By: @Ophelia Szigeti
Early, Sunday, September 1, the California State Legislature concluded its legislative activities for the year, marking the end of the second year of the 2023-2024 legislative cycle. Among the hundreds of bills considered, several stand out due to their importance to special districts.
Highlighted below are a selection of bills on which CSDA was most actively engaged in the final weeks of the session, advocating and collaborating with legislators and stakeholders until adjournment.
Governor Gavin Newsom now has until September 30 to sign or veto all legislation passed by the Legislature, look for more details on CSDA’s top veto requests in next week’s eNews.
Now on the Governor’s Desk Awaiting Signature or Veto
AB 2182 (Haney) – Public Works - OPPOSE
This measure requires jobsites to give reasonable access to representatives of a joint labor-management committee to monitor compliance with prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements, but exempts an awarding body, owner, contractor, or subcontractor from liability for any violations of safety guidelines caused by a committee’s representative. Authorizes the committee to bring an action against an awarding body, contractor, or subcontractor that willfully denies the committee’s representative reasonable access.
This measure generally provides that a change in the prevailing rate of per diem wages determined pursuant shall apply on its effective date to any contract for which notice to bidders is published after July 1, 2026, that meets all of the following requirements: (1) The contract is not for the development of housing. (2) The contract is subject to this chapter. (3) The awarded value of the prime contract is thirty-five million dollars ($35,000,000) or greater. (4) The contract is not awarded by the state or a state agency, nor is the contract awarded in furtherance of a project undertaken by the state.
Result: Sent to the Governor for signature on 8/31/2024.
AB 2561 (McKinnor) Local public employees: vacant positions – OPPOSE
This bill would require every local agency to present the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts during a public hearing before the governing board at least once per fiscal year. The recognized employee organization for a bargaining unit shall be entitled to make a presentation at the public hearing at which the public agency presents the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts for positions within that bargaining unit. Agencies with high vacancy rates (20 percent or more of the total number of authorized full-time positions) shall, upon request by the recognized employee organization, provide additional detailed information at the public hearing, as specified. CSDA worked with coalition partners to oppose the bill. CSDA was able to secure an amendment to the bill to ensure that its procedural requirements do not conflict with multiyear budgeting. This amendment did not remove CSDA’s opposition to the bill.
Result: Sent to Governor for signature on 8/31/2024.
AB 2729 (Joe Patterson) - Development Related Fees - NEUTRAL
This measure was a development related fees measure that was opposed by CSDA and its partners that largely mirrored SB 937 (Wiener). Late amendments deleted the development related fee provisions and recast the measure exclusively around land-use entitlements. CSDA and its partners then moved to neutral.
Result: CSDA Neutral after amendments. Sent to the Governor for signature on 8/31/2024.
SB 399 (Wahab) Employer communications: intimidation – OPPOSE
This two-year bill would, with narrow exceptions, prohibit employers from taking action against employees who decline to participate in employer-sponsored meetings or receive communications, the purpose of which is to share the employer’s opinion about political or religious matters. CSDA led a local government coalition with an oppose position on the bill because of its unique impacts on local government workplaces where routine activities may be regarded as political matters.
Result: Sent to Governor for signature on 8/31/2024.
SB 1072 (Padilla) Local government: Proposition 218: remedies – SUPPORT
This bill would correct an imbalance in the Prop. 218 framework wherein a litigant or class of litigants, upon demonstrating that imposed rates were excessive relative to the actual cost of service, become entitled to a refund that exceeds the funds available to the agency as a result of collecting Prop. 218-limited revenues. Under this bill, the excess revenue would be used only to credit the amount of the fee or charge attributable to the violation against the amount of the revenues required to provide the property-related service, unless a refund is explicitly provided for by statute.
Result: Sent to Governor for signature on 8/29/2024.
SB 937 (Wiener), – Development Related Fees - OPPOSE
Among other things, for certain residential developments, this measure will generally prohibit the collection of on impact fees until the completion of the development at final inspection or certificate of occupancy. It prohibits the collection of interest on deferred fees. Additionally, it locks those fees in at the point where the development has been approved and is eligible to pull a building permit. Amendments that included a five-year cap on deferred fees if a permitted project has not broken ground were recently added. Late Amendments created an exclusive list of the service types that are allowed to be an exception to the collection of fees at certificate of occupancy and collected at the beginning of a project. Additionally, the late amendments created a new and conflicting legal standard for the collection of water and sewer connection and capacity fees and place this new standard in a different, inappropriate section of the Government Code.
Result: Sent to the Governor for signature on 8/28/2024.
AB 1827 (Papan) Local government: fees and charges: water: higher consumptive water parcels – SUPPORT
This bill would permit the inclusion of the incrementally higher costs of water service due to the higher water usage demand of parcels, the maximum potential water use, projected peak water usage, or any combination of those factors in the fees or charges for property-related water service. The bill would declare its provisions to be declaratory of existing law.
Result: Sent to Governor for signature on 8/27/2024.
AB 2257 (Wilson) Local government: property-related water and sewer fees and assessments: remedies – SUPPORT
This bill would reduce agencies' exposure to adverse judicial intervention by requiring a potential litigant to participate in the Prop. 218 rate-setting process provided the agency abides by specified procedures established by this bill.
A person would be prohibited from bringing a judicial action or proceeding alleging noncompliance with Prop. 218's provisions unless that person had, in a timely manner as part of the original Prop. 218 rate-setting process, submitted to the local agency a written objection to that fee or assessment that specifies the grounds for alleging noncompliance. Should this occur, a court would nonetheless be limited in its review to the record of proceedings before the local agency for that fee or assessment, which would include that written objection, among other items. Limited exceptions exist for the admission of additional evidence outside the record of proceedings before the local agency.
Result: Sent to Governor for signature on 8/27/2024.
Failed Passage
SB 830 (Smallwood-Cuevas) Public Works - OPPOSE
SB 830, which has sat dormant for over a year was recently amended in the waning days of the legislative session to apply prevailing wage to off-site sheet fabrication related to ducting and heating (HVAC), ventilation and air conditioning. The bill required out of state offsite fabricators to enter a contractual agreement to pay prevailing wage. The fabricator would have to provide certified payroll records and time records within five days of the employee being paid. This would set a precedent for off-site work to be regulated globally for prevailing wage.
Result: Moved to the Assembly Inactive File; 8/28/2024.
SB 1134 (Caballero) Surplus land – SUPPORT IF AMENDED
In response to HCD’s Draft Updated Guidelines, this measure was amended to remove HCD's exemption from the Administrative Procedures Act related to SLA rulemaking. Instead, the measure would have required that any rule, policy, or standard of general application issued by the Department of Housing and Community Development in implementing this article shall be subject to the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, among other provisions. CSDA and partner associations have a support if amended position on the bill, to address an error.
Result: Moved to the Assembly Inactive File; 8/20/2024.
Chaptered into Law
AB 2631 (M. Fong) Local agencies: ethics training – CSDA CO-SPONSOR
This bill provides the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) the authority to offer a free ethics training course for public agency officials. While the Commission had been offering this course for the last several years, the course platform has been aging and needs an investment to become more widely accessible. This bill is necessary so that the Commission can be provided with the requisite appropriation from the state to make changes to the course platform. This measure is co-sponsored along with the California State Association of Counties and the League of California Cities.
Result: Chaptered 8/26/2024.
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