Assembly Standing Committee on Transportation

Alright. The Assembly Transportation Committee is now called to order. Good afternoon and welcome everyone. The hearing room is open for the attendance of this hearing and it can be watched from a live stream on the Assembly's website. We seek to protect the rights of all who participate in the legislative process so that we can have effective deliberation and decisions on the critical issues facing California.

In order to facilitate the goal of hearing as much from the public within the limits of our time, we will not permit conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of legislative proceedings. We will not accept disrupt behavior or behavior that incites or threatens violence. We encourage the public to provide written testimony by visiting the committee's website. Please note that any written testimony submitted to the committee is considered public comment and may be read into the record or reprinted.

We will allow two minutes each for two primary witnesses in support and opposition of the bill. As a reminder, primary witnesses in support must be those accompanying the author or who otherwise have registered a support position with the committee. And the primary witness in opposition must have their opposition registered with the committee. All other support and opposition can be stated at the standing mic when called upon by simply stating name, affiliation, and position. I'd like to start today's proceeding by welcoming the newest member of our committee, assembly member doctor Sharp Collins. We are so glad to have you here with us and look forward to our work together.

Yes. She was on time. She beat most of our veteran members.

That's how we know she was new.

That is true. New members tend to be on time. But we're gonna set a good example so she can stay on time. Right? Alright.

I don't believe we have a quorum yet. Not yet. So that means we will be starting as a subcommittee, if I remember if that's correct terminology. So we do have six bills that we'll discuss today. None of them are on consent.

We do have the author present for our first file item, AB 1837 by Gonzales. I invite you to speak with your witnesses. As a reminder, you all have two minutes apiece, and you can start at your convenience, sir.

We have, 10 votes, and we'll hold the roll open for other members to add on. Alright. Item number two is AB 1944 Lee. I do not see him here, so I will, ask the sergeant to make a call to his office. Oh, you're doing his oh, I'm sorry.

You're doing both. I didn't realize. Alright. Well, don't call his office. I was looking for Ahren's because he has a Bill item number 3.

I was gonna move on. We'll start with item number 2, AB 1944 Lee, presented by assembly member Ahren.

Thank you, Chair and Members. I'm here today presenting on AB 1944 on behalf of our colleague assembly member, Alex Lee. California has set ambitious zero emission goals for our public transit systems, which transit agencies are working hard to meet. In 2015, the legislature passed AB 1250 which set a maximum curb weight of 25,000 pounds per axle for zero emission buses. This limit was designed to decrease by 1,000 every two years with a final maximum weight of 22,000 pounds in 2022.

This approach came from negotiations with cities, counties who raised concerns about the potential impact of heavier buses on trans public transportation infrastructure. This declining schedule was believed to provide sufficient time for advancement in battery technology to reduce weight while maintaining high performance standards. However, improvements in battery weight have, unfortunately, not kept up pace with earlier expectations. Transit agencies are struggling to acquire buses that both meet the current weight limits and provide the range needed for longer routes, which often require additional batteries.

AB 1944 provides a practical responsible solution by postponing the implementation timeline of these axle weight limits while maintaining the final weight cap established in 2015.

This adjustment ensures that transit agencies can continue to provide reliable and quality public transportation while providing while working towards our zero emission goals. And with me today, in support, I have Michael Pimentel, the executive director for the California Transit Association.

Madam Chair and Members, good to be with you this afternoon. I'm Michael Pimentel, executive director of the California Transit Association, and I'm pleased to voice our support for AB 1944. The association is the sponsor of this Bill, which would facilitate, as you just heard, compliance with the innovative clean transit regulation by providing transit agencies and bus manufacturers with additional time to meet the axle weight limits for zero emission buses in current law.

As you may know, in December 2018, CARB adopted the ICT regulation requiring transit agencies to convert their bus fleets to zero emission technologies by no later than 2040. The regulation functions by way of a tiered purchase mandate, which requires transit agencies purchase a fixed percentage of zero emission buses with each bus procurement.

Under the regulation, this fixed percentage increases every three years until in 2029, it reaches 100%. Now ZEB deployments continue to increase and the short range ZEBs are deployed on available shorter routes, transit agencies will soon be forced to procure ZEBs with extended ranges to complete longer routes, account for climate, and protect against battery degradation. With today's technologies, extended range ranges require additional batteries, which result in additional weight that meet or in some cases exceed the axle weight limits in current law.

This Bill simply aims to address this conflict and to provide agencies with additional time to procure buses that exceed today's weight limits. In doing so, this bill would acknowledge, as we we heard, the descending schedule of axle weights and current law that we helped establish previously and allow for there to be continued advancements in these technologies.

Importantly, as as noted, by leaving unchanged the maximum actual weight limits in current law, this bill would respect the agreement that was struck between the association of local government interest and AB 1250. I ask for your aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to members of the public who would like to add on their support, name, affiliation, and position.

Madam chair, Brandon Ebeck on behalf of Monterey Salinas Transit District and County Connection in support.

Steve Wallace on behalf of the Napa Valley Transportation Authority in support. The Alameda Contra Costa Transit District will be considering a support position on Wednesday.

Greg Fishman, Sacramento Regional Transit in support.

Thank you. We don't have any registered opposition, but would like to give an opportunity for members of the public who would like to add on as an opponent of the Bill, now would be an appropriate time to do so. You can come to the mic and note your name, affiliation, and position. Seeing none, moving to members of the committee who might have any questions, comments, or concerns. It's moved by Harabedian, second by Davies.

Alright. With that, we know that California has ambitious climate goals. And so mobile sources are the single largest contributor to the state's greenhouse gas, nitrogen oxide, and diesel particulate matter emissions. Technology continues to advance quickly and through zero emission transit bus weights have not declined as fast as we expected. And so I appreciate that this Bill provides flexibility, flexibility for transit agencies to acquire zero emission transit buses that would otherwise be too heavy under current law, and I will be supporting this Bill today.

We have a motion by Harabedian and a second by Davies. I'll give you an opportunity to close.

Respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you. Madam secretary, please call the roll.

AB 1944. The motion is do pass. Wilson. Aye. Wilson, aye.

Davies. Aye. Davies, aye. Aguiar-Curry. Aye.

Aguiar-Curry, aye. Ahrens. Aye. Ahrens, aye. Carrillo. Aye.

Carillo, aye. Harabedian. Aye. Harabedian, aye. Hart. Aye.

Hart, aye. Hoover. Jackson. Aye. Jackson, aye. Lackey.

Aye. Lackey, aye. Macedo, Papan, Ransom, Rogers. Sharp-Collins. Sharp-Collins, aye. Ward. Aye.

Ward, aye.

That has 11 votes. We'll hold the roll open for members to be able to add on. Now we'll be move on to item number three, AB 1599 Ahren's.

Move the Bill.

Second. We have a motion by Aguiar-Curry and a second by Sharp-Collins.

Thank you. Good evening, members. AB 1599 requires Caltrans to establish a centralized California transit stop registry with standardized information for all public transit stops in the state of California. Respectfully ask for your aye vote for innovation.

Thank you. Alright. Moving on to

With me.

Oh, sorry.

With me today is Eli Littman, the executive director of Move LA, and David Acevedo, the state director for AARP.

Sounds good.

Thank you. Getting set up here. Hi. My name is, Eli Lidman. I'm the executive director for, Move LA.

I use he/they pronouns. I'd like to thank our, cosponsors on this, ARP, and help from Streets for All. I'd like to thank the assembly member. What we have now is fragmented and inconsistent data, and that's not fun for anyone because transit stop names, locations, identifiers can vary across different agencies, across different datasets, and it creates confusion.

I miss my connection on the 212 bus in Inglewood because I thought I was standing at the right bus stop, and it turned out it was 300 feet, north of me.

And and that was because I was looking should have been looking at the world, not my phone, but that's another issue that I'll debate with my children. I also think that we we are also seeing huge inefficiencies for transit agencies. They need to maintain and update multiple datasets, and they're responding to data correction requests from third parties, right, from these apps that we're all using. It's also a barrier to seamless trip planning, which is a a reason why people don't ride transit as consistently.

And this inconsistent stop information is undermining the reliability statewide as well as regionally because with regional mobility apps, and these transfers are just not seamless.

So without a single source of truth, we lack a centralized registry of transit stops, public infrastructure that all agencies can reference. So that's what this Bill would simply do, improve data quality, and interoperability and create that, common frame of reference. Ultimately, though, and I want this to to highlight this point, this is gonna save Caltrans millions potentially.

Because of SB 960 requirements, which was passed in 2024, it funds the development, construction, and repair of roads, bridges, and other critical transportation infrastructure in the state, including the state highway operation and protection program. Caltrans doesn't know where all of these bus stops are.

So this Bill fixes that and helps Caltrans do its job, which you've already said for it to do, right, and saves the state millions over time. And it also ensures that all of our transit agencies all too fun.

Have you able to wrap up.

Awesome. I was that was my last sentence, so you got me.

Great. Go ahead.

Good evening. My name is David Azevedo, associate director for advocacy and community engagement with AARP California. Thank you, Chair Wilson and members of this committee for allowing me to speak on behalf of the 3,200,000 AARP members across the state. So we believe at AARP that you can't manage what you don't measure. Reliable data is the foundation of effective policy making and the ability to monitor and improve results.

That is why AARP is cosponsoring AB 1599 and making it a priority bill this legislative session. By standardizing how we collect data about the state's tens of thousands of bus stops, this cost saving bill will help transit riders better find and utilize bus stops, improving the customer service experience, and increasing ridership, which we all want. Older adults depend on public transit. It connects our members with their jobs, family, health care, and social activities.

Public transit is a fraction of the cost of car ownership these days, and that was before skyrocketing gas prices.

For people on fixed and limited incomes, public transit is not a nice to have. It is the difference between going to work and health appointments, seeing family and friends, or being stuck at home socially isolated. When transit information is inaccurate or inconsistent and undermines confidence in in the system and discourages use. Just this past week, I and millions of other users experienced LA Metro's transit data outage.

I was unable to see transit times on my phone and on station screens preventing me from planning my trip effectively.

This specific example shows just how dependent transit riders are on accurate and consistent information, which AB 1599 will help address. And as Eli kind of mentioned there very quickly, it's a significant cost saving measure when you look at things like SB 960. We're really excited about that. AARP was a big supporter of that bill.

And so for these reasons, AARP has made it a priority piece of legislation this session, and we thank assembly member Ahrens, for sponsoring such an important bill and for our partners at Move LA and others, to help make transit more accessible, connected, and responsive to older adult riders in the Golden State.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Appreciate that. So now moving on to folks who would like to add on their support, name, affiliation, and position.

Tom Folks with Streets for All. We're a proud cosponsor of the Bill. Thank you.

Jeanie Ward-Waller representing Climate Plan in support.

Michael Pimentel with the California Transit Association. We don't yet have a position on the Bill, but did wanna express our interest, our willingness to engage with the author and sponsors on this Bill, some areas of implementation that we need to continue to improve as this Bill moves forward, but appreciate the measure being brought forward.

Thank you. We don't have any registered opposition, and so wanted to give an opportunity for any members of the public who wanted to note their opposition. Now would be an appropriate time to come to the mic, name, affiliation, and position. Seeing none, moving it back to committee. We do already have a motion and a second.

Alright. Oh, go ahead. Doctor Sharp-Collins.

I just wanted to thank the author for bringing forth this Bill. This is a huge concern. I'm also in in my district and I would like to be at it as a co author.

Love to have you as co author, doctor Sharp-Collins. Thank you.

Alright. I'll note, to the author, standardizing stop data will help improve the transit experience for so many. Will make it easier for users to navigate across multiple transit agencies. Actually, I had an opportunity to just consider this Bill in the fall, but you beat me to the punch. Gotcha.

So with that, I would like to also be added as a co author if you have me. Yeah. I appreciate you bringing this Bill forward. It's a simple change, even though we do have to work on the areas of implementation, but it really will enhance the transit experience. I'll give you an opportunity to close it.

Respectfully ask for your aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on, we have a motion by Aguiar-Curry, a second by Sharp-Collins. Madam secretary, please call the roll.

AB 1599. The motion is do passed to the committee on appropriations. Wilson. Aye. Wilson, aye.

Davies. Aye. Davies, aye. Aguiar-Curry. Aguiar-Curry, aye.

Ahrens. Ahrens, aye. Carrillo. Aye. Carrillo, aye.

Harabedian. Aye. Harabedian, aye. Hart. Hart, aye. Hoover.

Jackson. Aye. Jackson, aye. Lackey. Aye.

Lackey, aye. Macedo, Papen, Ransom, Rogers.

Sharp Collins, Sharp Collins, aye. Ward. Aye. Ward, aye.

That has 11 votes, and we'll hold the roll open for members to be able to add on. Now I'll be passing over the, gavel to, Vice Chair Davies. I have three bills, and I will do a call out to our members who are not here and encourage you to start making your way so that we can finish. Thank you.

Alright. Assemblymember Wilson, if you'd like to go ahead.

Sounds good. I'll start talking as my witnesses come up. This is, AB 1608 file item four. Well, good evening, members. As you all know, I'm a strong supporter of the California High Speed Rail project because of the potential transformative value it can bring to our state by simultaneously improving mobility and reducing ground greenhouse gas emissions.

Currently, the project is having a strong positive economic impact in the Central Valley, and I'm confident it will ultimately bring these benefits statewide. This project has faced many challenges during construction, including lack of funding to complete the project, lawsuits, challenges, acquiring right of way, and moving utilities. These challenges have resulted in project delays and unnecessary cost increases. Every dollar on this project counts because we have lost a federal funding partner.

And at this time, we are completely reliant on state funding to deliver the significant infrastructure project.

Independent effective oversight is critical to the success of any large infrastructure project and ensuring that every dollar is spent wisely. The legislature created the office of the inspector general in 2022, and the, inspector general has already proven its value in the short time that it's been in operation. However, the office has faced challenges hiring necessary staff because it did not have access to the position qualifications and contract authority it needed to hire staff with the appropriate qualifications and acquire specialized services in a timely manner.

When the office was created, the legislature did not include provisions requiring the office to make its reports public or protections to ensure that the inspector general could keep confidential for a period of time information that could harm the state and jeopardize whistleblowers. Concerns were initially raised that this Bill would keep information confidential.

In fact, this Bill does the exact opposite by requiring the inspector general to make its reports public, which is not required in current law. Moreover, this Bill does not go beyond providing any protections for the inspector general that are in excess of the current protections that the state auditor and inspector generals within the state have. My office and the inspector general have worked closely with the First Amendment Coalition to make as much information as possible available to the public.

In response to our amendments, the First Amendment Coalition is now in support of this Bill called calling the amended Bill a model framework for how independent offices of inspector general can balance legitimate confidentiality needs with the public's right to know about government activities. So I greatly appreciate their contribution to help us draft legislation that appropriate balances legitimate confidentiality needs with the public's right to know.

So in closing, I ask for your support on this purpose important Bill that will improve transparency and oversight. So I would now like to introduce my witnesses. First, we have Ben Belknap, our instructor general for the office of inspector general for high speed rail, and Ginny LaRoe, advocacy director for the First Amendment Coalition.

You each have two minutes.

Thank you, madam Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Ben Belnap, inspector general for the California High Speed Rail. The passage of AB 1608 will result in more timely and robust oversight of the California's high speed rail project. This project is at a critical inflection point. My office estimates that we are only two years away from major schedule delays caused by near term funding shortages.

To avoid these delays, the high speed rail authority must secure financing. At the same time, it is also trying to complete major, procurements necessary to keep the project, the project on schedule. Without having yet resolved this immediate problem, the authority has signaled that it plans to expand up to 500,000,000, up to the $500,000,000 cap on spending outside of Merced to Bakersfield segment imposed by SB one ninety eight and is requesting that lawmakers lift this cap entirely.

The office of inspector general, the high speed rail, provides independent oversight of the project and is an important resource to state lawmakers at this critical time. Two months ago, my office published a review of the authority's procurement processes, and we are currently reviewing the accuracy and completeness of the draft the authority's draft business plan.

When that review is complete, my office will finish a review requested by Senator Cortesi of the cost and benefits of implementing various project reforms proposed by the authority, including the suggested changes to SB one ninety eight. We also plan to complete our review of the authority's construction quality program, review how compliance with environmental requirements is affecting the project, and review the authority's change order processes.

However, my office has been slowed in in its efforts to complete these reviews by a lack of access to job classifications that match the skill set required of its staff and a lack of purchasing authority that will allow it to hire needed expertise in a timely manner.

Excuse me. If you could please finish up.

Certainly. AB 1608 would resolve these issues expeditiously, and I plead for your support. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Jenny Lareau with First Amendment Coalition couldn't be here, but I am Dani Cando Keiser with Keiser Advocacy speaking on behalf of SAC. BAC is a California nonprofit that promotes and defends free speech, a free press, and the people's right to know. We believe that the broadcast the broadest range of engaged and informed communities is essential to the health of our democracy. We work with members of the public and press to exercise their rights of access, especially under the California Public Records Act.

We're pleased to support AB 16 o eight as it was amended on March 10. With those amendments, the bill provides what we think will be a model framework for how independent offices of inspector general can balance legitimate confidentiality needs to perform watchdog duties with the public's right to know about government activities. The Bill makes clear that the inspector general's office has a mandate to produce and publish reports of its reviews and investigations on its website, subject to only limited withholding provisions.

And with the recent amendments, the withholding provisions are narrowly tailored, require the IG to provide an explanation of the reason for any withholding or redaction, and only allow for withholding or redaction if it would be, quote, if it would pose a substantial and articulate pull risk to the project or to state operations. Additionally, withholdings pursuant to that provision are not indefinite.

We appreciate the productive dialogue with the Chair and author and the attorney and the inspector general's office and committee in developing language that appropriately balances legitimate confidentiality needs of the IG's office with the public's right to know. Thank you.

Thank you. Alright. We're gonna move to public testimony, me too. Those that are in support, if you'd like to come up to the mic and name, agency, and position only. Okay.

Seeing none. And I don't believe we have any opposition witnesses. Correct? Okay. Then we'll also then do public testimony, me too, on opposition.

If so, please come up to the mic. Seeing none, then we will move on to, members' comments. And if I'd like to just start out, if I may, with the question. Thank you, madam Chair, for your recent amendments. I do wanna ask you about the newest language of would pose a substantial and articulable risk to the project or to state operations for all future IG reports.

I know that is not defined currently in the Bill, so I was hoping you could expand on what kinds of things you believe would qualify as substantially risk to the project? And should Californians be given that information regardless since taxpayer dollars are helping fund the project? Thank you.

Thank you. I'll begin and then I'll give it over to the IG to also answer this. And so this really is to prevent the disclosure of information that would reveal weaknesses, including those involving information security, physical security, fraud detection controls, or pending litigations. Those that could be exploited by individuals attempting to harm or inappropriately benefit from the project.

And so an example of physical security could be, the results of a hypothetical analysis in which the OIG, compares the deployment of security resources with the timing of security incidents.

If there was, for example, a mismatch in which security personnel were made available and when security threats more often occur, making that finding public before the corrections were actually made could be problematic.

And in regards to the word articulable, we are gonna have to, according to the amended Bill, describe what we've redacted and describe why. We will also eventually have to release that, and people have the opportunity to see what what was the IG's judgment on that. Well, it will I will have to show my work. And I think that's a great control over this process.

Members, any other questions?

Thank you, madam Vice Chair. I just wanna thank the chair for bringing this and to say to the inspector general, I've really enjoyed our conversations, and I think that you just bring a great approach. And and I think all of us are are are relieved and and heartened to see your activity here, and I think this Bill will go a long way to, you know, boost confidence in the project. So thank you for the Bill, and happy to support it.

Any other members? Alright. Seeing none, would you like to finish? Thanks.

Absolutely. Thank you. We have worked hard to make sure that all stakeholders were engaged and that we ensured that the language matched our legislative intent, and we've been able, to do that. This project has had challenges in the past, and we wanna make sure going forward, it's done in the most efficient and effective way possible.

The best way to do that is to equip the OIG, for high speed rail, our eyes and ears, to this project with everything they need to be able to do that in the the with the maximum accountability and maximum transportation and with I mean, transportation transparency.

With that, I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Alright. Do I have a motion?

Second? Second. I'll get the second. Okay. Okay.

Bear with me.

Alright. Sharp-Collins. Wonderful. Aguiar-Curry. Alright.

Thank you. Alright. You wanna go ahead and take a roll call?

AB 1608. The motion is do passed to the committee on judiciary. Wilson. Aye. Wilson, aye.

Davies. No. Davies, no. Aguiar-Curry. Aye. Aguiar-Curry, aye. Ahrens.

Ahrens, aye. Carrillo. Carrillo, aye. Harabedian. Harabedian, aye.

Hart. Hart, aye. Hoover. Jackson. Aye.

Jackson, aye. Lackey. No. Lackey, no. Macedo. Papan. Ransom.

Aye. Ransom, aye. Rogers. Sharp-Collins. Sharp-Collins, aye.

Ward. Aye. Ward, aye.

That bill is out. It has 16 aye votes. Moving on to item number four, AB 1608 Wilson.

[Roll Call]

Okay. That bill is out. It has 12 I votes and four no votes. Moving on to item number five, ab 1613 Wilson. Hart.

[Roll Call]

Eleven four. That bill is out. It has 11 aye votes and four no votes. Alright. Item six was already reported on.

With that, the, assembly transportation hearing is, closed. What is it? adjourned. It's like, what's the word? I'm tired.