DATE: March 6, 2018
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Jean M. Rousseau, County Administrative Officer
SUBJECT: Fresno County State Legislative Platform Update
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
1. Adopt recommended changes to the Fresno County State Legislative Platform;
2. Authorize the Chairman to execute letters of support, or opposition, in accordance with the platform; and,
3. Authorize the County Administrative Office to work with the County’s State Legislative Delegation, Sacramento lobbyists, and/or other necessary parties to support, or oppose, legislation in accordance with the platform.
REPORT
The Legislative Platform is a statement of the goals and priorities of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors and establishes the basis for its advocacy efforts with the Legislature and State agencies. This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
1. Make changes to recommendations or language in the State Legislative Platform.
2. Postpone updates to the State Legislative Platform.
3. Choose not to make changes and continue to work off the existing State Legislative Platform, last updated on June 6, 2017.
If your Board chooses to postpone or not make updates to the platform, staff will need to bring items that are not currently included in the platform to your Board to be addressed on an individual basis.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no additional Net County Cost associated with the recommended actions.
DISCUSSION:
The State Legislative Platform is used by County officials and staff as policy guidelines for legislative action and to facilitate timely responses to requests from the County’s State Legislative Delegation, the County’s State lobbyists, and interested citizens. Your Board last updated the State Legislative Platform on June 6, 2017, prior to that, the last update was on March 10, 2015. As indicated at that time, this is the annual update to the Legislative Platform.
The platform serves as a guide for departments to identify if State issues they are working on fall within the County’s State Platform. Any specific State issues falling outside of the platform would require an agenda item for presentation to your Board.
The proposed platform (Attachment A1) contains three sections:
I. Introduction - an explanation of the purpose of the legislative platform.
II. Major Legislative Issues - identifies significant issues for the County.
III. General Principles - provides positions that will guide County actions and advocacy efforts in specified categories of Agriculture; Child Support Services; Criminal Justice and Public Protection; Economic Development and Workforce Investment; Elections; Energy/Air Quality; Environmental Quality; General Government and Finance; Labor Relations and Employee Benefits; Land Use; Library; Public Health, Mental Health, and Health Care Services; Social Services; Transportation; and Water.
Recommended changes to the State Legislative Platform are highlighted in Attachment A2 and are as follows:
• Agriculture - established a separate category and moved pertinent items from the previous Water and Agriculture category, added a bullet regarding the Fresno County Food System, and moved the Williamson Act bullet from the Land Use category to this category and expanded it to include exploring new funding sources.
• Child Support Services and Library - added these two categories to address funding needs.
• General Government and Finance category - added bullets to address the Assembly Bill 1250 (Jones-Sawyer) effort to limit a County’s contracting authority and opposing a split roll property tax system.
• Public Health, Mental Health and Health Care Services - removed duplicate language, added bullets to address funding needs for programs and services including to address the Opioid epidemic.
• Social Services - added bullets and wording related to the State’s transfer of In Home Supportive Services costs to counties.
• Water - added a bullet to address the need for surface water storage (e.g., dams, groundwater recharge facilities).
Approval of the recommended actions will adopt the updated State Legislative Platform, authorize the Chairman to execute letters of support or opposition in accordance with the platform, and allow the County Administrative Office to express your Board’s position on legislation in accordance with the platform.
OTHER REVIEWING AGENCIES:
The legislative platform was developed with the cooperation and input of County departments and the County’s State lobbyists.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
BAI #11, June 6, 2017
BAI #4, March 10, 2015
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
Attachment A1 - Fresno County State Legislative Platform
Attachment A2 - Fresno County State Legislative Platform (Redlined)
CAO ANALYST:
Jeannie Z. Figueroa