Sacramento Report
by Francisco Silva
As the summer legislative session came to an end, lawmakers were focused on the special-election showdown scheduled for November 8.
Governor Schwarzenegger has three measures on the ballot: (1) Proposition 74 would lengthen the amount of time teachers have to work before being granted tenure; (2) Proposition 76 would limit state spending; and (3) Proposition 77, which the California Supreme Court ordered back onto the ballot, would take away from lawmakers the responsibility of drawing legislative and congressional boundaries, and give it to a panel of retired judges. The latter proposition had been invalidated by the lower courts, which had agreed with Attorney General Bill Lockyer's argument that it violated election law because of the way its backers got it on the ballot. The California Supreme Court subsequently overturned the lower courts' decisions, but left open the possibility of invalidating the initiative if voters approved it.
Despite spending $2 million to gather sufficient signatures for a measure to raise property taxes on commercial and industrial property, the California Teachers' Association (CTA) abruptly dropped its effort. Instead, the CTA indicated that it is going to work with business groups on education finance.
On the legislative front, there were approximately 803 bills pending before the State Senate and Assembly that legislators had to consider prior to the 2005 legislative session's September closing date. This was a critical time, when last-minute amendments to bills are not uncommon, requiring CAA staff and members to keep a close eye on any legislation that could impact the rental-housing industry.
During the summer legislative session, for instance, CAA staff worked with the Attorney General to fix a flaw in sex-offender bill AB 1323, which he had sponsored. In light of the new law, the bill proposed (among other things) to update the Megan's Law web disclosure law requiring owners and real-estate brokers to make specified disclosures within leases and sales documents. The bill as initially written would not have given rental-property owners and real-estate brokers sufficient time to implement the proposed changes to their written forms. CAA representatives successfully convinced the Attorney General that a six-month delay for implementation of the modified lease-disclosure requirement would give the industry sufficient time to comply. On September 9, AB 1323 passed through the Senate with a unanimous vote of 39-0. It was returned to the Assembly with amendments.
Another bill that received much attention was SB 51, a measure seeking to make permanent the 60-day Notice of Termination of Tenancy law. CAA's staff, membership and leadership actively lobbied against the bill, which was being pushed by tenant, senior, veterans and legal-aid groups. At the session's end the bill arrived at its last legislative stop—the Assembly floor—where it failed to garner the 41 aye votes needed to move on to the governor. The total vote tally was 36 ayes to 32 nays. A motion to reconsider was issued, but action was postponed to the Assembly's next legislative day.
CAA has also recently been working with a coalition of business groups to address a recent California Supreme Court ruling. In Grafton Partners v. Superior Court, the Supreme Court declared that California law does not permit people or companies to agree to settle future disputes in front of a judge instead of a jury. This makes California, along with Georgia, one of only two states that does not allow voluntary jury waivers. However such waivers are allowed under federal law, and the justices opined that the waiver option can be restored by the State Legislature. The coalition was seeking a solution before the end of the legislative session.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. Francisco Silva is the vice president and counsel of legislative affairs for CAA. Copyright © 2005 by the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.