Capitol Corner Update

The first year of this legislative session concluded on Friday, September 13. This was the last day that either the State Senate or the Assembly could act on legislation. After returning from summer recess in August, the last month of session was a chaotic race to get any legislation through remaining policy and fiscal committees. This is always a busy time for last minute amendments and negotiations, not only to get current bills passed by both houses, but to also arrive on the governor’s desk before the deadline. This is Governor Newsom’s first legislative session since he was elected into office last November. He will now have a month to either sign or veto all bills that arrive at his desk. This period, in which he chooses which bills to sign into law or veto, will set a tone for the rest of his term. Since he is a new governor, his policies, priorities, and preferences will become apparent by which bills he chooses to sign into law.

This legislative session focused on many of CALBO’s legislative priorities such as: seismic resiliency, accessory dwelling units, and disaster recovery. CALBO closely monitored these issue areas, since many of the bills that were introduced would have directly affected building department’s administrative procedures and daily code implementation. In order to communicate our interests, CALBO took a strong position on several bills. CALBO leadership and staff actively engaged state legislators, partner local government organizations, and our own CALBO membership in order to communicate our positions on priority issues.  

After opposing Assembly Nazarian’s seismic inventory bill last year, CALBO collaborated with his office to introduce a bill we could fully support. CALBO supported AB 429 (Nazarian), a measure that would have required the Alfred E. Alquist Seismic Safety Commission (SSC) to identify funding and develop a bidding process for hiring a third-party contractor to create an inventory of potentially vulnerable buildings in California. CALBO worked closely with the author’s office to develop a local government approach that would not identify local funds as a possible funding source for the program. Other important amendments were included such as; 1) applying the inventory only to the 29 most seismically vulnerable counties, and 2) applying it to buildings approved by the city or county prior to the adoption of the 1976 edition of the Uniform Building Code. 

On Wednesday, April 17, dozens of CALBO members convened at the State Capitol to lobby and educate members of the state legislature on behalf of our organization. CALBO members met Legislator’s staff not only to discuss CALBO’s top legislative priorities, but also highlight who we are and what we do. In their meetings, members discussed the following measures that are currently moving through the capitol. 

The voices of local California Building Departments were heard today as Governor Brown vetoed AB 2681 (Nazarian). In his veto message released this afternoon, Governor Brown conveyed strong concern for seismic safety, but not at the expense of local government.  The governor believes a more collaborative approach between the California Seismic Safety Commission, local government, and building owners can yield a well-rounded seismic resiliency measure.