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Supervisors Veerkamp and Ranalli recommending Board authorize the Chair to sign a letter of support addressed to California State Assemblyman Frank Bigelow in support of Assemblyman Bigelow's AB 174, introduced on January 17, 2017, which proposes to require that one voting member of the California Transportation Commission reside in a county with a population of less than 100,000 individuals.
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The California Transportation Commission consists of eleven (11) voting members and two (2) Members of the Legislature who are appointed as non-voting ex-officio members. Of the eleven (11) voting members, nine (9) are appointed by the Governor, one (1) is appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules, and one (1) is appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly.
The mission of the California Transportation Commission (Commission) is to be a unified voice for transportation issues in California; however, every current member of the Commission resides in a county with a population over one million people. AB 174 seeks to ensure that the transportation concerns of small, rural California counties are represented on the Commission.
As introduced, AB 174 provides that at least one voting member of the Commission shall reside in a rural county with a population of less than 100,000 individuals and that when an appointment is made to the Commission after January 1, 2018, the Governor, Speaker of the Assembly and the Senate Committee on Rules shall ensure that it is made in conformance with this proposed requirement.