SACRAMENTO – The state Senate has approved a bill by Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Discovery Bay), chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee, which would remove the California Transportation Commission (CTC) from under the jurisdiction of the executive branch and reestablish it is an independent entity in state government.
AB 2734, which received unanimous, bipartisan support in both houses of the Legislature, now goes to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown.
“The Legislature looks to the CTC for guidance, policy development and administration of complex transportation programs, including implementation of much of the Road Repair and Accountability Act under SB 1,” Frazier said. “It is vitally important and in the best interest of all Californians that the CTC act as an independent commission.”
The Legislature created the CTC in 1978 as an independent entity in state government to oversee and coordinate the activities of the state’s transportation sector. In 2012, during a reorganization of the state’s executive branch engineered by Gov. Jerry Brown, the CTC was put under the jurisdiction of the newly created State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Since then, the CTC has been under the purview of the secretary of CalSTA, who is appointed by the governor.
“Moving the CTC directly under a secretary in the executive branch was one of the more contested components of the reorganization plan,” Frazier said. “Some of the state’s most respected transportation leaders argue that the CTC’s independence was vital to the administration of the state’s transportation programs and that placing the CTC within CalSTA threatens that independence. AB 2734 restores the CTC’s independence, which is crucial as California develops some of the state’s most complex and aggressive transportation programs in state history. My colleagues in the Legislature – in both houses and both parties – unanimously agree. AB 2734 did not receive a single no vote in the committees where it was heard or in Floor votes in the Assembly and Senate.”
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Assemblymember Frazier represents the 11th Assembly District, which includes the communities of Antioch, Bethel Island, Birds Landing, Brentwood, Byron, Collinsville, Discovery Bay, Fairfield, Isleton, Knightsen, Locke, Oakley, Pittsburg (partial), Rio Vista, Suisun City, Travis AFB, Vacaville and Walnut Grove.
