LEGISLATION AND REGULATORY UPDATE

Information related to the current status of legislation and regulations impacting California’s rural counties.

Assembly Bill 570 (Aguiar-Curry): Broadband Services: State Advanced Services Fund: Assembly Bill 570 authorizes local educational agencies to report to the Department of Education their pupils' estimated needs for computing devices and internet connectivity adequate for at home learning. Authorizes the Board of Supervisors of a county to acquire, construct, improve, maintain, and operate broadband internet access services. Requires the Office of Planning and Research to provide long range planning and research, as the comprehensive state planning agency. Status: AB 570 awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee RCRC Status: Pending

Assembly Bill 609 (Levine): CEQA: Electronic Filing and Posting: Assembly Bill 609 requires lead agencies to post various CEQA notices on their internet web sites and expands the universe of CEQA documents that lead agencies must submit to the State Clearinghouse. Status: AB 609 awaits consideration in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. RCRC Status: Watch

Assembly Bill 660 (Levine): Personal Information: Contact Tracing: Assembly Bill 660 would prohibit law enforcement from engaging in contact tracing for the coronavirus. Status: AB 660 awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Oppose

Assembly Bill 685 (Reyes) Occupational Safety: COVID 19: Assembly Bill 685 would mandate a comprehensive set of reporting requirements for all California employers when an employee is exposed to the coronavirus. Status: AB 685 awaits final consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Oppose

Assembly Bill 995 (Garcia): Hazardous Waste: Assembly Bill 995 establishes a new board to oversee and establish goals for operation of the Department of Toxic Substances Control and consider appeals from permit decisions made by that Department. AB 995 requires the state to establish a task force to make recommendations on changes to the existing fees and taxes that fund DTSC’s operations and the cleanup of contaminated sites. The bill also requires the state to develop a hazardous waste management plan to reduce the amount of hazardous waste generated and disposed in the state. Status: AB 995 awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Watch

Assembly Bill 1071 (Limon): Climate Change: Agriculture: Agricultural Climate: Assembly Bill 1071 requires the council to provide guidance in the development of, and to coordinate the activities of member agencies of the council for, a grant program, known as the Agricultural Climate Adaptation Tools Program, as specified, to provide funding for activities that include development of specified planning tools for adapting to climate change and developing resiliency strategies in the agricultural sector, using the best available science. Status: AB 1071 awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Watch

Assembly Bill 1080 (Gonzalez)/Senate Bill 54 (Allen): Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction. Assembly Bill 1080/SB 54 requires the state to reduce the waste associated with single use packaging and products 75 percent by 2030, requires the state to set standards for what is considered recyclable and compostable, and promotes the development of in-state manufacturing that uses recycled materials. Status: AB 1080 and SB 54 awaits consideration in the Senate and Assembly; respectively (Inactive Files). RCRC Status: Support

Assembly Bill 2167 (Daly): Homeowners Insurance IMAP: Assembly Bill 2167 establishes the Insurance Market Action Plan program under which residential property insurance policies in a county may qualify for IMAP protection, if the requirements of the program are met. Requires a rate required as part of an IMAP filing to be subject to the prior approval of the Commissioner and in accordance with Proposition 103. Status: AB 2167 awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Watch

Assembly Bill 2178 (Levine): Emergency Services: Assembly Bill 2178 clarifies authority to declare a state or local emergency for a public safety power shutoff by adding deenergization events to the list of triggering events under the California Emergency Services Act. Status: AB 2178 awaits consideration in the Senate Governmental Organization Committee. RCRC Status: Support

Assembly Bill 2323 (Friedman): California Environmental Quality Act: Exemption: Assembly Bill 2323 makes several changes to improve the utility of various CEQA exemptions while maintaining adequate environmental protections. Among other things, AB 2323 allows CEQA exemptions to be used on infill, low-income, and agricultural housing projects proposed within the boundaries of a state conservancy. Status: AB 2323 has passed in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee and awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Support

Assembly Bill 2421 (Quirk): Emergency Standby Generators: Assembly Bill 2421 requires local agencies to make the installation of an emergency standby generator within the physical footprint of a macro cell tower site that meets specified requirements a permitted use subject only to local agency administrative review. Status: AB 2421 passed in the Assembly and awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Support

Assembly Bill 3012 (Wood): Residential Property Insurance: Assembly Bill 3012 requires, for a total loss of a furnished residence related to a declared state of emergency, a residential property insurer to provide a payment for contents of no less than a certain percent of the policy limit without requiring an itemized claim. Requires a notice of nonrenewal for a policy to be accompanied by certain information, including information about the Home Insurance Finder and FAIR plan policies. Status: AB 3012 has passed in the Assembly awaits consideration in the Senate (Third Reading File). RCRC Status: Support

Assembly Bill 3030 (Kalra): Resource Conservation: Land and Ocean Conservation: Assembly Bill 3030 declares it to be the goals of the state to protect thirty percent of land areas and waters, to help advance the protection thirty percent of the nation's oceans, and to support regional, national, and international efforts to protect at least thirty percent of the world's land areas and waters and thirty percent of the world's ocean. Declares it a further goal of the state to improve access to nature for all people in the state. Status: AB 3030 awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Concerns

Assembly Bill 3074 (Friedman): Fire Prevention: Wildfire Risk: Defensible Space: Assembly Bill 3074 Relates to defensible space. Requires more intense fuel reductions between 5 and 30 feet around the structure, and to create an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of the structure, as provided. Status: AB 3074 awaits consideration in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee. RCRC Status: Support

Assembly Bill 3164 (Friedman): Fire Prevention: Wildland Urban Interface: Assembly Bill 3164 requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to develop a wildland urban interface wildfire risk model to determine the risk for a community or parcel within a local responsibility area or state responsibility the department to establish, and consult with, an advisory workgroup, with specified members, to develop the model. Requires the department to update the model and guidelines when fire hazard severity zones are revised. Status: AB 3164 awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Support

Senate Bill 862 (Dodd): Planned Power Outage: Public Safety: Senate Bill 862 clarifies that public safety power shutoffs are included in the California Emergency Services Act and expands the universe of medically sensitive individuals for whom electrical corporations must mitigate public safety power shutoff event impacts, and establishes minimum requirements for the locations, hours of operation and services provided by a Community Resource Center. Status: SB 862 passed the Senate and awaits consideration in the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee. RCRC Status: Support

Senate Bill 872 (Dodd): Residential Property Insurance: State of Emergency: Senate Bill 872 relates to actions taken during a state of emergency. Requires an insurer of residential property to provide extensions to collect the full replacement cost of an insured acting in good faith and with reasonable diligence encounters delays in approval for, or reconstruction of, the property that are beyond the insured's control. Requires coverage for loss of use relating to a state of emergency to be for a specified period, plus an extension, as specified. Status: SB 872 awaits consideration in the Assembly Insurance Committee. RCRC Status: Support

Senate Bill 974 (Hurtado): California Environmental Quality Act: Water Systems: Senate Bill 974 exempts from CEQA certain projects that benefit a small community water system that primarily serves one or more disadvantaged communities or that benefit a non-transient noncommunity water system that serves a school that serves one or more disadvantaged communities, by improving the small community water system's or non-transient noncommunity water system's water quality, water supply, or water supply reliability, or by encouraging water conservation. Status: SB 974 awaits consideration on the Senate Floor. RCRC Status: Support

Senate Bill 989 (Dahle): Sierra Nevada Conservancy: Sierra Nevada Region: Senate Bill 989Modifies areas listed under the definitions of the Sierra Nevada Region and its subregions as specified for purposes of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. Status: SB 989 In Assembly, held at desk. RCRC Status: Support

Senate Bill 1120 (Atkins): Subdivisions: Tentative Maps: Senate Bill 1120 amends the Planning and Zoning Law. Requires a proposed housing development containing two residential units to be considered ministerially, without discretionary review or hearing, in zones where allowable uses are limited to single family residential development. Requires ministerial approval of parcel map dividing a lot into two equal lots. Status: SB 1120 awaits consideration in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Support if Amended.

Senate Bill 1130 (Gonzalez): Telecommunications: California Advanced Services Fund: Senate Bill 1130 make changes to the California Advanced Services Fund that would require broad band projects to provide high quality, future proof infrastructure to be eligible for state funding. Status: SB 1130 awaits consideration in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Support

Senate Bill 1156 (Archuleta): Lithium Ion Batteries: Illegal Disposal: Fire Prevent: Senate Bill 1156 requires the state to develop model protocols and training programs for responding to fires caused by lithium ion batteries in solid waste collection vehicles and at transfer stations, processing stations, and disposal facilities. Solid waste enterprises would be required to adopt such protocols and training programs in consultation with local fire marshals. Status: SB 1156 awaits consideration in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Pending.