During the last two weeks of August, the Secretary of State chaptered a total of 87 bills, 16 of which affect public agencies. In case you missed it, here's the latest in California legislation:

Public Works

1. AB 0636 (Irwin) Local streets and roads: expenditure reports. Existing law requires each city to submit to the Controller a complete report of expenditures for street and road purposes. This bill requires the report to be submitted to the Controller by December 1 (formerly October 1) of each year relative to the preceding fiscal year ending on June 30.

2. AB 2249 (Cooley) Public contracts: local agencies: Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting Act. This bill instead authorize public projects of $60,000 (formerly $45,000) or less to be performed by the employees of a public agency, authorize public projects of $200,000 (formerly $175,000) or less to be let to contract by informal procedures, and require public projects of more than $200,000 (formerly $175,000) to be let to contract by formal bidding procedures. If all bids received for that public project are in excess of $200,000 (formerly $175,000), then the public agency may award the contract at $212,500 (formerly $187,500) or less to the lowest responsible bidder if it determines the cost estimate of the public agency was reasonable.

Elections

3. AB 0666 (Aguiar-Curry) Elections: voter information guides: candidate statements. This bill adds Section 13307.7 to the Elections Code. If an elections official posts a candidate statement form on his or her website, then the elections official shall accept that candidate statement form by electronic submission if it is submitted in accordance with certain timeframes and procedures for the preparation of the voter information portion of the county voter information guide.

Land Use & Environment

4. AB 2782 (Friedman) California Environmental Quality Act. This bill adds Section 21082.4 to the Public Resources Code, which authorizes a lead agency to consider specific economic, legal, social, technological, or other benefits of, and the negative impacts of denying, a project the lead agency is describing and evaluating as required by CEQA.

5. AB 2263 (Friedman) Designated historical resource: conversion or adaptation: required parking. This bill adds Section 18962 to the Health and Safety Code, which requires local agencies to reduce required parking for certain development projects in which a designated historical resource is being converted or adapted, unless otherwise required by local ordinance.

6. AB 3194 (Daly) Housing Accountability Act: project approval. This bill specifies that a proposed housing development project is not inconsistent with the applicable zoning standards and criteria, and prohibits a local government from requiring a rezoning, if the housing development project is consistent with the objective general plan standards and criteria but the zoning for the project site is inconsistent with the general plan. The bill authorizes a local agency to require the proposed housing development project to comply with the objective standards and criteria of the zoning which are consistent with the general plan, and requires the local agency to apply those standards and criteria to facilitate and accommodate development at the density allowed on the site by the general plan and proposed by the proposed housing development project.

Special Districts

7. AB 2600 (Flora) Regional park and open space districts. This bill adds Section 5503.5 to the Public Resources Code, which simplifies the procedure for forming a regional park, park and open space, or open-space district. Existing law required a petition signed by at least 5,000 electors within the proposed district. This bill allows a local agency to form a park and open space district by resolution.

8. AB 2329 (Obernolte) Special districts: board of directors: compensation.

Fire protection district board of directors may compensate its members for no more than 6 meetings in any calendar month. The bill requires that, if the district compensates its members for more than 4 meetings in a calendar month, then the board of directors shall annually adopt a written policy describing, based on a finding supported by substantial evidence, why more than 4 meetings per calendar month are necessary for the effective operation of the district.

Regional park district, regional park and open-space district, or regional open-space district board members shall not receive compensation for more than 6 meetings of the board in a calendar month and would authorize the board of directors, by specified ordinance, to increase the amount of compensation received for attending meetings of the board. The bill requires that, if the district compensates its members for more than 5 meetings in a calendar month, then the board of directors shall annually adopt a written policy describing, based on a finding supported by substantial evidence, why more than 5 meetings per calendar month are necessary for the effective operation of the district.

Recreation and park district board members shall not receive compensation for more than 6 meetings of the board in a calendar month. The bill requires that, if the district compensates its members for more than 5 meetings in a calendar month, then the board of directors shall annually adopt a written policy describing, based on a finding supported by substantial evidence, why more than 5 meetings per calendar month are necessary for the effective operation of the district.

Airport district board of directors may compensate its members for no more than 6 meetings in a calendar month and to increase that compensation by no more than 5% annually. The bill requires that, if the district compensates its members for more than 4 meetings in a calendar month, then the board of directors shall annually adopt a written policy describing, based on a finding supported by substantial evidence, why more than 4 meetings per calendar month are necessary for the effective operation of the district.

Police & Public Safety

9. AB 2710 (Obernolte) Warrants. This bill deletes the magistrate's authority to take an oral statement under oath made during a telephone conversation in lieu of a declaration in support of a warrant of probable cause for arrest and would eliminate specified related procedural duties of the magistrate. The bill deems the warrant that is signed by the magistrate and received by the declarant to be the original warrant. This bill also deletes the magistrate's authority to take an oral statement under oath made during a telephone conversation and would eliminate related procedural duties of the magistrate, as specified.

10. AB 2717 (Lackey) Driving under the influence: blood tests. This bill amends statutory law to comport with the Birchfield decision. The bill repeals the imposition of criminal penalties for the refusal by a person to submit to or complete a blood test for the purpose of determining the alcoholic or drug content of his or her blood if lawfully arrested for one of specified driving-under-the-influence offenses. The bill clarifies that a person is required to be told that his or her failure to submit to, or the failure to complete, the required breath, blood, or urine tests will result in administrative suspension or revocation by the Department of Motor Vehicles of the person's privilege to operate a motor vehicle, as specified.

11. AB 2176 (Jones-Sawyer) Firearms. Existing law requires a peace officer to take temporary custody of any firearm or other deadly weapon discovered at the scene of a domestic violence incident involving a threat to human life or physical assault, when serving a protective order, or when serving a gun violence restraining order. Existing law requires the officer taking custody of the firearm to give the owner a receipt indicating where the firearm or other deadly weapon can be recovered, the time limit for recovery, and the date after which the owner can recover the firearm or other deadly weapon. This bill requires the receipt to include the name and residential mailing address of the owner of the firearm or other deadly weapon.

12. AB 2413 (Chiu) Tenancy: law enforcement and emergency assistance. A local agency shall not promulgate, enforce, or implement any ordinance, rule, policy, or regulation, that authorizes, or requires the imposition or threatened imposition of, a penalty against a resident, owner, tenant, landlord, or other person as a consequence of law enforcement assistance or emergency assistance by, or on behalf of, a victim of abuse, a victim of crime, or an individual in an emergency. The bill preempts inconsistent local rules and regulations in this regard. The need to protect parties to whom these provisions of the bill apply is a matter of statewide concern, and not a municipal affair. Therefore, charter cities and counties are subject to the provisions of the bill.

Schools

13. AB 2109 (O'Donnell) Pupils: pupils with a temporary disability: individual instruction: pupils who are terminally ill: honorary diplomas. This bill gives pupils with temporary disabilities the right to receive instruction at home or in a hospital, and the right to enroll in school and reenter school during the school year. This includes school districts and charter schools. When a student with a temporary disability receives instruction at home or in a hospital, the school's supervisor of attendance shall ensure that the students' absences from the regular school program are excused. The governing board of a school district, a county office of education, and the governing body of a charter school maintaining a high school may confer an honorary high school diploma upon a pupil who is terminally ill.

14. AB 1887 (Medina) Public education governance: service on boards and commissions. This bill is an urgency statute, and as such, takes effect immediately. In 2016, AB 2881's amendments to Government Code Section 1001 had the unintended consequence of disqualifying undocumented students from serving on education boards and commissions. This bill corrects that unintended consequence, and authorizes public secondary school, community college, Cal State, and University of California students to serve on boards or commissions, regardless of status as an undocumented student.

15. AB 2554 (Bonta) Public postsecondary education: exemption from mandatory systemwide tuition and fees: surviving child or spouse of a federal firefighter. This bill specifies that the surviving child or spouse of a federally employed firefighter (whose duties involved performing services in California) is eligible for exemption from mandatory system-wide tuition and fees at the California Community Colleges, Cal State Universities, and University of California

16. AB 1406 (Gloria) School facilities: leases of real property. This bill authorizes a school district to enter into property and building leases for school district use for a maximum term of 99 years (formerly 40 years). This bill also authorizes a school district to enter into property and building leases for joint use by the school district and another party (private person, firm, corporation or local government agency) for a maximum term of 99 years (formerly 66 years).

If you have any questions regarding these bills, please contact Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin.