Assembly Standing Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, and Tourism

Good morning. I'd like to welcome everybody to the Tuesday, March 18th Assembly Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism Committee hearing. We will be operating under the Committee rules that were adopted in the previous session until such time time that we have new Committee rules submitted from our Rules Committee today we will be operating as a Subcommitee.

I don't yet see a quorum, but we do have four items on our agenda today. We'll take up items on consent when we've established a quorum. For everyone's knowledge, each Bill can have two main witnesses in support and opposition. And each main witness can have two minutes each.

I invite you to feel free to submit written testimony through the position portal on the Committee's website. Of course this will become part of the official record for each Bill. Our hearing room today is open for attendance of this hearing and this morning we are in room 444 at the state Capitol.

All are of course encouraged to watch the hearing from its live stream on the Assembly's website. Thank you. And with that we are still awaiting a quorum, but we will proceed because we have Assemblymember Alanis here with his Bill as a Subcommitee to present item number one. This is Assembly Bill 310. When you are ready, you can take the microphone and invite your witnesses in support.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members. AB 310 builds upon a success of the Nevaeh Youth Sports Sports Safety Act from last year to further California's commitment to providing safe and fun access to youth sports programs. Sudden cardiac arrest, or SCA is the number one killer of student athletes. When sudden cardiac events take place, timely intervention is critical.

That is why my team and I worked hard last year to establish the California Nevaeh Youth Sports Safety Act, AB 1467. Last year's Bill established a new standard of safety around youth sports by requiring these programs ensure that children have access to an aed, an automated external defibrillator during practices and matches.

We also made sure that there was a three year delay in implementation to accommodate programs adoptions of the new law. My main focus with last year's Bill is and this Bill before you today is to protect our children during the activities that they enjoy like soccer, football, cheerleading, track and field.

Parents and kids should never have to question whether the coaches and staff have the equipment or the training to administer life saving care in an emergency. While AEDs have been proven to save lives, their effectiveness is closely tied to organizations being properly prepared and the timeliness of a response.

AB 310 will require youth sports organizations to have a written emergency response plan put in place that includes the location of an AED and outlines standard procedures in the event of a cardiac emergency. This Bill would also require that youth sports organizations properly maintain the test and test their AEDs and that coaches are provided sufficient opportunities for training in the use of the AEDs.

AB310 aims to establish a minimum level of training to use this life saving equipment, thus offering families a greater sense of safety and confidence in the programs that their children participate in. With me today in support of AB310 is Greg Herner representing the Eric Paradias Safe Alive foundation.

Good morning Mr. Chair.

Gregory, I'm sorry to interrupt you. I'm pause really quick because we do have a quorum I'd like to establish. Madam Secretary, please call the roll Ward. Present.

[Roll Call]

With that we have a quorum and I'm sorry, you may proceed.

Thank you Mr. Chair. Always happy to have quorum. Greg Herner on behalf of the Eric Paredes Save a Life foundation which is based in the San Diego County the organization on many of these organizations throughout the state were founded out of tragedy, a loss of a loved one, particularly a child to sudden cardiac arrest .

They've worked hard to pass laws in the past about training coaches and other things to be aware of the signs of sca.

This is just building upon that there's doesn't make a lot of sense to now that we have the requirements to provide AEDs during sporting events to not have the training for the coaches to actually know how to utilize those.

In evaluations and surveys of particularly youth, we found that there's very few youth that are willing to try to utilize an AED if they've never experienced it.

So but if you just expose them to it and learn how simple that AEDs are to use that 74% of them then say they'd be willing to try to save a life. And this is about building heart health thought processes throughout their life.

We want to catch them when they're at the youth and be able to kind of build on that throughout their life so that they know we understand that there's concerns about cost, but the NFL Heart Smart Coalition is working nationally to provide discounted AEDs.

Eric Predis Save a Life foundation has placed over 200 AEDs and they've done over 80,000 trainings for coaches. So you know, this is a building movement. As we've recognized the tragedy of SCA and what it means to schools and the survivors.

It's not just those that have gone, but it's the survivors and what it does to the other school children that have had to witness this or experience this. So this is just a fantastic Bill to build upon all of this that's been done in the past. And we appreciate your support.

Mr. Chair. Members, Tim Madden, representing the California Chapter of the American College of Cardiology. And at the risk of repeating the comments by the Assembly Member and Mr. Herner, which are spot on for cardiologists. They know this will help. This can and will save lives. And we strongly request your support. Thank you.

Thank you to both of you. Are there any Members of the public here wishing to state a record of support? Just name, title and organization, please.

Morning, Mr. Chair. Members. Alex Alanis, on behalf of the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, in support. Thank you.

Okay. Seeing no other Members of the public, are there any anybody here willing to testify for as a witness in opposition to the Bill? Please approach the dais and when you're ready, you can have up to two minutes each.

Good morning Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee. My name is Jazzy Goring. I am here representing Cal North Youth Soccer fellow. Founded in 1969, Cal North is a nonprofit organization supporting over 100 leagues and soccer clubs serving more than 92,000 children across Northern California. Our vision of kids first remains our primary motivation.

And that being said, we absolutely understand and recognize the intent behind AB 310 and its predecessor AB 1467. Unfortunately, and much to our disadvantage, youth sports organizations have not been as politically engaged at the state level. And, and as a result, the AED requirement came as quite a surprise to many of us.

Since the initial bill's passing, we have actively worked to educate ourselves, our Member organizations and our fellow youth sports organizations on the impact of this law. What we have learned is that the financial burden that each coach has of insurance that each coach has in AED with them at practices and games is massive.

We estimate that for all of our organizations, the cumulative costs will exceed $15 million. Our Member organizations are volunteer run nonprofit organizations who work extremely hard to keep their dues Low so that as many children can play as possible.

In alignment with calnort's mission to provide opportunities to play for all children, regardless of social, physical or economic restraints. With the budget adjustments needed to Fund AEDs, many of our leagues estimate they'd have to double or triple player dues just to stay afloat, effectively pricing out many Low income families.

While we understand that this requirement is now Law. We urge the author and this Committee to help identify solutions to make compliance financially viable for our non profit volunteer driven organizations. And in many of your districts, including the authors, there are significant Low income populations.

We work hard to provide scholarships to these families, but that will become increasingly difficult under this mandate. So we respectfully ask for two key considerations. One, being implementing Good Samaritan protection so that volunteer coaches are free from liability when administering an aed. Alleviating concerns many have expressed regarding legal risk under this law.

Two, being requiring AED installation at public fields. Cities, counties and park districts should be required to install AEDs at sports fields similar to how schools do today. Modern AED units can be secured in protective code accessible boxes that activate when 911 is called.

Many of our leagues already pay substantial fees to access public fields and shared financial responsibility for AED installation would significantly reduce the burden on volunteer organizations. Thank you. Can I get one summary statement? Yes.

Our volunteer organizations do amazing work to support our children and we respectfully ask for your help in ensuring that these organizations remain financially stable so that all children, regardless of economic background, have the opportunity to continue playing sports. Thank you. .

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Members. My name is Andrew Donnery and I'm here on behalf of Elk Grove Soccer. We operate a soccer program just south of Sacramento. We are one of the largest soccer organizations in California. Elk Grove Soccer is a non profit organization with over 6,000 children playing each year.

As Jazzy has testified, the financial cost to carry any AED is enormous. Elk Grove Soccer estimates the cost to us will be over $250,000. And then there will be recurring costs for education and purchases of new AEDs periodically thereafter.

While we have started to budget for AEDs, we will not have the dollars to pay for an AED for each coach by the deadline unless we raise our dues. Our dues now go to pay for fields, referees, uniforms, equipment, coach, education, coach, background checks, fingerprinting and insurance. We also provide scholarships.

Last year it was $267,000 in scholarships for families who cannot afford to pay for our recreation teams. And we have 350. There is no net income from our organisation. At the end of the day, we work very hard to keep our dues Low.

When other sports organisations wake up next year and maybe learn or even know of these requirements, there will be no way for them to effectively and immediately comply. They will more than likely go without an AED and to keep their costs Low. This is obviously an unfair advantage.

Organizations like ours that have purchased AEDs will have higher dues, double or triple that of other organizations that have chosen not to comply with the law as Jazzy requested. And I reiterate, we ask you to help us find a solution to this dilemma. We certainly want to ensure safety for our children by complying with this law.

However, we at the same time need to be able to provide programs that are reasonably priced for our families. And to conclude, I am not from these parts. As you probably realize, I'm from Liverpool, England. I grew up in Low income family housing. My mother and father worked in a frozen food factory 12 hours a day.

To put me through sports, I played youth soccer. I grew up playing. I then progressed, played Division 1 College. I then went on to play professional. And today I sit in front of you as the CEO of the largest soccer organization in California.

That would not be possible without my mother and father being there for me and being able to play affordable youth sports. That's one of the things we ask you to consider.

Thank you for your testimony. Thank you. Are there any other Members of the public here in opposition wishing to state a position? Okay, seeing none, we'll turn it back to the Committee for any questions or comments. Miss Quirk Silva.

Thank you for your testimony. On both sides, on the price, I saw two different kind of expressions. One was about $2,000, but the other said up to 15 million. I think it was from soccer.

So the questions are if you could both speak to that and will there be any type of grants or ways to slowly move teams into this? Because I know in a very small league, $2,000 is a lot of money.

Yeah. So Greg Herner, on behalf of the Eric Paredes Save a Life Foundation, again, so there, you know, there are different ads, there's a lot of new companies that are getting into this.

I actually just spoke to a national group in Portland in January and they had, you know, probably 10 different vendors that are coming up with new and lower cost ones. I also mentioned the NFL Heart Smart Coalition, which is offering discounted AEDs. And so, you know, some, some AEDs are like $1,000.

You can get through the Heart Smart Coalition. You can get discounts off of those. I mentioned that our foundation has placed over 200 AEDs. Those are placed free of charge. There are grants through a lot of nonprofits, both local, regional and national, to place those. Just one MIC is one of the larger foundations that offers grants.

And I think it's, I think it's important that we're talking about existing law now. We're not Talking about the proposed changes in this Bill. But these do save lives. Every year at the end of session, the last several years, I've brought kids to the Assembly and to the Senate to be introduced where they saved their friend's life.

They. They learned how to use an aed. An AED was placed through a grant or whatever. And when their friend collapsed on the field or outside, they knew what to do, they responded and they were able to save lives. I think that's the point. These save lives.

Should we do more to provide funding and more access to ads throughout the state? Absolutely. And we're committed to helping to work on that and we work with the opposition on that. But this is about saving lives and especially youth lives, and this is critical.

The $15 million estimation is for all of our organizations across CalNorth. So that's over 100 organizations who have anywhere from 200 to 500 teams. So being that the law requires each AED to be placed with one coach, it would essentially be per team. And we've estimated similarly that the units per unit is usually 1,000 to $2,000.

With the higher end units providing a lot of key features that would be helpful to our volunteers. Things like CPR guidance, real time CPR guidance. Those are going to be on those $2,000 plus units. So our estimation comes from per unit per team across our entire organization. That's where the $15 million comes from.

Thank you, Vice Chair Lackey. Okay.

It seems to me that the opposition is more frustrated with the previous Bill that requires the AEDs. I think this Bill addresses the training of the coach specifically. Just the coach to be able to train and operate these, these AEDs and to know CPR. Am I mistaken on that?

No, you're right that the Bill that we're referring to was already done last year. It's already required and the per coach is not in there. It just needs to be readily available. So like my daughter played soccer, we're on a soccer field with probably 20 other teams, so there's 20 other coaches.

There would just need to be one AED available for them. Thank you for clarifying that. You're welcome.

Thank you. If there's no other questions or comments, I want to thank the author for bringing this Bill forward. I agree.

I think as you started in your testimony, that with the existing law in place that has this requirement, and I will comment on that too, it's important that the training is accurate and to be able to do that through the requirement that coaches get trained, but also to have a training Plan in place.

Number emergency response plan in place I think is also important. That said that part there also is going to invoke a little bit of cost, probably marginal, but something that's already built upon existing training modules and other requirements that are in there and the establishment of a plan. I'm curious, what if.

So if there is not an ad present by 2027, say the funding hasn't been identified, so somebody's out of compliance then with that part of the code. But how would you then be able to implement an emergency response plan if that's not been procured?

I would assume then if they don't follow within the guidelines of the law, then they couldn't have it at that point. I would think the priorities would shift then to okay, let's worry about our kids health and them living and then let's actually take care of it.

I did a Google search yesterday just to get an idea of the ads and everything like that. Even the training, the training online you could find for $20 for a coach and the AEDs. I saw one that went up was 300.

I saw one that was up to like a little over little, just under 1400 and so and the lifespan of that is like from six to eight years. So you're talking multiple times you're going to get to use this initially.

Yeah, it's probably going to cost something up front, but you know, with the families that we've spoke to, they would pay millions of dollars to still have their kids here, let alone a $1300 Bill for a league.

Absolutely. And so I think that there's a solution here and we should continue to do what we can.

You know, tough times that we're in right now with our state budget, to be able to try to prioritize more grant support, partnering with foundations as well, to be able to find their contributions that can sort of help to make everything whole without putting the burden on the backs of working families and parents that are having a real difficult time already affording cost of living issues.

I know that it's nominal and I know that the alternative is horrible and we would have wished that we would have had that in place and we can find a solution here. I want to thank you for working with my staff to be able to address this concern.

Both what we have here today for any marginal costs that we have in the training component, but also looking back as well about how we can maybe successfully implement this so that all youth organizations and schools will be able to afford this, which without having to pass that Cost onto families. With that, I'd like to invite you to close.

I just want to thank you for you and your staff, with all your guys help that you guys have done with this Bill. As far as the opposition, more than welcome to talk with you guys. The gentleman next to me obviously has grants and groups that are willing to help if that needs to be.

And that goes for any league, not just yours. Obviously our main focus is just to protect our kids. I know that you guys mentioned it.

Also as far as priorities as my background with the first responder and giving a death notification to a family sucks and I don't want other families having to deal with that when they know that an AED could have been available. The technology is here, we have it.

It's fairly cheap if you even compare to like funeral costs and everything like that. This is a cheap option that we have to ensure to make sure that our youth are taken care of. So with that, I request your iPhone.

Thank you, Mr. Alanis. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

That is out of Committee. We are at 90. Thank you. Congratulations, Appreciate. Next we will have Assembly Bill 437 by Vice Chair Lackey. And while he is getting prepared, I'd like to entertain a motion for the consent calendar with minor amendments. Thank you. By Ms. Quirk-Silva. Second by Ms. Ortega. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Consent calendar is out nine to zero. Thank you. And Mr. Lackey, you're prepared for AB 437.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair and Members, for allowing me to present this bill, which is AB 437. I'd like to begin by thanking the Committee, obviously, for their efforts and working with my office on this bill. We will be accepting the proposed amendments. AB 437 will add sports related injuries as a reportable information regarding the status of health and safety of pupils, coaches, officials, and spectators. The CIF is a nonprofit that governs interscholastic athletics in California for both public and private schools. It's currently required to submit a report to the Legislature and Governor every seven years.

And in that report, it includes information on the health and safety of students. However, more research has been coming out about the long term impacts of injuries on athletes, particularly head injuries. Because of this, my proposed bill would require that information on sports related head injuries and other injuries and medical problems be included in this report. I respectfully ask for your support on this bill.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. Are there any witnesses in support?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Tim Madden representing the California Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians in strong support.

Thank you. Are there any other members of the public here wish to express support for this bill? Okay, seeing none. Are there any primary witnesses in opposition for statement? None. And any members of the public here wish to register a position of opposition? Okay, seeing none. We'll turn this back to Committee for conversation. Any questions or comments?

Thank you. Mr. Zbur has moved the bill, and Ms. McKinnor seconds the bill. Mr. Vice Chair, I want to thank you for working closely with our staff on some of these technical amendments. I agree, we already have the requirements in place for this Important report. But the theme of the day is athlete safety. And being able to include that in what's already in a document I think is important feedback for the Legislature to know. So with that, I'd like to invite you to close.

I just would appreciate your support.

Thank you. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

AB 437, motion is do pass as amended. [Roll Call]

Thank you. And that bill is out nine to zero.

Our final bill of the day will be item number three. This is Assembly Bill 708 by Committee Member Valencia. And when you are ready, you may begin your testimony.

Wonderful. Thank you. Buenos dias, Mr. Chair and Members. AB 708 empowers parents to increase their child safety in youth football by allowing the use of soft shelled helmets as add ons. By giving families this option to utilize this protective equipment, the bill enables parents to take proactive steps to reduce concussion risk while protecting the fundamentals of what I believe to be the world's best sport, American football. This safety technology was introduced by the National Football League in 2015 and has gone through extensive testing.

These studies completed by Virginia Tech have shown that it decreases concussion risk by up to 25%. Despite these findings and widespread use in high school football, college, and the NFL, for whatever reason, some youth football leagues across our state have prohibited their use, impairing parents' choice on player safety.

Given the increased scrutiny over football's safety, it's critical that families have the opportunity to send their youth athletes into the playing field with the best available safety equipment and innovations that the market has to offer. AB 708 is a parental empowerment bill that will increase children's safety and uphold parental choice. And with that being said, I respectfully ask for yes vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Valencia. Are there any witnesses in support of the bill today or any members of the public here wishing to register a statement of support? Okay, seeing none. Are there any witnesses in opposition or any members of the public wishing to state a position of opposition? Okay, seeing none. We'll turn this back to Committee for questions and comments. Ms. Quirk-Silva.

Yes. I want to commend the author for bringing this forward and appreciate the work, as we know things take a long time to move forward. And this discussion of head injuries in this particular Committee has been long standing, and I was here as the Chair when we actually did have a lot of discussion on this.

So I not only appreciate it, but support it. I would like to be added on on this bill because what it does is it gives parents the choice of additional support. I can imagine in the future maybe a foundation that could also play a role in this for parents who may not have the funds to purchase these additional type of safeguards. But that's another step. But in this case, I not only support it, but I make the motion to move it forward.

Thank you, and absolutely.

Thank you. Motion by Ms. Quirk-Silva with a second by Mr. Zbur. Any other questions or comments. Vice Chair Lackey.

Yeah, certainly I appreciate this consideration. It's sure a heck of a lot better than a ban of the entire sport, and that's what we considered last time. And it was a very close vote, truthfully. So it came very close to eliminating the entire opportunity for our young people to engage in this sport.

And we do believe in safety. And as you can see. Excuse me. In the NFL, there are some players that take this additional precaution on their helmets. And I think that's where it needs to gain some momentum. Once young people see that even the professionals are doing this, that it's very acceptable. And I appreciate your reasonableness on this issue, and I look forward to supporting it. Thank you.

Absolutely. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, Mr. Valencia, I want to thank you for bringing this bill forward. And I just really wanted to highlight as well, you found obviously a very common sense approach, I think, through your leadership and bringing together voices that had historically been at very extreme odds on this issue.

When you have, through letters of support here today, the Concussion Legacy Foundation and the California Youth Football Alliance to the commitment of your leadership on this issue to be able to find that common ground. And it's common sense to have an option to allow individuals to be able to use these.

It gets rid of the issue that if somebody wants to take this for their own personal safety, the use of soft shell helmets, that they are not prohibited from doing so. But without that requirement, I think we're able to sort of, you know, open this up into a new era where maybe as individuals and with their, with their parents guidance as well, you're able to have more and more willingness to be able to protect oneself.

And the adoption of that, you know, elected, like, person by person will increase and hopefully you know, just passively will become, you know, a better standard for everybody to recognize their own safety. With that, I invite you to close.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And couldn't have said it better. If the intent is youth safety in sports, then we need to find commonality around that as opposed to be so polarizing. Right. So that was the hope after going through last year's exercise.

I did support that bill, and it was a very difficult decision for me to make because of my love and passion for tackle football and what it's provided to me. But again, moving forward, I would love to continue to build bridges as opposed to gaps, and I think this bill does just that in this space. So thank you.

Thank you. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

Bill is AB 708, Valencia. Motion is do pass. [Roll Call]

And that bill is out 9 to 0. Thank you, Mr. Valencia. And with that, we've come to the end of our agenda, and this meeting is adjourned.