BWOPA / TILE State President Dezie Woods Jones, and Executive Director LaNiece Jones thank the Annual Legislative Learning Day planning team and attendees for ensuring this year's event was a grand success.

This year of the 80 attendees, close to 35 were students from West Contra Costa Unified School District who engaged with state legislators and toured our State Capitol.  Focus bills included AB1644, AB2200, AB2434, AB1575, AB2498 and SB966.    (See below legislative bill package)

Students and members met in the offices of over 15 legislative members and their staffers to include Senator Isadora Hall, Senator Hancock, Assemblymembers Rob Bonta, Tony Thurmond, Dr. Shirley Weber, Kevin McCarthy, Chris Holden, Reggie Sawyer Jones and Mark Ridley Thomas.

Throughout the day, members visited our hearing room in the Legislative Office Building to give special remarks opening with Assemblymember Jim Copper, followed by Assemblymember Shirley Weber's legislative representative Rory Kaufman, and Assistant Chief Clerk Sue Parker. BWOPA's former 1st VP and now Senator Holly Mitchell facilitated the end of day debriefing session.

Sincere gratitude to Oakland / Berkeley Assemblymember Rob Bonta's office for serving as our Capitol host for the day and Chief Clerk Dotson Wilson's office for our educational collateral.

Special thanks to our Richmond/Contra Costa Chapter - President Kathleen Sullivan, Pamela Price, Uche Uwahemu, Cesar Zepeda, Tanya Brown and Janie Anker - for mobilizing over 50 students, chaperones and members from the Richmond area. 

Oakland/Berkeley Chapter members were joined by Dezie Woods Jones Public Policy Fellows Fatima Alleyne, Ashley Chambers, Tamisha Torres Walker, Amelia Neal, Charlette Viney and Shahidah Lacy.

See you all next year! 

BWOPA/TILE 2016 Legislative Bills

ADDRESSING THE HOUSING CRISIS IN CALIFORNIA

AB 2200 - School Employee Housing Assistance Grant [Thurmond]
AB 2200 seeks to close the achievement gap by allowing school employees, including teachers, to remain in the cities where they work. Specifically, the bill creates a $100 million program which will provide financial assistance to school districts that cannot independently fund housing for school employees. The program also allocates 5% of its funds towards predevelopment costs. AB 2200 will establish a grant program to provide development financing assistance to qualified school districts for the creation of affordable rental housing for school districts employees, including teachers.
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AB 2031 - Local Government: Affordable Housing: Financing [Atkins and Bonta]
AB 2031 empowers local governments to rapidly address the affordable housing crisis. The bill allows cities to pass an ordinance to issue bonds for affordable housing without raising taxes or diverting property taxes from other sources. AB 2031 allows cities to tap any portion of their net available revenue to use bonds for affordable housing. The net available, also known as “boomerang funds”, is distributed by the county auditor-controller to cities from the Redevelopment Property Tax Trust Fund (RPTTF). By front-loading projects with a bond cities can build more units more quickly and address displacement.
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AB 2406 - Housing: Junior Accessory Dwelling Units [Thurmond]
A multitude of solutions are needed to address California’s critical need for more housing. Assembly Bill (AB) 2406 will create a simple and inexpensive permitting process for a flexible type of second unit created by repurposing spare bedrooms in existing homes. Junior Accessory Dwelling Units (JADUs), or Junior Second Units, will create new, less costly rental housing, while at the same time making owning a home in the state more affordable.
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AB 2441 - Workforce Housing in Pilot Program [Thurmond]
AB 2441 will create a new state investment in cities for the development of housing in high-cost areas. The bill will create a pilot program that will provide funds to cities in high-cost areas, to be used for either down payment assistance of a home or the development, substantial rehabilitation and preservation of multifamily housing.

AB 1568 - Medi-Cal: demonstration project [Bonta and Atkins]
AB 1568 enacts the Medi-Cal 2020 Waiver which is a five year, $6.2 billion demonstration that provides California the opportunity to leverage federal funds to advance key initiatives.
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AB 1644 - Early Mental Health Initiative [Bonta]
AB 1644 reestablishes and renames the Early Mental Health Initiative (EMHI) as the HEAL Trauma in Schools Act, and provides support services for outreach, training, and technical assistance for schools and Local Education Agencies (LEAs) currently providing mental health services at school sites, with priority to those in communities experiencing high levels of childhood adversity.
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AB 2216 - Graduate Medical Education & Primary Care [Bonta]
AB 2216 address California’s primary care provider shortage by: 1) Establishing the Teaching Health Center Primary Care Graduate Medical Education Fund; 2) Providing planning and development grants to teaching health centers (THC) for the purpose of establishing new accredited or expanded primary care residency programs; and 3) Making available sustaining grants to ensure the continued operation of an accredited teaching health center.
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AB 2729 - Oil and Gas: Operations [Thurmond and Williams]
This bill will disincentive operators to maintain large numbers of idle wells and seeks to plug these idle and abandoned wells to prevent any leaks causing environmental hazards in our communities.
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AB 2756 - Oil and Gas: Operations [Thurmond and Williams]
This bill will enhance the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources’ (DOGGR) authority to regulate the oil and gas industry, and ensure the protection of public health and the environment.

ADVANCING EDUCATION

AB 2410 - Early Childhood Education Outcomes [Bonta]
This bill would enact the Local Control School Readiness Act of 2016, and require the California Department of Education (CDE) to develop prekindergarten learning development guidelines, focused on preparing 4- and 5-year old children for kindergarten, based on current science that reflects how publicly funded programs can close the school readiness gap.
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AB 2434 - Commission for Universal and Tuition-Free Higher Education [Bonta and Ting]
AB 2434 calls for the creation of a blue-ribbon commission to study and develop a plan to grow the funding, enrollment slots, and number of campuses at public universities and colleges so that public higher education in California has the capacity to be universal and tuition-free.
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AB831 - Student Financial Aid: Cal Grant Program [Bonilla]
College Tuition Waiver
This bill would change, in accordance with a prescribed formula, the maximum Cal Grant awards for students attending private nonprofit postsecondary educational institutions, commencing with the 2015–16 award year. The bill would impose requirements on private nonprofit postsecondary educational institutions to provide specified data to a specified association as a condition for the funding of Cal Grant maximum awards to their students, and would require the association to report on that information to the Legislature, the Governor, the Department of Finance, and the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES, BUSINESS FRAMEWORKS, AND
WORKER PROTECTIONS

AB 1575 - Medical Cannabis [Bonta, Cooley, Jones-Sawyer, Lackey and Wood]
AB 1575 revises the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act (MMRSA) to improve implementation of the regulatory framework, and ease the transition for existing operators, local governments, patients, and the general public.
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AB 2270 - Statewide Bonding Assistance [Bonta]
AB 2270 establishes a program to assist small, disadvantaged, women, minority and disabled-veteran– owned businesses secure public works contracts by establishing of a statewide bonding assistance program, enabling small and diverse businesses the opportunity to work on projects such as High Speed Rail, water and highway infrastructure, and other development within the state.
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AB 2545 - Tribal Participation in the Medical Cannabis Industry [Bonta]
AB 2545 will provide a pathway for tribal governments and businesses on sovereign lands to benefit from the regulated medical cannabis marketplace established by California’s groundbreaking medical cannabis law, the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act.

RACIAL JUSTICE, VICTIMS’ RIGHTS, AND PUBLIC SAFETY

AB 1695 - Stop Illegal Gun Sales Act [Bonta]
Requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to send a letter to each firearm purchaser during the 10-day waiting period informing the purchaser of laws relating to firearms and creates a misdemeanor to falsely report to law enforcement that a firearm has been lost or stolen, and institutes a 10-year ban on owning a firearm for those convicted of making a false report.
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AB2005 - Out of State placement of juveniles who are deemed delinquent [Ridley-Thomas]
This bill would expand the membership of the board to 9 members, 7 public members appointed by the Governor, one Member of the Senate appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules, and, one Member of the Assembly appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly. The bill would provide that Members of the Legislature appointed to the board shall serve as nonvoting, ex officio members of the board and for a term of 2 years, with no limit on the number of terms that may be served by any one Member. The bill would provide that legislative members are subject to certain requirements, including, among other things, ineligibility to serve on the subcommittees of the board. The bill would also prohibit a legislative member of the board from receiving per diem or reimbursement for traveling and other expenses from the board for his or her service on the board.
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AB 2160 - CA Victims Compensation Program [Bonta]
AB 2160 would modernize statutes governing the California Victim Compensation Program by expanding benefits in order to meet the emerging needs of California’s victim community.
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AB 2498 - Human trafficking [Bonta]
AB 2498 will help to support the security and safety of trafficking victims by ensuring their identity is kept confidential at the outset, instead of expecting a victim to opt-out of having their identities revealed. The bill also provides guidance to county courts to hear time-sensitive cases quickly, thus sending a clear message to traffickers that justice for these victims is a top priority.

AB2707 - Stop Consumer Racial Profiling [Ridley-Thomas]
This bill would enact the Stop Consumer Racial Profiling Act of 2016, which would prohibit a business establishment from using consumer racial profiling, as defined. The bill would also make the Department of Fair Employment and Housing responsible for the enforcement of the act.
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AB2813 (Detention of Foster Youth) [Bloom]
The bill would prohibit the probation officer, when deciding whether to detain a minor who is the subject of a petition to declare him or her a dependent of the, juvenile court and who has been removed from the custody of his or her parent or guardian by the juvenile court, from considering specified information, including, among others, the minor’s status as a dependent of the juvenile court. The bill would require a probation officer, to immediately release that minor to the custody of the child welfare services department or his or her current foster parent or other caregiver, except as specified. By increasing the duties on local child welfare services departments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
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SB966 (RISE Act) - Repeal Ineffective Sentencing Enhancement Act [Mitchell]
This bill would reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system, restore balance in the judicial process, and free up funds to be invested in communities. Existing law imposes on a person convicted of a violation of, or of conspiracy to violate, specified crimes relating to controlled substances a full, separate, and consecutive 3-year term for each prior conviction of specified controlled substances crimes, including possession for sale and purchase for sale of opiates, opium derivatives, and hallucinogenic substances. This bill would repeal those provisions.