Public Utilities Code, 1951

Municipal corporations may lease, sell, or transfer water or sewer utilities, but some transfers require resolutions, voter approval, and customer disclosure.

The board may issue, sell, or exchange refunding bonds to retire VTA bonds, and may decide the terms, timing, manner, and exchange method.

Bonds issued under this chapter may be treated as legal investments for certain funds and may be used as security in the same situations where other local-government bonds may be used.

The board may change the purposes, estimated cost, bonded debt amount, or district or zone boundaries, but it must not expand those boundaries to include territory it judges will not benefit from the VTA action.

The board must give notice before changing certain benefit district details, and the notice must state the hearing time and place, be published before the hearing, and be mailed at least 30 days before the hearing to affected property owners.

The board must hold the hearing as scheduled or adjourned, allow interested persons to appear and present relevant matters, and then decide by resolution whether to make the noticed changes.

After notice and hearing, board decisions are final for appeal-related parties, and objections, appeals, or protests not raised at the hearing are treated as waived.

A challenge to the formation of a benefit district or zone, related bonds, or related proceedings must be filed within six months of formation.

If the board imposes a special benefit assessment, the secretary must certify it to the county assessor and provide the district maps and diagrams. The county must collect the assessment like taxes and send the balance to the authority after reasonable collection expenses.

If this chapter conflicts with another law, this chapter controls for benefit districts within the VTA boundaries.

VTA must not use its general fund revenues to pay bonded indebtedness under this chapter unless the California Constitution requires it.

A corporation or person may not operate passenger-or-property vessels for compensation between points in the state unless it first gets a commission certificate; applicants must file the required application and evidence, and the commission can grant, deny, limit, or condition the certificate.

The commission may issue certificates, make orders, and adopt rules affecting vessel common carriers, and its actions prevail over conflicting local ordinances, permits, or franchises.

A municipal corporation or port district operating a port may ask the commission for a certificate requiring vessel operators between points in California to serve that port.

A vessel-operating right, privilege, franchise, or permit may be transferred only if the commission authorizes it. The commission also may suspend, revoke, alter, or amend certain certificates or operative rights.

This section says this part is known as the “Golden Empire Transit District Act” and may be cited by that name.

The section says public interest and necessity may require a transit district to be established for Bakersfield and adjacent unincorporated Kern County areas.

The chapter’s defined terms control how this part is interpreted, unless the context specifically requires otherwise.

“District” means the Golden Empire Transit District formed under this part.

“Board” means the district’s board of directors.

“County” means the County of Kern.

“Board of supervisors” means the board of supervisors of the county.

Every municipal corporation of the State is granted the right to build, operate, and maintain specified utility lines and works across or along certain public ways and waterways, so long as the works are arranged to protect life and property.

“Voter” means an elector registered to vote under the Elections Code who lives in the territory for forming the district or in the district after it is formed.

“Transit” means transporting passengers, including their incidental baggage.

This section defines “transit works” or “transit facilities” for the district.

“Commission” means the county local agency formation commission.

“Existing system” is defined as certain transit services or systems operating within the district, including some that meet a 40% revenue-vehicle-miles threshold, with exclusions for charter-party carriers and charter services of passenger stage corporations.

A municipal corporation using rights under this article must restore the affected road or similar way to its former usefulness and place its use to minimize interference with existing uses.

A municipal corporation must ask the controlling municipal corporation or county to agree on where and on what terms it may use a street, alley, avenue, or highway in that other jurisdiction.

The Golden Empire Transit District may exercise the powers granted in this part.

The district territory includes all of the City of Bakersfield and nearby unincorporated county territory that is contiguous and may be benefited by being included.

If local governments cannot agree within three months, the proposing municipal corporation may ask the superior court to तयermine the terms, conditions, and location of the use, and then use the street, alley, avenue, or highway under the court’s judgment.

This article does not authorize building a sanitary sewer inside another municipality under the stated sewage-disposal conditions.

This section says the article does not limit the powers and duties already given by law to the Public Utilities Commission or, for state highways, the Department of Transportation.

This section says the article is enacted under the state’s reserved power over public utilities or corporations and is meant to address a franchise grantee’s rights, not a city’s or county’s power to grant franchises.

The district’s government is vested in a board of directors made up of five members.

Each director must live in the district, and current board of supervisors members and Bakersfield City Council members cannot be appointed as board members.

Each director serves a four-year term, except the first board members.

The district board of directors must be filled by three appointment methods: two members by the board of supervisors, two by the Bakersfield City Council, and one by majority vote of the other four board members.

If the first four board members do not appoint the fifth member within 30 days, a five-member conference committee must appoint that fifth member within 30 days.

A successor director must be appointed within 30 days before a director’s term expires, by the body authorized under Section 101103 for that class of director.

Each director must file an oath of office within 10 days after the term starts, and before beginning official duties.

The first board members must be appointed within 30 days after the district is formed, and they take office immediately once appointed and qualified.

The first board members must serve staggered terms, and the remaining four must immediately meet and divide their term lengths by lot.

The board must elect a chairman and a vice chairman at the specified initial and annual meetings.

The chairman must preside over board meetings, vote on board actions, and may move or second motions.

If the chairman is absent or unable to act, the vice chairman must preside and carry out the chairman’s functions.

A majority of the board members makes a quorum, and at least three affirmative board votes are needed to adopt a minute order, resolution, or ordinance.

The board must express its acts by minute order, resolution, or ordinance, and district ordinances must be adopted in substantially the same manner used for county ordinances.

The board must set the time and place for its regular meetings, and all board meetings must comply with the Ralph M. Brown Act.

If this part does not otherwise cover a matter, the board may adopt regulations by resolution or ordinance for the district board’s internal functions.

A district officer or employee whose signature is authorized or required may use a plate, stamp, or other law-authorized facsimile method instead of signing by hand, except as Section 101304 provides otherwise.

Board members are entitled to per diem compensation for attendance at board meetings, subject to a board-set rate capped at $50 per day and $100 per month.

Board members are entitled to reimbursement for actual and necessary travel expenses when the travel is outside the district and first approved by the board.

A board vacancy must be filled by appointment for the rest of the unexpired term.

A vacancy must be filled within 30 days after it is created.

A board member may be removed at any time, without cause, by the body authorized to appoint that class of director.