October 17, 2024

Throughout the 2023-2024 Legislative Session, CSAC has informed you about vital legislative developments. With Governor Newsom’s final actions now complete, CSAC has been publishing articles highlighting new laws and vetoed bills in each policy area. This week, we focus on Government Finance and Administration, covering the impact of newly-enacted legislation on the Brown Act, elections, labor relations, retirement, and more.

For additional information, please contact Eric Lawyer or Stanicia Boatner.

Brown Act

AB 2302 (Addis) (Chapter 389, Statutes of 2024)

Open meetings: local agencies: teleconferences. This measure recasts existing limits on the number of times members of a legislative body can participate remotely in meetings for cause or emergency circumstances by prescribing a certain quantity, rather than a percentage, of meetings that are used to determine the limits for remote meeting participation in a given year. Additionally, to count meetings attended by teleconference, the measure would define a “meeting” as any number of meetings of the legislative body of a local agency that begins on the same calendar day.

AB 2715 (Boerner) (Chapter 243, Statutes of 2024). – SUPPORTED

Ralph M. Brown Act: closed sessions. This measure additionally authorizes a legislative body to hold a closed session on a cybersecurity threat to critical infrastructure controls or critical infrastructure information and expands the definition of law enforcement or security personnel who may participate in the closed session.

Elections

AB 3184 (Berman) (Chapter 437, Statutes of 2024)

Elections: signature verification statements, unsigned ballot identification statements, and reports of ballot rejections. This measure establishes a universal date allowing voters an opportunity to cure a signature verification error, prohibiting election officials from certifying the results of a presidential election until 28 days following an election. The bill also requires elections officials to include a single, combined vote by mail ballot signature verification statement and unsigned ballot identification envelope statement, along with the instructions for the completion of the statement, on the elections official’s internet website. The measure also requires the elections official to accept the combined statement for purposes of satisfying the above-described requirements for a signature verification statement or an unsigned identification envelope statement.

SB 1174 (Min) (Chapter 990, Statutes of 2024)

Elections: voter identification. This measure prohibits a local government from enacting or enforcing any charter provision, or ordinance, or regulation requiring a person to present identification to vote or submit a ballot at any polling place, voting center, or other location where ballots are cast or submitted unless required by state or federal law.

Labor Relations

AB 2499 (Schiavo) (Chapter 967, Statutes of 2024)

Employment: unlawful discrimination and paid sick days: victims of violence. This measure entitles an employee of an employer with a minimum of 25 employees who is a crime victim or who has a family member who is a crime victim to job-protected leave to attend to their or their family’s needs and ensure their safety. Additionally, the measure permits both an employee victim and an employee with a family member who is a crime victim to use sick leave, capped at 12 weeks, for time off to obtain victim services.

AB 2561 (McKinnor) (Chapter 409, Statutes of 2024) – OPPOSED

Local public employees: vacant positions. This measure requires a public agency to present the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts at a public hearing at least once per fiscal year, regardless of any vacancy rates agency-wide or in a specific bargaining unit. The measure requires public agencies to allow recognized employee organizations to present at the hearing. If the number of job vacancies within a single bargaining unit meets or exceeds 20% of the total number of authorized full-time positions, the measure requires the public agency, upon request of the recognized employee organization, to include specified information during the public hearing.

SB 399 (Wahab) (Chapter 670, Statutes of 2024) – OPPOSED

Employer communications: intimidation. This measure prohibits an employer from subjecting, or threatening to subject, an employee to any adverse action because the employee declines to attend an employer-sponsored meeting or affirmatively declines to participate in, receive, or listen to any communications with the employer, the purpose of which is to communicate the employer’s opinion about religious or political matters. The bill applies to both private and public employers. The bill passed after a promise was made to address the concerns shared by public agencies that the bill would allow employees to skip meetings about pending legislation, proposed regulations, or ballot measures that could be imposed upon an agency.

SB 828 (Durazo) (Chapter 12, Statutes of 2024) & SB 159 (Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) (Chapter 40, Statutes of 2024)

Minimum wages: health care workers: delay. SB 828 delayed the implementation of healthcare worker minimum wage increases by one month, beginning June 1, 2024, and was signed into law on May 31, 2024. On June 27, 2024, a budget act, SB 159 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) was signed into law. The bill, among many other provisions, included another delay of the minimum wage increases for the health care workforce made through passage of SB 525 (Chapter 890, Statutes of 2023). Due to SB 159, SB 525 implementation was delayed further until one of two activities occurred: reporting by Department of Finance that state cash receipts for the first quarter of 2024-25 exceeded three percent, or that the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) began data collection necessary to implement a Hospital Quality Assurance Fee waiver with the federal government. On October 1, 2024, DHCS reported they had begun those data collections, triggering implementation of the bill, with non-County-owned facilities required to implement wage increases effective October 16, 2024, and county-owned facilities required to implement the changes by January 1, 2025.

SB 1340 (Smallwood-Cuevas) (Chapter 626, Statutes of 2024)

Discrimination. This measure authorizes, but does not require, local government agencies to enforce the employment components of California’s state civil rights laws and compels the California Civil Rights Department to promulgate regulations on local government enforcement of state civil rights laws.

Retirement

AB 2284 (Grayson) (Chapter 824, Statutes of 2024)

County employees’ retirement: compensation. This measure changes the County Employees’ Retirement Law (CERL) by authorizing a CERL retirement system, for purposes of compensation and retirement, to define “grade,” to mean a number of employees considered together because of shared similar job duties, schedules, unit recruitment requirements, work location, collective bargaining unit, or other logical work related group or class, if approved by a County Board of Supervisors. Establishing “grade” could allow pension systems to treat certain forms of compensation in employee pensions that had previously been found to be disallowed compensation.

AB 2474 (Lackey) (Chapter 108, Statutes of 2024)

Retirement: County Employees Retirement Law of 1937: benefit payments and overpayments.

This measure amends the County Employees’ Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL) relating to benefit payments and overpayments by: allowing retirees to request that pension payments be deposited into a trust account controlled by them; the Los Angeles County Employees’ Retirement Association (LACERA) is authorized to issue retiree pension payments via prepaid debit cards; and CERL systems are given greater flexibility in managing situations where retired members exceed the 960-hour work limit with their former employer.

AB 3025 (Valencia) (Chapter 427, Statutes of 2024) – OPPOSED

County employees’ retirement: disallowed compensation: benefit adjustments. This measure amends the County Employees’ Retirement Law (CERL) to require that public agencies hold both ’37 Act systems and employees harmless if the employee and employer have made contributions for disallowed compensation. Similar to SB 278 (Chapter 331, Statutes of 2021), the bill requires public agencies to pay a 20% penalty for the difference between the actuarial value of an employee’s prior and future pension payments for any compensation found to be disallowed, among other changes.

SB 1189 (Limón) (Chapter 131, Statutes of 2024)

County Employees Retirement Law of 1937: county board of retirement. This measure authorizes a ’37 act board to appoint a chief technology officer.

Worker’s Compensation

AB 1870 (Ortega) (Chapter 87, Statutes of 2024)

Notice to employees: legal services. This measure requires employers to include information concerning an employee’s right to consult a licensed attorney in their workers’ compensation employee rights notice.

Revenue and Taxation

SB 1059 (Bradford) (Chapter 874, Statutes of 2024)

Cannabis: local taxation: gross receipts. This measure prohibits local jurisdictions from including in the definition of “gross receipts” the amount of any tax imposed under specific tax laws for any local cannabis business tax or fee levied on a licensed cannabis retailer.

AB 2353 (Ward) (Chapter 566, Statutes of 2024)

Property taxation: welfare exemption: delinquent payments: interest and penalties. This measure prohibits a county tax collector from taking or continuing any collection action for any delinquent installments of property taxes levied on a taxpayer who intends to develop the property for rent at affordable rates to low-income households, among other conditions.

AB 2854 (Irwin) (Chapter 842, Statutes of 2024)

Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law. This measure requires local government agencies to provide specified information annually to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration annually relating to any agreement that results in direct or indirect payment, transfer, diversion, or rebate of sales and use tax revenues and to post that information on their website, if they maintain one.

AB 3134 (Chen) (Chapter 922, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED

Property taxation: refunds. This measure increases the maximum amount of a property tax refund that may be issued without the taxpayer filing a claim from $5,000 to $10,000, among other changes.

Government Administration

SB 575 (Wahab) (Chapter 984, Statutes of 2024)

Marriage: underage marriage. This measure requires local registrars to report the number of marriages in which one or both parties were a minor regardless of whether the local registrar received a copy of a court order solemnizing the marriage.

SB 1209 (Cortese) (Chapter 886, Statutes of 2024)

Local agency formation commission: indemnification. This measure authorizes a Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to require an applicant to indemnify the LAFCO, its agents, officers, and employees from and against any claim, action, or proceeding that may stem from a LAFCO decision to approve – but not deny – an application.

AB 2455 (Gabriel) (Chapter 568, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED

Whistleblower protection: state and local government procedures. This measure expands protection of whistleblower activity to include reporting of private contractors, as well as ensuring that all forms of whistleblower communication, including text message and email, are protected.

AB 1819 (Waldron) (Chapter 357, Statutes of 2024)

Enhanced infrastructure financing districts: public capital facilities: wildfires. This measure allows for the creation of an enhanced infrastructure financing district that is at least partially in high or very high fire hazard severity zones designated by the State Fire Marshal, to finance heavy equipment to be used for vegetation clearance and firebreaks, undergrounding of local publicly-owned electric utilities, against wildfires, and equipment used for fire watch, prevention, and fighting.

AB 1825 (Muratsuchi) (Chapter 941, Statutes of 2024)

California Freedom to Read Act. This measure requires public library jurisdictions directly receiving state funding, excluding school libraries, to adopt a written and publicly available collection development policy and prohibit the governing board or body of a public library from proscribing or banning the circulation of any materials because of the topic addressed by the materials or because of the views, ideas, or opinions contained in those materials.

Proposition 218

SB 1072 (Padilla) (Chapter 323, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED

Local government: Proposition 218: remedies. This measure provides that, upon a determination that a water agency has violated Proposition 218, the agency must credit the amount they overcharged against future rate increases, rather than provide a direct refund, unless statute provides an explicit refund remedy.

AB 1827 (Papan) (Chapter 359, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED

Local government: fees and charges: water: higher consumptive water parcels. This measure reinforces authority under the law to impose fees or charges for the incrementally higher water service costs due to higher water usage demand, maximum potential water use, and projected peak water usage of parcels.

AB 2257 (Wilson) (Chapter 561, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED

Local government: property-related water and sewer fees and assessments: remedies. This measure establishes an administrative procedure that must be exhausted by a ratepayer before they may sue an agency to contest a new or increased fee or assessment pursuant to Proposition 218.

Economic Development

AB 1782 (Ta) (Chapter 85, Statutes of 2024)

Redevelopment: successor agencies: Low and Moderate Income Housing Asset Fund. This measure increases the amount that a housing successor may expend per year on homeless prevention and rapid rehousing services to $500,000, plus any percentage change in the cost of living. The measure also requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to publish an adjustment to the amount that may be expended by a housing successor to reflect any percentage change in the cost-of-living on its website.

AB 2922 (Garcia) (Chapter 581, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED

Economic development: capital investment incentive programs. This measure reinstates the Capital Investment Incentive Program (CIIP) until January 1, 2035, and expands the program to cover lower initial investment amounts if a project proponent meets additional job creation requirements.

California Public Records Act

AB 1785 (Pacheco) (Chapter 551, Statutes of 2024)

California Public Records Act. This measure prohibits a state or local agency from publicly posting online the name and assessor parcel number associated with the home address of any elected or appointed official without the official’s written permission.

SB 1034 (Seyarto) (Chapter 161, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED

California Public Records Act: state of emergency. This measure amends the definition of “unusual circumstances,” in the California Public Records Act (CPRA) to include the need to respond to a CPRA request during a state of emergency, except for documents related to the agency’s response to the emergency itself.

Artificial Intelligence

AB 1777 (Ting) (Chapter 682, Statutes of 2024)

Autonomous vehicles. This measure requires the manufacture of autonomous vehicles by July 1, 2026, and authorizes a peace officer to issue a “notice of autonomous vehicle noncompliance” for a violation of the vehicle code or a local traffic ordinance to an AV manufacturer.

Conflict of Interest

AB 1170 (Valencia) (Chapter 211, Statutes of 2024)

Political Reform Act of 1974: filing requirements. This measure requires public officials and candidates who file their original statements of economic interests (SEIs) with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) to file those SEIs using the FPPC’s electronic filing system.

AB 3130 (Quirk-Silva) (Chapter 251, Statutes of 2024)

County board of supervisors: disclosure. This measure requires a county supervisor to disclose a known family relationship with an officer or employee of a nonprofit entity before the county appropriates money to that nonprofit entity.

SB 1111 (Min) (Chapter 324, Statutes of 2024)

Public officers: contracts: financial interest. This measure, beginning in 2026, requires a public officer to recuse themself from voting on a contract made by the officer’s governmental entity if the officer’s child is an officer or director of, or has substantial ownership in, a party to a contract entered into by the body or board of which the officer is a member, if the child’s interest is known to the public officer.

SB 1181 (Glazer) (Chapter 785, Statutes of 2024) & SB 1243 (Dodd) (Chapter 1017, Statutes of 2024).

Campaign contributions: agency officers. These two bills amended SB 1439 (Chapter 848, Statutes of 2022), which subjected county boards of supervisors, among other local government officers, to the Levine Act, prohibiting them from accepting contributions exceeding $250 in a 12-month period when a contract, license, permit, or other entitlement is pending before the local agency.

These bills make several changes to SB 1439. First, the bills create a few exceptions to SB 1439, including exempting periodic review or renewal of existing development agreements from the law, unless the renewal includes material amendments or the amendments include either a 10% or $50,000 change in the value of the contract, whichever is less. The bill also exempts contracts between government agencies. Additionally, regarding subject officers, the bills exempt city attorneys and county counsels who do not have authority to make a final decision in a proceeding.

The bills also raise the contribution amount from $250 to $500 and extend the timeframe by which an officer may return contributions from 14 to 30 days. The bills also provide that financial interest in a decision is not triggered solely from an increase or decrease in union dues.