Local government: public broadband services.

(1) The County Service Area Law authorizes a county service area to provide any governmental services and facilities within the county service area that the county is authorized to perform, and that the county does not perform to the same extent on a countywide basis, and expressly authorizes a county service area to provide specified services and facilities, including, among others, television translator services and low-power television services. This bill would expressly authorize a county service area to acquire, construct, improve, maintain, and operate broadband Internet access services, and would require a county service area that does so to take certain actions regarding the accessing of content on the Internet by end users of that service, as described below. (2) Existing law authorizes any municipal corporation to acquire, construct, own, operate, or lease any public utility, and provides that "public utility" for these purposes means to supply the inhabitants of that municipal corporation with specified services, including a means of communication. Existing law similarly authorizes a municipal utility district and a public utility district to acquire, construct, own, operate, control, or use works for supplying the inhabitants of the district with specified services, including a means of communication. Existing law, as described in more detail below, authorizes a community services district to construct, own, improve, maintain, and operate broadband facilities and to provide broadband services if certain conditions are met. This bill would, except as provided, prohibit a local agency that is authorized to engage in the provision of broadband Internet access service, as defined, in the state from taking certain actions regarding the accessing of content on the Internet by end users. (3) Existing law authorizes an infrastructure financing district to finance public capital facilities of communitywide significance that provide significant benefits to an area larger than the area of the district, including, among others, public capital facilities or projects that include broadband. This bill would authorize an infrastructure financing district that finances public capital facilities or projects that include broadband to transfer the management and operation of any broadband facilities that were financed to a local agency that is authorized to provide broadband Internet access service, and would require any local agency that receives those facilities to take certain actions regarding the accessing of content on the Internet by end users of that service, as described above. (4) Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a city or a county to establish an enhanced infrastructure financing district to finance public capital facilities or other specified projects of communitywide significance. Existing law authorizes a district to finance, among other things, the purchase, construction, expansion, or rehabilitation of property and related planning and design work. Existing law prohibits a district from financing routine maintenance and repair work. This bill would additionally authorize a district to finance capital facilities or projects of communitywide significance to acquire, construct, or improve broadband Internet access services. This bill would authorize a district that acquires, constructs, or improves broadband Internet access service to transfer the management and control of those services to a local agency that is authorized to provide broadband Internet access services, and would prohibit any local agency that receives management and control of those services from taking certain actions regarding the accessing of content on the Internet by end users of that service, as described above. (5) The Community Services District Law authorizes the establishment of community services districts to provide various services to the geographic area within each district, including, among other things, if the district is unable to locate a private person or entity who is willing or able to provide broadband service, constructing, owning, improving, maintaining, and operating broadband facilities and providing broadband services. Existing law provides that if a community service district exercises this power and later a private person or entity is ready, willing, and able to acquire, construct, improve, maintain, and operate broadband facilities and to provide broadband services at a comparable cost and quality of service to what is provided by the district, then the district is required to either transfer title to the broadband facilities so constructed to the private entity at fair market value or to lease the operation of those broadband facilities at a fair market value to that private person or entity. This bill would broaden that authorization by removing the requirement that a district first determine that a private person or entity is unwilling or unable to provide broadband services before the district may contract, own, improve, and operate broadband facilities and provide broadband services. The bill would authorize a district to transfer title to the broadband facilities so constructed, or to lease the operation of those facilities, to a private entity that the district determines is ready, willing, and able to provide those services at a comparable cost and quality of service to what is provided by the district. (6) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 53398.52 of the Government Code proposed by SB 1078 and SB 1145 to be operative only if this bill and either or both SB 1078 and SB 1145 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.