Sacramento Report
By Ron Kingston

One of our key arguments before the legislature and Governor was that the bill would have been detrimental to landlords and tenants.

Governor Schwarzenegger set the record for signing the fewest bills in a single year in 2009. He signed 632 bills. The Legislature on the other hand, sent just 872 bills to the Governor, the fewest in over 40 years. The Governor vetoed 240 bills, or 27.5 percent, down from last year’s record of 414 vetoes. For those that are really interested in statistics, former Governor Deukmejian vetoed the most bills in a single year (436 in 1990).

Here is a summary and disposition of the key bills that reached the Governor’s desk that are of direct interest to the members of AACSC.

The bill that has required a significant amount of our attention and negotiating skills is SB 407 (Padilla), a measure that was signed into law last month. It will require all residential, commercial and industrial buildings built prior to 1994 to retrofit faucets (no more than 2.2 gallons per minute), showerheads (no more than 2.5 gallons per minute), toilets (no more than 1.6 gallons per flush) and urinals (no more than one gallon per flush) on a prescribed basis.

For multi-family residential rental properties (more than one dwelling unit), the retrofit would be required to be completed on or before January 1, 2019 (two years after single-family properties are required to be retrofitted). On and after January 1, 2014 the plumbing fixtures would be required to be replaced if there was a building addition that increased the total floor area of the space in the dwelling by more than 10 percent, where there is replacement of the plumbing fixtures or where the total building permit cost is greater than $150,000 to the area that is being improved.

We were successful in obtaining an additional two-year delay (2019 implementation date for most retrofit requirements versus a 2017 start date), a statutory requirement that makes the tenant responsible for notifying us if the water device is not operating properly, and authorization to enter, install, repair and test the devices in the rental unit.

The Governor vetoed AB 943 (Mendoza) a bill, which would have prohibited employers, including landlords, from obtaining credit, reports on employees or job applicants unless that information was substantially job-related and the job is a management position. We were in strong opposition to the measure during the legislative process along with major employer groups.

The Governor signed SB 290 (Leno), a bill that provides tenants that have been living in a dwelling for one year or more with a 60 days’ notice when their tenancy is terminated in a non rental control or non just cause city or county.

The Governor signed AB 530 (Krekorian), a bill that extends the sunset date to January 1, 2014, which permits city attorneys or prosecutors in specified cities including the City of Long Beach, City of Los Angeles, and City of San Diego to file an eviction action against a tenant for the illegal possession or sale of firearms or ammunition on the premises or for using the premises to further that illegal purpose and against a tenant for the illegal possession or sale of illegal drugs such as cocaine.

In the initial notice to the tenant, the city would be required to state the action is being brought pursuant to the pilot program. This should bring much needed relief for landlords and law abiding tenants who many times fear for their safety. One of the substantive amendments that was made to existing law that we successfully obtained was to assure that a city attorney or prosecutor would handle the entire proceeding instead of the final stages of the eviction action.

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