Section 6531.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) It is in the best interests of communities located within the City of San Diego for the local public agencies that have jurisdiction within the city to form a joint powers agency to provide for the orderly and coordinated acquisition, construction, and development of model school projects. These projects may include the acquisition of land by negotiation or eminent domain, the construction of schools, the construction of recreational facilities or park sites or both, and the construction of replacement and other housing, including market rate, moderate-income, and low-income housing.

(2) The coordinated construction of these projects by redevelopment agencies, school districts, housing authorities, housing commissions, and the city is of great public benefit and will save public money and time in supplying much needed replacement housing lost when schools are constructed within existing communities.

(3) Legislation is needed to allow redevelopment agencies, school districts, housing authorities, housing commissions, and the city to use their powers to the greatest extent possible to expedite, coordinate, and streamline the construction and eventual operation of such projects.

(b) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Diego, the Housing Authority of the City of San Diego, the San Diego Housing Commission, the San Diego Unified School District, and the City of San Diego may enter into a joint powers agreement to create and operate a joint powers agency for the development and construction of a model school project located within the City Heights Project Area. The agency created pursuant to this section shall be known as the San Diego Model School Development Agency. The San Diego Model School Development Agency shall have all the powers of a redevelopment agency pursuant to Part 1 (commencing with Section 33000) of Division 24 of the Health and Safety Code, all of the powers of a housing authority pursuant to Part 2 (commencing with Section 34200) of Division 24 of the Health and Safety Code, and all of the powers of the San Diego Unified School District, as well as all the powers of a joint powers agency granted pursuant to this chapter, to acquire property and to construct and improve and finance one or more schools, housing projects, parks, recreational facilities, and any other facilities reasonably necessary for their proper operation. Further, the San Diego Model School Development Agency shall have all of the powers of the City of San Diego pursuant to its charter and state law to acquire property and to finance and operate parks and recreational facilities and any other facilities reasonably necessary for their proper operation.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), neither the San Diego Model School Development Agency nor the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Diego shall expend any property tax increment revenues to acquire property, and to construct, improve, and finance a school within the City Heights Project Area.

(3) Nothing in this section shall relieve the San Diego Model School Development Agency or the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Diego from its obligations to increase, improve, and preserve the community's supply of low- and moderate-income housing, including, but not limited to, the obligation to provide relocation assistance, the obligation to provide replacement housing, the obligation to meet housing production quotas, and the obligation to set aside property tax increment funds for those purposes.

(4) The San Diego Model School Development Agency shall perform any construction activities in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Public Contract Code, the Education Code, and the Labor Code that apply, respectively, to the redevelopment agency, housing authority, housing commission, school district, or city creating the San Diego Model School Development Agency. Funding pursuant to Proposition MM, a local San Diego County bond measure enacted by the voters for the purpose of school construction, shall be used only for the design, development, construction, and financing of school-related facilities and improvements, including schools, as authorized and to the extent authorized under Proposition MM.

(c) Any member of the joint powers agency, including the school district, may, to the extent permitted by law, transfer and contribute funds to the agency, including bond funds, to be deposited into and to be held in a facility fund to be expended for purposes of the acquisition of property for, and the development and construction of, any school, housing project, or other facility described in this section.

(d) Nothing contained in this section shall preclude the joint powers agency from distributing funds, upon completion of construction, the school, housing project, park, recreational facility, or other facility to a member of the agency to operate the school, housing project, park, or other facility that the member is otherwise authorized to operate. These distribution provisions shall be set forth in the joint powers agreement, if applicable.

(e) The San Diego Model School Development Agency may construct a school in the City Heights Project Area pursuant to Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 17250.10) of Part 10.5 of the Education Code.

(f) (1) For contracts for public works projects awarded prior to the effective date of the regulations adopted by the Department of Industrial Relations pursuant to subdivision (g) of Section 1771.5 of the Labor Code, the San Diego Model School Development Agency shall establish and enforce, with respect to construction contracts awarded by the joint powers agency, a labor compliance program containing the requirements outlined in Section 1771.5 of the Labor Code or shall contract with a third party to operate a labor compliance program containing those requirements. This requirement shall not apply to projects where the agency has entered into a collective bargaining agreement that binds all of the contractors and subcontractors performing work on the project, but nothing shall prevent the joint powers agency from operating a labor compliance program with respect to those projects.

(2) For contracts for public works projects awarded on or after the effective date of the regulations adopted by the Department of Industrial Relations pursuant to subdivision (g) of Section 1771.5 of the Labor Code, the agency shall reimburse the department for its reasonable and directly related costs of performing prevailing wage monitoring and enforcement on public works projects pursuant to rates established by the department as set forth in subdivision (h) of Section 1771.5 of the Labor Code. All moneys collected pursuant to this subdivision shall be deposited in the State Public Works Enforcement Fund created by Section 1771.3 of the Labor Code, and shall be used only for enforcement of prevailing wage requirements on those projects.

(3) In lieu of reimbursing the Department of Industrial Relations for its reasonable and directly related costs of performing monitoring and enforcement on public works projects, the San Diego Model School Development Agency may elect to continue operating an existing previously approved labor compliance program to monitor and enforce prevailing wage requirements on the project if it has either not contracted with a third party to conduct its labor compliance program and requests and receives approval from the department to continue its existing program or it enters into a collective bargaining agreement that binds all of the contractors performing work on the project and that includes a mechanism for resolving disputes about the payment of wages.

(g) Construction workers employed as apprentices by contractors and subcontractors on contracts awarded by the San Diego Model School Development Agency shall be enrolled in a registered apprenticeship program, approved by the California Apprenticeship Council, that has graduated apprentices in the same craft in each of the preceding five years. This graduation requirement shall be applicable for any craft that was first deemed by the Department of Labor and the Department of Industrial Relations to be an apprenticeable craft prior to January 1, 1998. A contractor or subcontractor need not submit contract award information to an apprenticeship program that does not meet the graduation requirements of this subdivision. If no apprenticeship program meets the graduation requirements of this subdivision for a particular craft, the graduation requirements shall not apply for that craft.

(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 378, Sec. 4. Effective January 1, 2012.)