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By Olin Ericksen
June 6 -- A controversial State bill that singles
out Santa Monica airport for data to be used in pollution
testing landed in the State Senate Tuesday, while plans to
form a construction authority to push for a rail line to LAX,
and perhaps eventually into Santa Monica, were derailed last
week.
In a vote that surprised some, AB 700 -- which would require
the State to collect idling times of planes at Santa Monica's
Airport -- scaled two major consecutive legislative hurdles
in the last few days.
Following an unexpected committee vote Friday that included
shifting funding for the tests from Santa Monica to the State,
the full State Assembly voted 41-27 to pass the bill sponsored
by Assembly member Ted Lieu. The bill will now go to the State
Senate.
"We hadn't expected it to pass out of committee, because
it took a funding mandate for the tests off Santa Monica and
put it on the State," said David Ford, Lieu's chief of
staff, shortly before the final floor vote.
The data collected is widely viewed as the basis of information
that could then be used in a modeling study to chart the path
of any possible air pollution emitted from the airport.
The loosely-worded law is the second attempt by Lieu -- whose
legislative district abuts the airport and Santa Monica to
the south and east -- to pass a bill to record idling times.
A similar bill last year that required Santa Monica to spend
some $500,000 for the monitoring failed amidst stiff opposition
from the City and California lawmakers from the Santa Monica
area.
Opponents argued that the bill unfairly placed unfunded mandates
on the City and singled out the local airport, while other
area legislators, including Lieu, argued that the proposed
legislation would help curb jet pollution being blown into
surrounding neighborhoods. (see
story)
The battle over the bill also divided Santa Monica City Council
members and 11th District Los Angeles City Council member
Bill Rosendahl, who represents Venice and Mar Vista and who
has spoken at rallies for the passage of the current and former
bill. (see
story)
After Tuesday’s vote, Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom
said he and other council members will likely pass a resolution
later this month taking a position on the bill and several
suggested amendments.
Both Bloom and Ford said this year's bill was the result
of improved communication and cooperation between all parties.
"(State Assembly member) Julia Brownley, Ted Lieu, Bill
Rosendahl and the City have all worked very closely on this,"
Bloom said.
So far, Santa Monica Senator Sheila Kuehl has remained neutral
on the bill.
Brownley, a former Santa Monica-Malibu School Board member
elected to the assembly last November, voted Tuesday for the
new law, which places the onus on the State to fund the study,
rather than Santa Monica, as called for in the previous bill.
She reportedly also asked that several of the amendments
the City will seek be included in future drafts and that casting
her vote in favor of the bill was dependant on those amendments.
The amendments include that all aircraft, not only jets,
be monitored; that the science used is implemented by the
California Air Resources Board (CARB); and that it is not
an unfunded mandate on Santa Monica.
While Santa Monica officials have said it would be better
to wait for the results of a Southern California Air Quality
Management District study that monitors air quality at the
airport and other areas, proponents said Lieu's bill would
provide better information and later help distinguish between
different types of pollutants.
In a separate action by the State Assembly, a bill to jump-start
a much-touted rail line that could eventually extend from
Santa Monica to LAX has seemingly hit a roadblock.
The same appropriations committee that passed Lieu's airport
bill rejected the green line bill -- AB 889, also sponsored
by Lieu -- after the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation
Authority reportedly lobbied heavily against the bill.
MTA official believe that passing AB 889 -- which had not
yet identified funding -- could detract from other mass transit
projects, such as the Exposition Light Rail expected to start
construction in 2010 and roll into Downtown Santa Monica by
2015.
Santa Monica City Council member Pam O'Connor, who is first
vice chair of the MTA Board, stressed Wednesday that the project
was not killed, and that the State only voted against forming
a Construction Authority, which is not necessary to build
light rail.
In addition to limited funding for MTA projects, the green
line is behind other transportation projects, because it has
not been admitted to long-range MTA planning, a necessary
step to push the project forward more quickly, O’Connor
said.
"The pot of money is limited and that's why projects
have to be sequenced in long-range planning," she told
The Lookout Tuesday.
Other area lawmakers, including LA Council member Rosendahl,
saw the committee vote as at least a minor setback.
"Despite the lack of support from this committee, I
remain hopeful and optimistic about our efforts to extend
the Green Line into LAX," said Rosendahl in a statement
released Tuesday. "I do not consider this vote to be
a road block in our journey to mass transit, just a bump in
the road -- a minor challenge that we will certainly overcome."
"Coastal communities are besieged by traffic congestion
because there is no north-south mass rail transit in place,"
he continued. "The Green Line extension would not only
help to provide relief, but also serve as the cornerstone
of a mass rail transit system on the Westside. It would give
us a strategy to deal with the gridlock we have faced for
decades."
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