Assembly Standing Committee on Transportation

The Assembly Transportation Committee is called to order. Good morning and welcome, everyone. The hearing room is open for attendance of this hearing, and it can be watched from a live stream on the Assembly's website. We encourage the public to provide written testimony by visiting the Committee's website. Please note that any written testimony submitted to the Committee is considered public comment and may be read into the record or reprinted.

We will allow two minutes each for two primary witnesses in support and opposition, and these witnesses must testify in person in the hearing room. Additional witness comments will be limited to your name, organization, and position. Please note, Assembly Member Wallace is absent today and his replacement is Assembly Member Ta. Assembly Member Hart is absent with no replacement. Seeing that we do not have a quorum, we will begin this hearing as an informational hearing.

We have six bills on our proposed consent calendar, and once we have a quorum, we will dispense with consent. At this time, we're calling authors to come and present your Bill. Until then, we'll be waiting. Good morning. As we are in an informational hearing and we do have one of our authors present, we will move to a bill. File item number seven, AB 2029. Assembly Member Jackson, at your convenience.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I wish this would happen in every Bill I have. Good morning, chair, Committee Members. I would like to thank the Chair for their consideration and for the hard work on this Bill and thoughtfulness actually, on this Bill. California prides itself on being the leader in clean energy infrastructure. But in order to truly lead this charge, it is imperative that we prioritize accessibility for all. This includes making sure that all EV charging stations are ADA-accessible.

This Bill would require the California Energy Resource Conservation and Development Commission to include in their current studies barriers faced by individuals with disabilities in accessing electronic vehicle charging stations, review existing regulations, and make legislative recommendations to enhance public access to their stations. This does not add a new or separate study. It just asks that this be included in their current study. And I respectfully ask for an Aye vote.

Thank you. Do you have any witnesses with you today?

I do not.

Thank you. Are there any Members of the public who are here to support and would like to testify by adding your name, organization, or. Let's see, what is it? Name, organization. I'm missing one, position. All right. Seeing none. Moving to any members of the public in opposition. Once again, name, position, organization. Seeing none. Moving to Members of the Committee for any comments or questions. Well, we can't yet, but we'll try. I will say this.

Thank you for bringing this Bill forward to raise the awareness of mobility challenges in EV charging design. I have a good friend who is the Director of Choice in Aging, and she always talks about how those with disabilities or our senior communities are the last thought when it comes to transportation and even the most abusive at times. And so for you, wanting to make it easier for EV charging for those with mobility challenges is commendable.

And as this Bill moves through the legislative process, I encourage you to continue refining the language. Federal and state technical guidance is available to assist in design and construction of EV charging stations that are accessible to and usable by people with disabilities. This Bill should align with existing guidance. This Bill adds reporting complexity by creating a separate report that must be submitted to the Legislature and also incorporated into the state's assessment of EV charging infrastructure.

Going forward, this could be streamlined by amending the Bill to require recommendations on mobility be provided only within the existing state EV assessment. I'm encouraged by the author's work on this and definitely will be supporting the Bill today when it's appropriate and we have a quorum. With that, thank you, Assembly Member Jackson.

Would you like me to?

Oh, I'm so sorry. Close.

Number one, I appreciate staff's report on this. It was never the intent to create a separate study, but wording, the way wording happens, we will most definitely make that correction throughout the process. This was actually brought to me by a constituent whose husband was trying to charge and they had some disability issues, older gentlemen as well, and needed help, couldn't find no help, right? All those type of things.

And so happy to continue to look at these things as real things happen to real people out there so that we can make sure that we do the best we can. If we're going to continue to invest so much money in these infrastructure, let's make sure it works for everybody. Thank you very much.

Thank you. All right. We do have a quorum and so let's. Oh. We do have a quorum, and so I will ask the secretary to call the roll for the quorum.

[Roll call].

We have a. Thank you, I believe Assembly Member Carrillo has moved. Second by Chair Fong. Secretary, call the roll.

[Roll call].

All right, with that, we'll hold the roll open for Members to add on. We have six bills on our proposed consent calendar. All right, do we need to read them or you want to read them? Do I have to read them? Okay, so there are file items one, AB 1901 Chen. Number two, AB 2130 Santiago. Three, AB 2259 Boerner. Five, AB 1904 Ward. Eight, AB 2082 Juan Carrillo. Nine, AB 2145 Wilson.

We have a motion by Assembly Member Aguiar-Curry and a second by Chair Fong. Vice Chair Fong. Secretary, could you call the roll?

[Roll call].

Great. We'll hold the roll open for Members to add on. At the beginning of the hearing, we had three bills to discuss. We've already dispensed with one, and so we'll move on to item number four. Sorry, item number six. AB 2002. Sanchez. Simply remember Sanchez, at your convenience. There they go.

Mike, can you hear me? Okay? Thank you, Madam Chair and Members of the Committee. I want to thank the Committee staff for their work on this Bill and for their suggestions. I was happy to accept those recommendations. Today, I am proud to present AB 2002, which would create a blue envelope program in California that would help individuals with disabilities quickly share information with law enforcement personnel. Unfortunately, communication barriers can exist between Members of the disabled community and law enforcement.

Disability advocates have stated that disabilities can make it harder to follow a police officer's orders. For example, people who are deaf or hard of hearing may not be able to hear what the officer is saying. People with physical disabilities may not be able to follow an officer's orders to get on the ground. Officers may incorrectly interpret stimming, slurred speech or shaking as threatening behaviors. These miscommunications have unfortunately contributed to significantly higher instances of use of force against individuals with disabilities.

Data shows that individuals with a disability were no more likely to be searched, were more likely to be searched, detained on the curb or in a patrol car, and handcuffed over individuals without a disability. That's why I've partnered with disability advocates, service centers and law enforcement groups to expand on existing programs in San Diego and Riverside counties and create a statewide blue envelope program.

AB 2002 would create a statewide disability identifier known as the blue envelope, where participants could voluntarily inform law enforcement of their communication needs by presenting a blue envelope that contain their ID, license and registration, while also outlining specific accommodations they may require during an interaction. The Bill requires the envelope to be developed with input from stakeholders including disability rights advocates and law enforcement.

As a minimum requirement, the envelope must include basic safety regarding safety, tips regarding traffic stops, recommendations to the responding law enforcement officer, and blank areas where the individual can add an emergency contact, and relevant comments related to the potential communication limitations related to their disability. I feel it's important to emphasize that participation in this program would be completely voluntary and participating individuals may use the envelope at their sole discretion. There is no registry component associated with this program.

AB 2002's creation of a statewide BEP is designed to help mitigate the possibility of negative outcomes that may occur as a result of misunderstandings during interactions between law enforcement and individuals with disabilities. Testifying with me today is Terry Colacis, who is a San Diego parent of a child with autism, and Nadia Moshirian Binder, up with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and also Julio De Leon with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department is available to answer technical questions. Thank you.

Hello. Thank you. My name is Terry Kalachis. I'm a resident of San Diego and I'm also on the board of the Association of Regional Center Agencies. But I'm here as a parent. I have a 25 year old daughter that is a non speaking autistic with severe behavior problems. And over the years we've run into a lot of different issues. It is incredibly hard to transport her in any vehicle because of her disability. She'll often take off her seatbelt.

She'll try to reach for clothes or hair or your steering wheel or whatever. And there's a lot of times where I have to pull off into a parking lot or on the side of the road until things De escalate. And there have been times where there's law enforcement. They're just kind of like, what's going on?

The worst incident was when we were on the freeway and we were going off an off ramp and there was no shoulder, and she went to grab my hair and pull me in the back seat and I had to pull over with no shoulder and it blocked the freeway. It caused all this problem. And when the police officers finally got there, they just didn't know what to do. And so they were going to take her into custody because they had no idea what was going on.

And I feel like thousands of Californians have the same problem because our kids often present as poorly behaved, maybe combative, violent, and I feel like, for me and for so many people that I know, if there was something like a blue envelope program that could really help De escalate things, because if law enforcement officers were more educated, first of all, it would be awesome for both parties.

And I think that it would just really help to not have to talk about the situation to a law enforcement officer in front of the person with a disability, because a lot of times that escalates things too. So I highly support this and I hope that everyone else does too, because I think that there's thousands of people in California that could benefit from this. Thank you.

Good morning. Good morning, Madam Chair and honorable Committee Members. My name is Nadia Mushiri and Binderup and I am the special assistant intergovernmental affairs Director for Sanio County Sheriff's Department. On behalf of Kelly Martinez, our sheriff, we are honored to co sponsor AB 2002. Our blue envelope program has garnered bipartisan support from the Sano County Board of Supervisors as well as our regional law enforcement agencies.

However, the most significant piece of this program for us is the partnership that has been in place with our community partners in San Diego since its inception this past September, making it really a well received regional blue envelope program. Since the program's launch, we have distributed more than 7400 physical blue envelopes throughout the region and this is in the collective effort with our community partners and law enforcement agencies of those partners.

And the number continues to grow is that we're at 35 community partners that contains the range from the San Diego Center for the blind, Special Olympic San Diego, San Diego Veteran Coalition, as well as the Autism Society of San Diego and the International Bipolar foundation, just to name a few.

We meet regularly with our stakeholders to not only discuss program details, but to glean from each other's perspectives and really learn about ways law enforcement can enhance our service delivery when interacting with this broad range of community partners and stakeholders that are impacted by this program. It is a mutually beneficial relationship because law enforcement's competency trainings that they get from the academy and continued professional trainings are continued and expanded as these dialogues continue to progress and we learn about different nuances along the way.

Just recently we learned of a 22 year old male with autism who had an accident while driving. He jumped a curb and hit the sidewalk and really caused severe damage to his vehicle. The driver provided his blue envelope to one of our sharers deputy in a calm fashion from the glove compartment, and the deputy commented on how the driver was organized with all the envelope material and remained calm and composed during the interaction.

We later learned from that individual's father that what would otherwise be a tumultuous experience and event for his son turned into a supportive and positive experience despite the car accident, but because of his exposure to the blue envelope, that reassured him and provided a sense of comfort and ease.

Ma'am, I have to have you wrap up.

Sure. It is for these reasons that the San Diego County Sheriff's Department respectfully requests your aye vote. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Is there any other Members in support of this Bill who would like to speak at this time? Name, position and organization.

Good morning, chair Members Usha Muchler, on behalf of the California State Sheriff's Association in support of AB 202. Thank you.

Thank you. Seeing none other, are there any primary witnesses in opposition? Seeing none, is there any Members of the public who are in opposition who would like to provide a name, organization or position? Seeing none. Moving to Members of the Committee for any comments or concerns. All right, I'll just note, thank you so much for working with the Committee on the Minor technical amendments prior to this hearing bringing us here today. I appreciate your attempt to improve interactions between law enforcement and persons with disabilities.

Really, law enforcement really has to treat people with respect and that takes time, care and consideration. No matter your ability, no matter your ethnicity, no matter your socio and economic background. The data provided in this Committee analysis shows that disturbing trend of a greater proportion of individuals with disabilities being searched, detained and handcuffed compared to others.

I'm concerned, though that the blue envelope or lack of one, could possibly be used against individuals with disabilities and that more needs to be done on the training front to ensure better outcomes. I'm also concerned about the current fiscal health of DMV and the workload this Bill would be placed on them. I will be supporting your Bill today, but I urge you to confined a more appropriate agency to lead the effort of creating and distributing these blue envelopes than DMV.

We did have a motion from Vice Chair Fong and a second from assemblymember Ta. I'll give you an opportunity to close before the vote.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the consideration of AB 2002. It's a vitally important measure that can help not only improve communication between Members of the disability community and law enforcement's officers, but even save lives. I respectfully ask for your. I vote on this measure.

Secretary, could you call the roll?

[Roll Call]

We'll hold the open the roll open for Members to add on moving to our final Bill presentation today. Item number four AB 1798 Papan at your convenience, Assembly Member.

Good morning chair Wilson and Members, I'm here to present AB 1798, which we call the Salmon act, and it will require the Department of Transportation to develop and implement a strategy to eliminate a toxic additive found in vehicle tires known as six PPD from stormwater discharge flowing into salmon bearing surface waters. Six PPD has been measured in California's streams at concentrations above those shown to kill at least half of salmon populations in laboratory experiments.

The loss of coho salmon in California has major ecological and economic impacts to the state. Native salmon species represent the foundation for California's 500 $1.0 million fishing industry, and thousands of fishers rely on salmon for their income and livelihoods. Fortunately, biofiltration and bioretention systems, which are readily available stormwater management practices, effectively treat the runoff of six PBD in terms of both toxic chemical exposure and salmon spawner survival.

AB 1798 will direct the Department to identify locations where highways across salmon and steelhead bearing waters, where highways cross, excuse me, salmon and steelhead bearing waters. Additionally, this measure will direct Caltrans to study the feasibility and cost effectiveness of installing and maintaining bioretention and biofiltration systems through a pilot program in five counties. To build a strong, safe, and sustainable future for California, we must take action and preserve the health and safety of our aquatic ecosystems.

With me today to testify in support of this Bill is Cody Phillips with the California Coastkeepers alliance.

Chair Wilson and Committee Members. My name is Cody Phillips with California Coastkeeper alliance. As Assembly Member Papan noted, six PPD is found in essentially every motor vehicle tire on the road. These chemicals, six PPD and its transformation products, six PPDQ, have lethal and sublethal effects on a variety of fish. They work by penetrating the fish's blood, brain barriers, and disrupting it. And microplastic tyro particles are everywhere. In fact, they're the most common form of pollution in the San Francisco Bay.

And research, as Assembly Member Papan has noted, has found that biofiltration is extremely effective at preventing this pollution from getting into our waterways. If you're unfamiliar, biofiltration is basically just an engineered soil matrix. Then clay, sand, and biochar, it stops the dirty water from getting into the waterways. So this Bill answers the how, when, and where of how we deal with this issue. There's the where. So we asked Caltrans to map out the intersections of vehicle miles traveled, Salmon Habitat, and stormwater discharge points.

There's the how. We asked them to conduct a few regional projects to identify the most cost effective way of doing this and the when which is to develop a strategy over the long term to implement these projects. This information will help Caltrans implement this project, but also give the state waterboard the valuable data that it needs to incorporate some of this research into Caltrans existing stormwater permit for this type of discharge and biofiltration has a lot of co benefits.

It doesn't just work for six PpD. It works for oils, greases, heavy metals, pretty much all the stuff that comes off of cars that Caltrance is responsible for. Anyway, to zoom out on a larger policy issue here as well, six PPD is a pressing concern for California's already impaired salmon, but for the most part, it's slipped under the radar. Right now, the state is heavily invested in recovering salmon.

This is evidenced through Governor Newsom's salmon strategy, and CDFW gave out $50 million in salmon recovery grants just last week. Six PPD was not mentioned in any of those reports or actions, and a failure to address it now can really undercut the state's salmon recovery efforts. In closing, this Bill provides a systematic way of incorporating six PPD mitigation into the state's existing clean water framework and does so in a way that provides a host of other clean water co benefits.

In closing, I urge your I vote on the Salmon act. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there other, any Members of the public who are in support? Please provide your name, organization and position.

Good morning. Jeff Sievers, on behalf of the US Tire Manufacturers Association, we're also in strong support. Good morning. Alchemy Graham. On behalf of the San Mateo City County Association of Governments, in support. Thank you. Good morning. Aaron Wooley. On behalf of Sierra Club, California in support. Good morning. Clarissa bestdock. On behalf of California trout, defenders of. Wildlife, trout unlimited, and California environmental voters in support.

Thank you. Good morning. Natalie Brown. On behalf of the planning and Conservation League, in support.

Thank you. Are there any primary witnesses in opposition? Seeing none. Just looking for any Members of the public who might be in opposition for name, organization and position? Only seeing none. Moving to Members of the Committee to see if there's any questions or concerns. All right, seeing none. Well, thank you for bringing this Bill forward to raise awareness of this pollutant coming from vehicle tires.

The Legislature must continue to be responsible stewards of our natural resources by managing where harmful runoff from our transportation system intersects with sensitive habitats. I'm glad to see that this Bill has been narrowed in scope from last year and requires five pilot studies to help guide future stormwater infrastructure updates. I will be supporting this Bill today. There's been a motion made by Assemblymember Berman and seconded by Assemblymember Carillo with that. zero, yes.

I was going to ask for your close and then ask for the thing, but I moved anyway. Go ahead. Would you like to close?

You're on a roll Madam Chair, respectfully request an aye vote.

Awesome. All right, moving to the secretary for roll call.

[Roll Call]

Sorry. Ward I all right, we'll leave the roll open for Members to add on. With that, I think we're going back to the top. Consent. You're welcome. All right, going to the secretary for consent calendar.

[Roll Call]

Thank you. We'll wait a few moments for any other Members if we want to call any other Members to come to vote. Okay, moving to item number seven. AB 2029, Jackson.

[Roll Call]

All right, moving to item number four.

[Roll Call]

All right, thank you. We will wait a moment. Sarah, can you give the vote for consent consent calendar? The vote count for consent calendar is 12-0. Moving on to item number four. AB 1798 Papin.

[Roll Call]

That Bill is out to. Let me see. Item number four was do pass to Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials. Item number six, vote count. AB 2002.

[Roll Call]

Great. That vote is out item number seven. AB 2029.

[Roll Call]

All right, that Bill is out Committee with that. The meeting is now adjourned. Thank you.