Latest News

• BUSINESS COMMUNITY CALL FOR DIVERSIFIED ENERGY
• CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE GROUPS BLAST SPLIT ROLL DONATIONS
• ALMOST OVER! TWO WEEKS LEFT!
• UNLAWFUL DETAINER BILLS – DOWN TO TWO
• CA JUDICIAL COUNCIL TO END EMERGENCY RULES ON EVICTION
• 2022 ENERGY CODE; INPUT REQUESTED
• CBPA 2020 CALENDAR

BUSINESS COMMUNITY CALL FOR DIVERSIFIED ENERGY

Representatives from California’s business community, including retailers, manufacturers and large business properties transmitted the following statements calling once again call on the governor, state regulators, the Legislature and local governments to invest in a diversified energy portfolio that will help keep the lights on during peak energy demands:

“For rural and inland regions of this state, reliable electricity can be a matter of life and death. We should all be embarrassed that the fifth largest economy cannot keep its lights on. The state has already asked so much of the business community this year, and now we’re being asked to bail out the state for its short-sighted environmental policies. The business community has warned about these policies for years and today we are seeing those warnings become reality.” – Rex Hime, President & CEO California Business Properties Association

“The governor, CPUC and CEC are all pointing fingers about whose fault this is, but the fact is that they have all known for years this was going to happen. Last year the Independent System Operator warned that there would be ‘potential resource shortages starting in 2020.’ No one listened and now residents and businesses are paying the price. Retailers support environmental sustainability goals and will continue doing their part to help alleviate the predicted megawatt shortfall, but now is the time to have an honest discussion about California’s energy future.” —Rachel Michelin, President, California Retailers Association 

“The business community has supported California’s climate change goals and established CARE (Californians for Affordable and Reliable Energy) to ensure that our energy transition will maintain a stable and affordable energy supply for business and all Californians. Our transition has resulted in some of the highest energy prices in the country and now we are facing reliability problems in the summer months when our economy should be at its peak. We must have a robust and diversified energy portfolio including a statewide energy plan, which we have sponsored in a previous legislative session.

“All Californians deserve to have electricity when they come home from work to cook dinner, wash clothes and cool their homes. The California Energy Commission (CEC), the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and national and state politicians cannot continue to push a false narrative that we don’t need reliable energy options like natural gas to meet peak demand during this time. Today’s crisis underscores that we need to make immediate policy adjustments in our current renewable and climate change plans so we can ensure that they will succeed in the future, ensure that our we can grow our economy and ensure that Californians can turn their lights on when they get home from work. ” –Rob Lapsley, President, California Business Roundtable

“Hot weather and a cloudy day should not be able to shut down the fifth-largest economy in the world. In fact, we shouldn’t even be claiming that about our economy if we can’t keep the lights on. Manufacturers in California already pay electricity rates 117% higher than the rest of the nation due in large part to California’s climate change policies. While we support California’s renewable energy goals, we absolutely need system redundancy that allows us to continue to operate and manufacture products for our residents and the world.” –Lance Hastings, President, California Manufacturers & Technology Association

CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE GROUPS BLAST SPLIT ROLL DONATIONS

A coalition of social justice organizations including the California State Conference of the NAACP, California State National Action Network, California Black Chamber of Commerce, California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce, and United Latinos Vote wrote an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook and co-founder and CEO of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, criticizing his recent donations to the Yes on Proposition 15 campaign.

Prop 15 would increase property taxes by $11.5 billion a year and disproportionately hurt minority-owned small businesses, all while increasing gentrification in the “vulnerable communities” Zuckerberg aims to help.

To date, Zuckerberg has donated more than $6.1 million through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to help pass the largest property tax increase in California history.

Click here to read the letter.

We are proud members of No on Prop 15 – Stop Higher Property Taxes and Save Prop 13, a bipartisan coalition of homeowners, taxpayers, and businesses, has been fighting to protect Prop 13 and oppose a split-roll property tax for more than a decade. For more information, please visit www.NOonProp15.org.

ALMOST OVER! TWO WEEKS LEFT!

Just 10 day left of one of the craziest legislative sessions CBPA has ever seen. The year started out normal enough, but once around mid-March the COVID shutdowns began and the Cursed Year of 2020 kicked in full-bore. Aside from a Worldwide pandemic, we are now challenged with raging wildfires, a prolonged shut-down of the economy, split roll property tax on the November ballot, and basic tools of our business being removed from use by judicial fiat and local ordinance.

The Legislature has just under two weeks to go until it adjourns the 2019-2020 Session and hundreds of bills are in the sausage grinder. Everything from eviction moratorium to building code to major changes in employment law are waiting to be dealt with.

Our industry anxiously awaits what the state plans to do with these measures and how they will impact the reopening of the state. In many areas we are already seeing major shifts in the market lowering rents as more space opens up and, on the residential side, as more people telecommute and decide they don’t need to live in the most expensive urban cores.

And finally, we are just under 10 weeks away from state voters going to the polls to decide the fate of the split roll property tax measure, Proposition 15, the largest property tax in state history.

We are in the thick of it and will keep you posted!

UNLAWFUL DETAINER BILLS – DOWN TO TWO

And then there were two. The focus on bills impacting the state’s unlawful detainer moratorium has been narrowed to AB 1436 (Chiu; D-San Francisco) and SB 1410 (Caballero; D-Salinas). Both bills saw legislative activity this week moving through committees – but being yanked back to “Rules” as a sign that Legislative Leadership is now getting directly involved.

Its also rumored that the Governor’s office has engaged in discussion, most likely as a result of the Judicial Council action last week notifying policymakers that its moratorium on dealing with Unlawful Detainer actions would expire on September 1.

Up to this point our industry has opposed AB 1436, and while not perfect, providing support for SB 1410. However, they both are intended to apply to residential only, so we are following very closely while working closely with our partners at the CA Apartment Association.

Ten days is long time at the end of session, and much can happen. Rest assured your representatives at CBPA will be part of the discussion and representing your interests as the year draws to a close.

CA JUDICIAL COUNCIL TO END EMERGENCY RULES ON EVICTION

Although we ran this last week, we want to make sure you have this information: Judicial Council Votes to end temporary emergency rules on evictions and foreclosures, September 1.

This news is welcome, but with two weeks left in the Legislative Session, will require that we be very vigilant to watch for last minute amendments on this issue impacting your properties. Additionally, this action does not impact areas where a local ordinance has been adopted.

Here is the full statement with links to more information:

“’In our ongoing conversations with Gov. Newsom and the Legislature, we have been responsive to their requests for additional time to develop and enact policy and legislative proposals,’ Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye said.

“The Judicial Council of California voted to end two temporary emergency rules governing evictions and judicial foreclosures, which will stay in effect through midnight on Sept. 1.

“The proposal was approved 19-1, with council members submitting their votes by circulating order.

The Judicial Council originally approved the temporary emergency rules staying eviction and foreclosure proceedings at a special remote meeting on April 6. California Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye then suspended a vote on June 10 to provide the Governor and Legislature more time to develop policy proposals and solutions to deal with the potential impacts of evictions and foreclosures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“’The judicial branch cannot usurp the responsibility of the other two branches on a long-term basis to deal with the myriad impacts of the pandemic,’ Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye said in a statement.

“’The duty of the judicial branch is to resolve disputes under the law and not to legislate. I urge our sister branches to act expeditiously to resolve this looming crisis.’”

Click here for more information.

2022 ENERGY CODE; INPUT REQUESTED

The 2022 building energy code changes are well underway, and specifically target commercial and non-residential buildings. CBPA has retained one of the best energy/code consulting firms working in the state, ConSol, and are working with BOMA/ICSC/NAIOP to fund, and help identify, analyze, prioritize, and educate staff on what we view as the most costly and potentially burdensome of those proposed changes.

This issue is time sensitive, and we would like whatever responses we can get by TODAY, Friday, August 21, which we will then take to the CEC.

We do not need full blown responses on every item – even if your company only has some info to share on just one of the items, that will be helpful.

Also, if your company does not think an item is particularly burdensome, we need to know that too. Our technical team has expertise, but we are looking for some practical expertise and experience to augment the analysis.

We need to make sure one informs the other so we can focus our efforts on those things that matter most.

CLICK HERE to read descriptions of the initial measures identified as most troublesome. We need your feedback. Each one identifies the information we need to make a most effective response.

CBPA 2020 CALENDAR

NOTE DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC EVENTS ARE BEING ADJUSTED TO TELECONFERENCE OR PENDING SHELTER-IN-PLACE ORDERS BEING LIFTED

Thursday, November 5: CBPA Board Meeting – via Zoom

For more information on any of our events, please contact Melissa Stevens at 916-443-4676 or mstevens@cbpa.com.