Sept. 6, 2018

The Legislature concluded its business last week, but CSAC advocacy continues through the end of September as we shift our focus to the Governor’s Office. There are several bills still pending in the Government Finance and Administration (GFA) policy area that CSAC is urging the governor to sign or veto. The full list is provided below.

SIGNATURE REQUESTS

AB 1976 (Limón) – Lactation Accommodation

This measure requires employers provide a location other than a “bathroom” (under current law it’s a “toilet stall”) for their employees to express breastmilk. CSAC took a support position after the author amended the bill to include a hardship exemption.

AB 2258 (Caballero) – Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) Grant Program

This measure establishes a LAFCo grant program for the payment of costs associated with initiating and completing the dissolution of inactive districts, the payment of costs associated with a study of the services provided within a county by a public agency, and other purposes as  identified by the LAFCo.

AB 2415 (Calderon) – CalPERS Appointments and Compensation

This measure increases CalPERS’ competitive edge by authorizing the CalPERS Board to appoint and fix the compensation of the chief operation officer (COO) and the chief health director (CHD).

AB 2425 (Berman) – Transmission of Property Records

This measure authorizes county assessors, upon written request, to require taxpayers to transmit requested information by mail or in an electronic format, if available. This would utilize modern technology to ensure tax information is collected and verified in the most efficient and cost effective manner, all the while protecting the safety of county employees and ensuring information is shared expeditiously.

AB 2540 (Mullin) – Vote Centers

This measure helps facilitate the successful implementation of the California Voter’s Choice Act by authorizing governing bodies with jurisdiction over public buildings to allow those buildings to be used as vote centers beginning up to ten days prior to an election day.

SB 1343 (Mitchell) – Sexual Harassment Training

This measure establishes sexual harassment training requirements for non-supervisory positions to ensure safe workplaces and provide greater liability protection for employers. CSAC staff successfully negotiated extensive amendments to reduce the burden on local agencies to provide all employees with training opportunities and ensure protection against liability. Advocacy on this measure also helped block even more egregious training bills for sexual harassment prevention training. 

SB 1413 (Nielsen) – Pension Prefunding

This measure provides CalPERS with the authority to establish a Pension Prefunding Trust Program which would enable local agencies to prefund their future annual pension contributions and/or pay down their unfunded liability.

SB 1498 (Senate Governance and Finance Committee) – Local Government Omnibus Legislation

This measure addresses technical and non-controversial changes to current law that offer clarity and greater accuracy in statutes impacting counties and other local government agencies.

VETO REQUESTS

AB 553 (Daly) – Workers’ Compensation Return to Work Fund

This measure prematurely makes changes to the “return to work” fund prior to the publication of a use study and exposes local agencies to higher costs for direct payments and administrative burdens.

AB 1597 (Nazarian) – CalPERS Divestment

This measure prohibits CalPERS and CalSTRS from investing in the government of Turkey and certain financial institutions of the sovereign state, if the U.S. federal government sanctions Turkey for failing to acknowledge the Armenia Genocide.

AB 1870 (Reyes) – Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) Complaints

This measure increases the filing period with the DFEH for complaints of unlawful employment practices from one year to three years.

AB 2732 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – Workers’ Bill of Rights

This measure requires all employers to provide all employees with a copy of the “Workers’ Bill of Rights,” have them sign it, give them a copy of the signed document, and keep the original for three years, as well as post a notice.

AB 3081 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – Retaliation Claims

This measure provides, amongst other things, a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation by an employer if the employer discharges, threatens to discharge, demotes, suspends, or in any manner discriminates against the employee within 30 days following the date that the victim provides notice to the employer or the employer has actual knowledge of the sexual harassment incident.

SB 937 (Wiener) – Lactation Accommodation

This measure imposes very onerous requirements on employers to provide lactation accommodation for employees who need to express milk while at work. Under the bill, lactation rooms must contain a surface to place a breast pump and personal items as well as a place to sit, have access to electricity, running water and a refrigerator, not be a bathroom and be in proximity to the employee’s work area, shielded from view, and free from intrusion.

SB 1085 (Skinner) – Employee Lost Time

This measure erodes the collective bargaining process by requiring public employers to provide union employees with “reasonable” leaves of absence to serve as union stewards or officers. While on the leave of absence, employees are entitled to their regular compensation offered by the agency, the same benefits (including retirement accrual), and job reinstatement without loss of seniority, rank, or classification.

SB 1086 (Atkins) – Workers’ Compensation Death Benefits

This measure prematurely deletes the sunset date on a law that provides an extended statute of limitations for workers’ compensation death benefits payable to the survivors of public safety officers who die as a result of work-related cancer or other specified diseases.

SB 1300 (Jackson) – Personal Liability for FEHA Violations

This measure imposes personal liability onto individual supervisors for making employee personnel decisions related to FEHA violations, including sexual harassment, even if that supervisor was in no way involved in the claimed violation.

CSAC staff will update counties on the final outcomes of these bills after the Governor’s September 30 signature deadline. For status updates on other bills that CSAC is tracking, visit www.counties.org/legislative-tracking.