Assembly Standing Committee on Local Government

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the assembly local government committee hearing. Since we have an author here and we have, not quorum yet, but we'll get started with the testimony for this hearing. We'll be in person. We also accept written testimony through the position letter portal on the committee's website.

As we proceed with witnesses and public comment, I want to make sure everyone understand that the assembly has rules to ensure we maintain order and run an efficient and fair hearing. We apply these rules consistently to all people who participate in the proceedings regardless of the viewpoint they express. In order to facilitate the goal of hearing as much as possible from the public within the limits of our time, We will not permit conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impede the orderly conduct of legislative proceedings.

We will not accept disruptive behavior or behavior that incites or threatens violence. The rules for today's hearings include no talking or loud noises from the audience.

Public comment may be provided only at the designated time and place and as permitted by the chair. Public comments must relate to the subject of bills or information being discussed today. No engaging in conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impeach the early conduct of this hearing. No engaging in conduct that disrupts. I think I said that already.

Please be aware that violations of these rules may be subject to removal or other enforcement actions. We don't have a quorum yet. We will have nine bills on our agenda this afternoon with seven items on consent. Those items are SB 935 by Senator Choi, SB 1080 by Senator Valladares, SB 1126 by Senator Choi, SB 1440, SB 1441, and SB 1442 by the Senate Local Government Committee, and SJR 11 by Senator Cervantes.

We will take up to two primary witnesses in support and up to two primary witnesses in opposition for each bill.

These witnesses will have three minutes each to provide their testimony. All remaining witnesses should state their name, their organization, and their position on the bill. We are still gonna do participate as a subcommittee since we have no quorum. With that, we're gonna go with the item number two on the agenda, SB 1005 by Senator Caballero. Yeah.

Morning, when you're ready.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Members, for the opportunity to present SB 1005, the public entities navigating the need for immediate efficient small change act or pennies act. The bill is in response to a 2025 executive order by president Trump to cease the production of The United States Penny and to phase out its use in commerce.

This executive order was issued without the required federal process that would have provided for a national discussion about the wisdom of taking the action and the impact on the economy economy, local government, commerce, and state governments. The loss of production has created a shortage of pennies for financial institutions, which has resulted in the inability of local governments to pay exact change to the last cent for residents paying a bill in cash.

What this means is that if you go in with cash to pay for your property tax, and you're owed a few pennies, the the local government then has to issue you a check.

And the way they issue the check is to do a process where they send it through a production process and and to check those out, which means that those few cents will cost you a lot more money to to send than than if if there had been pennies available.

So SB 1005 gives gives local government the authority to determine whether to do to adopt a system for rounding to the nearest 5¢, and it'll provide legal authority for them, prevent you the unilateral rise in the cost. Creates a hearing process for public discussion and a decision making the ultimate decision made basically, which will save taxpayers money. With me to testify in support of the bill is Karen Lange with the California Association of County Treasures and Tax Collectors.

Hi.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Senator for carrying this bill. Had a lot of fun working on it over the year with her and learning about how this actually works on the ground.

Last fall, several of my county treasurers brought letters that they'd received from Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase saying essentially the same thing, which was that they were Alerting County treasurers that as the Mint has stopped producing the penny, that they would not be able to provide those, cash, exchanges with the counties so that the county treasurer could then make sure that all of the departments throughout county government would be able to make proper change when the public would come in to make a payment.

And, the law's pretty clear that we don't get to make a rounding up or down when they need to make proper change to a member of the public.

And so this is really in only in this scenario where someone is paying in cash. So if someone is paying with a credit card or an ACF, the exact amount will always be what is charged. It is just the circumstance for individuals of the public who prefer to pay in person in cash. If the penny is no longer available, the treasurer has the discretion to round up.

And before they use that discretion, the local board of supervisors, the City Council, the board of the special district must first pass a resolution authorizing their local agency to allow this kind of change to be made.

So there will still be a public process locally before this will be implemented, but they just want they just want very clear legal footing that they can round in the absence of the penny, and and in the circumstance where someone wants to pay in cash. I'm would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge, RCRC is a cosponsor of the measure, but not available to be here today, and they would urge your support as well. So thank you for your consideration.

Thank you for carrying this very exciting bill for us, and ask for your Aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you. We just reached quorum. Please call the role to achieve quorum, and then we'll proceed with the item.

[Roll Call]

We have quorum now. Now we're gonna continue with this hearing item. Anybody in the audience that wants to add on in support, please state your name, affiliation, and position on the bill.

Mister Chair, Members, Amy Brown on behalf of the city of Camarillo in support.

Russell Manning on behalf of California State Treasurer Fiona Ma in support.

Good afternoon. Kentra Biglia on behalf of the California Association of Recreation and Park Districts, City of Glendale, City Of Rancho Cucamonga, and City Of Thousand Oaks in support.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Aaron Avery, California Special Districts Association cosponsor and in support today. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Josh Gaugher on behalf of the Urban Counties of California and also on behalf of colleagues with the California State Association of Counties and the League of California Cities all in support.

Thank you. Any primary opposition on these measures? Seeing none, no opposition. Committee members, questions, comments? Move the bill in a second.

Would you like to close, Senator?

Thank thank you, Mr. Chair. I was gonna show you a picture. I was in Utah recently and what the some of the commercial establishments are doing because they have the flexibility to just say, sorry. We're we don't have any pennies for you. Is it they're they're considering it a contribution to the food banks.

And so I thought that was kind of a cool way to do it, but we need authority, legal authority for local government. So I respectfully ask for your Aye vote.

Thank you, Senator, for presenting your bill today, and thank you for accepting the amendments. Would you accept? Correct? Yes. Yes.

With that, the motion is due pass as amended. Motion by mister Tass, second by miss Pacheco. The motion is due pass as amended. Secretary, please call the roll.

For item number two, SB 105, the motion is do pass as amended.[Roll Call]

The bill is out. 6, 0. We'll leave the roll open for this to our own. Congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And with that, we move on to the second item on the agenda item number three, SB 1036, Senator Grayson.

Greetings to the honorable Chair and committee Members, esteemed committee Members. I'd like to be with you today. SB 1036 is a simple bill that would provide clarification under the Mitigation Fee Act by requiring that all jurisdictions provide credit for any use previously on the site when a project is redeveloping a site with similar prior uses. What that means is many jurisdictions already provide credits for these purposes, but not all of them do.

To SB 1036, we'll create a uniform policy that clarifies that impact fees should only be paid on the new impact of that development and what that development causes.

This will help reduce the cost of duplicative fees and lower overall development cost. With me to testify to the Chair today is Michael Lane representing SPUR.

Mr. Chair and Members, Mike Lane with SPUR, public policy think tank in the San Francisco Bay area. First, I'd like to thank local government represents working with us on this bill to properly apply the mitigation fee act to redevelopment or or adaptive reuse projects on existing sites with previous uses. SB 1036 does this by requiring local jurisdictions to give credit towards fees for previous uses on a site being redeveloped.

This ensures the products is the only charge fees related to the new impacts and need for services or facilities created by the new development, which is precisely intent and meaning of the mitigation fee. I could respect the request and I vote.

Thank you. Anybody else in the room that wants to add on any support, please state your name, affiliation, and position on the bill.

Good afternoon, Chair, Members. Nathan Scoutson with the California Association of Realtors in support.

Hi. I am John Valley from the AARP. We have 3,200,000 Californians that we represent, and we are in support of this belt.

Vanessa Chavez with the California Building Industry Association in support. Thank you.

Raymond Contreras with Lighthouse Public Affairs on behalf of SPUR, Abundant Housing LA, Habitat for Humanity, and Fieldstead. Thank you.

Thank you. Any primary opposition any opposition at all in the room? Seeing none.

Committee Members, comments, questions. Would you have a motion and a second? Any comments, questions? No. Would you like to close an order?

Respectfully ask for an Aye vote.

Thank you for presenting your bill today. I will be supporting it. The motion is do passed. The motion by Rubio, second by Stefani. Secretary, please call the roll.

For item number three, SB 1036, the motion is due passed. [Roll Call]

The measures are 6, 0. We leave the roll open. Congratulations. Can we do consent calendar, please? Call the roll.

Is there a motion or second for consent? Motion by miss Johnson. Is there a second? Second by miss Pacheco. Please call the roll.

For the consent calendar, item number one, SB 935 by assembly by Senator Choi. The motion is due passed and be where you refer to the committee on appropriations. Item number four, valid errors do passed. SB 1126, Choi, due pass and re be re referred to the committee on appropriations. Item number six by the Senate Committee on Local Government due pass.

Item number seven. Sorry. SB 1441 by the Senate Committee on Local Government due pass. SB 1442 by the Senate Committee on Local Government, the motion is due pass. And SJR 11 Cervantes be adopted.

[Roll Call]

Consent current items are moving on. They due pass 6, 0. We'll leave the roll open for a couple of minutes for other members to add on. Thank you, committee Members. For add ons, secretary, please call the roll for the next items.

For item number two, SB 105, the motion is due passed as amended. [Roll Call] For item number three, SB 1036, the motion is due pass.

[Roll Call]

So that item is out 7, 0. One more.

For the consent calendar. [Roll Call]

Consent calendar items are out 7, 0. We'll wait a couple more minutes for other add ons. Thank you. Second, there, please call the roll and for items, please.

For item number two, SB 105, the motion is due passed as amended. [Roll Call]

So that item out 8, 0.

For item number three, SB 1036, the motion is due pass. [Roll Call]

So that item is out 8, 0.

For the consent calendar. [Roll Call]

Consent items are out. 8, 0. Hello? For add ons, secretary, please call the roll for add ons.

For item number two, SB 1005, the motion is due pass as amended. [Roll Call]

That measure is out 10, 0.

For item number three, SB1036, the motion is due pass. [Roll Call]

That item is out 10, 0.

For the consent calendar, ransom? [Roll Call]

Consent calendar items are out 10, 0. Thank you. And with that, we're gonna close, the local room hearing for today. Thank you.