Amended in Assembly April 6, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 727

Introduced by Assembly Member Wilk

February 25, 2015

An act to amend Section 21531 of the Public Contract Code, and to amend Sections 11, 15, 26.1, 29.1, 29.2, 29.4, and 29.7 of, and to repeal Sections 29.5 and 29.6 of, the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law (Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 1962), relating to the Castaic Lake Water Agency.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 727, as amended, Wilk. Castaic Lake Water Agency.

(1) Existing law, the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law, creates the Castaic Lake Water Agency and authorizes the agency to acquire water and water rights, including water from the State Water Project, and to provide, sell, and deliver water at wholesale for municipal, industrial, domestic, and other purposes. The law authorizes the agency to construct, operate, and maintain works to develop hydroelectric energy and to contract for the sale of the right to use falling water for electrical energy purposes.

This bill would authorize the agency to construct, operate, and maintain works to develop energy projects and to contract for the sale of the right to use facilities or real property for electric energy purposes.

(2) Existing law authorizes the agency to develop, treat, distribute, and reclaim water, and to store and recover water from groundwater basins located outside the boundaries of the agency.

This bill would authorize the begin delete agency to exercise these powers over groundwater basins located both within and outside the boundaries of the agency. This bill would authorize the end delete board of directors of the agency to adopt and carry out a plan to finance or reimburse the agency for advancing net costs of remediating groundwater contamination.

(3) Existing law authorizes the agency to establish and impose a facility capacity fee for the right to make a new retail connection to the water distribution system of any retail water distributor within the agency that obtains water supplies from the agency. Existing law requires the proceeds of the facility capacity fee to be used exclusively by the board of directors of the agency for the annual capital budget of the agency, which is the sum annually projected by the board of directors to be reasonably necessary for prescribed purposes. Existing law authorizes the board of directors to adopt a multiyear capital budget, not to encompass more than 3 agency fiscal years.

This bill would define a facility capacity fee and authorize the agency to establish and impose the fee on any person who makes a new retail connection or has an existing retail connection to the water distribution system. This bill would eliminate payments of capital costs to the State of California for purposes of the State Water Project from being a component of the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency. This bill would eliminate the authorization to adopt a multiyear capital budget.

(4) Existing law authorizes the board of directors, by majority vote, to appoint from its members one vice president.

This bill would authorize the board of directors to appoint from its members one or more vice presidents.

(5) Existing law requires the board of directors of the agency to annually adopt a resolution of intention to form new water service areas, or to continue, amend, or modify water service areas previously established.

This bill would not require the board of directors to adopt this resolution if there is no change from the previous year to the water service areas or to the existing facility capacity fees.

(6) Existing law provides that until July 1, 1991, or the date the board of directors finds and declares by resolution that there is more than 25,000 acre-feet of potable water available each begin insert year end insert from the agency, whichever is later, the agency is required to allocated water of the agency to each purveyor on a specified percentage basis and that the allocation of agency water after this date is to be with respect to agency water service areas.

This bill would repeal these provisions.

(7) Existing law authorizes the agency to prescribe methods for the construction of works and for the letting of contracts for the construction of works, structures, or equipment, or the performance or furnishing of labor, materials, or supplies, for carrying out specified provisions. Existing law requires all contracts for any improvement or unit of work when the cost estimate exceeds $5,000 to be let to the lowest responsible bidder or bidders. Existing law authorizes the agency to have work done by force account without advertising for bids and to purchase in the open market materials and supplies when the estimated cost of the work does not exceed $5,000.

This bill would revise the cost estimate limit for the purpose of these provisions to $75,000.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 21531 of the Public Contract Code is
amended to read:

21531.  

(a) The Castaic Lake Water Agency shall have power
to prescribe methods for the construction of works and for the
letting of contracts for the construction of works, structures, or
equipment, or the performance or furnishing of labor, materials,
or supplies, necessary or convenient for carrying out any of the
purposes of this act or for the acquisition or disposal of any real
or personal property; provided, that all contracts for any
improvement or unit of work, when the cost according to the
estimate of the engineer will exceed seventy-five thousand dollars
begin delete ($75,000) end delete begin insert ($75,000), end insert shall be let to the lowest responsible bidder
or bidders as provided in this article. The board shall first determine
whether the contract shall be let as a single unit or divided into
severable parts. The board shall advertise for bids by three
insertions in a daily newspaper of general circulation published in
the agency or by two insertions in a nondaily newspaper of general
circulation published in the agency or, if no newspaper is published
in the agency, in any newspaper of general circulation distributed
in the agency, inviting sealed proposals for the construction or
performance of the improvement or work. The call for bids shall
state whether the work shall be performed in one unit or divided
into parts. The work may be let under a single contract or several
contracts, as stated in the call. The board shall require the
successful bidders to file with the board good and sufficient bonds
to be approved by the board conditioned upon the faithful
performance of the contract and upon the payment of their claims
for labor and material. The bonds shall comply with Title 3
(commencing with Section 9000) of Part 6 of Division 4 of the
Civil Code. The board may reject any bid.

(b) In the event all proposals are rejected or no proposals are
received, or the estimated cost of the work does not exceed
seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) or the work consists of
channel protection, maintenance work, or emergency work, the
board may have the work done by force account without advertising
for bids. In case of an emergency, if notice for bids to let contracts
will not be given, the board shall comply with Chapter 2.5
(commencing with Section 22050).

(c) The agency may purchase in the open market without
advertising for bids, materials and supplies for use in any work,
either under contract or by force account; provided, however, that
materials and supplies for use in any new construction work or
improvement, except work referred to in subdivision (b), shall not
be purchased if the cost exceeds seventy-five thousand dollars
($75,000), without advertising for bids and awarding the contract
to the lowest responsible bidder.

SEC. 2.  

Section 11 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law
(Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of
1962), as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 170 of the Statutes of
1998, is amended to read:

Sec. 11.  

The board of directors shall be the governing body of
the agency. The board shall hold its first meeting as soon as
possible after the appointment and certification of the first board
of directors. The board shall choose one of its members to be
president, and shall thereupon provide for the time and place of
holding its meetings and the manner in which its special meetings
may be called. All legislative sessions of the board, whether regular
or special, shall be open to the public. A majority of the board
shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. At its
first meeting in the month of January of each odd-numbered year,
the board shall choose one of its members president. The board,
by majority vote, may appoint from its members one or more vice
presidents and may define the duties of a vice president.

SEC. 3.  

Section 15 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law
(Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of
1962), as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 910 of the Statutes of
1989, is amended to read:

Sec. 15.  

The agency may acquire water and water rights,
including, but not limited to, water from the State of California
under the State Water Resources Development System, and
provide, sell, and deliver that water at wholesale only, for
municipal, industrial, domestic, and other purposes, through a
transmission system to be acquired or constructed by the agency.
To carry out these purposes, the agency shall have the following
powers:

(a) To have perpetual succession.

(b) To sue and be sued, except as otherwise provided herein or
by law, in all actions and proceedings in all courts and tribunals
of competent jurisdiction.

(c) To adopt a seal and alter it at pleasure.

(d) To take by grant, purchase, gift, devise, or lease, hold, use,
enjoy, and to lease or dispose of real and personal property of
every kind, within or without the agency.

(e) To acquire, or contract to acquire, waterworks or a
waterworks system, water rights, waters, lands, and rights and
privileges and to construct, complete, extend, add to, repair,
maintain, improve, and operate waterworks or a waterworks
system, conduits, pipelines, reservoirs, works, machinery, and
other property or facilities useful or necessary to import, store,
treat, reclaim, conserve, convey, or supply water for the benefit
and use of residents and owners of property within the agency,
and otherwise for authorized agency purposes.

(f) To lease of and from any person, firm, public or private
corporation, or public agency, with the privilege of purchasing or
otherwise, all or any part of water storage, transportation or
distribution facilities, existing waterworks or a waterworks system,
and to carry on and conduct waterworks or a waterworks system;
also to sell for use within the area of the agency at wholesale only
water of the agency to cities, to other public corporations and
public agencies, and to water corporations as defined in the Public
Utilities Code, and to any mutual water companies engaged in
distributing water to its members for use, without any preference,
and the agency may, whenever the board finds that there is a
surplus of water above that which may be required by those
consumers within the agency, sell or otherwise dispose of that
surplus water to any persons, firms, public or private corporations,
public agencies, or other consumers.

(g) To exercise the right of eminent domain to take any property
necessary or desirable for any facility reasonably required for the
importation and transmission of water in the area of the agency.
The agency in exercising that power, shall in addition to the
damage for the taking, injury, or destruction of property, also pay
the cost of removal, reconstruction, or relocation of any structure,
railways, mains, pipes, conduits, wires, begin delete cables end delete begin insert cables, end insert or poles of
any public utility which is required to be removed to a new
location. No action in eminent domain to acquire property outside
the boundaries of the agency shall be commenced unless the board
of supervisors of each affected county has consented to the
acquisition by resolution.

(h) To issue bonds, borrow money, and incur indebtedness as
authorized by law or in this act provided; also to refund (by the
issuance of the same obligations following the same procedure)
or retire any indebtedness or lien that may exist against the agency
or property thereof.

(i) To issue negotiable promissory notes bearing interest at a
rate not exceeding the maximum rate per annum authorized by
Section 27; provided, however, that the notes shall be general
obligations of the agency payable from revenues and taxes in the
same manner as bonds of the agency; and provided further that
the maturity shall not be later than five years from the date thereof
and that the total aggregate amount of the notes outstanding at any
one time may be at least equal to seventy-five thousand dollars
($75,000) but shall not otherwise exceed the lesser of either one
million dollars ($1,000,000) or 2 percent of the assessed valuation
of the taxable property in the agency, or, if that assessed valuation
is not obtainable, 2 percent of the county auditor’s estimate of the
assessed valuation of the taxable property in the agency evidenced
by his or her certificate.

(j) To cause taxes to be levied, in the manner hereinafter
provided, for the purpose of paying any obligation of the agency,
including its formation expenses and any warrants issued therefor.

(k) To restrict the use of agency water during any emergency
caused by drought, or other threatened or existing water shortage,
and to prohibit the wastage of agency water or the use of agency
water during those periods, for any purpose other than household
uses or such other restricted uses as may be determined to be
necessary by the agency; to prohibit the use of agency water during
those periods for specified uses which the agency may from time
to time find to be nonessential.

(l) To prescribe and define by ordinance, the restrictions,
prohibitions, and exclusions referred to in subdivision (k). Every
ordinance relating to the matters referred to in this subdivision
shall be in full force and effect forthwith upon adoption, but shall
be published once in full within 10 days after adoption in a
newspaper of general circulation published in the agency or, if no
such newspaper is published in the agency, in a newspaper of
general circulation distributed in the agency.

(m) To make contracts, to employ labor, and do all acts
necessary for the full exercise of the foregoing powers.

(n) To provide by ordinance of its board of directors for the
pensioning of employees and the creation of a special fund for the
purpose of paying those pensions, and the accumulation of
contributions to the fund from the revenues of the agency, the
wages of employees, voluntary contributions, gifts, donations, or
any source of revenue not inconsistent with the general powers of
the board, and to contract with any insurance corporation or any
other insurance carrier for the maintenance of a service covering
the pension of the employees, and to provide in the ordinance for
the terms and conditions under which the pensions shall be
awarded, and for the time and extent of service of employees before
the pensions shall be available to them.

(o) To join with one or more public agencies, private
corporations, or other persons for the purpose of carrying out any
of the powers of the agency, and for that purpose to contract with
such other public agencies or private corporations or persons for
the purpose of financing those acquisitions, constructions, and
operations. The contracts may provide for contributions to be made
by each party thereto and for the division and apportionment of
the expenses of the acquisitions and operations, and the division
and apportionment of the benefits, the services and products
therefrom, and may provide for any agency to effect the
acquisitions and to carry on the operations, and shall provide in
the powers and methods of procedure for the agency the method
by which the agency may contract. The contracts with other public
agencies or private corporations or persons may contain such other
and further covenants and agreements as may be necessary or
convenient to accomplish the purposes thereof. Particularly, but
not exclusively, the agency may contract with the State of
California for delivery of water under the State Water Resources
Development System. The term “public agency,” as used in this
subdivision, shall be deemed to mean and include the United States
of America or any department or agency thereof, the State of
California or any department or agency thereof, a county, city,
public corporation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California, or other public district of this state. The term “private
corporation,” as used in this subdivision, shall be deemed to mean
and include any private corporation organized under the laws of
the United States of America or of this or any other state thereof.
Contracts mentioned herein include those made with the United
States, under the Federal Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902, (43
U.S.C. Sec. begin delete 372 end delete begin insert 371 end insert et seq.) and all acts amendatory thereof or
supplementary thereto or any other act of Congress heretofore or
hereafter enacted permitting cooperation. Any such contract with
the United States of America or any department or agency thereof,
or with any private corporation organized under the laws of the
United States of America, by which the agency, or an improvement
district thereof, incurs an indebtedness or liability exceeding in
any year the income and revenue for that year, shall not be executed
without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors of the
agency, or an improvement district thereof, voting at a special
election to be held for that purpose, the election to be called and
held, so far as practicable, in the same manner as bond elections
for the agency. The exact form of the contract need not be available
at the time of the special election, but the (1) purpose of the
contract; (2) maximum amount of the indebtedness created thereby;
(3) maximum term of begin delete repayment, end delete begin insert repayment; end insert and (4) maximum
interest rate on the indebtedness shall be known and included in
the proposition or measure submitted to the qualified electors of
the agency, or an improvement district thereof, at the special
election.

(p) To issue bonds under Section 28 for the purpose of providing
money required to be paid by this agency to the State of California
or any agency thereof under any contract which shall be made with
it, or as all or part of the terms and conditions under which the
corporate area of the agency may be annexed to and become a part
of any metropolitan water district organized under the Metropolitan
Water District Act. The amount of the bonds may include expenses
of all proceedings for the authorization, issuance, and sale of the
bonds.

(q) To disseminate information concerning the rights, properties,
and activities of the agency.

(r) To construct, operate, and maintain works to develop energy
projects, for use by the agency in the operation of its works or as
a means of assisting in financing the construction, operation, and
maintenance of its projects for the control, conservation, diversion,
and transmission of water and to enter into contracts for the sale
of the energy for a term not to exceed 100 years. The energy may
be marketed only at wholesale to any public agency or private
entity, or both, or the federal or state government.

(s) To contract, in connection with the construction and
operation of the works of the agency, for the sale of the right to
use facilities or real property for electric energy purposes with any
public agency or private entity engaged in the retail distribution
of electric energy, for a term not to exceed 100 years.

(t) To develop, treat, distribute, and reclaim water, and to store
and recover water from groundwater basins located begin delete both within
and end delete outside the boundaries of the agency and, in exercising that
power, to make and enter into contracts allowing that storage and
recovery.

SEC. 4.  

Section 26.1 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law
(Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of
1962), as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 562 of the Statutes of
1991, is amended to read:

Sec. 26.1.  

(a) (1) In addition to the other powers provided in
this act, the agency may establish and impose a facility capacity
fee on any person who makes a new retail connection or has an
existing retail connection to the water distribution system of any
retail water distributor within the agency that obtains all, or any
portion, of its water supplies from the agency. The necessity for
the fee, and the amounts thereof, shall be determined, established,
imposed, collected, and used in the manner provided in this section.

(2) As used in this act, a “facility capacity fee” means a fee for
public facilities in existence at the time a fee is imposed and for
new public facilities to be acquired or constructed in the future
that are of proportional benefit to the person or property being
charged, including supply or capacity contracts for rights or
entitlements, real property interests, and entitlements and other
rights of the agency involving capital expense relating to its use
of existing or new public facilities. A “facility capacity fee” does
not include a commodity charge.

(b) If the board of directors determines that its existing water
importation, transportation, and delivery facilities and other related
works, property, and improvements are not adequate for the
purpose of receiving, importing, transporting, and delivering
additional needed quantities of water available from the State
Water Resources Development System or from other sources, the
board of directors may adopt and carry out a plan for any of the
following purposes:

(1) To obtain additional facilities, works, property,
improvements, and supplies of water.

(2) To increase or enlarge, as may be appropriate, its existing
capacity and facilities for obtaining, importing, transporting, and
delivering additional quantities of water to retail water distributors
within the agency which are in need of additional water supplies.

(3) To finance or reimburse the agency for advancing the cost
of acquiring facilities, works, property, improvements, and supplies
of water and to allocate that cost among lands within water service
areas of the agency which, by reason of new development or new
construction thereon, will need a new or expanded retail
connection, or will result in expanded use of water at the retail
connection, and will be benefited by making the additional supplies
of agency water available for purchase by the retail water
distributors that will supply those lands with water.

(4) To finance or reimburse the agency for advancing net costs
for capital facilities for remediating groundwater contamination,
which originated solely from the land within a given water service
area.

(c) (1) Prior to adopting any plans pursuant to subdivision (b),
the board of directors shall hold at least one public hearing, at
which oral or written presentations may be made, as part of a
regularly scheduled meeting to establish water service areas within
the agency.

(2) Notwithstanding any other notice requirements of this act,
notice of the time and place of the hearing and meeting, including
a general explanation of the matters to be considered, and a
statement that the data required by this subdivision is available,
shall be mailed at least 14 days prior to the hearing to any interested
party who files a written request with the agency for mailed notice
of the hearing on those plans and on allocation of the costs thereof.
Any written request for that mailed notice shall be valid only for
one year from the date on which it is filed with the agency unless
a renewal request is filed. Renewal requests for the mailed notices
shall be filed on or before April 1 of each year. The board of
directors may establish a reasonable annual charge for sending the
notices based on the agency’s estimated cost of providing the
service.

(3) At least 10 days prior to the hearing, the agency shall make
available to the public data indicating the cost, or estimated cost,
to acquire, construct, and provide the water importation,
transportation, and delivery facilities and other works, property,
and improvements necessary to obtain and provide the additional
water to those retail water distributors who will serve water to the
lands on which the new developments and new construction will
be located, and the proposed method and basis for allocating the
costs as among those lands. The agency may transmit this data
electronically to interested parties upon written request.

(d) (1) Following the public hearing or hearings, the board of
directors shall make both of the following determinations:

(A) The extent of the need for the additional property and
supplies of water to be supplied by the agency.

(B) Whether existing facilities and other works and
improvements of the agency are adequate to import, receive,
transport, and deliver those additional quantities of water.

(2) If the board of directors determines that there is a need or
that the agency’s existing facilities, works, property, and
improvements are inadequate to serve that water, or both, the board
of directors shall adopt the plan or plans specified in subdivision
(b).

(e) In making its determinations as to how to allocate the costs
of the plan or plans within water service areas of the agency, the
board of directors shall determine the amount of the facility
capacity fee to be imposed for the delivery facilities of the retail
water distributors that will supply those lands with imported or
local water. The facility capacity fee shall be fixed and determined
pursuant to a method and basis whereby the fee is as nearly as
reasonably practicable an amount proportionate to the benefit to
the land, including consideration of the volume of water to be
delivered.

(f) The board of directors may contract with the counties, or
cities on or after January 1, 1992, in which the agency is located
for the collection of the facility capacity fee along with building
permit fees or other fees related to the improvement of property,
or may contract for collection of the facility capacity fee by the
retail water distributor.

(g) The proceeds of the facility capacity fee imposed and
collected pursuant to this section shall be used exclusively by the
board of directors for the annual facility capacity fee capital budget
of the agency, as described in Section 29.1, for purposes authorized
by this section as specified in the plans adopted pursuant to
subdivisions (b), (d), and (e).

(h) Any action taken by the board of directors pursuant to this
section shall be taken only by resolution.

(i) Any judicial action or proceeding to attack, review, set aside,
void, or annul any resolution imposing a facility capacity charge
of the agency, or a resolution modifying or amending an existing
charge imposed by the agency, shall be commenced within 120
days of the effective date of the resolution. Any action or
proceeding shall be brought pursuant to Chapter 9 (commencing
with Section 860) of Title 10 of Part 2 of the Code of Civil
Procedure.

SEC. 5.  

Section 29.1 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law
(Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of
1962), as amended by Section 3 of Chapter 1119 of the Statutes
of 1987, is amended to read:

Sec. 29.1.  

(a) For any agency fiscal year commencing on or
after July 1, 1987, the board of directors shall divide all lands
within the agency into separate, nonoverlapping water service
areas. The water service areas shall be fixed, formed, and
established following a public hearing and notice pursuant to
Section 29.3. The purpose for the formation of water service areas
is to provide a source of and to apportion moneys, not to exceed
the amount permitted annually by law, for, and only for, the annual
facility capacity fee capital budget of the agency. The funding and
apportioning of the facility capacity fee capital budget shall be on
the principle of benefit received by the lands and people within
each water service area. Projected use of water in any way to be
made available by the agency within a water service area during
any agency fiscal year, as well as the agency’s existing property,
plant, and distribution facilities, shall be deemed by the board of
directors to be the principal benefits to be considered in
determining the proportion of the annual facility capacity fee
capital budget of the agency to be collected from sources within
each water service area. Different schedules of rates, charges, fees,
assessments, and taxes to fund the facility capacity fee capital
budget of the agency, or a portion thereof, may be fixed and
established in each water service area, except that tax rates within
any individual water service area shall be uniform. The lands within
each water service area need not be contiguous.

(b) Any ad valorem tax or tax rate set or determined by the
board of directors, though part of the benefit determination process
within water service areas, is valid so long as the tax proceeds are
applied in accordance with constitutional restrictions. Allocations
by the board of directors of the burden of ad valorem taxes between
or among water service areas may, at the option of the board of
directors, be conducted outside the hearing process set forth and
described in Sections 29.2 to 29.4, inclusive.

(c) As used in this act, the “annual facility capacity fee capital
budget of the agency” means that sum annually projected by the
board of directors to be reasonably necessary (1) for payments for
acquisition of other water imported into the agency or for local
water for new and expanded uses, (2) for payments in any way
concerning agency bonded indebtedness or for lands and facilities,
within or outside the agency, useful or necessary to bank, store,
transport, treat, and distribute water currently or eventually to be
made available by the agency within water service areas thereof
for new and expanded uses, and (3) for payment to agency budget
reserve accounts for the above uses or purposes in future agency
fiscal years. Moneys collected by the agency for the “annual facility
capacity fee capital budget of the agency” shall only be utilized
for “capital,” as that term is utilized under general accounting
principles. The board of directors in its budgetary processes during
any fiscal year may shift “capital” moneys between or among
“capital” accounts, including reserve accounts. Notwithstanding
the foregoing, the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the
agency as derived from all water service areas of the agency shall
be funded in strict accordance with constitutional and statutory
restrictions, as existing from time to time, on legally permissible
rates, charges, fees, assessments, and taxes.

SEC. 6.  

Section 29.2 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law
(Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of
1962), as amended by Section 4 of Chapter 1119 of the Statutes
of 1987, is amended to read:

Sec. 29.2.  

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), the board
of directors shall annually adopt a resolution of intention to form
new water service areas, or to amend or modify water service areas
previously established. The resolution shall contain all of the
following:

(1) The proposed boundary description of each proposed water
service area.

(2) The additional capacity that will be provided to the lands
and people within each proposed water service area during a
specific, identified agency fiscal year.

(3) The proposed annual facility capacity fee capital budget of
the agency for that fiscal year, and the portion thereof proposed
to be obtained from facility capacity fees within each proposed
water service area.

(4) The proposed charges, fees, assessments, and tax rates
proposed to be fixed, levied, or collected within or from each
proposed water service area for the proposed annual facility
capacity fee capital budget of the agency.

(5) The date, time, and location for a public hearing concerning
the formation, amendments, or modification of the water service
areas.

(b) The board of directors shall not be required to adopt a
resolution pursuant to this section if there is not a change from the
previous year to the water service areas or the existing facility
capacity fees.

SEC. 7.  

Section 29.4 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law
(Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of
1962), as amended by Section 6 of Chapter 1119 of the Statutes
of 1987, is amended to read:

Sec. 29.4.  

(a) The board of directors shall at the public hearing
concerning water service areas, which hearing may be adjourned
and continued from time to time, hear and consider any objections
or comments concerning the proposed water service areas as
described in the agency’s resolution of intention concerning the
areas. At or following the hearing, the board of directors may make
any changes in the proposals set forth in the resolution of intention
that are deemed by the board of directors to be proper; provided,
except that if additional land is to be included within or described
land is to be excluded from a proposed water service area, or if
any proposed described benefit within a proposed water service
area is to be materially changed, or if any proposed charge, fee,
assessment, or tax rate within a proposed water service area is to
be increased by 15 percent or more, the hearing shall be continued
for at least 30 days and mailed notice of that continuance shall be
given to the affected property owners not waiving that notice by
mailing the notice not less than 21 days in advance of the continued
hearing.

(b) Absent any need to continue the public hearing, the board
of directors shall thereafter find and determine whether it is in the
best interest of the agency and each proposed water service area
that the water service area be either fixed, formed, established,
modified, or amended. When all those findings and determinations
are made, the board of directors shall by resolution do the
following:

(1) Determine each water service area and describe the land in
that area.

(2) Fix the annual facility capacity fee capital budget of the
agency.

(3) Describe additional capacity that will be provided to the
lands and people within each water service area.

(4) Fix, levy, and apportion within each water service area the
charges, fees, assessments, and tax rates to be collected therefrom
for the purpose of equitably matching those charges, fees,
assessments, and tax rates with projected benefits within each
water service area.

SEC. 8.  

Section 29.5 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law
(Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of
1962), as added by Section 12 of Chapter 832 of the Statutes of
1986, is repealed.

SEC. 9.  

Section 29.6 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law
(Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of
1962), as added by Section 2 of Chapter 170 of the Statutes of
1998, is repealed.

SEC. 10.  

Section 29.7 of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law
(Chapter 28 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of
1962), as added by Section 3 of Chapter 170 of the Statutes of
1998, is amended to read:

Sec. 29.7.  

Notwithstanding any other law, the board of directors
may adopt a facility capacity fee as part of its annual facility
capacity fee capital budget and may allow the facility capacity fee
for any water service area to remain in effect until the board,
subject to applicable notice and hearing requirements, changes or
repeals the fee by resolution.