HAND OUTS
CITY COUNCIL
MEETING
MAY 21, 2024
ATTACHMENT 1
LEGISLATIVE POLICY GUIDE
2024
CITY COUNCIL MEETING MAY 21, 2024 - HANDOUT BY STAFF
BUSINESS SESSION ITEM NO. 1 - REVISED LEGISLATIVE POLICY GUIDE
The Legislative Policy Guide (“Guide”) is to intentionally promote the adoption of legislation that will establish sound public policy for responsible governance; protect and enhance public health, safety, and welfare; protect the environment; and aid in the City’s delivery of high-quality services to its residents.
The Guide is intended to articulate the City’s positions on issues that are currently, or are anticipated to be, the focus of future legislation. The positions contained in the Guide are intended to supplement the broad range of goals, policies, and programs reflected in the General Plan, Municipal Code, Sacred Values, Strategic Plan and other adopted documents. Therefore, advocacy efforts may be based on references articulated in these policy documents as they provide current direction for the City organization.
City departments are encouraged to review proposed legislation to determine how it relates to the City’s legislative platform and recommend a position that they determine to be “high priority” and recommend that the Mayor write letters, contact legislators, and otherwise communicate the position of the City as appropriate. The Mayor, or designee after conferring with the City Manager, may authorize staff to contact legislators to advocate for or against legislation that is consistent with the City’s legislative platform. 2024 Legislative Policy Guide
The Guide is a tool for the City to navigate through the legislative landscape. This document details the City’s Guiding Principles and Policy Positions on priority issues and provides a comprehensive approach to allow staff to take immediate action on pressing legislation under City Council direction. The Guide identifies legislative trends and active legislation that may have an impact on the City’s interests and affairs, and supplements other Council-established goals and policies.
Guiding Principles
The City of La Quinta is a charter city that supports legislation aimed at preserving local authority. Additional regulations or mandates that undermine local control are detrimental to quality service delivery.
The City of La Quinta has been able to successfully maneuver through redevelopment dissolution and the COVID-19 Pandemic and economic downturns through prudent, disciplined spending and cost-effective stewardship of City resources. Therefore, the City supports measures that promote fiscal stability.
The City of La Quinta supports legislative efforts designed to foster economic development tools and funding options for effective service delivery.
The City of La Quinta actively seeks to promote promotes a healthy and vibrant community that provides various recreational activities and opportunities for residents and visitors to enjoy the unique benefits of La Quinta.
The City of La Quinta strongly supports makes community safety a priority by providing high quality law enforcement and fire services and maintaining health and safety standards for its residents and visitors.
The City of La Quinta is a thriving desert oasis that supports a proactive and thoughtful stance regarding the enhancement and conservation of the desert environment that surrounds us, including the Salton Sea.
Policy Positions
The City of La Quinta supports economic development policies and funding mechanisms that foster a hospitable and thriving business environment. Considering budget shortfalls, the City supports public-private development opportunities that encourage economic activity and promote health and wellness within the City.
The City supports retaining financial flexibility and authority regarding redevelopment dissolution matters.
The City opposes measures that would make the City more dependent on the State for financial stability.
The City supports legislation that facilitates the recoupment of costs derived from State and Federal mandates.
The City of La Quinta is a charter city that relies on contract services to provide efficient service delivery.
The City opposes any change in revenue allocations that would negatively affect local governments.
The City opposes any action that would preempt local control over locally imposed taxes and other funding sources.
The City opposes unfunded State and Federal mandates. The City of La Quinta supports legislation that develops programs to increase housing and funding opportunities to meet growth demand in our area. The City supports legislative efforts that provide incentives to local governments and private developers to develop housing opportunities including affordable housing for low-income and disabled seniors, adults, and veterans. The City of La Quinta supports the preservation of our environment. The City promotes the development of reasonable regulations to encourage and maximize the responsible use of reclaimed water as an alternative to California’s fresh water supply.
The City supports financial incentives and legislation that encourages water reuse and the treatment of municipal wastewater for non-potable reuse. The City is a leader in recycling and supports financial incentives and legislation that encourages residents and businesses to meet changing mandates. The City of La Quinta supports measures that provide financing tools for increasing effective, clean transportation.
The City supports clean energy alternatives that are adequately funded. The City supports State clean energy programs that are financially viable and direct funding to local government to invest in clean energy.
The City supports developing vital infrastructure and streamlining the Local, State, and Federal process for infrastructure development to better meet local needs. The City supports legislation that strengthens local authority over land use and infrastructure development.
The City of La Quinta supports legislation that strengthens local law enforcement and safeguards communities.
The City supports measures aimed at providing sustained support for law enforcement to deal with the additional supervision and enforcement requirements of State-mandated realignment provisions.
The City opposes expansion of "early release" for offenders without necessary mechanisms in place for local law enforcement to provide corresponding services. The City of La Quinta strongly supports attracting tourism. The City supports efforts that help promote the City's hospitality, parks and recreation, health and wellness offerings, and entertainment venues. The City supports working closely with public and private agencies to help boost advertisements and other means of garnering tourism.
The City supports measures that fund parks and recreation programs.
New California Laws for 2024
The California Legislature introduced over 2,600 bills in 2023. Less than half (1,046) made it to the Governor’s desk in September. The Governor signed 890 bills and vetoed 156, about the same 15% veto rate as the previous year. Below are a few laws impacting the City that took effect in January 2024:
SB 423 (Multi-Family Housing Developments) – Extends the original SB 35 ministerial approval sunset to 2036 for certain multi-family housing developments, especially 100% affordable. Also includes development in coastal regions now under certain conditions. The State can approve or deny new housing developments on all State-owned and leased land.
SB 525 (Health Care Workers Minimum Wage) – Raises the minimum wage of health care workers to $21/hour in 2024, and then $25/hour in 2025 depending on the size of medical organization. This is not just for the medical team; this also applies to janitors, medical technicians, office assistants, etc.
AB 1228 (Fast-Food Workers Minimum Wage) – Raises the minimum wage of fast-food workers to $20/hour by April 2024. A California Fast-Food Council will also be convened to set labor and safety standards across the industry.
AB 40 (Emergency Medical Services) – Requires ambulance off-load times not to exceed 30 minutes from time of arrival at a hospital or medical clinic to transferring custody to the hospital/medical clinic’s staff. There is a buffer zone of 10% of total ambulance off-loads that can exceed this time limit.
AB 1572 (Non-Potable Water for Nonfunctioning Turf) – Prohibits the use of potable water (safe for human consumption) for nonfunctional turf. Local governments must start this in January 2027, commercial and industrial properties start in 2028, and HOAs start in 2029. Organizations and property owners must use non-potable water or no water at all. Parks and sports fields are considered functional turf. There are exceptions for tree and plant health and irrigated commercial areas over 5,000 square feet.
AB 12 (Tenancy Security Deposits) – Landlords cannot take a security deposit greater than one month’s rent. Landlords were previously able to take up to 2-3 month’s rent as a deposit.
AB 1484 (Temporary Public Employees) – Temporary public employees shall be included in the same bargaining unit as permanent employees, which may make them eligible for the same benefits such as vacation time, holidays, and sick days. This may increase costs for hiring temps, seasonal, and part-time workers.
AB 1637 (Local Government Website Domains) – Local government website domains and email addresses must be “.gov” by January 2029. This includes all municipal and tourism websites that are currently using “.org” or “.com” domains.
Pending Legislation Impacting Us
The public policy landscape is constantly changing, and it is incumbent on the City to stay up to date on the latest developments. Anticipating the effects new legislation and amendment re-writes may have on the community is imperative. Below are pending legislation in key areas of interest to the City:
SB 584 (Limón) (Short-Term Rental Tax Law) – Creates a new Short-Term Vacation Rental (STVR) tax for renters that will go towards a statewide Laborforce Housing Fund to assist public entities and nonprofits with creating more affordable housing across the state. The new STVR tax will be 15% of the total rental cost. STVR operators earning less than $100K annually do not have to collect the STVR tax.
AB 1657 (Wicks) (Affordable Housing Bond Act) – Enacts the Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2024 and authorizes the issuance of bonds for $10B. Bond sales would help finance affordable rental housing and homeownership programs across the state.
AB 1782 (Ta) (Housing Redevelopment Successor Agencies) – Increases the annual amount from $250K to $500K that a housing redevelopment successor agency can expend on homelessness prevention programs. Funds must come out of the housing successor agency’s Low and Moderate Income Housing Asset Fund. The City currently expends $300K annually towards homelessness prevention programs.
AB 1813 (Alanis) (Senior Tenant Rental Subsidy Grant) – Establishes the Senior Tenant Shallow Rental Subsidy Program of 2024. Requires the state to develop a grant for cities and counties to provide rent subsidies for senior citizens at risk of homelessness. Half of the grants will go to cities with 250K and higher population. The other half will go to cities with less than 250K population. Subsidies to individual senior citizens will be no more than $500/month for up to 18 months.
SB 834 (Portantino) (Family Home Construction and Homeownership Bond Act) – Enacts the Family Home Construction and Homeownership Bond Act of 2023 if adopted. This would authorize the issuance of $25B in bonds to fund certain housing programs across the state.
SB 968 (Seyarto) (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) – Allows a council of governments that determines Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) methodology to consider prior overproduction of housing units in the previous RHNA cycle to count as credit toward the next RHNA cycle. RHNA quantifies the need for housing within each jurisdiction during 8-year planning cycles.
HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
AB 2 (Ward) (Solar Panel Recycling) – CalRecycle shall establish a covered solar panel recycling fee and charge new consumers and service providers at the time of purchase. Consumers and service providers will start paying the fee in January 2028. The new fee will fund a subaccount in the CalRecycle electronic waste account to continuously fund e-waste recovery and recycling. Also requires an endof-life management plan for solar panel modules by January 2028.
AB 573 (Garcia) (Organic Waste Products Procurement Targets) – Requires CalRecycle to allow local jurisdictions to procure recovered organic waste products that are derived from CA organic waste but processed outside the state until December 2031. Current law requires organic waste procurement products be processed in CA.
SB 615 (Allen) (Electric Vehicle Batteries) – Requires all vehicle traction batteries to be recovered, reused, or recycled at their end-of-useful-life in an electric motor vehicle. Requires a vehicle manufacturer, dealer, dismantler, or repair shop to ensure the responsible end-of-life management of the battery once removed from the vehicle.
SB 638 (Eggman) (Climate Resiliency and Flood Protection Act) – Enacts the Climate Resiliency and Flood Protection Act of 2024 if approved by voters. Would authorize the issuance of $6B in bonds for flood protection and climate resiliency projects across the state.
SB 969 (Wiener) (Entertainment Zones and Open Alcohol Consumption) – Authorizes any city and county to establish entertainment zones where people can consume alcohol on public streets, sidewalks, and rights-of-way on or after January 2025. Prior to adopting an ordinance to create the new zone(s), local governments must run the details by their local law enforcement agency first.
AB 1713 (Gipson) (Federal Funding Reports) – Requires local agencies to submit a report to their local legislative body if they fail to spend federal funding by the expiration date. The report must also explain what funds were expended, what funds were returned, and why all funds were not used.
SCA 2 (Stern) (Voter Qualifications) – Measure would reduce CA’s minimum voting age to 17.
AB 591 (Gabriel) (Public Electric Vehicle Charging Stations) – Requires public, fee-based electric vehicle charging stations to accept payment by credit card and include universal connectors that enable any electric vehicle to charge.
ENVIRONMENT
GOVERNANCE
TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC WORKS
AB 19 (Patterson, Joe) (Opioid Overdose Prevention in Schools) – Requires each public and charter school that has a school nurse, or trained personnel, available to maintain at least two units of naloxone hydrochloride. This drug negates or neutralizes the effects of an opioid overdose.
AB 86 (Jones-Sawyer) (Statewide Homelessness Coordinator) – Requires the Governor to appoint a Statewide Homelessness Coordinator to serve as the lead person to oversee all state homelessness programs, services, data, and policies between federal, state, and local agencies.
SB 37 (Caballero) (Older and Disabled Adults Housing Stability Act) – Requires the state to develop a grant program to offer grants to non-profits, public housing authorities, and agencies on aging to administer a housing subsidy program for older adults and adults with disabilities who are experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness.
AB 1034 (Wilson) (Facial Recognition Technology) – Prohibits a law enforcement agency or officer from installing, activating, or using any biometric surveillance system (such as facial recognition technology) in connection with an officer's body camera.
AB 1463 (Lowenthal) (Automated License Plate Reader) – Public agencies that are Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) operators or end users shall purge all ALPR information after 30 days if anything does not match a specified hot list. This also prohibits operators and end users from accessing ALPR data older than 60 days.
SB 50 (Bradford) (Vehicle and Bicycle Low-Level Infractions) – Prohibits a peace officer from stopping or detaining an operator of a vehicle or bicycle for a low-level infraction, unless a separate, independent basis for a stop exists or more than one low-level infraction. Low-level infractions include outdated vehicle registration and license plates, malfunctioning vehicle lights, dark window tint, and faulty bicycle equipment.
PUBLIC SAFETY
COMMUNITY SERVICES
Governor’s Proposed 2024-25 State Budget
Governor Gavin Newsom submitted his 2024-25 State Budget proposal to the Legislature on January 10, 2024 – a $291.5 billion fiscal blueprint that provides funding for Education, Environmental Quality, Public Safety, Community Services, Housing & Homelessness, Transportation & Public Works, Governance, and Labor Relations. This budget proposal is $19.3 billion less than the previous fiscal year, with a projected deficit of $37.9 billion.
This substantial budget deficit is mostly due to extraordinary prior-year revenue shortfalls. The federal government extended tax filing deadlines multiple times last year in response to extreme winter storms, and California followed suit. As a result, the complete picture of 2022-23 tax collections became clear only after the fiscal year closed and the previous year’s budget had passed. The deficit was balanced by using reserves, cuts, internal borrowing, delays, fund shifts, and deferrals.
May revisions were presented by the Governor’s office. Pending any changes before final Legislature approval on June 15, 2024.
[1] Budget summary based on the Proposed Budget Summary (2024) on the California Budget 2024-25 2024-25 STATE BUDGET
LEGISLATIVE CALENDAR 2024
MONTHLY OVERVIEW
Below is an overview that summarizes major legislative events and key dates that occur month-to-month in Sacramento.
January: The previous year’s laws go into effect January 1. The full Legislature reconvenes on January 3. The Governor must submit the budget by January 10. Last day for each house to pass their own bills that were introduced the previous year is January 31.
February: The last day for bills to be introduced is February 16.
March: Spring Recess begins on March 22.
April: Legislature reconvenes on April 1. Last day for policy committees to hear and report new fiscal bills to fiscal committees is April 26.
May: Policy committees must report non-fiscal bills by May 3. Last day for policy committees to meet is May 10; last day for fiscal committees to meet is May 17. Floor session only from May 20–24. Each house must pass their own bills by May 24. Committee meetings resume on May 28.
June: Budget Bill must be passed by June 15. Last day for a legislative measure to qualify for the November general election is June 27.
July: The last day for policy committees to meet and report bills is July 3. Summer Recess begins on July 4.
August: Legislature reconvenes on August 5. The last day for fiscal committees to report bills is August 16. Floor session only from August 19–31. Final day for each house to pass remaining bills is August 31. Final recess begins on September 1.
September: September 30 is the last day for the Governor to approve or veto bills passed by the Legislature.
October: Bills enacted on or before October 2 take effect in January 2025.
November: The General Election is held on November 5.
December: The 2025-2026 Legislative Session convenes on December 2 for an organizational session.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING MAY 21, 2024 - HANDOUT BY FAMILIES UNITED TO END THE RISING TOBACCO EPIDEMIC (FUERTE)
ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA - SAMPLE LA QUINTA TOBACCO POLICY PACKET