Sacramento Report
By Ron Kingston

The Bottom Line and The Legislature

If you have ever wondered if the legislature affects your bottom line, you can stop wondering. Let’s review a hand full of measures for the purposes of illustration.

There are three bills that are pending in the legislature that propose to require retrofit devices to be installed on specified schedules: one will mandate carbon monoxide device installation in every dwelling, another will require anti-entrapment devices in public swimming pools and spas, and the other will mandate new water efficient bath faucets, low-flow shower heads and low-flush toilets.

We have been extremely active and have devoted a great deal of effort shaping the outcome of each of these measures.

Senator Lowenthal is authoring SB 183, a bill that would require the State Fire Marshal to certify and approve carbon monoxide detection devices and require that these devices be installed in existing single-family dwellings by January 1, 2011, and all other residential units by July 1, 2012, if those dwellings have a fossil fuel burning heater or appliance, fireplace or attached garage. In addition, this measure will prohibit the marketing, distribution and sale of the devices that are not certified and approved by the State Fire Marshal.

Originally, multi-family units would have had one year, like single-family homes, to install the devices. We advocated for and received a two and a half year delayed effective date, thereby giving landlords additional and much needed time to install the devices. We also received amendments assuring landlords that any device sold would be required to have installation instructions that have been approved by the State Fire Marshal, and those instructions must not be different than what is required for new building construction. This was an important amendment for landlords so as to minimize liability exposure.

AB 1020 (Emmerson) requires public swimming pools to be equipped with anti-entrapment devices or systems that meet federal requirements. The measure defines the type of swimming pools that will be required to be retrofitted (apartment pools will be subject to the mandate to install these devices), establishes performance standards, requires all new swimming pools to have at least two main drains per pump. Most importantly, it requires public swimming pools constructed before January 1, 2010 to be retrofitted with these devices or systems by December 19, 2010. Also, these must be in compliance with the federal Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act.

For every owner of a public swimming pool that completed work on or before January 1, 2010, the state was demanding owners to file a certificate of completion with the appropriate city or county environmental health department by March 31, 2010. We obtained an amendment to allow owners to file that certificate on or before September 30, 2010. The sponsor, the State Department of Public Health, originally demanded that owners who have already completed the work identify who completed the work and obtain the signature of that person on the certificate prior to filing the paperwork with the city or county. We were successful in having that burdensome requirement removed from the bill.

Finally, the bill that will affect every property owner in the state is SB 407 (Padilla). It will require the installation of water conservation devices (low-flush toilets, low-flow shower heads and lowflow bath faucets) in every single-family, multifamily, commercial and industrial property. In light of the absolute need to conserve water for a multitude of reasons, we embarked on a focused effort to work with the author and sponsor to provide for a uniform and legal construct that was functional, affordable and workable for the multi-family rental housing industry.

The issues that we have been working on for our members include: assurance that once we achieve compliance we are to be given a 20-year safe harbor so we will not be required to continually change and update the devices each and every time a new device comes on the market; that we are not going to be subject to new local government or local agency requirements; landlords will have a right to enter the rental unit to install the new water conserving devices; tenants should be required to inform us if any device becomes inoperative or deficient; and we are not to be held liable for the inoperability or deficiency if the faucets, toilets, or shower heads are modified or removed by the tenant.

Ron may be reached at: Ron@CALPCG.com
or you can call him at (916) 447-7229.