Information related to the current status of legislation and regulations impacting California’s rural counties.
Assembly Bill 1 (C. Garcia): Hazardous Waste: Assembly Bill 1 establishes several new governance, policy, and fiscal reforms to improve the Department of Toxic Substances Control, including significantly increasing several fees and repealing several important local government fee exemptions. Status: AB 1 awaits consideration in the Senate Environmental Quality. RCRC Status: Concerns
Assembly Bill 9 (Wood): Fire safety: wildfires: fire adapted communities: Assembly Bill 9 seeks to codify the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity (RFFC) program, which creates a new regional approach to collaboratively planned strategies for wildfire risk reduction project development. Status: awaits consideration in the Senate Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 246 (Quirk) Contractors: disciplinary actions. Assembly Bill 246 allows the Contractors State Licensing Board to take disciplinary actions against a contractor who violates state or local laws prohibiting illegal dumping. Status: AB 246 awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 267 (Valladeres): California Environmental Quality Act: Assembly Bill 267 extends until 2026 exemptions from the requirements of CEQA prescribed fire, thinning, or fuel reduction projects undertaken on federal lands to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire that have been reviewed under the federal National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 that are being performed using state funds or as part of a Good Neighbor Authority agreement. Status: AB 267 awaits consideration in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 332 (ESTM): Hazardous waste: treated wood waste: Reestablishes a statutory pathway for the alternative management and disposal of treated wood waste in a landfill. Status: AB 332 consideration in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 339 (Lee): Local government: open and public meetings. Assembly Bill 339 requires all open and public meetings to include an in-person public comment opportunity, except in specified circumstances during a declared state or local emergency. The bill would require all meetings to provide the public with an opportunity to comment on proposed legislation in person and remotely via a telephonic or an internet-based service option, as provided. Status: AB 339 awaits consideration on the Senate Floor. RCRC Status: Oppose
Assembly Bill 361 (Rivas): Open meetings: local agencies: teleconferences. Assembly Bill 361 authorizes a local agency to use teleconferencing without complying with the teleconferencing requirements imposed by the Ralph M. Brown Act when a legislative body of a local agency holds a meeting for the purpose of declaring or ratifying a local emergency. Status: AB 361 awaits consideration in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 428 (Mayes): Assembly Bill 428 requires each county to have a board of supervisors and provides for the organization and powers of the board of supervisors. Current law allows the board of supervisors of any general law or charter county to adopt or the residents of the county to propose, by initiative, limit or repeal a limit on the number of terms a member of the board of supervisors may serve on the board of supervisors. Status: AB 428 awaits consideration in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 431 (Patterson): Forestry: timber harvesting plans: defensible space: exemptions: Assembly Bill 431 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations, as defined, unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to, and approved by, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Status: AB 431 is awaiting consideration from the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 759 (McCarty): Elections: county officers: Assembly Bill 759 would require an election for all county-wide offices (sheriff, assessor, district attorney, etc.) be held at the presidential general election. Initially, this bill only applied to the county sheriff but recent amendments expand it to all county-wide offices. In addition, this bill would require that these officeholder elections occur at the 2024 General Election thereby requiring affected officeholders to hold a two-year term (assuming election in 2022). Status: AB 759 awaits consideration on the Senate Floor. RCRC Status: Watch
Assembly Bill 792 (Flora): Forestry: prescribed burning agreements. Assembly Bill 792 authorizes the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to enter into an agreement for prescribed burning or other hazardous fuel reduction for specified purposes, such as vegetation management and forest improvement. Status: AB 792 has become a 2-year bill. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 819 (Levine) California Environmental Quality Act: notices and documents: electronic filing and posting. Requires lead agencies to post California Environmental Quality Act notices and documents on their internet websites and to submit CEQA documents to the State Clearinghouse in electronic form. Status: AB 819 awaits consideration in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
Assembly Bill 1139 (Gonzalez) Net Energy Metering. Assembly Bill 1139 seeks to replace the existing net energy metering NEM tariff for rooftop solar with a new tariff under which utilities will pay the owners of rooftop solar far less for the energy produced by those systems. AB 1139 seeks to address substantial cost shifting between solar and non-solar utility customers, but in doing so will substantially increase electrical bills for solar customers. The bill also deems all rooftop solar projects to be “public works” projects for which prevailing wages must be paid. Status: AB 1139 failed passage in the Assembly. RCRC Status: Watch.
Assembly Bill 1201 (Ting) Solid waste: plastic products: labeling: composability and biodegradability. Authorizes CalRecycle to adopt regulations for plastic product labeling to ensure that plastic products labeled as compostable or home compostable are clearly distinguishable from no compostable products. Prohibits the sale of a plastic product labeled as compostable, home compostable, or soil biodegradable unless the product meets specified standards. Status: AB 1201 awaits consideration by the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
Assembly Bill 1311 (Wood) Recycling: beverage containers: certified recycling centers. Makes modest changes to the Beverage Container Recycling Act to increase consumer access to redemption opportunities. Status: AB 1311 awaits consideration in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 1344 (Arambula) State Department of Public Health: Needle and Syringe Exchange Services. Exempts needle and syringe exchanges services from the California Environmental Quality Act. Status: AB 1344 awaits consideration in the Senate Health Committee. RCRC Status: Neutral
Assembly Bill 1403 (Levine) Emergency Services. Assembly Bill 1403 clarifies that deenergization events (also known as PSPS events) qualify as events for which a state of emergency can be declared by the Governor under the California Emergency Services Act, but not for a local emergency declared by a local government.. Status: AB 1403 awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Oppose unless Amended
Assembly Bill 1431 (Fraizer): Forestry: forest carbon plan: state goals: Assembly Bill 1431 codifies various portions of the 2018 California Forest Carbon Plan, and requires the Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency, on or before January 1, 2023, to submit a report to the appropriate policy and budget committees of the Legislature on the positions and resources needed to achieve those state goals. Status: AB 1431 awaits consideration in the Senate Natural Resources & Water Committee. RCRC Status: RCRC Sponsored Bill
Assembly Bill 1454 (Bloom) Beverage Container and Litter Reduction Act. Assembly Bill 1454 makes several changes to the Beverage Container Recycling Program, including creation of a new $25,000 startup loan for the creation of new recycling centers in unserved or underserved areas. Status: AB 1454 awaits referral by the Senate Rules Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 1458 (Fraizer): Fish and wildlife protection and conservation: lake and streambed alteration agreements: Assembly Bill 1458 exempts vegetation management or fuels treatment projects undertaken, carried out, or approved by a state or local governmental agency necessary to prevent or mitigate the threat or intensity of a wildfire from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Lake and Streambed Alteration agreement requirements. Status: AB 1458 is a two-year bill. RCRC Status: RCRC Sponsored Bill
Senate Bill 11 (Rubio): The California FAIR Plan Association: basic property insurance: Senate Bill 11, which would remove certain barriers to enable homes and structures used to conduct business on farmland to be covered through the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan. Status: SB 11 awaits consideration in the Assembly Insurance Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 37 (Cortese) California Environmental Quality Act Exemption. Senate Bill 37 eliminates the ability to use a “common sense exemption” under the California Environmental Quality Act for any projects undertaken at over 40,000 sites throughout the state that appear on the Cortese List of currently or formerly contaminated properties. The bill will require discretionary projects with no environmental impact at those locations (including many local corp yards, fire stations, airports, etc.) to undergo an initial assessment and prepare a negative declaration. Status: SB 37 awaits consideration in the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials and Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Oppose.
Senate Bill 38 (Wieckowski): Beverage Containers. Replaces the existing Beverage Container Recycling Program (Bottle Bill) with a new recycling program administered by beverage container manufacturers and increases the CRV from $0.05 to $0.10 per container if the state fails to achieve specified recycling rates. Repeals the $10.5 million annually set aside for payments to cities and counties to address recycling and litter. Status: SB 38 awaits consideration in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Oppose Unless Amended
Senate Bill 52 (Dodd): State of Emergency: Power Outages. Senate Bill 52 clarifies that deenergization events (also known as PSPS events) qualify as events for which a local emergency can be declared under the California Emergency Services Act. Status: SB 52 awaits consideration in the Assembly Emergency Management Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 99 (Dodd): Community Energy Resilience Act of 2021. Senate Bill 99 requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to develop and implement a grant program for local governments to develop community energy resilience plans. Status: SB 99 awaits consideration in the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 207 (Dahle): Photovoltaic Recycling Advisory Group: Senate Bill 207 seeks to spur the recycling and reuse of solar photovoltaic panels by requiring an advisory group to make recommendations to ensure that, to the extent possible, all solar photovoltaic panels in the state are reused or recycled at the end of their lives in a safe and cost-effective manner. Status: SB 207 awaits consideration in the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 208 (Dahle):Sierra Nevada Conservancy: Sierra Nevada Region: subregion: Senate Bill 208 requires the Sierra Nevada Conservancy to make an annual report to the Legislature and to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency regarding expenditures, land management costs, and administrative costs. This bill would modify areas listed under the definitions of the “Sierra Nevada Region” and its “subregions,” as specified, for these purposes. Status: SB 208 awaits consideration on the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 219 (McGuire): Property Tax Payments: Shelter-in-Place Order. Senate Bill 219 codifies a county tax collector’s ability to cancel late payment penalties for taxpayers who have experienced financial hardship due to shelter-in-place orders. Status: SB 219 secured passage in the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 244 (Archuleta): Lithium-ion batteries: illegal disposal: fire prevention: Senate Bill 244 seeks to prevent lithium-ion battery fires by requiring the state to develop training and best practices for the detection, safe handling, and suppression of fires that originate from discarded lithium-ion batteries in solid waste collection vehicles, transfer and processing stations, and disposal facilities. Status: SB 244 awaits consideration on the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 264 (Min): Firearms: state and county property: Senate Bill 264 prohibits the sale of firearms and firearm components on state property, most notably District Agriculture Associations-operated fairs. Status: SB 264 awaits consideration on the Assembly Public Safety Committee. RCRC Status: Oppose
Senate Bill 286 (Min): County Officer Elections Top-Two Advance. Senate Bill 286 would require the top-two vote-getters seeking election to a county office to face-off in a General Election. Status: SB 286 is now a two-year bill. RCRC Status: Oppose
Senate Bill 341 (McGuire) Makes several changes to increase oversight and accountability of telecommunications service outages. Status: SB 341 awaits consideration in the Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 456 (Laird) Fire prevention: forest health: action plan: reports. Senate Bill 456 requires the department to be responsible for, among other things, fire protection and prevention, as provided. The former Governor, Edmund G. Brown Jr., issued an executive order relating to, among other subjects, the streamlining of permitting for landowner-initiated projects for the improvement of forest health and the reduction of forest fire fuels on their properties. Status: SB 456 awaits consideration on the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 462 (Borgeas): Disaster relief: Creek Fire: allocation to local agencies: Senate Bill 462, which would add the Creek Fire of 2020 in Madera County and Fresno County to the emergencies eligible for the state to pay up to 100 percent of the costs out of the California Disaster Assistance Act (CDAA) fund. Status: SB 462 was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee (Suspense File). RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 533 (Stern) Electrical corporations: wildfire mitigation plans: deenergization events: microgrids. Requires utilities to discuss in their Wildfire Mitigation Plans efforts to improve their electrical systems, focused on those areas and assets that have been deenergized the greatest number of times. Status: SB 533 awaits consideration in the Assembly Utilities & Energy Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 592 (Dahle) Fish and wildlife: working group: catastrophic wildfires: Senate Bill 592 require the Director of Fish and Wildlife to establish a working group, composed of the director or the director’s representative, the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection or their representative, and a county government representative from each county impacted by any catastrophic wildfire being studied by the workgroup, as described below. Status: SB 592 is now a two-year bill. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 619 (Laird) Organic waste: reduction regulations. Will seek to provide local governments with additional flexibility to achieve the state’s organic waste recycling requirements. Status: SB 619 awaits referral by the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 709 (Dahle) Senate Bill 709 eliminates extensions for timber harvesting plans approved by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection from January 1, 2010, to August 31, 2012, inclusive, and instead allow for a timber harvesting plan that is approved by the department from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2015, inclusive, to be extended for an additional 2 years if certain conditions are met. The bill would make other no substantive changes to these provisions. Status: SB 709 awaits consideration in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Support