March 19, 2015
The Honorable Catharine B. Baker
16th Assembly District
State Capitol, Room 4153
Sacramento, CA 94249-0016
RE:
AB 1284 (Baker)
Dear Assemblymember Baker:
The Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee (TBPOC) was established pursuant to AB 144
(Hancock) in 2005 to oversee the delivery of the state Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program. The
committee consists of the Caltrans Director and the Executive Directors of the Bay Area Toll
Authority and the California Transportation Commission. The TBPOC was established in law with
a full exemption to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Law, with Section 30952.1 added to the
Streets and Highways Code, and subsection (e) stating: The Toll Bridge Program Oversight
Committee is not a state body as that term is defined in Article 9 (commencing with Section
11120) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
We agree with your preference for open, transparent government. Over the course of overseeing
the Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program, we have come to learn the value of real-time public
input into our deliberations. This is why we have opened our hearings to public participation
effective May 6, 2014. Every meeting since that day has been open to the public, with the meeting
agendas posted in advance at www.baybridgeinfo.org. This opportunity for public participation
applies to both in-person meetings and to meetings conducted via teleconference, for which a
public call-in number and access code is provided.
While we have taken important steps to open our process, we have done so in a way that balances
the need for openness with the need to conduct business as efficiently as possible. In short, we
believe we are now in full compliance with the spirit of Bagley-Keene while maintaining some
differences from the law's literal provisions.
With the 2013 opening of the new East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, all of the
state-owned toll bridges have now achieved seismic safety, either via retrofit or the replacement of
existing structures. While substantial demolition work on the original Bay Bridge East Span
remains to be done, the Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program and the work of the TBPOC both are
winding down. The TBPOC will continue to provide oversight of the program until its completion,
and we are committed to keeping these meetings open to the public throughout the few remaining
years of the Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit program. We believe AB 1284, which would amend
Section 30952.1 of the Streets and Highways Code by removing subsection (e) and, according to
the Legislative Counsel’s digest, would make meetings of the committee subject to the BagleyKeene Open Meeting Act, is an unnecessary piece of legislation. We welcome the opportunity to
discuss this issue further with you at your convenience.
Sincerely,
Steve Heminger TBPOC Chair, Executive Director,
Bay Area Toll Authority
Will Kempton Executive Director, California
Transportation Commission
Malcolm Dougherty Director, Caltrans