April 14, 2023

The first year of the biennial legislative session is underway with the highest number of bills introduced in over a decade. Our CSAC Administration of Justice policy team is closely monitoring public safety related legislation and ensuring that the county perspective is considered in the legislative process. We will continue to provide updates with counties as bills are amended and move through the Legislature. While there are hundreds of bills we are tracking, here a few that CSAC has taken a registered position:

Support

AB 479 (Rubio) – Alternative domestic violence program.

This measure would extend the sunset on the program authorizing the Counties of Napa, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Yolo to offer programs for individuals convicted of domestic violence that do not comply with the batterer’s program requirements from July 1, 2023, to July 1, 2026. In 2017, former Assembly Member Mark Stone authored AB 372 to help advance domestic violence batterer intervention programs. CSAC co-sponsored this legislation, which authorized six counties (Napa, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, and Yolo) to pilot alternative interventions, focusing on creating opportunities for change to prevent future incidents of domestic violence. CSAC supports AB 479 and the continuation of the domestic violence batterer intervention pilot program.

SB 75 (Roth) – Courts: judgeships.

This measure, subject to appropriation, would authorize 26 additional superior court judgeships and requires the Judicial Council to allocate the judgeships to the various county superior courts pursuant to specified standards for factually determining judicial need in each county. CSAC supports SB 75 as it is critical that the state funds additional judgeships to meet the caseload demand in every county. The shortage of judges has detrimental and lasting impacts on the ability of counties to ensure that our judicial system serves all residents of California.

Oppose

AB 702 (Jackson) – Local government financing: juvenile justice.

This measure would revise and recast components of the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA), including requiring funded programs to be modeled on trauma-informed and youth development approaches in collaboration with community-based organizations (CBOs), requiring that no less than 95% of funds are allocated to CBOs and non-law enforcement government entities, and changing the membership provisions of a county juvenile justice coordinating council.  CSAC, along with the Urban Counties of California (UCC) and the Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC)are opposed to AB 702,as it would redirect a stable, constitutionally protected funding structure from counties.  This is also at a time when counties are working diligently toward full implementation of SB 823, which has shifted the state’s responsibility for the care and custody of system-involved youth to county probation.