City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: ACTION ITEMS
Lead Department: City Manager
Meeting Date: January 22, 2024
Report #:2309-2063
TITLE
Update regarding State and Federal Legislation and Approval of the Annual Legislative Guidelines and Legislative Platform as Recommended by the Policy & Service Committee. CEQA Status – Not a Project
RECOMMENDATION
The Policy & Services Committee recommends that the City Council approve the 2024 Federal and State Legislative Guidelines / Legislative Platform (Attachment A) and accept a legislative update.
BACKGROUND
The Policy and Services Committee heard this item at the December 12, 2023 Committee meeting and voted to advance it to the full City Council for adoption. Information about the upcoming months in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. will be provided by Townsend Public Affairs as a supplemental memo and will include information about the Governor’s budget (budget release is January 10, 2024).
ANALYSIS
As part of the City’s state and federal legislative advocacy program, staff and the City’s contracted federal and state advocates work to identify and analyze potentially impactful legislation and communicate the City’s public advocacy positions to legislators. The program is guided by the Advocacy Process Manual, last approved by City Council on January 13, 2020 (CMR #10772). In addition to the Manual, the City maintains a City Council-approved set of legislative guidelines that provide additional City Council policy direction to staff and the City’s state and federal legislative advocates. The legislative guidelines are used by staff in consultation with the Mayor to respond to bills and other issues that emerge throughout the year. They allow for efficiency in the fast-paced legislative environment.
The 2024 draft guidelines were first discussed at the Legislative Matters Ad Hoc Committee in November 2023 and then at the December 12, 2023 Policy & Services Committee. The 2023 adopted guidelines were discussed in October 2022 at Policy and Services Committee and subsequently at City Council during discussions of the contract for federal and state advocacy.
Legislative Guidelines
The Legislative Guidelines enhance and add content to the City Council’s overarching priorities; they do not supplant them. The guidelines provide direction to staff and the City’s legislative advocates on issues that are both (a) important to the City Council, and (b) likely to become a legislative issue in 2024. The guidelines are not rank ordered and are intentionally reasonably broad rather than specifically narrow to allow for a flexible and quick response. Further, the guidelines are not proactive instructions; they act as a means by which staff and advocates can respond to federal and state government action, without returning to the City Council each time a bill is introduced or amended. The draft 2024 guidelines are a compilation of the current, approved guidelines, City Council’s 2023 priorities, and policy issues staff and the City’s legislative advocates have heard interest in. Attachment A is an updated Legislative Guidelines with feedback from the City Council Legislative Matters Ad Hoc Committee and the Policy and Services Committee. The recommendation from the Policy and Services Committee is for the full City Council to discuss and adopt the guidelines.
Legislative Update
The City’s legislative advocates in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. (Townsend Public Affairs) will be present to provide advocacy updates and information about the coming weeks and months in Sacramento and D.C. if there are questions from the Committee.
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
There is no additional funding needed for this report. The City Council budgets annually for the legislative advocacy services and these efforts are led by staff in the City Manager’s Office with stakeholder support across departments on key issues.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The City’s legislative advocacy activities are not a project under section 15378(b)(25) of the California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines (administrative activities that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment).
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: Draft 2024 Legislative Guidelines
APPROVED BY:
Ed Shikada, City Manager