Blogs

By: @Ophelia Szigeti

May 29, 2026 marked the State Legislature’s “house of origin” deadline — the final day for each legislative house to pass bills introduced by its own members. In the days leading up to the deadline, the State Senate and Assembly shifted their focus entirely to floor sessions in order to debate and vote on hundreds of measures before they advanced to the opposite house for further consideration.

Legislators spent much of the week in extended floor sessions as they debated, amended, and voted on priority legislation into the evening in an effort to move bills forward before the cutoff date.

Throughout this busy week, CSDA continued its advocacy on legislation affecting special districts and the communities they serve, including measures related to governance, infrastructure, public finance, utilities, housing, wildfire resilience, and workforce issues. Notable bills tracked by CSDA, and their outcomes following the house of origin deadline, include:

SB 947 (McNerney) Employment: automated decision systems. This bill would require employers that primarily rely on an automated decision system (ADS) tool to make a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision to provide a specified notice and to appoint a human reviewer to investigate and compile supporting evidence for the decision. This bill provides an employee with the right to request, and requires an employer to provide a copy of the most recent 12 months of the worker’s own data primarily used by an ADS to make a disciplinary, termination, or deactivation decision. A worker is limited to one request every 12 months for a copy of their own data used by an ADS to make a disciplinary, termination, or deactivation decision. 

This bill crossed houses with 29 aye to 9 no votes, and 2 absences or abstentions.

SB 951 (Reyes) Employment: technological displacement: notice.  Would provide that written notice is required in connection with the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) or automated technology that causes, in whole, layoffs or ceases employers’ hiring, as specified. This bill grants employees of employers with over 100 employees the opportunity to apply first in other positions of the company/organization if affected by technology displacement or termination, provided this does not conflict with a collective bargaining agreement. Employers who fail to provide notice within the allotted time frame are liable for employee back pay and the cost of any benefits. 

This bill crossed houses with 28 aye to 9 no votes, and 3 absences or abstentions.

SB 1164 (Cervantes) Elections.  Would enact sweeping changes to the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA). The bill targets any practice that effectuates vote dilution; agencies would be prohibited from employing any method of election that has the effect, will likely have the effect, or is motivated in part by the intent, of diluting the vote of protected class members. The standards for establishing/demonstrating vote dilution would be significantly revised as a result of SB 1164. An agency that responds in a timely manner to a notice alleging a violation of the CVRA by making the requisite changes demanded by the issuer of the notice would not only be potentially obligated to pay up to $25,000 (plus adjustment for CPI) for attorneys’ fees per current law, but would also now potentially be obligated to separately pay up to $50,000 (plus adjustment for CPI) for other costs, including consultant fees, as a result of SB 1164 establishing this new $50,000 settlement amount.

SB 1164 also implements a version of “pre-clearance” for jurisdictions previously found to have run afoul of voting rights similar to mechanism previously established under the federal Voting Rights Act. As a comprehensive overhaul of the CVRA, SB 1164 contains many other provisions related to election practices. 

This bill crossed houses with 29 aye to 9 no votes, and 2 absences or abstentions.

SB 1326 (Wahab) California Environmental Quality Act: tribal cultural resources: mitigation measures. This bill would set standards for identifying and adds additional requirements for tribal cultural resources that are separate and distinct from other cultural or archaeological resources. The bill expands the definition of a tribal cultural resource to include, "a site, feature, place, cultural landscape, sacred place, including a sanctified cemetery, cemetery, or burial area of a California Native American tribe, or object with cultural value to a California Native American tribe that is 1) included or determined to be eligible for the CA or National Register of Historical Resources, or 2) included in a local register of historical resources, or 3) identified by the Native American Heritage Commission, or 4) included in a local tribal register.

The bill recasts lead agencies’ responsibilities related to mitigation measures in addition to requiring agencies to adopt certain specified mitigation measures (rather than listing examples of possible measures in statute), this bill adds additional mitigation measures, including the requirement to avoid or minimize significant impacts on tribal cultural resources through additional means, including, 1) relocation or reburial to protect from any future disturbance, 2) relinquishing the resource to the consulting tribe, 3) providing the tribe access to the resource of cultural practices, heritage teachings, stewardship or co-management of lands. 

This bill crossed houses with 33 aye to 0 no votes, and 7 absences or abstentions.

SB 1360 (Cervantes) Elections: translation of election materials. Would require expanded language assistance for election materials. In addition to the assistance required for certain languages required under federal law, jurisdictions would be required to provide assistance for additional election materials and services (ballots, voter registration forms and instructions, voter education and outreach materials, voting-related notices, notices of in-language assistance availability, in-person bilingual poll workers and interpreters, live telephonic interpretation services, and websites) and provide that assistance in additional languages specified by the Secretary of State. The Secretary would be required to determine which California counties meet at least one element of a specified list of criteria. All materials and services provided by the state or counties in a language other than English would be required to be distributed at the same time as the corresponding English materials.

SB 1164 also stands up a process whereby interested citizens and entities may provide evidence to the Secretary of State demonstrating a significant need exists for translated election materials for a language not part of the language determinations by the Secretary of State. 

This bill crossed houses with 28 aye to 0 no votes, and 12 absences or abstentions.

AB 1564 (Ahrens) Employer-employee relations: confidential communications. Provides that a public employer shall not question a public employee, a representative of a recognized employee organization, or an exclusive representative regarding communications made in confidence between a public employee and the representative in connection with representation relating to any matter within the scope of the recognized employee organization’s representation. The bill states that this is intended to be consistent with, and not in conflict with, William S. Hart Union High School District (2018) PERB Dec. No. 2595. The bill also prohibits a public employer compelling disclosure of the covered communications to a third party. The bill does not apply to criminal investigations and does not supersede Section 3303 (Police Officer's Bill of Rights). 

This bill crossed houses with 65 aye to 4 no votes, and 11 absences or abstentions. 

AB 1578 (Jackson) State and local officials: sexual harassment training and education: anti-hate speech training. Would modify existing requirements related to the mandatory sexual harassment prevention training that local agency officials and employees are generally obligated to complete every two years. If signed into law, beginning January 1, 2028, AB 1578 would require that the sexual harassment prevention training include anti-hate speech training as a component of the training and education.

Anti-hate speech training must provide practical guidance on recognizing, reporting, engaging or participating in, and confronting speech that vilifies, humiliates, or incites hatred against people based on specified characteristics. The impetus for this legislation, sponsored by the author, arose from the work of the California Commission on the State of Hate, particularly the Commission’s 2023-24 annual report that recommended that training and onboarding for officials include information about how to address threats, harassment, and hate. 

This bill crossed houses with 58 aye to 18 no votes, and 4 absences or abstentions.

AB 1710 (Carrillo) Housing developments: ordinances, policies, and standards. Among other things, this measure would extend the “vesting” rights that apply to local agency reviews of housing developments under the Housing Crisis Act (HCA) to include materials requirements, post entitlement permit standards, and any rules, regulations, determinations, and other requirements adopted or implemented by other public agencies. Additionally, it would also extend the “reasonable person” standard to public agency determinations of whether a housing development project is consistent, compliant, and in conformity with applicable plans, policies, and ordinances for purposes of the Permit Streamlining Act (PSA). 

This bill crossed houses with 78 aye to 1 no votes, and 1 absence or abstention.

AB 1859 (Ortega) Public works. This bill would require a public works site to allow reasonable access to monitor prevailing wage compliance by "representatives of a joint-labor management committee." The bill requires the representative comply with safety standards including personal protective equipment. The bill specifically states that any injury would fall under the committees' workers' compensation and insurance and there is no legal recourse against the contractor or site. A representative has only 6 months to bring an action if reasonable access is willfully denied for statutory damages of $1,000 per violation and attorney's fees per violation. The bill does not apply to school districts. 

This bill crossed houses with 60 aye to 14 no votes, and 6 absences or abstentions.

AB 1881 (Ramos) California Indian Freedom Act of 2026. Under existing law California Native American Tribes must be notified on a project by a local government if they are culturally and traditionally affiliated with the given project area and given deference during any consultation that occurs. However, any information they provide during the environmental review process is exempt from being disclosed to the public.

This bill would prohibit the State from substantially burdening a tribe's exercise of spiritual practices on state public lands, including access to and use of land, sites or sacred objects. This includes any state or local permitting decisions, land use approvals, environmental reviews, and enforcement actions. The burden may be justified if there is a demonstrated compelling government interest. This bill authorizes a tribe to challenge any violations. Before any project is undertaken, approved, permitted, funded, or authorized there must be a good faith consultation with the impacted tribe and the project must avoid any adverse impacts on sacred sites, cultural landscapes, religious practices, including disclosure of the information under the California Public Records Act. 

This bill crossed houses with 65 aye to 0 no votes, and 15 absences or abstentions.

AB 1883 (Bryan) Workplace surveillance tools. Would place restrictions on employers utilizing workplace surveillance technology. 

This bill crossed houses with 52 aye to 12 no votes, and 16 absences or abstentions.

AB 2218 (Kalra) Water policy: California Native American tribes. This bill would set up a state policy to address historic inequities against Native American tribes that were caused by state-sanctioned acts of termination, removal, and assimilation. The policy is to acknowledge and correct these inequities through financial assistance, protection of tribal use, and consultation.

This bill would require the State Water Resources Control Board, regional water quality boards, Natural Resources Agency, Delta Stewardship Council, and the Office of Land Use & Climate Innovation to consider and incorporate this policy when revising, regulations, permits, or grants to address the identified inequities. 

This bill crossed houses with 57 aye to 0 no votes, and 23 absences or abstentions.

AB 2656 (Petrie-Norris) Public employees: notice: artificial intelligence performing service within scope of work. This bill would require a public employer to provide a recognized employee organization no less than 45 days’ written notice before taking an action to develop, purchase, implement, or utilize any generative artificial intelligence to perform a service that is within the scope of work of the job classification represented by the recognized employee organization. 

This bill crossed houses with 72 aye to 2 no votes, and 6 absences or abstentions.

A complete list of CSDA priority legislation can be viewed here.

The Legislature now enters the next phase of the legislative session, where the State Senate will take up legislation that has passed the Assembly and vice versa. Lawmakers face an August 31, 2026 deadline to pass bills through both houses before the Legislature adjourns for the year and concludes its 2025-2026 biennial legislative session. Following adjournment, Governor Gavin Newsom will have through September 30 to act on measures sent to his desk, including signing bills into law or issuing vetoes.

CSDA members may anticipate the release of the association’s 2026 Mid-Year Legislative Report in July.