By: @Ophelia Szigeti and @Lilia Hernandez
Tuesday, September 1, 2026, the California State Legislature concluded its work for the legislative year, bringing the second year of 2025–2026 biennial session to a close, and CSDA was there to advocate for special districts and report out the results that matter to our members.
The Legislature acted on a typical volume of legislation over the two-year period, with 2,796 bills moving through the Assembly and 1,447 bills moving through the Senate. To identify and respond to measures affecting special districts, CSDA tracked 2,389 bills over the cycle. Governor Gavin Newsom now has until September 30 to sign or veto legislation that reached his desk, or allow them to become law without a signature.
Among the many measures considered by lawmakers, several carried particularly significant potential effects on special districts. Below is an overview of some of the most noteworthy legislation taken up on the floors of the State Senate and Assembly in the final days and hours of the session.
AB 1198 [Haney] Public works: prevailing wages – OPPOSE UNLESS AMENDED
Would mandate that if the California Department of Industrial Relations determines, within a semiannual period, that there is a change in any prevailing rate of per diem wages in a locality, that determination applies to any public works contract that has been awarded, including current contracts, not simply to future contracts. Recent amendments limited the requirements to projects over $35 million. CSDA opposed a version of this measure last year by the same author in the form of AB 2182, which was vetoed.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/2026 for consideration.
AB 1331 [Elhawary] Workplace surveillance – OPPOSE
Would place restrictions on the use of workplace surveillance tools to monitor or surveil employees in a bathroom located in the workplace. CSDA and coalition partners remain concerned with the breadth of tools that may be implicated.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/31/2026 for consideration.
AB 1383 [McKinnor] Public employees’ retirement benefits – OPPOSE
This bill would make significant changes to the Public Employees' Pension Reform Act (PEPRA), threatening to undermine the stability that pension reform law has brought to public agency budgets. This bill would:
- Increase the pensionable compensation cap (for all PEPRA employees, not just fire and police);
- Reduce the retirement age for public safety from 57 to 55 prospectively;
- Add a 4th safety tier that is 3% @ 55, prospective and subject to bargaining; and,
- Allow local agencies to adjust their local formula in a prospective manner
According to CalPERS, prior to recent amendments, AB 1383 was expected to increase the required contributions of employers and PEPRA members and increase the present value of future benefits (PVB) by $4.8 billion across State, Schools, and Local Agency plans. In addition to the change in PVB, CalPERS estimated that the change to the accrued liability would be $233 million across State, Schools, and Local Agency plans. Additionally, AB 1383 further proposes that employers may increase their PEPRA formula to 3 percent at age 55 through individual agency collective bargaining. The benefit for this formula will be limited to 90 percent of final compensation. The increase in the normal cost due to this change could lead to increased annual normal cost contributions of $353 million in the first year and increase the present value of future benefits by $3.4 billion, assuming all safety plans adopted this tier. This is estimate was only for CalPERS member agencies; independent public pensions and special districts in 1937 Act county retirement systems may also see increased costs.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/2026 for consideration.
AB 1439 [Garcia] Public retirement systems: development projects: labor standards – OPPOSE
Initially requiring certain labor standards for public pension investments in development projects, the bill was amended to request a study of implementing such standards. However, it still lays the groundwork for pension divestment based on labor standards.
Key Legislative Success: amended into a study bill.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/27/2026 for consideration.
AB 1578 [Jackson] State and Local Officials: Antihate Speech Training – NEUTRAL
Would modify existing requirements related to the mandatory sexual harassment prevention training that elected local agency officials 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. 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 which recommended that training and onboarding for officials include information about how to address threats, harassment, and hate.
Key Legislative Success: training rolled into existing anti-harassment training.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/2026 for consideration.
AB 1751 [Quirk-Silva] Missing Middle Townhome Ownership Act – CONCERNS
Among other things, this bill authorizes a development proponent to submit an application for a townhome housing development project that is subject to a prescribed ministerial approval process if the development complies with certain procedural requirements and satisfies specified objective planning standards and other criteria. The bill would also require a local agency to ministerially consider, without discretionary review or a hearing, a parcel map or a tentative and final map for a townhome development project that meets all specified requirements, with some limited exceptions.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/2026 for consideration.
AB 1803 [Lowenthal] Employment: Sexual Harassment Training and Education: Anti-hate Speech Training – WATCH
Would modify existing requirements related to the mandatory sexual harassment prevention training that employers of five or more persons 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.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/2026 for consideration.
AB 1821 [Pacheco] California Public Records Act: agency response time – SUPPORT
This bill, supported by CSDA, changes the 10-day timeframe that governments have to provide their initial response to a California Public Records Act request to 10 business days. Similarly, the bill would extend the 14-day period applicable in unusual circumstances to 14 business days.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/27/2026 for consideration.
AB 1881 [Ramos] California Indian Freedom Act of 2026 – OPPOSE
Under existing law, California Native American Tribes must be notified of 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, as specified.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/2026 for consideration.
AB 1883 [Bryan] Workplace surveillance tools – OPPOSSE UNLESS AMENDED
Places restrictions on employers utilizing certain workplace surveillance technology. CSDA is opposing the measure unless it is amended.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/2026 for consideration.
AB 1997 [Lee] Land use: housing development approvals: timelines and processes – CONCERNS
CSDA resolved major concerns with this bill, which requires approval or disapproval of a housing development project within 30 days from the date of certification by the lead agency of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR), if the EIR is prepared pursuant to specific provisions of CEQA, if certain other conditions are met regarding income and affordability. Earlier versions required a city or county with a population of 250,000 or more to assign a project development director to a project that was expected to cost more than $10,000,000 and assign a lead inspector to coordinate each inspection required of the housing project. This provision was successfully removed. Additionally, prior versions of this measure also prohibited a plan, entitlement, or permit that had been approved by a previous local utility or agency from being overturned or revised by a subsequent utility or agency, unless the development proponent made a material change to the project. This provision was also successfully removed.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/27/2026 for consideration.
AB 2180 [Ward] Local government: Proposition 218 Omnibus Implementation Act: proportional cost of service – SUPPORT
Allows local agencies, for the purpose of calculating property-related fees and charges to comply with Proposition 218, to demonstrate the proportional cost of service to the parcel with any method that reasonably allocates the cost of providing service to all parcels. Local agencies must substantiate the allocation with historic, existing, estimated, or projected data that reasonably captures the cost of the service provided. None of this applies to fees for water connections or sewer connections or capacity charges. CSDA is supporting the measure.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/21/2026 for consideration.
AB 2218 [Kalra] Water Policy: California Native American tribes – OPPOSE
This bill would set up a state policy to address the 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 uses, and consultation. This bill requires the State Water Resources Control Board, regional water quality boards, the Natural Resources Agency, the 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. The bill provides that if there is a dispute between a tribe and state agency over an action, the matter would be mediated by the Governor’s Office of Tribal Affairs prior to any action in the courts.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/2026 for consideration.
AB 2640 [Hadwick] Commission on State Mandates: state mandates – SUPPORT
Allows school districts and local agencies to offset any decreases to a pending mandate reimbursement claim from any unpaid reimbursement claims attributed to that local agency or school district, whether appropriated or not, if those unpaid reimbursement claims exist. This would only apply to claim adjustments that occur after January 1, 2027.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/26/2026 for consideration.
AB 2656 [Petrie-Norris] Public employees: notice: artificial intelligence performing service within scope of work – OPPOSE
This bill requires a public employer to provide a recognized employee organization no less than 45 days’ written notice before taking an action to develop, purchase, or require the use of 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.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/27/2026 for consideration.
SB 342 (Umberg) Contractors: unlicensed work - OPPOSE
Would change the law for public entities and commercial developers authorizing unlicensed contractors to recover payments for any period during which they were properly licensed and file lawsuits for compensation despite their unlicensed status. Existing law requires contractors to be licensed at all times and serves as a "shield" against lawsuits filed by unlicensed contractors to collect money for unlicensed work.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/2026 for consideration.
SB 492 (Becker and Petrie-Norris) Wildfire - NEUTRAL
Compromise proposal containing certain wildfire liability reforms including a fast-pay program for individual wildfire claimants to get a percentage of their likely award quickly via a state administrator and program, restrictions on attorney’s fees for certain wildfire-related litigation, restrictions on third-party private equity purchasing claims, and reforms to statewide wildfire data platforms, data sharing, and county-level community wildfire protection plans, as well as Investor Owned Utility (IOU) executive compensation following a wildfire.
Key Legislative Success: The Governor’s original proposal sought to diminish risks and costs to IOU’s liable for a wildfire by shifting those risks and costs to other segments of society including local agencies and the people they serve.
Provisions that CSDA successfully fought to have excluded from the compromise legislation:
- Provisions that would limit public entity claims against IOU’s following a wildfire to diminution in value for lost or damaged public infrastructure.
- Provisions that would limit cost-recovery claims against IOU’s following a wildfire for emergency response and mutual aid.
- Provisions that would limit cost-recovery claims against IOU’s following a wildfire of lost local property tax funding.
- Provisions that would limit insurance subrogation for cost-recovery from IOU’s, a process where an insurance company pays the loss to its client and then seeks to recover that loss from the liable party.
Additional information will be provided in a separate, full-length eNews article.
Result: Introduced 8/29/26; failed passage.
SB 947 [McNerney] Employment: automated decisions systems – OPPOSE
This bill requires employers that primarily rely on an automated decision system (ADS) 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. An employee shall have the right to request, and an employer shall provide, a meaningful, objective description of the employee’s own data used by the ADS when an employer has primarily used an ADS to make a disciplinary or termination decision. This bill requires employers primarily relying on ADS to make a disciplinary, deactivation, or termination decision to provide a post-use notice, as specified. CSDA is the local government and school coalition leader on this measure.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/31/2026 for consideration.
SB 951 [Reyes] Employment: technological displacement: notice – NEUTRAL
As applicable to public employers, this bill requires specified notices in connection with a “Technological cessation in hiring” meaning the permanent ending of hiring or contracting workers or contractors for a particular occupation or position, caused in whole or in substantial part by the employer’s use of AI or other automation, as specified Amendments limit this to an establishment that employs, or has employed within the preceding 12 months, 75 or more persons. CSDA is opposing the measure unless it is amended,
Key Legislative Success: provisions applicable to public employers amended into a study bill.
Result: Ordered to engrossing and enrolling on 8/31/2026.
SB 922 [Laird] Vehicles: local agency charges: use of streets or highways – SUPPORT
This bill clarifies that local governments may recover the cost of street maintenance and repair caused by public service operations, such as waste hauling, through service-related fees and charges.
Result: Chaptered on 8/27/2026.
SB 992 [Niello] County auditors: special districts: annual audit exceptions – CO-SPONSOR
CSDA sponsored this legislation in partnership with the California State Association of County Auditors to provide relief to special districts with smaller annual budgets. The bill would extend a sunset associated with alternatives to an annual audit requirement; qualifying special districts with not more than $250,000 in annual revenue would be permitted to use agreed-upon procedures agreements until January 1, 2037. The $250,000 limit is an increase over the prior $150,000 limit. Special districts with annual revenues not more than $50,000 that had been relying on annual financial compilations for five consecutive years to fulfill their annual audit obligation would also now be permitted to utilize agreed-upon procedures engagements to fulfill the annual audit obligation, rather than being forced to procure a full, traditional audit.
Result: Chaptered on 8/27/2026.
SB 1014 [Grayson] Development projects: preliminary estimate of required improvements: onsite and offsite improvements – NEUTRAL
Among other things, an applicant for a housing development may request a list of the types of an any onsite or offsite improvements that may be required in connection with the housing development project, and the public agency or utility shall provide the applicant with this information within 30 business days. All of these requests shall be for informational purposes only and shall not be legally binding. CSDA and its partners worked successfully to amend the measure from more onerous requirements.
Key Legislative Success: major concerns resolved.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/28/2026 for consideration.
SB 1085 [Durazo] Water supply planning: housing developments – SUPPORT
This bill would require a city or county to identify public water systems that may supply water for certain housing development projects and to request those public water systems to prepare a specified water supply assessment for certain projects that the city or county approves, without regard to whether the project is determined to be subject to the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/2026 for consideration.
SB 1115 [Grove] Public cemetery districts: board of trustees: County of Tulare – NEUTRAL
This bill seeks to empower the Tulare County Board of Supervisors with the ability to remove individual public cemetery district trustees in Tulare County. The Tulare County Board of Supervisors could only remove a trustee for substantial neglect of duty, gross misconduct in office, or causing the board to be unable to discharge its duties and the Board could not consider a specific vote or action as grounds for satisfying these criteria, except to the extent that the vote or action was itself illegal. This bill also creates a process for the public cemetery district to initiate proceedings to remove an individual trustee.
Key Legislative Success: secured amendments that allowed CSDA to remove opposition.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/20/2026 for consideration.
SB 1117 [Cervantes] Accessory dwelling units and junior accessory dwelling units – OPPOSE
Existing law prohibits a local agency, special district, or water corporation from imposing any impact fee upon the development of an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) that has 750 square feet of interior livable space or less, and requires any impact fees charged for an ADU that has more than 750 square feet of interior livable space to be charged proportionately in relation to the square footage of the primary dwelling unit. This bill would further narrow the impact fee on an ADU to be based only on the area in excess of 750 square feet of interior livable space. CSDA is opposing this measure due to its impact on providing affordable and equitable services to new housing units.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/27/2026 for consideration.
SB 1159 [Cabaldon] Artificial intelligence: transparency and governance – SUPPORT
This bill, supported by CSDA, would provide that for the purposes of specified governance and transparency acts – the Administrative Procedures Act, the California Public Records Act, the Legislative Open Records Act, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, the Ralph M. Brown Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, and the California Coastal Act – the terms “person,” “interested person,” “participant,” “member of the public,” as applicable, and any other similar terms under each act referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies, do not include artificial intelligence (AI) systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/24/2026 for consideration.
SB 1164 (Cervantes) Elections. – UNDER REVIEW FOLLOWING RECENT AMENDMENTS
This measure would enact sweeping changes to the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA). The bill targets any practice that effectuates voter suppression or vote dilution; agencies would be prohibited from employing any method of election that has the effect, or will likely have the effect, of suppressing or 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 be obligated to pay up to the value of $30,000 in 2016 (now approximately $42,000). SB 1164 also implements a version of “pre-clearance” for jurisdictions previously found to have run afoul of voting rights similar to a 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.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/26 for consideration.
SB 1187 [Durazo] Open meetings – WATCH
This bill is a follow-up to last year’s SB 707, the Brown Act overhaul from the same author. SB 1187 would remove the translation-related provisions added to the Brown Act by SB 707, relieving special districts who qualified as “eligible legislative bodies” from those obligations. Following passage out of the Assembly Local Government Committee, SB 1187 had an urgency clause added to the bill, which will make its changes to the Brown Act effective immediately upon being signed into law.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/25/2026 for consideration.
SB 1196 [McNerney] Accessory dwelling units and junior accessory dwelling units: electrical – WATCH
Prior versions of this measure would have required specified timelines by which utilities must respond to requests to connect service for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and junior ADUs (JADU). Additionally, prior versions of this measure required each of the “utilities” to post on their internet website a comprehensive checklist of items that an applicant is required to submit to the utility for an application for obtaining a service connection to an ADU or JADU to be deemed complete, to provide an option for the applicant to engage with staff for preapplication project review, and to provide upfront estimated costs for the applicant’s planning purposes. This measure was amended to exclude publicly owned utilities.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/19/2026 for consideration.
SB 1263 [McGuire] Contractors: debris removal – NEUTRAL
This bill prohibits a contractor from engaging in private debris removal without specific licenses and certifications during a declared emergency or disaster.
Key Legislative Success: CSDA successfully requested expanding the types of contractors that can perform certain work such as tree removal while supporting the efforts of our partners to narrow the boundaries of disaster areas, emergencies and narrowing the scope of the property types involved.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/24/2026 for consideration.
SB 1312 [Richardson] Cemeteries – NEUTRAL
This bill is the follow-up to SB 777 from the same author last year. SB 777 tasked the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau with producing a report by June 1, 2026 containing recommendations related to the continued care, maintenance, and embellishment of abandoned cemeteries, including the possibility of requiring counties to assume responsibility for maintenance, irrigation, public works, and burial services for cemeteries located within their boundaries that become abandoned. SB 1312 implements those recommendations; the bill permits a city or county to transfer the responsibility for the administration and operation of an abandoned endowment care cemetery to a California public benefit nonprofit corporation while shielding the nonprofit from the debts and select liabilities incurred by the previous owner.
Key Legislative Success: secured amendments that allowed CSDA to remove opposition.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/2026 for consideration.
SB 1360 (Cervantes) Elections: translation of election materials. – WATCH
This measure was also voted out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee and would require expanded language assistance for election materials. In addition to the assistance 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 that a significant need exists for translated election materials for a language not part of the language determinations by the Secretary of State.
Result: Sent to the Governor on 8/30/2026 for consideration.
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