The first 10 bills are priority legislation identified by the League’s lobbying team. City officials are urged to submit letters to the Governor on these bills. 

The League’s letters and sample letters for priority bills can be found on the League’s Web site. Type the bill number into the search box to access the letters.

Please fax all letters to the Office of the Governor at (916) 558-3160 and the League of California Cities at (916) 658-8240.

Top Priority Bills

AB 566 (Nava) Mobile home parks: conversion. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Enables cities to consider the level of support among residents when deciding whether to approve or disapprove the conversion of a mobile home park to resident ownership. Conversions have different effects on different owners. This bill is designed to ensure that all residents have a voice in a conversion decision. Top priority bill. Letters from cities will help ensure that AB 566 is signed.

SB 802 (Leno) Public contracts: retention proceeds. REQUEST VETO. Removes the authority of public entities to decide the appropriate amount of retention. This bill would require that contract retention proceeds not exceed 5 percent of the payment of all contracts entered into after January 2010 between a public entity and an original contractor, between an original contractor and a subcontractor, and between all subcontractors. These provisions would sunset Dec. 31, 2013. Top priority bill. Letters from cities will help ensure that SB 802 is vetoed.

Priority Bills

AB 18 (Knight) Local government: city councils. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Extends the appointment period to fill a city council vacancy from 30 days to 60 days and makes policy for cities with at-large council elections consistent with the policy for cities with district-based council elections.

AB 469 (Eng) Sales and use taxes: qualified use tax payment. REQUEST SIGNATURE.  Improves the collection of use tax revenues owed to the state and local governments by consumers and businesses through clarifications made to state income tax return forms.

AB 793 (Jones) Employment discrimination. REQUEST VETO. Revises the statute of limitations for any workplace claim or lawsuit relating to compensation so that the statue of limitations is renewed each time an employees’ compensation is “affected,” including each time an employee is paid. This would encompass a broad array of workplace decisions, including hiring, job evaluations, and promotions.  

AB 1366 (Feuer). Residential self-regenerating water softeners. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Authorizes local agencies that own or operate a community sewer system or water recycling facility to control salinity inputs from residential self-regenerating water softeners.

SB 93 (Kehoe) Redevelopment: funding construction of public facilities. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Restricts the funding of public facilities outside a redevelopment project area. In order to fund public facilities outside of, or not contiguous to, a project area the legislative body would have to make specified findings and these findings would be subject to legal challenges. Makes no substantive changes in redevelopment agency authority to fund public facilities inside or contiguous to a redevelopment project area.

SB 186 (DeSaulnier) Workers’ compensation: pre-designation. REQUEST VETO. Repeals the sunset date for provisions that allow injured workers to pre-designate their primary treating physician for workers’ compensation purposes.

SB 359 (Romero) Records: disclosure exemptions. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Updates the California Public Records Act (CPRA) alphabetical list of records exempt from disclosure and requires that a bill be introduced every legislative session to ensure that the index is continually updated.

SB 415 (Oropeza) Alcoholic beverages: licenses – local government review. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Provides local agencies with more reasonable standards by which they may review alcoholic beverage license applications. Specifically, this measure provides that any of the local officials notified of alcoholic beverage license requests may request the time extension, and that the additional review period would be extended from 20 days to 30 days.

Other Bills

AB 14 (Fuentes) Vehicles: nuisance abatement: impoundment. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Allows a city or county, or city and county, to enact a local ordinance permitting the impoundment of vehicles declared as a public nuisance for no more than 30 days if the vehicle’s owner is arrested on charges related to prostitution or illegal dumping offenses, with one prior conviction for those offenses.

AB 144 (Ma). Vehicles: distinguishing placards and special license plates. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Allows cities and counties to cite disabled parking placard misuse as a civil parking violation and not just as a misdemeanor, providing a more time and cost-efficient alternative. 

AB 286 (Salas) Vehicles: additional registration fees. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Extends the repeal date of the local vehicle theft program by eight years, and, therefore, permits the continuation of a $1 vehicle registration fee to fund the program until Jan. 1, 2018. Also requires an annual report from participating counties to the State Controller that includes information on fees collected, expenditures, summary of vehicle theft abatement programs, and other relevant information as determined by the State Controller.

AB 444 (Caballero) Land use: natural resources: transfer of long-term management funds. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Authorizes state and local agencies to transfer endowment funds to relevant nonprofit agencies for the management of previously transferred lands or easements.  Current law does not explicitly authorize the transfer of endowment funds to a nonprofit agency in order to effectively manage the land or easement.

AB 576 (Torres) Vandalism: graffiti: recovery of costs. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Allows governmental entities responsible for repairing, replacing, or restoring graffiti vandalized property to seek restitution for the damages.

AB 625 (Lieu) Novelty lighters.  REQUEST SIGNATURE. Prohibits the sale or distribution (or offering for promotion) of operable cigarette novelty lighters. The intent of this bill is to keep children away from novelty cigarette lighters that mimic toys and cartoon or children’s characters.

AB 672 (Bass) Transportation: bond-funded projects: letter of no prejudice. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Permits a local agency to apply for a letter of no prejudice for Proposition 1B projects that have been programmed for funding on or after July 1, 2008. The local agency would then be able to expend their own funding on the project and be secure in their eligibility for reimbursements when state bond dollars are once again available.

AB 720 (Caballero) Land use: housing element. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Extends the time period for which local agencies can count rehabilitated units toward meeting their regional housing needs assessment from two to four years, to align with the coming eight year planning period under SB 375 (2008).

AB 1085 (Mendoza) State Air Resources Board: regulations. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Requires the California Air Resources Board (ARB) to make available all technical data used in the development of a proposed regulation before the comment period. ARB is moving forward with regulations pertaining to greenhouse gas emissions and diesel emissions. This legislation will ensure that stakeholders are informed about the rationale behind proposed regulatory language.

AB 1336 (Eng) Vehicles: parking violations: digital photograph recordings. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Authorizes a city or county to install digital camera equipment on its street sweeping vehicles to use as part of an automated parking enforcement system and record parking violations occurring in street-sweeping lanes during the designated hours of street sweeping operations. Local agencies are required to report to the legislature on the effectiveness of the program in their jurisdiction by January 2014.

AB 1388 (Hernandez) Bonds: Negotiated Sales. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Authorizes cities and other public agencies to issue and sell general obligation bonds through the negotiated sale method for a price below or above par value.

SB 23 (Padilla) Manufactured housing: emergency preparedness plans. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Requires that an operator of a mobilehome park or manufactured housing community develop and make available to park residents an emergency preparedness plan. Also provides enforcement powers to the appropriate state or local authority to ensure these emergency preparedness plans are in place.

SB 24 (Oropeza) Grand theft: cargo. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Extends the classification of cargo theft as grand theft indefinitely, allowing federal public safety dollars to help fund related crime prevention programs.

SB 99 (Committee on Local Government) Conduit Issuers: reporting and disclosures.  REQUEST SIGNATURE. Provides greater transparency and accountability to the operations of conduit financing authorities in California. 

SB 102/SB 103 (Committee on Local Government) Validations Acts. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Addresses various procedural and technical errors and omissions with governmental boundary and organizational changes to enhance confidence in governmental securities, bonds, and other financial mechanisms.

SB 357 (Ducheny) Tribal gaming: grants to local jurisdictions. REQUEST SIGNATURE.  Extends the sunset date of the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund (SDF) by one year, making the SDF in effect until Jan. 1, 2021.

SB 398 (Correa) Mobilehome parks: fire code enforcement. REQUEST SIGNATURE. States that fire protection regulations adopted by the Department of Housing and Community Development do not apply to a mobilehome park that is already served by a special district that provides fire protection services. The intent of this legislation is to eliminate conflicting or duplicative fire protection standards.

SB 402 ( Wolk) Recycling: California redemption value. REQUEST SIGNATURE.  Addresses the insolvency in the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act by: 1) expanding the types of containers subject to the California Redemption Value (CRV), 2) increasing the CRV on certain containers, and 3) accelerating CRV payments to the Department of Conservation. The goal is to ensure the long term financial stability of this program.

SB 486 (Simitian) Medical waste: sharps waste. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Requires a pharmaceutical manufacturer that sells or distributes self-injected medications to submit a plan to the California Integrated Waste Management Board that demonstrates how the manufacturer supports the collection and safe disposal of home-generated sharps waste. This bill will help reduce the risk of needle stick injuries to solid waste workers throughout California by educating consumers about where they can properly dispose of used needles.

SB 505 (Kehoe) Local planning: fire hazard impacts. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Requires cities to include mandatory safety elements changes that cover state responsibility areas and very high fire hazard severity zones in the next revision of their housing element. This measure will help cities better prepare for future fires and mitigate direct and indirect costs of these fires.

SB 588 (Committee on Public Safety) Sex Offender Management Board. REQUEST SIGNATURE. Repeals the sunset date on the California Sex Offender Management Board indefinitely.