Agenda Item No. 14
CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council DATE: January 22, 2024 FROM: Matthew Bronson, City Manager
PREPARED BY: Kristin Eriksson, Assistant City Manager
SUBJECT: State Legislation Update and Review of City Legislation Platform
RECOMMENDATION
Receive a presentation on recently adopted State legislation and provide direction to staff regarding any desired changes to the City of Grover Beach Legislative Platform.
BACKGROUND
2023 City of Grover Beach Legislative Platform
Legislation at the State and Federal level often affects cities’ revenue sources, mandated services and local control of governance. The purpose of a City Council-approved Legislative Platform is to clearly set forth the City’s positions on priority issues that impact City operations. Often, the timeframe to respond to proposed legislation does not allow for full Council approval at the next City Council meeting. Therefore, the proposed 2023 Legislative Platform (see Attachment 1) will authorize the City Manager to prepare a letter under the Mayor’s signature to take positions on legislation that are consistent with the platform to allow for quick response communications, through opposition or support letters, to legislators when time is of the essence. The priorities expressed in the platform are also intended to assist the Council and staff to appropriately address legislation to promote the City’s interests.
The platform is designed to express high-level priorities for the City to allow the City to effectively respond to proposed legislation throughout the year. The platform is organized in the following topic-based categories:
1) General Government - Generally supports local control to address local needs and opposes State preemption of local authority and unfunded or underfunded mandates; 2) Local Government Finance – Generally supports legislation protecting or enhancing City revenues and opposes unfunded mandates, restrictions on revenues and restrictions on contracting for cities;
3) Public Safety – Generally supports funding and support for emergency response and crime reduction programs;
4) Transportation and Public Works - Generally supports funding and expedited processes capital and infrastructure projects, supports funding for key water supply projects, and funding for implementation of organic waste disposal requirements; 5) Community Development – Generally supports funding and programs to address homelessness, supports legislation to reform cannabis regulations and supports protection of transient occupancy tax revenue.
Staff Report: Legislation Update and Review of Legislative Platform Page 2 January 22, 2024
In line with the established platform, the City issued letters of support for the following bills in 2023 as seen in Attachment 2:
1. AB 972 – Local Assistance and Grant Program Streamlining Workgroup
2. AB 1657 – The Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2024
3. ACA 13 – Voting Thresholds for Constitutional Amendments by Initiative 2023 Legislation Update
The City works with the League of California Cities to track legislation that impacts local government. Staff reviewed several bills passed in 2023 and made note of some which will impact City operations and provided planned actions, as summarized in Attachment 3.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact associated with these actions.
ALTERNATIVES
The Council has the following alternatives to consider:
1) Receive a presentation on recently adopted State legislation and provide direction to staff regarding any desired changes to the City of Grover Beach Legislative Platform; or 2) Provide alternative direction to staff.
PUBLIC NOTIFICATION
The agenda was posted in accordance with the Brown Act.
Attachments
1. 2023 City of Grover Beach Legislative Platform
2. 2023 Letters of Support
3. 2023 Legislation Impacts
City of Grover Beach
2023 Legislative Platform
Approved by City Council March 27, 2023
Attachment 1
Contents
SECTION 1 – INTRODUCTION................................................................................................. 1
1.1 General Purpose.......................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Authority ...................................................................................................................... 1
1.2.1 Adoption. .............................................................................................................. 1
1.2.2 City Manager Authority. ........................................................................................ 1
1.2.3 Limit to City Manager Authority. ............................................................................ 1
1.3 Distribution................................................................................................................... 1 SECTION 2 – GENERAL GOVERNMENT................................................................................. 1
2.1 Local Control................................................................................................................ 1 SECTION 3 – LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCE...................................................................... 2 SECTION 4 – PUBLIC Safety .................................................................................................... 2
4.1 Emergency Response.................................................................................................. 2
4.2 Crime Reduction .......................................................................................................... 2
4.3 Victim’s Rights ............................................................................................................. 2 SECTION 5 – TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC WORKS....................................................... 3
5.1 General Infrastructure.................................................................................................. 3 SECTION 6 – RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT .................................................................. 3
6.1 Water Resiliency.......................................................................................................... 3
6.2 Organic Waste Disposal............................................................................................... 3 SECTION 7 – COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT........................................................................... 3
7.1 Housing and Homelessness ........................................................................................ 3
7.2 Commercial Cannabis.................................................................................................. 4
7.3 Travel and Tourism...................................................................................................... 4 1 SECTION 1 – INTRODUCTION
1.1 General Purpose
The City of Grover Beach Legislative Platform (Platform) is adopted to formalize Council priorities and allow for expedient promotion of the City’s interests in legislative matters.
The Platform is designed to guide the Council and staff in taking appropriate action on legislative proposals and actions in the State and Federal governments.
1.2 Authority
1.2.1 Adoption - The Platform is developed with input from all City departments and is adopted by the City Council annually.
1.2.2 City Manager Authority – The City Manager or designee may take actions to support or oppose proposed legislation without prior approval of the City Council when consistent with the platform, provided that the City Council may set or change the City’s established position on any specific legislation even it inconsistent with this Platform’s general position.
1.2.3 Limit to City Manager Authority – The City Council will maintain sole authority to establish an initial position for any proposed legislation that would result in the matter coming before voters as a statewide ballot measure, such as California constitutional amendments, a statewide bond measure, or a measure amending a previously-approved statewide ballot measure.
1.3 Distribution
Upon the Council’s annual approval, the Legislative Platform shall be distributed to California’s U.S. Senators, U.S. Congressmembers, as well as all California State Constitutional offices representing the City, all California State Senator(s) and Assemblymember(s) representing the City, the National League of Cities and the League of California Cities.
SECTION 2 – GENERAL GOVERNMENT
2.1 Local Control
• Support legislation that enhances local control for various permitting, land use, contracting and discretionary actions and allows cities to address the needs of local communities within a framework of regional cooperation
• Oppose legislation that preempts local authority and impedes the City’s ability to address community needs.
• Oppose legislation that imposes unfunded or insufficiently funded mandates by the State.
2 SECTION 3 – LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCE
• Support legislation that protects, increases and/or modernizes revenue streams for local priorities.
• Support legislation to provide full and prompt reimbursement to all local agencies for all state-mandated programs and/or infractions and losses associated with local revenue shifts.
• Support legislation that creates streamlined and less competitive funding opportunities for cities with smaller budgets, geographical size and population, such as the City. • Support legislation that fully funds positions in State and Federal agencies that can accelerate the prompt administration of funding and reimbursements from those agencies to the City.
• Oppose legislation that mandates new duties, responsibilities or obligations to a City under state realignment.
• Oppose legislation that increases the threshold for voters to pass new or increased state or local taxes needed to fund local services and infrastructure. • Oppose legislation that eliminates or restricts control of or creates barriers to the City’s revenue sources.
• Oppose legislation that restricts the City’s ability to contract for goods or services or otherwise increases costs of contracting for goods or services.
SECTION 4 – PUBLIC SAFETY
4.1 Emergency Response
• Support legislation to provide funding for disaster prevention efforts, emergency response planning, and training and equipment for response and recovery efforts. • Support legislation to develop and implement statewide-integrated public safety communication systems.
4.2 Crime Reduction
• Support legislation to allow for greater crime reduction in the community. • Support legislation to add fentanyl to the list of illegal substances subject to the existing weight enhancements for criminal sentencing.
4.3 Victim’s Rights
• Support legislation increasing the rights of victims of crimes. 3 SECTION 5 – TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC WORKS
5.1 General Infrastructure
• Support legislation providing funding for revolving loan fund programs to assist with financing capital costs of infrastructure improvements, including facility replacements. • Support legislation to expedite project delivery processes and expand project delivery methods for use by all cities for facilities and infrastructure. • Support legislation that secures state and federal fees and taxes originally programmed for roadway repairs, highway congestion management and transportation improvement projects.
• Oppose legislation that slows, impairs or eliminates funding for public infrastructure.
SECTION 6 – RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT
6.1 Water Resiliency
• Support legislation and administrative actions that provide funding or grant programs for energy and water efficiency improvements.
• Support legislation that provides funding for key water supply and infrastructure grant and loan programs.
6.2 Organic Waste Disposal
• Support legislation that provides additional funding or other assistance to implement organic waste disposal requirements.
• Support legislation providing funding for smaller cities to pursue carbon neutral solutions.
SECTION 7 – COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
7.1 Housing and Homelessness
• Support legislation to streamline all types of housing development while protecting the City’s permitting, fees and regulatory processes.
• Support legislation to providing funding mechanisms for infrastructure needed for housing development.
• Support legislation providing funding for homeless services and shelter projects and operations.
• Support legislation to allow the City more flexibility in creating shelters and temporary and permanent housing.
• Support legislation to provide funding for cleanup efforts as a result of homeless encampments.
4 7.2 Commercial Cannabis
• Support legislation that provides for reforms of regulatory barriers to the legal cannabis industry
• Support legislation that allows for the sale of food and non-alcoholic drinks at cannabis retailers that permit onsite consumption of cannabis products.
7.3 Travel and Tourism
• Oppose legislation that would reduce or eliminate online travel agencies or platforms from collecting and remitting Transient Occupancy Tax to local jurisdictions.
City of Grover Beach
Mayor Karen Bright Mayor Pro Tern Anna Miller
Council Member Robert Robert, Council Member Daniel Rushing, Council Member Clint Weirick Matthew Bronson
City Manager
April 20, 2023
The Honorable Cecilia M. Aguiar-Curry
Chair, Committee on Local Government
State Capitol Office
1021 0 Street, Suite 6350
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: AB 972 (Maienschein) Local Assistance and Grant Program Streamlining Workgroup.
Notice of SUPPORT (as of April 20, 2023)
Dear Chair Aguiar-Curry,
The City of Grover Beach is pleased to support AB 972 (Maienschein), which would coordinate, align, and streamline local government assistance resources to ensure that every community has the same opportunity to compete for state funding opportunities by convening a statewide, cross-agency Local Assistance and Grant Program Streamlining Workgroup, no later than April 2024.
At the state level, local assistance efforts are largely conducted by individual grant programs, and, although centrally located via the California State Library's Grants Portal, nearly all state grant programs have unique and widely varied procedures for application and scoring. Further, although best practices for local assistance have been developed and published by the Strot 'n Growth local assistance efforts are not uniformly conducted across state departments, offices, boards, commissions, and agencies.
Local municipalities often lack the resources, staff capacity, implementation experience, and technical expertise to apply for and secure competitive statewide targeted grant funding. Additionally, like other sectors, California cities are facing staffing shortages, a wave of early retirement, and other workforce stressors on existing municipal staff.
Streamlined application processes and robust, uniform local assistance from the state is crucial for cities to effectively access state funding opportunities.
Climate resiliency, natural resources, and environmental quality programs are nearly always funding with a combination of federal, state, and local resources. Cities are left to compete for scarce funding and stack various grant opportunities which increases the complexity and decreases the likelihood of successfully securing grant program funding. 154 South Eighth Street Fo Grover Beach', California 93433 fo www.groverheach.org Administrative Services/Water (805) 473-4550 it) City Council/City Manager (805) 473-4567 Po City Clerk (805) 473-4568 Community Development - Building, Planning & Economic Development (805) 473-4520 Po Human Resources (805) 473-4564 Parks & Recreation (805) 473-4580 Fo Police/Non-Emergency (805) 473-4511 Fo Public Works (805) 473-4530 Attachment 2
As a City with just under 13,000 residents and a lean staff of 80 full time employees, it is difficult to find capacity to successfully navigate state grant programs with their varied procedures and requirements. To this end, our City Council's 2023 Legislative Platform includes support for legislation that "...modernizes revenue streams for local priorities" and that "creates streamlined and less competitive funding opportunities...". We support any effort to align and streamline the process and requirements for state grants.
By aligning procedures of the financing programs under the purview of the California Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency, AB 972 will help stretch limited funding as far as possible and bolster efforts to address shared state and local climate resiliency goals. For these reasons, City of Grover Beach supports AB 972 (Maienschein) and urges the passage of this important measure.
Sincerely,
°1 ' c
Karen Bright -
Mayor
City of Grover Beach
tA----
cc: The Honorable Cecilia M. Aguiar-Curry
Members, Committee on Local Government
League of California Cities (via email: [email protected]) City of Grover Beach
Mayor Karen Bright Mayor Pro Tem Anna Miller
Council Member Robert Robert, Council Member Daniel Rushing, Council Member Clint Weirick Matthew Bronson
City Manager
154 South Eighth Street Grover Beach, California 93433 www.groverbeach.org Administrative Services/Water (805) 473-4550 City Council/City Manager (805) 473-4567 City Clerk (805) 473-4568 Community Development - Building, Planning & Economic Development (805) 473-4520 Human Resources (805) 473-4564 Parks & Recreation (805) 473-4580 Police/Non-Emergency (805) 473-4511 Public Works (805) 473-4530 July 14, 2023
The Honorable Anna Caballero
Chair, Senate Governance and Finance Committee
State Capitol Building, Room 407
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: AB 1657 (Wicks) The Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2024.
Notice of Support (As of 04/17/23)
Dear Senator Caballero,
The City of Grover Beach is pleased to support AB 1657 (Wicks), which would place a $10 billion bond measure on the March 2024 ballot to spur the production of affordable and supportive housing.
Housing affordability and homelessness are among the most critical issues facing Californians today.
City officials intimately understand these crises firsthand. Local leaders are working to find creative solutions so homes of all income levels can be built. That is why cities are calling on the Legislature and the Governor to provide ongoing funding to help cities prevent and reduce homelessness and spur housing development.
AB 1657 would provide targeted and significant funding to support community-based solutions that get our residents off the streets and keep them in their homes. A recent statewide survey by Cal Cities underscores the need for funding. The results show that cities believe limited supportive housing options and lack of ongoing funding are the top two barriers to preventing and reducing homelessness.
High housing costs and scarcity of housing are critical issues in Grover Beach and surrounding communities, contributing to homelessness and a lack of labor. As such, the City’s 2023 legislative platform supports legislation provide funding for temporary and permanent housing.
The investments proposed in AB 1657 would come at a critical time as the last round of funding for the state’s flagship multi-family affordable housing program, the Multifamily Housing Program, was oversubscribed ten to one. Affordable housing projects are ready to go if funding is available.
The City of Grover Beach believes that now is the time to invest in affordable housing. With the slowing economy, stubbornly high inflation, and the heightened threat of an economic recession, we know that our residents, now more than ever, are at risk of housing instability, losing their homes DocuSign Envelope ID: DD99060D-EAA0-4D5C-9671-98AF81EE371F altogether, and falling into homelessness.
For these reasons, the City of Grover Beach supports AB 1657.
Sincerely,
Karen Bright
Mayor
City of Grover Beach
cc: The Honorable Buffy Wicks
The Honorable Senator John Laird
The Honorable Assemblymember Dawn Addis
League of California Cities
DocuSign Envelope ID: DD99060D-EAA0-4D5C-9671-98AF81EE371F
2023 Legislation Impacts
General Government
• SB 553 – Occupational Safety – Workplace Violence. Restraining Orders and Workplace Violence Prevention Plan. This measure, commencing January 1, 2025, authorizes a collective bargaining representative of an employee to seek a temporary restraining order and an order after hearing on behalf of the employee and other employees at the workplace. It also requires employers to establish, implement and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention plan that includes, among other elements, requirements to maintain incident logs, provide specified trainings, and conduct periodic reviews of the plan.
o Impact: The City’s existing personnel rules prohibit workplace violence, however staff will need to update personnel policies to include a workplace violence prevention plan, as required in the next year.
• SB 329 – City Council Members Compensation. This measure allows general law cities to adjust council member salaries beyond the maximum amount for inflation each calendar year, not to exceed 10% per year. The bill also requires the Council to consider adoption of an ordinance to increase council member compensation in open session during at least two regular meetings.
o Impact: Should the Council choose to adjust compensation for Council Members in the future, they may increase salaries for inflation, not to exceed 10% each calendar year over the maximum of $950 per month. This action, if taken, would have minor budgetary impacts to the General Fund.
• AB 1637 – Website Domains. This measure requires the City to adopt a .gov domain name by 2029. Staff is planning to implement this prior to the deadline, as required. This will incur costs associated with changing the City’s web address on letterhead, business cards, etc., some of which will be reimbursed by the State.
Public Safety
• AB 701 – Controlled Substances: Fentanyl. This measure adds fentanyl to the list of enumerated controlled substances eligible for sentence enhancements for large quantities.
• AB 1448 – Cannabis: Enforcement by Local Jurisdictions. This measure provides that local jurisdictions that enforce state law regarding unlicensed cannabis activities will receive a 50/50 state-local split of the statutory penalties recovered in actions brought by local jurisdictions. This may reduce the cost to prosecute such cases. • AB 1418 – Tenancy: Local Regulations: Contact with Law Enforcement or Criminal Convictions. This measure will restrict the Police Department from requiring or encouraging a landlord to evict or penalize a tenant because of the tenant’s association with another tenant or household member who has had contact with the department.
Attachment 3
Transportation and Public Works
• AB 1594 – Medium and Heavy Duty Zero-Emission Vehicles: Public Agency Utilities. This measure authorizes the City to purchase replacement medium and heavy-duty utilityspecialized vehicles that do not meet zero-emission standards when they are necessary to maintain reliable service and respond to major foreseeable events.
Resources and Environment
• SB 272 – Sea Level Rise: Planning and Adaptation. This measure requires the City to submit either a local coastal program or a shoreline resiliency plan that implements sea level rise planning by January 2034. Staff plan to pursue a Local Coastal Program update in 2025 or 2026 which will incorporate sea level rise planning and adaptation policy and measures. Staff anticipates additional SB 2 grant funding should be available to complete this task.
• AB 1132 – Solar Energy: Permit Fees. This measure extends the provision that limits what the City may charge for a residential or commercial solar energy system to 2034. Staff will ensure the City’s master fee schedule includes these limitations. • AB 976 – Accessory Dwelling Unites: Owner-Occupancy Requirements. This measure grants the City authority to require rental terms for ADUs that are 30 days or longer and eliminates the City’s ability to impose owner-occupancy requirements on ADUs, regardless of when they were permitted. Staff is seeking clarification as to wither this legislation applies to Junior ADUs and, if so, will remove the owner-occupancy requirement in the development code.