BILL NUMBER: SB 1231 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Committee on Governance and Finance (Senators Wolk
(Chair), Beall, DeSaulnier, Hernandez, Knight, Liu, and Vidak)
FEBRUARY 20, 2014
An act to validate the organization, boundaries, acts,
proceedings, and bonds of public bodies, and to provide limitations
of time in which actions may be commenced, relating to validations,
and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1231, as introduced, Committee on Governance and Finance.
Validations.
This bill would enact the Second Validating Act of 2014, which
would validate the organization, boundaries, acts, proceedings, and
bonds of the state and counties, cities, and specified districts,
agencies, and entities.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated
local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the
Second Validating Act of 2014.
SEC. 2. As used in this act:
(a) "Public body" means all of the following:
(1) The state and all departments, agencies, boards, commissions,
and authorities of the state. Except as provided in paragraph (2),
"public body" also means all cities, counties, cities and counties,
districts, authorities, agencies, boards, commissions, and other
entities, whether created by a general statute or a special act,
including, but not limited to, the following:
Agencies, boards, commissions, or entities constituted or provided
for under or pursuant to the Joint Exercise of Powers Act (Chapter 5
(commencing with Section 6500) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the
Government Code).
Air pollution control districts of any kind.
Air quality management districts.
Airport districts.
Assessment districts, benefit assessment districts, and special
assessment districts of any public body.
Bridge and highway districts.
California water districts.
Citrus pest control districts.
City maintenance districts.
Community college districts.
Community development commissions in their capacity to act as a
housing authority for other community development purposes of the
jurisdiction in which the commission operates, except for any action
taken with respect to the commission's authority to act as a
community redevelopment agency.
Community facilities districts.
Community rehabilitation districts.
Community services districts.
Conservancy districts.
Cotton pest abatement districts.
County boards of education.
County drainage districts.
County flood control and water districts.
County free library systems.
County maintenance districts.
County sanitation districts.
County service areas.
County transportation commissions.
County water agencies.
County water authorities.
County water districts.
County waterworks districts.
Department of Water Resources and other agencies acting pursuant
to Part 3 (commencing with Section 11100) of Division 6 of the Water
Code.
Distribution districts of any public body.
Drainage districts.
Fire protection districts.
Flood control and water conservation districts.
Flood control districts.
Garbage and refuse disposal districts.
Garbage disposal districts.
Geologic hazard abatement districts.
Harbor districts.
Harbor improvement districts.
Harbor, recreation, and conservation districts.
Health care authorities.
Highway districts.
Highway interchange districts.
Highway lighting districts.
Housing authorities.
Improvement districts or improvement areas of any public body.
Industrial development authorities.
Infrastructure financing districts.
Integrated financing districts.
Irrigation districts.
Joint highway districts.
Levee districts.
Library districts.
Library districts in unincorporated towns and villages.
Local agency formation commissions.
Local health care districts.
Local health districts.
Local hospital districts.
Local transportation authorities or commissions.
Maintenance districts.
Memorial districts.
Metropolitan transportation commissions.
Metropolitan water districts.
Mosquito abatement and vector control districts.
Multifamily improvement districts.
Municipal improvement districts.
Municipal utility districts.
Municipal water districts.
Nonprofit corporations.
Nonprofit public benefit corporations.
Open-space maintenance districts.
Parking and business improvement areas.
Parking authorities.
Parking districts.
Permanent road divisions.
Pest abatement districts.
Police protection districts.
Port districts.
Property and business improvement areas.
Protection districts.
Public cemetery districts.
Public utility districts.
Rapid transit districts.
Reclamation districts.
Recreation and park districts.
Regional justice facility financing agencies.
Regional park and open-space districts.
Regional planning districts.
Regional transportation commissions.
Resort improvement districts.
Resource conservation districts.
River port districts.
Road maintenance districts.
Sanitary districts.
School districts of any kind or class.
School facilities improvement districts.
Separation of grade districts.
Service authorities for freeway emergencies.
Sewer districts.
Sewer maintenance districts.
Small craft harbor districts.
Special municipal tax districts.
Stone and pome fruit pest control districts.
Storm drain maintenance districts.
Storm drainage districts.
Storm drainage maintenance districts.
Storm water districts.
Toll tunnel authorities.
Traffic authorities.
Transit development boards.
Transit districts.
Unified and union school districts' public libraries.
Vehicle parking districts.
Water agencies.
Water authorities.
Water conservation districts.
Water districts.
Water replenishment districts.
Water storage districts.
Watermaster districts.
Wine grape pest and disease control districts.
Zones, improvement zones, or service zones of any public body.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), a "public body" does not
include any of the following:
(A) A community redevelopment agency formed pursuant to the
Community Redevelopment Law (Part 1 (commencing with Section 33000)
of Division 24 of the Health and Safety Code).
(B) A community development commission, with respect to its
exercise of the powers of a community redevelopment agency.
(C) A joint powers authority that includes a community
redevelopment agency or a community development commission as a
member, with respect to its exercise of the powers of a community
redevelopment agency.
(b) "Bonds" means all instruments evidencing an indebtedness of a
public body incurred or to be incurred for any public purpose, all
leases, installment purchase agreements, or similar agreements
wherein the obligor is one or more public bodies, all instruments
evidencing the borrowing of money in anticipation of taxes, revenues,
or other income of that body, all instruments payable from revenues
or special funds of those public bodies, all certificates of
participation evidencing interests in the leases, installment
purchase agreements, or similar agreements, and all instruments
funding, refunding, replacing, or amending any thereof or any
indebtedness.
(c) "Hereafter" means any time subsequent to the effective date of
this act.
(d) "Heretofore" means any time prior to the effective date of
this act.
(e) "Now" means the effective date of this act.
SEC. 3. All public bodies heretofore organized or existing under
any law, or under color of any law, are hereby declared to have been
legally organized and to be legally functioning as those public
bodies. Every public body, heretofore described, shall have all the
rights, powers, and privileges, and be subject to all the duties and
obligations, of those public bodies regularly formed pursuant to law.
SEC. 4. The boundaries of every public body as heretofore
established, defined, or recorded, or as heretofore actually shown on
maps or plats used by the assessor, are hereby confirmed, validated,
and declared legally established.
SEC. 5. All acts and proceedings heretofore taken by any public
body or bodies under any law, or under color of any law, for the
annexation or inclusion of territory into those public bodies or for
the annexation of those public bodies to any other public body or for
the detachment, withdrawal, or exclusion of territory from any
public body or for the consolidation, merger, or dissolution of any
public bodies are hereby confirmed, validated, and declared legally
effective. This shall include all acts and proceedings of the
governing board of any public body and of any person, public officer,
board, or agency heretofore done or taken upon the question of the
annexation or inclusion or of the withdrawal or exclusion of
territory or the consolidation, merger, or dissolution of those
public bodies.
SEC. 6. (a) All acts and proceedings heretofore taken by or on
behalf of any public body under any law, or under color of any law,
for, or in connection with, the authorization, issuance, sale,
execution, delivery, or exchange of bonds of any public body for any
public purpose are hereby authorized, confirmed, validated, and
declared legally effective. This shall include all acts and
proceedings of the governing board of public bodies and of any
person, public officer, board, or agency heretofore done or taken
upon the question of the authorization, issuance, sale, execution,
delivery, or exchange of bonds.
(b) All bonds of, or relating to, any public body heretofore
issued shall be, in the form and manner issued and delivered, the
legal, valid, and binding obligations of the public body. All bonds
of, or relating to, any public body heretofore awarded and sold to a
purchaser and hereafter issued and delivered in accordance with the
contract of sale and other proceedings for the award and sale shall
be the legal, valid, and binding obligations of the public body. All
bonds of, or relating to, any public body heretofore authorized to be
issued by ordinance, resolution, order, or other action adopted or
taken by or on behalf of the public body and hereafter issued and
delivered in accordance with that authorization shall be the legal,
valid, and binding obligations of the public body. All bonds of, or
relating to, any public body heretofore authorized to be issued at an
election and hereafter issued and delivered in accordance with that
authorization shall be the legal, valid, and binding obligations of
the public body. Whenever an election has heretofore been called for
the purpose of submitting to the voters of any public body the
question of issuing bonds for any public purpose, those bonds, if
hereafter authorized by the required vote and in accordance with the
proceedings heretofore taken, and issued and delivered in accordance
with that authorization, shall be the legal, valid, and binding
obligations of the public body.
SEC. 7. (a) This act shall operate to supply legislative
authorization as may be necessary to authorize, confirm, and validate
any acts and proceedings heretofore taken pursuant to authority the
Legislature could have supplied or provided for in the law under
which those acts or proceedings were taken.
(b) This act shall be limited to the validation of acts and
proceedings to the extent that the same can be effectuated under the
California Constitution and the United States Constitution.
(c) This act shall not operate to authorize, confirm, validate, or
legalize any act, proceeding, or other matter being legally
contested or inquired into in any legal proceeding now pending and
undetermined or that is pending and undetermined during the period of
30 days from and after the effective date of this act.
(d) This act shall not operate to authorize, confirm, validate, or
legalize any act, proceeding, or other matter that has heretofore
been determined in any legal proceeding to be illegal, void, or
ineffective.
(e) This act shall not operate to authorize, confirm, validate, or
legalize a contract between any public body and the United States.
SEC. 8. Any action or proceeding contesting the validity of any
action or proceeding heretofore taken under any law, or under color
of any law, for the formation, organization, or incorporation of any
public body, or for any annexation thereto, detachment or exclusion
therefrom, or other change of boundaries thereof, or for the
consolidation, merger, or dissolution of any public bodies, or for,
or in connection with, the authorization, issuance, sale, execution,
delivery, or exchange of bonds thereof upon any ground involving any
alleged defect or illegality not effectively validated by the prior
provisions of this act and not otherwise barred by any statute of
limitations or by laches shall be commenced within six months of the
effective date of this act, otherwise each and all of those matters
shall be held to be valid and in every respect legal and
incontestable. This act shall not extend the period allowed for legal
action beyond the period that it would be barred by any presently
existing valid statute of limitations.
SEC. 9. Nothing contained in this act shall be construed to render
the creation of any public body, or any change in the boundaries of
any public body, effective for purposes of assessment or taxation
unless the statement, together with the map or plat, required to be
filed pursuant to Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 54900) of Part 1
of Division 2 of Title 5 of the Government Code, is filed within the
time and substantially in the manner required by those sections.
SEC. 10. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the
immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within
the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into
immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to validate the organization, boundaries, acts,
proceedings, and bonds of public bodies as soon as possible, it is
necessary that this act take immediate effect.