June 3, 2026 · Local Government · 2,315 words · 16 speakers · 76 segments
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. 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 understands 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 our 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 impeach 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 not 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 impedes 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 going to participate as a subcommittee since we have no quorum. With that, we're going to go with the item number two on the agenda, SB 1005 by Senator Caballero.
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, 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 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 the check goes out, which means that those few cents will cost you a lot more money to send than if there had been pennies available. So SB 1005 gives local government the authority to determine whether to adopt a system for rounding to the nearest five cents, and it'll provide legal authority for them, prevent the unilateral rise in the cost, It creates a hearing process for public discussion and a decision making the ultimate decision, basically, which will save taxpayers money. With me to testify in support of the bill is Karen Lang with the California Association of County Treasurers and Tax Collectors.
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 county 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 is 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 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 very clear legal footing that they can round in the absence of the penny and in the circumstance where someone wants to pay in cash. I would be remiss if I did acknowledge RCRC is a co-sponsor 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 I ask for your aye vote. Thank you.
Thank you. We just reached quorum. Please call the roll to achieve quorum and then we'll proceed with the item. Carrillo.
Present.
Ta.
Johnson.
Pacheco.
Colosa.
Ransom.
Rubio.
Stephanie.
Ward.
Wilson. We have quorum now, and we're going to 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.
Mr. 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, Kendra Bigley 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, co-sponsor and in support today. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Josh Gogger 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? See none, no opposition. Committee members, questions, comments? Move the bill in a second. Would you like to close, Senator?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was going to show you a picture. I was in Utah recently and what some of the commercial establishments are doing because they have the flexibility to just say, sorry, we don't have any pennies for you. 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 governments. 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?
Yes.
With that, the motion is due pass as amended. Motion by Mr. Ta, second by Ms. Pacheco. The motion is due pass as amended. Secretary, please call the roll.
For item number two, SB 1005, the motion is due pass as amended.
Curio?
Aye.
Curio, aye.
Ta?
Ta, aye.
Johnson?
Aye.
Johnson, aye.
Pacheco?
Aye. Pacheco aye Colosa Ransom Rubio aye Rubio aye I Stephanie Stephanie I ward Wilson The village out 6-0 will you they're all open for this to add on congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much And without we move on to the second item on the agenda item number three SB 1036 senator Grayson Thank you. 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. SB 1036 will 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, Michael Lane with Spur Public Policy Think Tank in the San Francisco Bay Area. First, I'd like to thank local government representatives for working with us on this bill to properly apply the Mitigation Fee Act to redevelopment 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 the intent and meaning of the mitigation fee, if you respectfully request an aye vote. Thank you. Anybody else in the room that wants to add on
in support, please state your name, affiliation, and position on the bill.
Good afternoon, Chair and members. Nathan Skatson with the California Association of Realtors in support. Hi, I am John Valley from the ARP. We have 3.2 million Californians that we represent, and we are in support of this bill. Vanessa Chavez with the California Building Industry Association and 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? See none. Committee members, comments, questions? We do have a motion and a second. Any comments, questions? No. Would you like to close another? Respectfully ask for an aye vote. Thank you for presenting your bill today. I will be supporting it. The motion is due. Pass. The motion by Rubio, second by Stephanie. Secretary, please call the roll.
For item number three, SB 1036, the motion is due. Pass. Carrillo?
Aye.
Carrillo, aye.
Ta?
Ta, aye. Johnson, aye. Pacheco, aye. Colosa, Ransom, Rubio, aye. Stephanie, aye. Ward, Wilson.
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 a second for consent? Motion by Ms. Johnson, is there a second?
Second by Ms. Pacheco. Please call the roll. For the consent calendar, item number one, SP 935 by Assembly by Senator Choi. The motion is do pass and be referred to the Committee on Appropriations. Item number four, Valadieras, do pass. SP 1126, Choi, do pass and be referred to the Committee on Appropriations. Item number six by the Senate Committee on Local Government, do pass. Item number seven, sorry, SB 1441 by the Senate Committee on Local Government, do pass. SB 1442 by the Senate Committee on Local Government, the motion is do pass. And SJR 11 Cervantes be adopted. Carillo? Aye. Carillo, aye. Ta? Aye. Ta, aye. Johnson? Aye. Johnson, aye. Pacheco? Aye. Pacheco, aye. Coloza? Ransom? Rubio? Aye. Rubio, aye. Stephanie? Aye. Stephanie, aye. Ward? Wilson?
Consent current items are moving on. They do pass 6-0. We'll leave the roll open for a couple of minutes for other members to add on. Thank you, committee members. Thank you. Thank you. For add-ons, Secretary of Police, call the roll for the next add-ons.
For item number two, SP1005, the motion is due pass as amended. Colosa, Ransom, Ward, Wilson.
Aye.
Wilson, aye. For item number three, SP1036, the motion is due pass.
Carrillo. Oh.
Colosa, Ransom, Ward, Wilson.
Aye.
Wilson, aye.
So that is out 7-0.
For the consent calendar, Colosa, Ransom, Ward, Wilson.
Aye.
Wilson, aye.
Consent calendar items are out 7-0. We'll wait a couple more minutes for other add-ons. Thank you. Thank you.
Please call the roll and for items, please. For item number two, SP1005, the motion is due, passed as amended. Colosa? Aye. Colosa, aye. Ransom?
Ward? Wilson?
So that item is already zero.
For item number 3, SP 1036, the motion is due pass. Caloza? Aye. Caloza, aye. Ransom?
Ward?
So that item is out a zero.
For the consent calendar, Caloza? Aye. Caloza, aye. Ransom?
Ward?
Consent items are out a zero. Yay! Bye! Hello. For add-ons, Secretary, please call the roll for add-ons.
For item number 2, SP1005, the motion is do pass as amended. Ransom? Aye. Ransom, aye. Ward? Aye. Ward, aye.
That measure is out 10-0.
For item number 3, SP1036, the motion is do pass. Ransom? Aye. Ransom, aye. Ward? Aye. Ward, aye.
That item is out 10-0.
For the consent calendar, Ransom? Aye. Ransom, aye.
Ward?
Aye. Ward, aye.
Consent calendar items are out and zero. Thank you. And with that, we're going to close the local hearing for today. Thank you. Thank you.