LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Meeting Date: September 11, 2023
Subject: State Legislation of Interest to the County
Submitted For: Legislation Committee
Department: County Administrator
Referral No: 2023-01
Referral Name: State Legislation
Presenter: L. DeLaney and Nielsen Merksamer
Contact: L. DeLaney (925) 655-2057
Referral History:
The Legislation Committee of the Board of Supervisors regularly receives reports on State legislation of interest to the County and provides input and/or direction to staff and its state advocates from Nielsen Merksamer.
Referral Update:
The County’s state lobbyists from Nielsen Merksamer, Michelle Rubalcava and Geoff Neill, will attend the meeting via Zoom and provide the Committee with an update on progress of the County’s sponsored bills as well as other significant bills of interest including:
AB 505 (Ting) <https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB505>
AB 592 (Wilson) <https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB592>
SB 511 (Blakespear) <https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB511>
ACA 1 (Aguiar-Curry) <https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240ACA1>
ACA 13 (Ward) <https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240ACA13>
SB 326 (Eggman) <https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB326>: Amendments to the bill do not significantly address county concerns. Key concerns identified by CSAC include:
• Mitigate significant impact to funding for core services by expanding the definition in the housing interventions category to include onsite services.
• Provide greater flexibility and clarity to shift a percentage of funds between program categories to allow counties the ability to meet the unique needs of their communities and unexpected changes in the economic landscape.
• Secure county fiscal protections, including but not limited to clarifying that SUD-only is permissive outside of the Medi-Cal entitlement, and added due process for sanctions.
• Simplify what goes to the voters. New requirements outside of MHSA can and should be considered separately and with additional time to work through unintended consequences.
• Address volatility and a reasonable reserve level.
The Legislature has returned from their summer recess, and there are only two weeks left in the 2023 legislative session, which concludes on September 14. Below is a non-exhaustive list of Suspense File results on bills of interest, provided by the Urban Counties of California.
Passed (As is or with amendments; moves to a floor vote)
AB 7 (Friedman) - Would require specified state transportation programs to incorporate Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure (CAPTI) principles into their guidelines and planning processes. The bill was passed with amendments to increase flexibility for implementation and to align with the recent infrastructure permitting package.
AB 41 (Holden) - Would make comprehensive changes to existing state law enacted by the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006 (DIVCA), which this bill renames the Digital Equity in Video Franchising Act of 2023 (DEVFA).
AB 338 (Aguiar-Curry) - Would expand the definition of public works, for which prevailing wage must be paid to workers, to include publicly funded fuel reduction work that is done under contract as part of a fire mitigation project and falls within an apprenticable occupation in the building and construction trades.
AB 366 (Petrie-Norris) - Would require the CDSS to create the Building Diversity in Human Services Workforce Program to establish education and training grants in human services programs. The measure was amended coming out of Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 386 (Nguyen) - Would expand the type and amount of financial records that must be provided during law enforcement investigations of suspected financial elder abuse.
AB 426 (Jackson) - Would increase enforcement and penalties for unlicensed residential facilities for foster youth. The bill would allow the state to place a “temporary manager” over a residential foster care facility and fine county staff. The measure increases penalties on counties for unlicensed placements from $200 to $5,000 per day. Additionally, AB 426 would also allow the state to impose civil penalties on a person that fails to “locate appropriate placements for all of the foster children and youth residing in an unlicensed facility within 60 days after receiving the formal statement of allegations.”
AB 504 (Reyes) - Would establish and protect the right of public employees, except certain “essential employees” to engage in sympathy strikes. Amendments will clarify the definition of “essential employee.”
AB 505 (Ting) - Would revise several key provisions negotiated in SB 823 (2020), the measure that enacted realignment of Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) responsibilities from the state to counties, including: (1) changing the leadership structure of the local planning body, (2) revising the local planning process and the process by which the Office of Youth and Community Restoration (OYCR) reviews local plans in ways that could impede the flow of funds to support new responsibilities, and (3) expanding the scope of OYCR’s role. Additional amendments are forthcoming.
AB 531 (Irwin) - Would place the Behavioral Health Infrastructure Bond Act of 2023 on the March 2024 primary ballot, which would ask the voters to authorize $4.68 billion in general obligation bonds for specified behavioral health infrastructure and housing.
AB 764 (Bryan) - Would update the procedures local agencies must follow when adjusting the boundaries of the districts used to elect members of their governing bodies and establishes a procedure for legal challenges when a local jurisdiction does not comply with redistricting requirements.
AB 799 (L. Rivas) - Would require the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to develop a financing plan to solve homelessness by the year 2035, establish and update statewide performance metrics by January 1, 2025, and create a streamlined funding application for specified state housing and homelessness programs.
AB 1057 (Weber) - Would give additional flexibility to local health jurisdictions to administer more Home Visiting Programs that address the unique needs of their communities and provide support to families who need it most. The bill was amended coming out of Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 1085 (Maienschein) - Would require the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to seek any necessary federal approvals for a Medi-Cal benefit to cover housing support services, under specified conditions.
AB 1148 (Bonta) - Would extend the automatic suspension of the obligation to pay child support when a person ordered to pay support is released from custody unless they have the means to pay support during that time.
AB 1168 (Bennett) - Would overturn an extensive statutory and case law record that has repeatedly affirmed county responsibility for the administration of emergency medical services and with that, the flexibility to design systems to equitably serve residents throughout their jurisdiction. Specifically, the bill would abrogate the City of Oxnard v. County of Ventura decision.
AB 1171 (B. Rubio) - Would create would authorize licensed cannabis businesses to seek injunctive relief and seek damages for actual harm resulting from unlicensed operations.
AB 1207 (Irwin) - Would strengthen provision barring the advertisement or marketing of cannabis or cannabis products that are attractive to children, as defined.
AB 1248 (Bryan) - Would require a city or county with over 300,000 residents and a school district or community college district with over 500,000 residents to establish an independent redistricting commission (IRC).
AB 1448 (Wallis) - Would strengthen local enforcement mechanisms against unlicensed cannabis activities, including the application of civil penalties.
AB 1484 (Zbur) - Would require inclusion of temporary employees in the same bargaining unit as permanent employees upon request of the recognized employee organization to a local public employer. Amendments will clarify the terms in which temporary employees have access to the grievance process, among other changes.
AB 1637 (Irwin) - Would require a local agency (with the exception of special districts and school districts) that maintains a website and email addresses accessible to the public to utilize a “.gov” or “.ca.gov” domain no later than January 1, 2029.
ACA 1 (Aguiar-Curry) - Would authorize California voters to consider lowering the voter approval threshold from a two-thirds supermajority to 55% to approve local general obligation bonds and special taxes for affordable housing and public infrastructure projects.
ACA 13 (Ward) - Would require any constitutional amendment proposed by initiative that increases a voter approval threshold for future measures be approved by the same proportion of votes cast as the measure would require.
SB 4 (Wiener) - Would create a streamlined by-right approval process for housing on lands owned by churches and qualifying higher education institutions. The bill was passed with amendments to clarify the definition of industrial uses and make other technical changes.
SB 10 (Cortese) - Would - upon an appropriation - require the state Department of Education, in collaboration with the Health and Human Services Agency, to establish a working group on fentanyl education in schools and develop informational materials on opioid overdose prevention, as specified; would also requires local educational agencies to notify parents and guardians of the materials annually. Amendments are forthcoming.
SB 43 (Eggman) - Would expand the definition of “gravely disabled,” for purposes of involuntarily detaining an individual, to include a condition in which a person, as a result of a severe substance use disorder (SUD) or co-occurring mental health disorder with severe SUD, is unable to provide for their personal needs. Includes personal safety and necessary medical care as “personal needs.” The bill was amended coming out of Appropriations Committee to allow a county to opt in and to clarify the hearsay section.
SB 75 (Roth) - Would authorize the creation of 26 new superior court judgeships, subject to an appropriation, which would be distributed to courts - once funded - based on the Judicial Council’s biennial Judicial Needs Assessment. Additional amendments are forthcoming.
SB 343 (Skinner) - Would change the way child support payments are calculated and make procedural changes to conform California’s child support laws to federal requirements.
SB 567 (Durazo) - Would revise the no-fault just cause eviction provisions of the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 and provide additional enforcement mechanisms for violations of restrictions on no-fault just cause evictions and residential rent increases.
SB 423 (Wiener) - Would extend and expand the by-right approval process for eligible housing projects created by SB 35 (2017). The bill was passed with amendments modifying provisions related to the Coastal Act, public meeting requirements, the eligibility of projects in San Francisco, and fire hazard severity zones, and to make other clarifying and technical changes.
SB 519 (Atkins) would establish a new, independent Office of the Local Detention Monitor within the Board of State and Community Corrections with oversight over in-custody deaths and delivery of medical and mental health care at local detention facilities; would also subject local records relating to the investigation of in-custody deaths to disclosure under the Public Records Act.
SB 525 (Durazo) - Would require beginning June 1, 2024, a health care worker minimum wage of $21 per hour for hours worked in covered health care employment, increasing to $25 per hour beginning June 1, 2025. No amendments were announced. In a slightly unusual move, Chair Holden noted that progress was being made on discussions on this bill, and he thought they were “close” to an agreement. The Speaker’s Office has been convening discussions between the sponsor and opposition groups this week; those conversations are anticipated to continue over the weekend.
SB 548 (Niello) - Would authorize a county and a trial court that have a joint contract with the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) for the provision of retirement benefits for their employees to voluntarily separate the contract into two individual contracts.
SB 551 (Portantino) - Would require a county mental health board (MHB) with five to eight members to include at least one local educational agency (LEA) employee who has experience providing mental health services to students and one person age 25 years or younger. This bill also requires a MHB with more than eight members to include two or more LEA and youth members, as specified. SB 551 also would require counties to give a strong preference to LEA employees who have experience providing mental health services to students and states the intent of the Legislature that youth appointments to an MHB represent vulnerable, underserved, and marginalized communities.
SB 747 (Caballero) - Would make numerous changes to the Surplus Land Act (SLA) including expanding the definition of exempt surplus land, modifying SLA procedures, defining disposals of surplus land to include leases of longer than 15 years, in addition to other changes. While the Chair did not explicitly note that amendments were forthcoming, stakeholders have been actively negotiating on all SLA-related measures.
SB 770 (Wiener) - Senator Wiener’s single payer effort would direct the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services (CHHS) Agency to pursue discussions with the federal government to obtain a waiver to enable creation of a comprehensive health care system with unified financing (UF).
Held in Committee (Dead)
AB 687 (Hart) - Would have required the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) to grant local agencies, as defined, read access to electronic track and trace data and ensure that - if the cannabis products are delivered -- ZIP code information of the delivery address also is captured.
AB 1092 (Wood) - Would have required a health plan that intends to acquire or obtain control of an entity through a change of governance or control of a material amount of assets of that entity to give notice to, and secure prior approval from, the director of the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC).
AB 1324 (Bryan) - Would have required the Department of Child Support Services on or before January 1, 2025, to identify specified child support referrals, ceased enforcement of arrearages assigned to the state for the reimbursement of foster care placements, and directed Local Child Support Agencies to seek modification of support orders when necessary to eliminate ongoing obligations, as specified.
AB 1568 (Wood) - Would have required the Department of Developmental Services to revise and implement a rate setting process for Independent Living Services and specified services that must be offered.
AB 1713 (Gipson) - Would have required a local agency that receives federal funds subject to an expiration date that has recurrently and persistently failed to spend a substantial amount of those federal funds to submit a written report to the local agency’s legislative body, respectively, no later than one year before the funding expiration date, with a summary of the reasons funds were returned and an analysis of operational improvements that will allow federal funds to be expended fully.
SB 45 (Roth) - Would establish the California Acute Care Psychiatric Hospital Loan Fund to provide zero-interest loans to qualifying county applicants for the purpose of constructing or renovating acute care psychiatric hospitals or psychiatric health facilities, or renovating or expanding general acute care hospitals in order to add or expand an inpatient psychiatric unit.
SB 282 (Eggman) - Would have required federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and rural health centers (RHCs) to receive Medi-Cal reimbursement for two visits on the same day at the same location under the following circumstances: the patient suffers from illness or injury that requires additional treatment and diagnosis after the first visit; or, the patient has a medical visit and a mental health or dental visit on the same day.
SB 418 (Padilla) - Would, subject to an appropriation, establish the California Prison Redevelopment Commission, specify its composition, and set forth its responsibilities with respect to developing recommendations on creative uses for repurposing closed state prison facilities.
SB 491 (Durazo) - Would have required each local county entity that administers public benefits to implement a program to ensure homeless residents of the county without a permanent mailing address can receive government-related mail, addressed to them, at county office locations.
Designated Two-Year Bills
AB 4 (Arambula) - Would authorize Covered California to administer a program to allow undocumented individuals to enroll in health insurance coverage.
AB 247 (Muratsuchi) - Would place a $14 billion general obligation bond for Transitional Kindergarten through community college public education facilities on an unspecified 2024 statewide ballot.
AB 408 (Wilson) - Would enact the Climate-resilient Farms, Sustainable Healthy Food Access, and Farmworker Protection Bond Act of 2024, which would place a $3.65 billion general obligation bond before voters on the November 2024 ballot.
AB 551 (Bennett) - Would delay the requirement that the county of original jurisdiction retain responsibility to arrange and provide specialty mental health services (SMHS) for foster children placed out of the county of original jurisdiction in short-term residential therapeutic programs, community treatment facilities, group homes, or children’s crisis residential programs, from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024.
AB 1331 (Wood) - Would require, on or before January 1, 2024, and subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act, the Center for Data Insights and Innovation (CDII) to take over establishment, implementation, and all the functions related to the data exchange framework, including the data sharing agreement and policies and procedures, from CHHS.
AB 1657 (Wicks) - Would enact the Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2024, which would place a $10 billion general obligation bond before the voters on the March 2024 ballot.
SB 28 (Glazer) - Would place a $15 billion bond measure for preschool through college public educational facilities before the voters on the March 2024 ballot.
SB 408 (Ashby) - Would require DHCS, in consultation with the CDSS, to establish up to 10 regional health teams (RHTs) to serve foster youth and youth who may be at risk of entering foster care, using the Medicaid Health Home Option established in federal law.
Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s):
ACCEPT the report on the State legislation of interest and provide input and/or direction to staff and the County’s state lobbyists as needed.
Fiscal Impact (if any):