City Council
MEETING DATE: 1/11/2017
TITLE:
Title
Fourth Amendment to SunLine Joint Powers Transportation Agency Agreement
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FROM:
Charles McClendon, City Manager
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Staff recommends the City Council approve the Fourth Amendment to the SunLine Joint Powers Transportation Agency Agreement
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BACKGROUND:
In May 1977, the County of Riverside and the incorporated cities in the Coachella Valley entered into the SunLine Joint Powers Transportation Agency Agreement in order to collectively provide a public transportation system in the Coachella Valley. Since that time, the agreement was amended twice in the early 1990s related to taxicab regulation, and a third amendment was promulgated in 2013 that eliminated weighted voting.
On May 25, 2016, the SunLine Transit Agency Board of Directors directed its staff to prepare a proposed fourth amendment to the agreement to specify that the Board of Directors may receive compensation for their attendance at Board meetings and Board subcommittee meetings. As a joint powers agencies that includes the County, charter cities and general law cities, SunLine may pay compensation to its Board members consistent with the law applicable to its member agencies. The law places no limits on the compensation to members of the Board of Supervisors and City Council members in charter cities, but general law cities are subject to the limitations in Government Code section 36516. A Fourth Amendment was prepared and circulated to the member agencies, which was adopted by our City Council on August 24, 2016, but some concerns with the language caused one member city to reject the amendment.
DISCUSSION:
The Board has reconsidered the issue and directed staff to prepare a revised version of the Fourth Amendment for consideration by the member agencies. This revised fourth amendment is similar to the previous version in that it specifically authorizes the Board members to receive stipends for their attendance at meetings consistent with the limitations applicable to general law cities in Government Code section 36516(c), which currently caps compensation at $150 per month. The amount of such stipends will be set by resolution of the SunLine Board and will be paid out of SunLine funds. SunLine Board Members are currently compensated $50 for each Board meeting and $25 for each subcommittee meeting. The full Board and its subcommittees typically meet one time per month. However, this version of the Fourth Amendment also includes a provision pursuant to Government Code section 6509, which states that the power of a joint powers agency “is subject to the restrictions upon the manner of exercising the power of one of the contracting parties, which party shall be designated by the agreement.” Since most of SunLine’s members are charter cities, this Fourth Amendment specifically states that SunLine’s powers are limited in the same manner as the charter city members. With respect to Board compensation, however, there is an additional provision that ensures compensation will be in line with the powers of a general law city, and not a charter city.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact by the City with the approval of this Fourth Amendment.
ATTACHMENTS:
Fourth Amendment
Letter to Charles McClendon, City Manager