Annual Day at the Capitol Bears Fruit

The session is now fully into gear and, as usual, so many of the bills that could have been dealt with in the previous weeks and months are crammed into serial committee hearings over a short 2 or 3 week period; we really have to be on our toes.

In a fortuitous bit of scheduling we had our annual Legislative Day in the State Capitol on Tuesday April 21. The timing gave us an opportunity to focus on a number of the key bills we are working on and, we believe, our advocacy had a positive impact. Your SBRPA representatives were President Charles Eckert, Past President and State Legislative Chairman Tom Sutphen, Vice President Betty Jeppesen and Treasurer Bill Brace, along with Executive Director Joan Brooks. They joined California Housing Providers Coalition colleagues from the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles and the Apartment Association of California Southern Cities in a very full and productive day. I set up nearly 30 visits with key legislators throughout the day. AACSC lobbyist Ron Kingston and I collaborated to identify the issue areas to focus on and prepared talking points and leave behind documents for the volunteers to use in the visits.

At noon the group moved to the nearby historical landmark the Sutter Club for a wonderful lunch. Our guest speaker was Assemblyperson Diane Harkey (R-Laguna Niguel), Vice Chair of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee. She was accompanied by her very capable Leg Director and capitol veteran, Sharon Gonsalves. Diane was terrific--funny, straight-forward and, what a shock, actually supports property rights, a pretty rare commodity in the Legislature.

The key bills, some new, are:

• AB 1171 (Ammiano) Ellis Act Legislation. Was, as expected, amended to extend all Ellis Act notices to one year when only one senior or disabled person lives in the building. The strong opposition of our allies and us, including our leg day advocacy, caused the author to pull the bill and it will not be heard this year.
• AB 1170 (Calderon) Meganfs Law- AACSC sponsored bill: Meganfs Law Disclosure Booklet to be written by the Department of Justice. Support. Bill is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.@
• AB 603(Price)-This measure would impose significant limitations on dealing with tenants in foreclosed single-family properties, including provisions with implications for state wide just cause eviction. We are working with the author and his staff and hope to resolve the matter satisfactorily. It is strongly opposed by banks, apartment and realtor organizations. It passed Assembly Judiciary committee with many committee members expressing concern over the breadth of the measure
• SB 518(Lowenthal) Comprehensive parking policies. We and our allies just identified this bill that includes a prescriptive set of policies that will likely result in local ordinances dictating all aspects of parking policies on public as well as private property. Using the rationale that free parking equates to more driving and more greenhouse emissions, The Planning and Conservation League (PCL) wants to mandate local communities adopt a comprehensive parking management plan. As part of that plan the scheme is to give credits or points if certain local policies are adopted including: prohibition of providing free parking to tenants or employees. In particular it says multi family owners must unbundled parking from rent. Figure that one out in rent control cities. There are many more provisions like this.
• AB 331(Hall) This measure is designed to assure that owners of single-family homes that are or soon will be in foreclosure provide such notice to applicants to rent the home. CAA sponsors this measure in part to suggest that much of the foreclosure legislation that has attempted to include multi family is really an issue of single family residences. Amendments are being worked on.
• AB 530 (Krekorian) UDfs: Removes sunset date and geographical limitations for existing law that allows City Attorneys to intervene in situations where controlled substances and firearms are present. Sponsored by LA City Attorney. Succeeded in obtaining an amendment to remove the requirement that an owner first file a UD action before the City Attorney takes over the case. Bill has moved to the Senate
• AB 568(Lieu) UDfs, Counterfeit goods. Another measure that would allow City Attorney to step in and initiate a UD if counterfeit goods were present. Succeeded in obtaining an amendment that it applies only to non residential. Assembly Appropriations committee
• AB 49 (Feuer)/SB 460(Wolk)/SB 407(Padilla) Mandate to localities to reduce urban per capita water use 20% by 2020.@ Concern is that it will result in costly and unworkable mandates on property owners. We developed a set of principles with our allies to take into account concerning impacts on multifamily, and spoke to those issues on Leg Day.
• SB 290 (Leno) Making permanent the 60-day notice to vacate when tenants have been in place over a year.@ We, along with AAGLA, AACSC and CAR opposed the measure in the Senate Judiciary Committee. CAA let the committee know they were neutral. We are opposing the bill unless it is amended with a sunset date of three years or less. The measure, as expected, passed this committee. Bill awaits hearing in the Assembly
• SB 120 (Lowenthal) Reintroduction of the vetoed AB 2586 from last year concerning obligations to tenants on successor of interest as a result of a foreclosure. Watch. Passed Senate to Assembly
• AB 473(Blumenfield) Multi family recycling mandate. Watch
• SB 782 (Yee) Spot Bill.@ Bill amended to codify SF ordinance limiting evictions of victims of domestic violence. We met with the author along with AAGLA, AACSC and AAOC to point out the dilemma an owner is put in if he cannot evict when a domestic violence situation endangers other tenants. Oppose unless amended. Passed Senate Judiciary Committee. On Senate floor
• SB 1020 (Emmerson)@State compliance dates for pool anti entrapment devices. Watch
• AB 1160 (Fong) Translation of contracts. Watch
• SB 242 (Yee) Prohibition of language prohibitions in the workplace. Emanated from the LPGAfs edict, now withdrawn, that required Korean female golfers to talk to the press only in English. Concern it may inadvertently result in requirements to provide contracts in multiple languages. Watch
• AB 1263(Strickland) UD, Modifies service of process procedures by deleting requirement of serving at place of business. Worked on amendments with our allies. Was not taken up for hearing in Judiciary Committee
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