LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Meeting Date: December 9, 2024
Subject: Draft 2025-26 State Legislative Platform
Submitted For: Legislation Committee
Department: County Administrator
Presenter: E. Struthers and L. DeLaney
Contact: (925) 655-2045
Referral History:
The Legislation Committee annually reviews and considers the draft State and Federal Legislative Platforms prior to their proposal to the Board of Supervisors for adoption. The adopted Legislative Platforms of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors are available on the County website: https://www.contracosta.ca.gov/2859/Legislation.
Referral Update:
In 2020, the County shifted its State and Federal Legislative Platforms from one to two-year documents running concurrently with the legislative and congressional sessions. With the start of new sessions anticipated in January 2025, the County Administrator's Office, which is responsible for coordinating the development of the Platforms, launched the Platform development process for 2025-26 in the fall of 2024.
To date, the Legislative Platform development process has included the following steps:
1. Board members, County Department Heads, and/or senior staff were invited to meetings with the County's federal and state lobbyists to discuss the department's legislative and regulatory priorities, sponsored bill proposals, and policy interests.
2. Department Heads and their senior staff were requested to solicit input from any Board-established advisory bodies for which they provide staff support. They were also requested to provide the legislative priorities and principles of the professional associations to which they belong.
3. Policy positions, when included in the Platform, were requested to be refashioned to "principles." This is intended to streamline the documents, moving away from program, project, or legislation-specific policy statements and toward more general principles. Principles are more basic than policy and objectives and are meant to...
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