August 11, 1995

South Coast Air Quality

Management District Board

The Legislative Committee held its regular meeting on Friday, July 21, 1995. An attendance record is included for your information (Attachment 1).

Legislative Status Report

The Legislative Committee was provided with a legislative status report

(Attachment 2), and specifically discussed the status of two bills. SB 772 (Hurtt), which would prohibit trip reduction plans, recently failed passage on the Assembly Floor, but was granted reconsideration and is expected to pass. The scrappage bill, SB 501 (Calderon), is currently in Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

Federal Update

The Legislative Committee was provided a Federal Update (Attachment 3), including:

1) a list of past and pending Clean Air Act hearings;

2) membership of key congressional committees;

3) House recommendations on the U.S. EPA budget, which total cuts up to 1/3, mostly in the clean water and SuperFund areas, but also removes funding for several air quality programs; and

4) a list of legislation to amend the Clean Air Act introduced since January 1, 1995.

Independent Analysis by Arthur Bauer Associates of District's Legislative Advocacy Program

Last year, the District contracted with Arthur Bauer and Associates, Inc., to perform an independent analysis of the District's legislative advocacy program in Sacramento. The Executive Summary of the final report is provided as Attachment 4. The full report is provided as Attachment 5.

Although Board Member Hugh Hewitt complimented staff and the consultant on the well-written and organized report, he expressed concern that it did not address some fundamental issues that concern him personally, including: 1) the cost of the study; 2) whether the District should have a legislative advocacy program at all; 3) the Board's involvement in the District's legislative affairs program; 4) comparisons to other mission-oriented agencies; 5) actual legislator comments as opposed to anonymous remarks; 6) past and current costs of the legislative program, specifically listing staff positions and contracts; and 7) correlations between the District's, Cal-EPA's and ARB's advocacy programs.

Due to lack of time, the Legislative Committee continued this discussion to its next meeting.

In addition, Board Member Hewitt recommended that the Legislative Committee meet more frequently than once per month when the Legislature is in session and will take that up separately with Dr. Burke, Legislative Committee Chairman.

Next Legislative Committee Meeting

The next Legislative Committee meeting is Friday, August 18, at 8:30 a.m. in Conference Room CC8.

THEREFORE, IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE BOARD

--Receive and file this report.

Sincerely,

Dr. William Burke, Chairman

Legislative Committee

TE:CW:DAR

Attachments (5)

(8-95bdlt.doc)