Annual Review of New Laws Report
City Attorney’s Office
SB 1243 (Dodd) Campaign contributions: agency officers. Chaptered 9/30/2024
Summary: The Levine Act (Gov. Code Section 84308) is intended to prevent the influence of campaign contributions on decisions that involve a license, permit, or entitlement for use. The law prohibits soliciting or accepting donations over the allowed amount (previously $250) when proceedings are pending, and requires disclosure and recusal, or return of excess contributions for the official to participate in the decision.
The new law raises the allowed contribution amount from $250 to $500, adds new exemptions and additional definitions, and makes other changes to the law.
Service/Operational Impact: S
taff recently started tracking contracts and permits for the City Council on each report to Council (RTC) by adding a section called “Levine Act,” highlighting whether the action being considered would benefit a particular contractor/vendor where Councilmembers should be aware of potential ramifications for contributions. Staff will continue to track whether certain contracts and permits are subject to the Levine Act. Council will need to be aware of the new, higher threshold.
AB 2715 (Boerner) Ralph M. Brown Act: closed sessions. Chaptered 9/14/2024
Summary: City business must be conducted in open session, with some very limited exceptions of items that can be discussed in closed session, like labor negotiations or pending litigation. This Bill permits the City Council to also discuss threats to critical infrastructure related to cyber security in closed session.
Service/Operational Impact: The City closely follows state law regarding permissible t
opics in closed session. In the event of a cyber security event, which are becoming more common, the City will be able to agendize and discuss the cyber threat without discussing the details in public.
City Manager’s Office
AB 1170 (Valencia) Political Reform Act of 1974: filing requirements. Chaptered 9/6/2024
Summary: Effective Jan. 1, 2025, public officials for whom the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) is the filing officer must file their Form 700s electronically via the FPPC’s e-filing system .
Service/Operational Impact: B
eginning in 2025, individuals required to file periodic Statements of Economic Interests (FPPC Form 700) with the FPPC will no longer be able to file electronically with the City and have their filings forward via a data exchange Attachment 1
to the FPPC. These filings will need to be filed directly in the FPPC’s e-filing system.
The effected filers, including Councilmembers, Planning Commissioners, the City Manager, City Attorney and Finance Director, have been notified.
AB 2302 (Addis) Open meetings: local agencies: teleconferences. Chaptered 9/22/2024
Summary: This Bill clarified limits imposed under teleconferencing meeting law AB 2449. It also clarified how multiple meetings held on the same day count towards the number of allowed meetings under AB 2449.
Service/Operational Impact: The Bi
ll adjusted the number of “Emergency
Circumstance” meetings a Councilmember participate in remotely each calendar year.
For Sunnyvale Council, the new limit is five (5) meetings per year. The Bill retained the “Just Cause” limit of two (2) regular meetings per year. The Bill counts any number of meetings held by the same meeting body on the same date as one meeting, i.e. a Councilmember may participate remotely in a Council Closed Session, Study Session, and a Regular meeting on the same date with their remote participation counting as either one Just Cause or Emergency Circumstance.
Human Resources
AB 2561 (McKinnor) Local public employees: vacant positions. Chaptered 9/22/2024
Summary: This Bill requires a public agency to present the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts at a public hearing at least once per fiscal year and would entitle the recognized employee organization to present at the hearing. If the number of job vacancies within a single bargaining unit meets or exceeds 20% of the total number of authorized full -time positions, th is Bill requires the public agency, upon request of the recognized employee organization, to include specified information during the public hearing.
Service/Operational Impact: H
uman Resources staff continuously tracks the vacancy
rate and works diligently to fill vacancies. Historically, staff has presented vacancy information annually to Council at the Strategic Priorities Workshop. Beginning 2025, staff will continue to present vacancy information annually, likely in tandem with another annual item such as Strategic Priorities or the Budget Workshop, for example.
Additional detail may be presented to be compliant with the Bill. Further, if the vacancy rate of a bargaining unit exceeds 20%, the bargaining unit may request and present. As of the date of this report, SEIU and COA are the only bargaining units with a vacancy rate close to or exceeding 20% (SEIU FTE 29.93, vacancy 5.585 or 18.7%; COA FTE 20, vacancy 4 or 20%).
Attachment 1
SB 1100 (Portantino) Discrimination: driver’s license. Chaptered 9/28/2024
Summary: This Bill makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to include a statement in various employment materials that an applicant must have a driver’s license unless the employer reasonably expects the duties of the position to require driving and the employer reasonably believes that satisfying that job function using an alternative form of transportation would not be comparable in travel time or cost to the employer, as specified.
Service/Operational Impact: The City’s job description language is already compliant for jobs not requiring driving. Human Resources staff currently collects driver’s license numbers from all City employees and enrolls them to the DMV Pull Program. Beginning January 2025, the City will only enroll employees who are reasonable expected to drive and provide a driver’s license number to the DMV Pull Program.
Community Development
As in previous years, California saw a significant volume of new housing legislation emerge from Sacramento in 2024. Community Development staff are aware of 30+ bills, the following are those that most impactful to the City:
AB 1886 (Alvarez) Housing Element Law: substantial compliance: Housing Accountability Act. Chaptered 9/19/2024
Summary: This Bill specifies that a local agency’s housing element is certified only when the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) or a court of competent jurisdictions determines a local agency has met the requirements of the housing element law.
Service/Operational Impact: Jurisdictions may no longer prevent Builder’s Remedy projects simply by adopting their housing element (commonly known as “self- certification”). The Bill requires the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) (or a court) to issue a finding that a jurisdiction’s housing element is in substantial compliance. The Bill allows the builder’s remedy to begin as soon as HCD has determined a city is out of compliance with state law and the local agency has missed its statutory deadline to have a certified housing element.
SB 1037 (W iener) Planning and zoning: housing element: enforcement. Chaptered 9/19/2024
Summary: This Bill allows the Attorney General to fine local jurisdictions up to $50,000 a month for not having a certified housing element, not ministerially approving an affordable housing project required by state law, or for any local agency act or omission that is “arbitrary, capricious, entirely lacking in evidentiary support, contrary to established public policy, unlawful, or procedurally unfair.” These fines can only occur after a court has ruled that the city has violated the law.
Attachment 1
Service/Operational Impact: Previously, jurisdictions that were found in violation of certain housing laws were given the opportunity to take corrective action before being subject to fines. The Bill allows the Attorney General to take legal action and seek penalties, legal fees, and fines up to $50,000 per month for the violation of housing laws without first offering an opportunity for corrective action.
SB 450 (Atkins) Housing development: approvals. Chaptered 9/19/2024
Summary: This Bill removes the ability of local governments to deny an SB 9 (2021) project for objective standards on the specific project. Instead, it specifies that objective standards must only apply to the underlying zone on which the main lot is located. It also prohibit local agencies from denying an SB 9 project if the proposed project would impact the physical environment.
Service/Operational Impact: As of January 1, 2025, the City will no longer be able to enforce any Dual Urban Opportunity (DUO) specific requirements in Sunnyvale Municipal Code (SMC) 19.78 and 18.26, unless those requirements are specifically permitted by statute. Instead, the City can only apply the objective standards in the underlying zoning district (i.e. R-0, R-1), unless the DUO standards are more permissive. The Bill also requires the City to approve or reject an application within 60 days of receiving a complete application. Staff plans to address these modifications with the new Housing Development Permit Ordinance.
SB 1123 (Caballero). Planning and zoning: subdivisions: ministerial review.
Chaptered 9/19/2024
Summary: This Bill requires local agencies to ministerially approve the subdivision of a parcel map for up to 10 housing units and to allow the ministerial approval of any on-site housing units in vacant, single-family zoned sites beginning July 1, 2025.
Service/Operational Impact: The Bill updates SB 684 (2023) which allows ministerial approval of a housing development up to 10 units on lots zoned to allow multifamily residential uses. The scope of the bill expands to lots that are vacant and zoned for single-family residential development. Staff plans to address the Sunnyvale Municipal Code (SMC) updates in the Zoning Code Retooling project and in the interim will address any permits for meeting the criteria on an ad-hoc basis.
SB 937 (Wiener) Development projects: fees and charges. Chaptered 9/19/2024
Summary: This Bill requires local agencies to defer the payment of mitigation fees until the certificate of occupancy or final inspection occurs for specific affordable housing projects. This measure also requires a developer to break ground on the affordable housing project in five years to qualify for fee deferral and limits when a local agency can collect fees earlier than a certificate of occupancy.
Attachment 1
Service/Operational Impact: The Bill changes the City’s practice of requiring payment of impact fees prior to building permit issuance to prior to final occupancy/project completion for specified housing projects. Relevant code updates will be made as part of the new Housing Development Permit Ordinance.
Environmental Services
AB 2346 (Lee) Organic waste reduction regulations: procurement of recovered organic waste products. Chaptered 9/27/2024
Summary: This Bill eases jurisdictions’ SB 1383 organic procurement requirements by authorizing local jurisdictions to count toward their procurement targets compost produced and procured from certain compost operations, investments, and expenditures. This Bill authorizes a local jurisdiction to determine a local per capita procurement target using information from a local waste characterization study. This Bill also authorizes a local jurisdiction to satisfy its annual procurement obligations by procuring a quantity of recovered organic waste products that meets or exceeds a five- year procurement target.
Service/Operational Impact: The Bill reduces the target number of tons of compost and mulch that Sunnyvale will be required to procure, resulting in cost savings.
SB 707 (Newman) Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024. Chaptered 9/28/2024
Summary: This Bill enacts a stewardship program known as the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024, which requires a producer of apparel or textile articles to form and join a producer responsibility organization (PRO). This Bill requires the PRO to be approved by CalRecycle. This Bill requires CalRecycle to adopt regulations to implement the program no earlier than July 1, 2028. This Bill also requires the PRO to submit to CalRecycle for approval or disapproval a complete plan for the collection, transportation, repair, sorting, and recycling, and the safe and proper management of apparel and textile articles in the state.
Service/Operational Impact: The Bill will reduce Sunnyvale landfill costs and increase diversion. Per CalRecycle, Sunnyvale annually landfills about 3,300 tons of textile wastes.
SB 1280 (Laird) Waste management: propane cylinders: reusable or refillable.
Chaptered 9/22/2024
Summary: This Bill, on and after Jan. 1, 2028, prohibits the sale or offer for sale of propane cylinders other than those propane cylinders that are reusable or refillable. This measure requires CalRecycle to adopt regulations to implement these provisions.
Service/Operational Impact: The Sunnyvale SMaRT Station will continue to accept disposable 1lb propane cylinders for drop off. The safety of garbage trucks and the Attachment 1
Sunnyvale SMaRT Station will improve as reusables gradually replace disposables, since improperly discarded cylinders are a cause of fires.
AB 2427 (McCarty) Electric vehicle charging stations: permitting: curbside charging. Chaptered 9/25/2024
Summary: This Bill requires local agencies to undertake specified actions regarding the permitting of electric vehicle charging stations in the public right-of-way and adds specified information to the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Permitting Guidebook (Guidebook) developed by the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz).
Service/Operational Impact: The Bill requires Sunnyvale to execute permitting updates, if necessary, and develop a checklist that includes all the information required for a complete application for a permit or other authorization to install an electric vehicle charging station within the public right-of-way. As part of that process, the Bill requires Sunnyvale to consider the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Permitting Guidebook from the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. The Bill requires local agencies, like Sunnyvale, with populations of fewer than 250,000 residents to comply with these provisions by January 1, 2029.
Finance
AB 2257 (Wilson) Local government: property-related water and sewer fees and assessments: remedies. Chaptered 9/25/2024
Summary: Under AB 2257, as a supplement to the Prop 218 requirements, prior to approving any updated rate for water or sewer services or any assessment, the local agency would: (1) post a separate notice on the local agency’s website, (2) supplement the mailed Prop 218 notice to identify the new process, (3) prepare written responses to any written objections, and (4) prior to approving the updated rates, the local agency’s governing body must make specified determinations.
Service/Operational Impact: Finance staff is consulting with outside council to prepare for potential adoption of this optional legislation. If adopted, the impact would be minimal since Sunnyvale is currently following most required changes.
Library and Recreation Services
AB 2232 (Maienschein) Accessibility to emergency information and services:
emergency shelters: persons with pets. Chaptered 6/11/2024
Summary: This Bill specifies that upon the next update to a city or county’s emergency plan, whenever a city or county designates any number of emergency warming centers, that it also, to the extent practicable, designate at least one warming center that can accommodate persons with pets.
Attachment 1
Service/Operational Impact: The Library and Recreation Services Department opens warming centers. The Bill impacts the types of facilities needed to be opened to accommodate pets. Also, the definition of pet is unclear. Dogs and cats are expected, but accommodations might need to be made for other types of pets, if required.
AB 262 (Holden) Children’s camps: safety and regulation. Chaptered 9/22/2024
Summary: This Bill requires the California Department of Social Services (DSS) to establish and lead a stakeholder workgroup to gather information and provide recommendations to the Legislature regarding the development of subsequent legislation for children’s camps. The workgroup must include representatives from local city, county, and special district parks departments.
Service/Operational Impact: The workgroup being formed may create policy that impacts Sunnyvale’s ability to provide certain services. Several years ago, there was an item in the Legislature that would have required local agencies to monitor any camp within the Library and Recreation Services jurisdiction.
Public Works
SB 1216 (Blakespear) Transportation projects: Class III bikeways: prohibition.
Chaptered 9/27/2024
Summary: This Bill, when feasible and cost effective, prohibits any agency responsible for the development or operation of bikeways or highways where bicycle travel is permitted from installing or restriping a sharrow on a highway that has a posted speed limit greater than 30 mph.
Service/Operational Impact: A “sharrow” is a pavement marking used to inform motorist that bicyclists might occupy the travel lane. The Bill prohibits installations of new sharrows on a roadway with posted speed limit greater than 30 miles per hour, except at or near an intersection for the purpose of connecting a Class I, Class II, or Class IV bikeway through the intersection. The Bill prohibits after January 1, 2026, the California Transportation Commission from adding projects that creates Class III bikeway or a sharrow to the program of projects. Currently, the City only installs sharrows on streets with posted speed limits of less than 35mph and even then, installs them in limited cases. The Bill will alter this practice by decreasing the quantity of streets that could be considered for sharrows.
Attachment 1
NOVA
H.R. 5861 BRIDGE for Workers Act. Became Law on 11/25/2024
Summary: This law expands the allowable purposes for certain Department of Labor grants to states for reemployment services and eligibility assessments, allowing these uses for all claimants for unemployment compensation.
Service/Operational Impact: The law provides the California Employment Development Department with the ability to deliver Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) services to all individuals who are receiving unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. This will further support and enhance NOVA Workforce Services’ programs to assist unemployed workers return to the workforce more quickly.
AB 2179
(Davies) Pupil services: local apprenticeship programs and pre- apprenticeship programs: notification of parents or guardians. Chaptered 7/2/2024
Summary: School districts are currently required to provide written notification to parents or guardians of minors in grades 9 to 12 about college admission requirements and career technical education. This Bill expands this requirement to include information on local pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs in grades 11 and 12.
Service/Operational Impact: Apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs provide earn and learn opportunities for young adults. Through this experience, they acquire invaluable skills that will facilitate their transition to advanced education or the workforce. The Bill will assist NOVA Workforce Services in effectively bridging the gap between high school and a career for young adult customers.
Attachment 1