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March 12, 2013
VIA FACSIMILE ONLY: 916-323-2263
The Honorable Darrell Steinberg
Senate President Pro Tem
State Capitol, Room 205
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: SB 7 Public Works: Charter Cities
NOTICE OF OPPOSITION
Dear Senator Steinberg:
The City of San Luis Obispo regrets to inform you of our opposition to your
legislation, SB 7, which would prohibit a charter city from receiving or using state funding
or financial assistance for a construction project if the city has a charter provision or
ordinance that exempts local projects funded solely with local monies from state prevailing
wage requirements.
This measure violates the fundamental principle of local control and the
constitutional limits of state authority over charter cities, as recently held by the Court in
the Vista decision.' This measure conflicts with Vista by attempting, via the Legislature, to
leverage a different outcome than the Court's ruling by withholding vital state construction
funds, derived from all of the state's taxpayers, from charter cities that fail to adopt
prevailing wage requirements for projects built with local funds. Such a condition is
unlawful because the state is seeking to leverage outcomes it lacks the legal authority to
compel.
While the City of San Luis Obispo has a longstanding practice to require the
payment of prevailing wages for city funded projects, we have grave concerns that this
legislative tactic will be used in the future to erode other local flexibility that is important to
our community. Local control of local funds is integral to the ability of charter cities to
manage local issues effectively and responsively to local constituencies. Thus, we oppose
this measure due to its undercutting of local charter authority and fundamental insistencies
1 The California Supreme Court upheld that (1) the construction of a city -operated facility for the benefit of the city's inhabitants with
city funds is "quintessentially a municipal affair, "and (2) the state cannot require a charter city to exercise its purchasing power
based upon "some indirect effect [of the charter city's purchasing power) on the regional and state economies." State Building and
Construction Trades Council of California, AFL-CIO v. City of Vista (2012) 54 Cal. 4rh 547.
city of san tins mspo
Senator Darrell Steinberg
March 12, 2013
Page 2
with established constitutional principles. The state should respect the Court decision in
Vista and stay out of the matter.
This measure would establish an impermissible framework for future state
micromanaging of charter city laws and policies by the tactic of withholding state funds as
political leverage to attempt to force changes to city charters and ordinances.
For these reasons, the City of San Luis Obispo opposes this legislation.
Sincerely,
Jan Marx
Mayor
Cc:
City Council
City Manager
Senator Ted Lieu, Chair, Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations,
fax Attn: Alma Perez 916-327-5703
Senator Bill Monning, fax 916-445-8081
Assembly Member Katcho Adhadjian, fax 916-319-2035
Public Works Director