The Local Health Care District Law provides for local health care districts that govern certain health care facilities. Each health care district has a board of directors with specific duties and powers respecting the creation, administration, and maintenance of the district. Existing law requires the board of directors to establish and maintain an Internet Web site that may include specified information, such as a list of current board members and recipients of grant funding or assistance provided by the district, if any, and to adopt annual policies for providing assistance or grant funding, as specified. Existing law authorizes certain health care districts to use the design-build process when contracting for the construction of a hospital or other buildings in those districts, as specified.

This bill would require the board of directors to include specified information, such as the district’s policy for providing assistance or grant funding, on the district’s Internet Web site. The bill would require that policy to contain, among other things, the district’s plan for distributing grant funds for each fiscal year and a process for providing, accepting, and reviewing grant applications. The bill would also require the board to, upon filing a petition under federal bankruptcy law, provide written notice within 10 business days to the local agency formation commission of the principal county in which the district is located. The bill would require a district that is authorized and elects to use the design-build process, as specified, for the construction of housing to require that at least 20% of the residential units constructed be subject to a recorded affordability restriction for at least 55 years and be affordable to lower income households, very low income households, extremely low income households, and persons and families of low or moderate income, as defined, unless the city, county, or city and county in which the district is predominantly located has adopted a local ordinance that requires a greater percentage of the units be affordable to those groups or unless the construction is for purposes of building workforce housing, health facilities, or retirement facilities, as specified. By increasing the duties of the board of directors, including duties related to disclosure of public records, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Existing law, the California Public Records Act, requires state and local agencies to make their records available for public inspection, unless an exemption from disclosure applies.

This bill would require each health care district, in implementing the California Public Records Act, to maintain an Internet Web site in accordance with the provisions described above. Because the bill would require health care districts to perform additional duties, it would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose.

This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.