Title
Staff Report for 2015 Draft State Legislative Platform and Summary of 2014 State Legislative Activities
Staffreport
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
It is recommended that the City Council review and adopt the attached 2015 State Legislative Platform and Summary of 2014 State Legislative Activities
BACKGROUND
On October 21, 2013, the City Council authorized the creation of a City Council Ad-Hoc Committee to provide guidance on the development of a state legislative platform as well as a process through which a consultant would be selected to provide state-level advocacy services on behalf of the City.
Following a competitive request-for-proposals and consultant selection process directly guided by the Ad-Hoc Committee, on February 18, 2014, the City Council unanimously authorized the City Manager to execute a 1-year consulting services agreement with Townsend Public Affairs (TPA) for state-level advocacy services. The scope of work for this agreement includes all aspects of state level advocacy, including legislative analysis, strategy and development, grants assistance, development of relationships with state law makers and agency staff, and other related work.
Analysis
Over the past year, City staff and officials worked closely with Townsend Public Affairs on a range of legislative initiatives at the state level, with some notable successes including the Governor signing into law AB 2292 (related to broadband infrastructure), for which the City of San Leandro was the lead sponsor.
Now that the 2014 state legislative session is drawing to a close, staff requests that the City Council review and adopt the attached documents which provide a synopsis of the City's legislative efforts over the past year, as well as the City's draft legislative work plan for 2015. More specifically, the first attachment ("2014 State Legislative Activities Summary") provides a retrospective summary of various efforts that took place on behalf of the City of San Leandro over the past legislative session. The second attachment ("2015 San Leandro Legislative Platform") provides a summary of the City's proposed policy priorities for the 2015 legislative session. The purpose of this latter document is twofold: first, it provides standing authority for City staff and the City's advocates to take action on pending legislative matters when time constraints would preclude bringing such matters before the City Council in advance; and second, it provides the City's advocates a better understanding of the Mayor and City Council's policy preferences regarding a variety of legislative and intergovernmental issues that might arise during the course of the year. Because the state legislative environment is inherently dynamic, the City Council reserves the opportunity to further amend the 2015 platform over the course of the year ahead should unforeseen needs or issues arise.
ATTACHMENT(S)
· 2014 State Legislative Activities Summary
· 2015 San Leandro Legislative Platform
PREPARED BY: Eric Engelbart, Assistant to the City Manager, City Manager's Office