Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: REGULAR AGENDA (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: Letter of Opposition to AB 2011 and Support of Cal Cities Budget Requests Date: May 24, 2022
Written by: Damien O'Bid, City Manager
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council authorize the Mayor to send a letter of opposition to AB 2011 and a letter of support for Cal Cities Fiscal Year 22/23 budget requests.
Background
Cal Cities, of which the City of Cotati is a member, actively tracks new legislation and ballot initiatives and often takes a position on the proposed legislation if they are believed to affect California cities. Periodically, Cal Cities will send out an “Action Alert” on pending legislation that, if signed into law, is believed to have a substantially negative or positive effect on communities throughout California. The Action Alert is a call to write letters of support or opposition and/or call our state legislators.
The City Council Rules allows the mayor to sign letters of support or opposition requested by Cal Cities if there is insufficient time to bring it to the full City Council. In this case, the proposed vote in the California State Assembly is slated for May 27, and the budget request is timely, so there is sufficient time to bring to the full City Council prior to the planned legislative action.
Analysis/Discussion
A summary of AB 2011 is included in the attached email received from Cal Cities. Cal Cities also provided a template letter of opposition that would be sent by the Mayor, in substantially the form attached, if approved by the City Council. Areas in grey highlight are custom additions for the City of Cotati.
A summary of the budget requests are included in the attached email received from Cal Cities. Cal Cities is requesting $1.6 billion of the nearly $100 billion state surplus, including funding for housing and economic development, backfilling prior costs incurred by unfunded state mandates, and funding to assist in implementation of SB 1383 (Organic waste recycling).
Financial Considerations
No direct impacts, but potentially positive impacts if the all or part of the budget request is in the final state budget.
Environmental Issues
This action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it is not a project which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, pursuant to CEQA Guideline section 15378.
Attachments:
Cal Cities Request for Action (PDF)
AB 2011 (Wicks) Oppose Letter (DOCX)
Cal Cities Budget Priorities (PDF)
Unfunded Mandate Costs North Bay (PDF)
Cal Cities 2022-23 Budget Requests Letter (DOCX)