LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Meeting Date: September 28, 2026
Subject: Legislative Delegation Reception Meeting Planning
Submitted For: Legislation Committee
Department: County Administrator’s Office
Presenter: E. Struthers
Contact: (925) 655-2045
Referral History:
Legislation Committee would like to hold a meeting with the County’s legislative delegation. The goals of the meeting are to enhance relationships between elected officials, their staff, the Legislation Committee members, and other key County staff. The meeting would also aim to educate the delegation on the County’s progress on major priorities, policy issues and concerns during the current session. A similar meeting was held last year on August 8, 2025.
The reception meeting is intended to be relatively conversational, with a focus on relationship-building and education about key legislative issues. However, in the spirit of the Brown Act and applicable public meeting laws, this event is planned as an agendized public meeting.
Staff is providing updates and requesting additional direction regarding meeting goals, topics to be covered, format of the event, and county presenters. Staff is working to finalize related logistics, such as the room configuration, handouts and materials, technology, and other planning needs.
Referral Update:
Wednesday, October 7, 2026 is currently scheduled as the Committee’s in-person meeting, where our state and federal delegation is invited to attend and hear about emerging topics of interest for the upcoming session in an informal, and conversational setting. This is a public, agendized meeting and is open to the public. At this meeting, the presentations will be informational; no decisions are intended to be made at this meeting.
• Meeting Goals:
o Build relationships with elected state and federal officials.
o Enhance understanding of the County’s work, progress, and priorities on major policy issues.
o Increase interaction and develop foundation for ongoing partnership between the County and its state and federal legislators on issues of interest to our mutual constituencies.
• Venue: Emergency Operations Center (EOC): 1850 Muir Rd., Martinez
• Date: Wednesday, October 7
• Time: Start time 2 PM; anticipated end time 4 PM.
• Parking: Limited parking in front of EOC at 1850 Muir Road; additional street parking and lot parking available on Glacier Dr.
• Topics: Emerging issues and potential sponsored legislation for the upcoming session, including:
o Improving Outcomes for Justice-Involved Youth
o Ensuring Counties’ Ability to Respond to Disasters in the Wake of Impending Federal Changes
o Local Government Intellectual Property: A New Frontier
• Agenda (order and timing subject to change):
o Committee welcoming remarks from Chair and Vice Chair. (est. ~10-15 minutes)
o State/Federal elected official welcoming remarks (est. ~5 minutes per state/federal elected official)
o Policy Roundtables: Participants are encouraged to rotate all three informational stations.
§ Instructions (3-5 minutes)
§ Roundtable session 1 (20-25 minutes)
§ Roundtable session 2 (20-25 minutes)
§ Roundtable session 3 (20-25 minutes)
o Report-Out and Concluding Remarks
Each station is informational. The recommended focus of each presentation would be to provide background and context on these issues. Potential policy solutions would be introduced in the upcoming months, following the Board’s future consideration of sponsored bills.
A summary of each topic is included below, for more context.
Ensuring Counties’ Ability to Respond to Disasters in the Wake of Impending Federal Changes:
Federal disaster policy is undergoing significant transformation through two major channels: the FEMA Review Council Report and congressional reform efforts. Together, these initiatives signal a shift toward higher federal disaster thresholds, greater state responsibility, expanded use of parametric insurance, and potential restructuring of Public Assistance and Individual Assistance programs.
These changes will substantially increase financial and administrative demands on California and its local governments. Potential policy solutions would ensure California proactively studies, prepares for, and adapts to these anticipated shifts while strengthening long‑term disaster resilience.
Improving Outcomes for Justice-Involved Youth: Following the 2023 Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) realignment, justice-involved youth became the responsibility of local governments. While this offers opportunities for community support and rehabilitation, the state has not created a framework to ensure that positive outcomes are achieved for youth. Of particular concern, there were no standards or regulations for least restrictive program (LRP) facilities, basics needs from background checks, treatment standards, safety issues, or administrative requirements are all unaddressed, created a hap-hazard approach that falls short for youth throughout the state. Locally, this issue is beginning to create concerns and jeopardizes the safety and outcomes of youth in these placements. There is a need to develop better guardrails to ensure better outcomes for DJJ youth. The most recent effort was SB 1157 (Archuleta), which was held in Appropriations in its second house due to its perceived cost. However, this issue continues to persist and risks continue to grow. It is imperative to find a solution to ensure safety and improved outcomes for justice-involved youth.
Local Government Intellectual Property: A New Frontier: Recent case law has complicated the issue of local government ownership of intellectual property in California, and the law has not been updated to keep pace with the current environment. If not corrected, this could be a major emerging issue as local governments increasingly develop their own technology-based or AI tools. Any policy solution would be structured to preserve ownership of government-funded, internally developed software tools, related IP, etc.), and to ensure that it does not limit access to public records/information.
Other potential roundtable topic ideas could include:
If the Committee does not concur with the proposed topics, they may provide other direction.
Some potential topics to consider may include: County budget; H.R. 1 impacts on Health and the health system; H.R. 1 impacts on human services; unfunded mandates overview (California Commission on State Mandates process, history, etc.); Economic development; emergency response and preparedness; Housing and homelessness; behavioral health; CARE Court; housing; climate; and other emerging or priority issues in the County’s adopted legislative platforms, as recommended by the Legislation Committee.
The Committee has also indicated interest in hosting future roundtables or outreach events on H.R. 1 and preserving the social safety net for our residents. As discussed at prior Committee meetings, this would merit its own event(s), particularly as we approach the next State budget season.
Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s):
Provide feedback and direction to staff.
Fiscal Impact (if any):
None.