a reliable basis more than 25,000 acre-feet of potable water available each year from the agency, or (2) July 1, 1991, the agency shall allocate water of the agency to each purveyor on a percentage basis as follows:
(a)Los Angeles County Waterworks District No. 36 2.5%
(b)Newhall County Water District 1.8%
(c)Santa Clarita Water Company 59.8%
(d)Valencia Water Company 35.9%
The allocation of agency water thereafter shall be with respect to agency water service areas. Retail water distributors operating within each water service area shall have a preferential right to purchase for beneficial use within a water service area a portion of the water available for sale by the agency which shall, from year to year, thereafter bear the same ratio to all agency water available as the total of amounts received by the agency since January 1, 1987, from the water service area from taxes and from the nontax portion of the annual capital budget of the agency, as described in Section 29.1, bears to the total of amounts received by the agency since January 1, 1987, from taxes and from the nontax portion of that annual capital budget of the agency. The board of directors may adopt reasonable rules and regulations in furtherance of the allocation provided for in this section.
SEC. 9.Section 29.6 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as added by Section 2 of Chapter 170 of the Statutes of 1998, is repealed.Sec. 29.6.(a)Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the board of directors may adopt a multiyear capital budget for the agency. The multiyear capital budget may not encompass more than three agency fiscal years. Except for the length of time, the multiyear capital budget shall meet the requirements pertaining to an annual capital budget.
(b)(1) Prior to the adoption of a multiyear capital budget, the board shall hold a public hearing noticed using the means set forth in Section 29.3.
(2)The board of directors may adopt, by resolution, reasonable procedures to facilitate the adoption and funding of a multiyear capital budget. Any procedures adopted by the board shall facilitate the making of findings and determinations otherwise required or authorized for the adoption and funding of an annual capital budget pursuant to Sections 29.1 to 29.4, inclusive.
(3)Subject to the notice and public hearing requirements imposed by paragraph (1), any multiyear capital budget may be amended by the board of directors during the term of the budget. Schedules of rates, charges, fees, and assessments may not be increased without a prior public hearing noticed as required by any applicable statute or provision of the California Constitution.
SEC. 10.Section 29.7 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), as added by Section 3 of Chapter 170 of the Statutes of 1998, is amended to read:Sec. 29.7.Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the board of directors may adopt a facility capacity fee as part of its annual facility capacity fee capital budget or multiyear capital budget and may allow the facility capacity fee for any water service area to remain in effect until the board, subject to applicable notice and hearing requirements, changes or repeals the fee by resolution.
|
Date
|
Status
|
|---|---|
| Feb 25, 2015 | Read first time. To print. |
| Feb 26, 2015 | From printer. May be heard in committee March 28. |
| Mar 12, 2015 | Referred to Coms. on L. GOV. and U. & C. |
| Apr 6, 2015 | From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on L. GOV. Read second time and amended. |
| Apr 7, 2015 | Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV. |
| May 6, 2015 | In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author. |
| Jan 4, 2016 | From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on L. GOV. Read second time and amended. |
| Jan 4, 2016 | Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV. |
| Jan 31, 2016 | Died pursuant to Article IV, Sec. 10(c) of the Constitution. |
| Feb 1, 2016 | From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. |
This list shows positions taken on this bill by organizations on the date displayed, which is linked to the original source.
Positions by individuals are not included.
AB 727
Page 9
Date of Hearing: May 6, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Brian Maienschein, Chair
AB 727
(Wilk) – As Amended April 6, 2015
SUBJECT: Castaic Lake Water Agency.
SUMMARY: Makes a number of changes to the Castaic Lake Water Agency (CLWA) Law, and to CLWA's contracting authority under the Public Contract Code. Specifically, this bill:
Increases CLWA's bid threshold for construction contracts, and its force account limit for the purchase of materials and supplies that will be used in any new construction, from $5,000 to $75,000.
Allows the CLWA Board of Directors (Board) to appoint more than one vice president.
Expands CLWA's existing authority to construct, operate and maintain works to develop hydroelectric energy projects by allowing CLWA to develop any kind of energy project, and makes conforming changes.
Allows CLWA to contract, in connection with the construction and operation of CLWA's works, for the sale of the right to use facilities or real property for electric energy purposes with any public agency or private entity engaged in the retail distribution of electric energy, for a term not to exceed 100 years.
Allows CLWA to establish and impose a facility capacity fee on any person who has an existing retail connection to the water distribution system of any retail water distributor within CLWA that obtains all, or any portion, of its water supplies from CLWA, and makes conforming changes.
Defines "facility capacity fee" to mean a fee for public facilities in existence at the time a fee is imposed and for new public facilities to be acquired or constructed in the future that are of proportional benefit to the person or property being charged, including supply or capacity contracts for rights or entitlements, real property interests, and entitlements and other rights of CLWA involving capital expense relating to its use of existing or new public facilities.
A “facility capacity fee” does not include a commodity charge.
Allows CLWA to use the facility capacity fee to adopt and carry out a plan to do the following:
To finance or reimburse CLWA for advancing the cost of acquiring facilities, works, property, improvements, and supplies of water and to allocate that cost among lands within water service areas of CLWA which, by reason of new development or new construction thereon, will need an expanded retail connection, or will result in expanded use of water at the retail connection, and will be benefited by making the additional supplies of CLWA water available for purchase by the retail water distributors that will supply those lands with water; and,
To finance or reimburse CLWA for advancing net costs for capital facilities for remediating groundwater contamination, which originated solely from the land within a given water service area.
Allows CLWA to transmit electronically to interested parties who request it specified data regarding the costs of providing water to new developments.
Removes from CLWA's annual facility capacity fee capital budget payments of capital costs to the state for purposes of the State Water Project (SWP), and makes conforming changes.
Removes a requirement that CLWA annually adopt a resolution of intention to continue water service areas previously established.
Removes a requirement that CLWA annually adopt a resolution of intention to form new water service areas or amend or modify water service areas previously established, if there is not a change from the previous year to the water service areas or the existing facility capacity fees.
Repeals provisions of the CLWA Law governing CLWA's allocations of water to its water retailers.
Repeals provisions of CLWA Law allowing CLWA to adopt a multi-year capital budget.
EXISTING LAW:
Establishes the CLWA Law, which creates the CLWA and authorizes the CLWA to acquire water and water rights, including water from the SWP, and to provide, sell, and deliver water at wholesale for municipal, industrial, domestic, and other purposes.
Authorizes CLWA to prescribe methods for the construction of works and for the letting
of contracts for the construction of works, structures, or equipment, or the performance or furnishing of labor, materials, or supplies, for carrying out specified provisions.Requires all CLWA contracts for any improvement or unit of work when the cost estimate exceeds $5,000 to be let to the lowest responsible bidder or bidders.
Authorizes CLWA to have work done by force account without advertising for bids and to purchase in the open market materials and supplies when the estimated cost of the work does not exceed $5,000.
Authorizes the CLWA Board, by majority vote, to appoint from its members one vice president.
Authorizes CLWA to construct, operate, and maintain works to develop hydroelectric energy for use by CLWA in the operation of its works or as a means of assisting in financing the construction, operation, and maintenance of its projects for the control, conservation, diversion, and transmission of water and to enter into contracts for the sale of the energy for a term not to exceed 100 years. The energy may be marketed only at wholesale to any public agency or private entity, or both, or the federal or state government.
Allows CLWA to contract, in connection with the construction and operation of CLWA's works, for the sale of the right to use falling water for electric energy purposes with any public agency or private entity engaged in the retail distribution of electric energy, for a term not to exceed 100 years.
Authorizes CLWA to establish and impose a facility capacity fee for the right to make a new retail connection to the water distribution system of any retail water distributor within CLWA that obtains water supplies from CLWA.
Requires the proceeds of the facility capacity fee to be used exclusively for CLWA's annual capital budget, as specified.
Defines the CLWA's capital budget to include payments of capital costs to the state for purposes of the SWP.
Authorizes CLWA to develop, treat, distribute, and reclaim water, and to store and recover water from groundwater basins located outside CLWA's boundaries.
Requires the CLWA Board to annually adopt a resolution of intention to form new water service areas, or to continue, amend, or modify water service areas previously established.
Requires, until July 1, 1991, or the date the Board finds and declares by resolution that there is more than 25,000 acre-feet of potable water available each year from the CLWA, whichever is later, CLWA to allocate water to each purveyor on a specified percentage basis. The allocation of CLWA water after this date is to be with respect to CLWA's water service areas.
Authorizes the CLWA Board to adopt a multiyear capital budget, not to encompass more than three fiscal years.
Governs the procedures local agencies must follow in adopting fees for water connections, and defines a "capacity charge" to mean a charge for public facilities in existence at the time a charge is imposed or charges for new public facilities to be acquired or constructed in the future that are of proportional benefit to the person or property being charged, including supply or capacity contracts for rights or entitlements, real property interests, and entitlements and other rights of the local agency involving capital expense relating to its use of existing or new public facilities. A “capacity charge” does not include a commodity charge. (GOV 66013)
FISCAL EFFECT: None
COMMENTS:
Bill Summary. This bill makes numerous changes to CLWA's powers and duties under its enacting statute, the CLWA Law, and to its contracting authority under the Public Contract Code. The major provisions of this bill include:
An expansion of CLWA's contracting authority by increasing CLWA's construction bid threshold and force account limits from $5,000 to $75,000;
An expansion of CLWA's authority to construct, operate and maintain energy projects, which is currently limited to hydroelectric energy and is expanded by this bill to include any type of energy generation;
A change to CLWA's facility capacity fee, which is currently limited to new connections, to also include existing connections;
A new authorization to adopt and implement a plan to finance or reimburse CLWA for advancing net costs for capital facilities for remediating groundwater contamination, which originated solely from land within a given water service area; and,
Repealing provision of CLWA Law that govern CLWA's allocation of water to its retailers.
This bill is sponsored by CLWA.
Author's Statement. According to the author, "The purpose of AB 727 is to make some minor changes to the Castaic Lake Water Agency Act (Water Code Appendix 103-2) to improve efficiency, make it consistent with existing budgeting practices, and provide greater internal flexibility, among other small changes."
Background. The CLWA is a special act special district that was established by the Legislature in 1962 as a contractor agency to the SWP. CLWA is a water wholesaler that historically provided water to four retailers within its boundaries. Two are public retailers – the Newhall County Water District (NCWD) and the Los Angeles County Waterworks District #36. The other two were private retailers – the Valencia Water Company (Valencia) and the Santa Clarita Water Company (SCWC).
The CLWA provides about half of the water that Santa Clarita households and businesses use. CLWA operates three treatment plants, three pump stations, three storage facilities, and over 45 miles of transmission pipelines. The Santa Clarita Valley’s available sources of drinking water include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs and wells. CLWA supplements local groundwater supplies with SWP water from Northern California.
State Water Project. The SWP is a water storage and delivery system of reservoirs, aqueducts, power plants and pumping plants that extends for more than 600 miles – two-thirds the length of California.
Planned, constructed, and operated by the Department of Water Resources (DWR), the SWP is the largest state-built, multi-purpose water project in the U.S. It provides water supply to more than 25 million Californians in Northern California, the Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley, the Central Coast and Southern California. The system also provides flood control, power generation, recreation, fish and wildlife protection, and water quality improvements in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
In 1951, the Legislature authorized what is now the SWP. Construction began on facilities at Oroville in 1957, and in 1960 voters approved a $1.75 billion bond act to build the initial SWP facilities. Work began on the California Aqueduct in 1963 and the SWP was able to deliver water to the San Joaquin Valley by 1968. SWP facilities were completed in 1973 to allow water delivery to Lake Perris in Riverside County, the southernmost point in the system.
Costs for water development and delivery are paid by SWP water supply contractors, which are comprised of 29 local and regional water agencies. The CLWA is one of those contractors. Existing law allows CLWA, or any other public agency that is a contractor with the SWP, to sell state water to any ultimate water consumer.
What is a Facility Capacity Fee? According to the CLWA website, "In accordance with the Castaic Lake Water Agency (CLWA) Act Section 26.1, all new developments requiring a retail connection to the water distribution system of any retail water distributor within CLWA that obtains all, or any portion, of its water supplies from the CLWA service area is subject to a Facility Capacity Fee (FCF). As part of the permitting process, applicants must reimburse CLWA for the costs associated with water supply acquisition, facility capital investment, and facility operation and maintenance.
"In addition to the determination and collection of FCFs for new development and associated retail connections, CLWA includes in its capital improvement plan and water supply portfolio facilities and supplies to accommodate additional demands on the water system not related to new development (e.g., tenant improvements, remodels or conversions, etc.). Government Code Section 66013 allows for the imposition of capacity charges, separate from FCFs, that can be imposed on any person, firm, corporation or other entity that requests an additional water connection, a larger water connection, or in any other way increases the water usage required to serve a property as a result of new construction, the addition of any type of dwelling, commercial or industrial unit or units, or the conversion of all or a portion of any dwelling, commercial or industrial unit or units."
Lawsuits and Legislation. In 1999, CLWA purchased SCWC for $63 million. This purchase spurred litigation against CLWA and subsequent legislation in the form of AB 134 (Kelley), Chapter 929, Statutes of 2001. AB 134 specified the provisions under which CLWA may exercise its authority to sell SWP water, specifically the rules by which it could sell water at retail in the boundaries of SCWC.
More recently, CLWA also purchased Valencia. This purchase prompted a similar lawsuit challenging the legal authority of CLWA to purchase Valencia stock, a move that was criticized as lacking in public transparency. The Court has ruled in favor of CLWA, although the case can still be appealed.
Minor Changes, or CLWA Act Rewrite? According to CLWA, this bill's proposed amendments to the CLWA Act would:
Allow the Board to elect one or more vice presidents of the Board. The CLWA Act currently only allows one vice president. The proposed change would provide the Board, which is composed of eleven members, with more flexibility for covering meetings and representing CLWA, as well as provide training and succession planning opportunities.
Remove reference to “hydroelectric” power as the only kind of power that the Agency may develop. This change will enable CLWA to develop and operate other forms of energy, including, but not limited to, solar and wind power facilities. This will help CLWA reduce its carbon footprint and may also provide opportunities to reduce operating costs. According to CLWA, a number of water districts around the state have, or are developing, renewable energy projects to defray power costs associated with the transporting and providing water. CLWA has developed two solar projects (1 MW and 3.5 MW) on its property, which CLWA accesses through power purchase agreements (PPA) with a private company. CLWA cannot currently own and operate these plants, even if it could do so more cost effectively. CLWA has also been approached about a larger solar project (up to 200 MW) on its properties, and has been approached about wind turbine projects.
Incorporate provisions of Government Code section 66013 into the CLWA Act to allow CLWA to follow the same procedures for the adoption of facility capacity fees for the expansion of existing connections as they currently follow for new connections. According to CLWA, the proposed language essentially consolidates two processes, both of which are authorized under existing law, into one process in the CLWA Act. The CLWA Act currently allows CLWA to impose facility capacity fees for new water connections that result in increased water demands on the CLWA system. Government Code section 66013 authorizes CLWA to impose capacity fees for increases in water demand related to expansion of existing connections. Each of these has its own procedures to follow for adoption that are not the same. As a result, CLWA has to engage in a two-step process that is less efficient. AB 727 would consolidate these into the CLWA Act and make them subject to the more rigorous process for adoption that is in the CLWA Act.
Clarify that CLWA may apply facility capacity fees to pay for facilities to clean up contaminated groundwater in connection with providing water for new and expanded water connections. This is of particular importance in one area in CLWA's service area, where the cost of providing new and expanded service is higher because of necessary groundwater cleanup. This addition will also ensure that the lands that are the source of contaminated groundwater will fund the clean-up, rather than all of the service area’s ratepayers and taxpayers.
Change references in the Act to “annual capital budget” to the “annual facility capacity fee capital budget.” This change makes the CLWA Act consistent with its annual budgeting process.
Remove the requirement that CLWA have an annual hearing and adopt a resolution to continue water service areas and facility capacity fees if there are no changes to the service areas or fees from the previous year. This change would relieve CLWA from having to spend unnecessary time and expense to re-adopt an annual resolution for water service area boundaries and existing facility capacity fees in years in which there are no changes to either.
Increase the public works contract amount from $5,000 to $75,000. This change is being sought to account for construction cost inflation since 1962, when the bid thresholds were established. It will also improve cost effectiveness by avoiding expensive preparation of engineering plans and technical specifications, and enhance timely project completion for minor repair and maintenance projects.
CLWA notes that preparation of design plans and technical specifications in a format suitable for public bidding adds time and expense disproportionate to the cost of the work. For small projects of $5,000 or less, the cost of public bidding and advertising can significantly exceed the contract price by 100% or more. For minor projects of $75,000 or less, the cost of public bidding and advertising can increase total project costs by 25% or more, disproportionately more than for large construction projects. The public bidding and advertising requirements can also significantly impact the schedule for smaller projects, which are often critical repair projects. Increasing the public works contract amount will not change CLWA's compliance with other purchasing laws and regulations, such as prevailing wage rules. Examples of recent projects include:
Modifications to treatment plant washwater return basins to meet water quality regulations ($70,000);
Treatment plant pipe trench modifications to meet operational requirements ($45,000);
Repair of critical pumps at water treatment plants ($25,000 to $50,000);
Modification of service connections to meet water quality regulations ($30,000);
Installation of drain pipe at treatment plant pipes to address operational issues ($75,000);
Repairs to pumping systems of groundwater wells addressing perchlorate contamination ($30,000 to $75,000); and,
Construction of recycled water connections ($65,000).
Policy Considerations. The Committee may wish to consider the following:
Bid Threshold Increase. According to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPI Inflation Calculator, $5,000 in 1962 has the same buying power as about $38,700 today. CLWA is asking for an increase to $75,000, significantly higher than a CPI adjustment. The Committee may wish to consider whether an increase to $75,000 is appropriate, or whether a more modest increase is preferable.
Expansion of Power Projects. Existing law allows CLWA to construct, operate and maintain works to develop hydroelectric energy projects. This bill allows CLWA to develop any kind of energy project. CLWA has cited two types of renewable energy projects it would like to develop as an owner (rather than a party to a PPA): solar and wind. Given this stated intent, and California's policies promoting renewable energy and discouraging the use of fossil fuels, the Committee may wish to consider narrowing this expansion to renewable energy projects only.
Repeal of Water Allocation Rules. This bill repeals the provisions of CLWA Law governing CLWA's authority to allocate water to its retailers. According to information provided by the author, CLWA's Board on April 22 took action to amend, rather than to repeal, these provisions to state, "The Board of Directors may adopt reasonable allocations of water within the Agency's service area." The Committee may wish to consider whether this modification or a different amendment of these rules would be more prudent than repealing them altogether.
Pending Litigation. AB 134 (Kelly) contained findings and declarations that its effect was prospective to ensure that it didn't prejudice pending legal actions. CLWA finds itself in a very similar position as it occupied at the time AB 134 was enacted: there is pending legal action against CLWA regarding its purchase of one of its water retailers. The Committee may wish to consider whether a similar clarification is needed for this bill.
Previous Legislation. SB 61 (Runner), Chapter 688, Statutes of 2008, lengthened the initial term of office for the CLWA's at-large director position from two years to four years and deleted obsolete statutory language.
AB 1425 (Pacheco) of 2003 would have extended the boundaries of the Newhall County Water District and the CLWA to include the Paradise Ranch Mobile Home Park. AB 1425 was referred to this Committee, but was never heard.
AB 134 (Kelley), Chapter 929, Statutes of 2001, specified statutory provisions under which the CLWA may exercise its authority to sell SWP water.
AB 553 (Runner), Chapter 225, Statutes of 2001, converted an appointed directorial position of the CLWA board to an elected one.
Arguments in Support. CLWA, sponsor of this measure, writes, "The original Agency Act was enacted in 1962 and underwent significant amendments in 1986 to provide the Agency with the ability to impose Facility Capacity Fees and appointed Directors, in 1998 to provide powers for recycled water operations and in 2001 to allow for retail water service within the Santa Clarita Water Division service area."
Arguments in Opposition. The State Building and Construction Trades Council, in opposition, states, " Existing law protects private sector contractors by allowing local agencies such as the CLWA, to perform a project of up to $45,000 with its own workforce
if the agency follows the cost accounting procedures within the policies and procedures made available by the Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting Act (Act) in the Public Contract Code. AB 727 would bypass the flexibilities and protections of the Act by instead raising the bid limit to $75,000 for construction and for the purchase of materials and supplies related to maintenance work and channel protection. AB 727 seems to include minor governance changes along with major expansions of authority relating to bid thresholds. While we are not opposed to the agency's need to alter its system of governance, the combination of changes this bill seeks raises serious concerns."
The Newhall County Water District (NCWD), which has adopted an "oppose, unless amended" position, is requesting amendments as follows:
Define, for the purposes of the facility capacity fee, "existing retail connection" as "verifiable volumetric increase;"
Strike language in the bill pertaining to groundwater cleanup, as "it implies CLWA has authority over the management of groundwater basins, which it does not;" and,
Include language stating, "No provision contained in this legislation is intended to allow or authorize the agency to exercise retail water authority outside of the boundaries described in Section 15.1(a) of the existing CLWA governing act."
NCWD also asserts that any proposed changes to the CLWA Act are premature while legal disputes between NCWD and CLWA continue.
Double-Referral. This bill is double-referred to the Utilities and Commerce Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Castaic Lake Water Agency [SPONSOR]
Opposition
State Building and Construction Trades Council
Newhall County Water District
Analysis Prepared by: Angela Mapp / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958
Bill Author
Bill Co-Author(s):