Legislative Activity

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The Cupertino City Council makes legislative decisions that align with the City's best interest. From 2019 to 2022, the Legislative Review Committee (LRC) was primarily responsible for making recommendations on legislative advocacy. On February 21, 2023 the City Council adopted Resolution No. 23-026, which dissolved the LRC and established a new legislative policy that requires full Council consideration of City positions on proposed legislation. To view materials regarding past LRC activities, visit Cupertino.org/LRC.

2024 Legislative Session

At the January 17, 2024 City Council meeting, Council received an informational memo outlining the following 2024 Legislative Process and Priorities that were proposed based on Council-adopted goals focusing on the most critical City needs:

Legislative Process and Priorities

The City will support legislation that:

Helps Cupertino build a fiscally sustainable and resilient community.
Furthers the health and wellbeing of Cupertino community members and enhances public engagement and transparency.
Promotes Cupertino’s infrastructure needs.

The Legislative Process includes a three-step approach that is strategically timed to coincide with key milestones in the legislative cycle:

On May 7, Council received a Legislative Update and completed Step Two in the process outlined above. (Meeting materials). At this meeting, Council took positions on the three bills listed below and respective letters were sent to the state legislature:

Support - AB 1779 (Irwin) - Public Safety (Letter)
Support - SB 1143 (Allen) - Environmental /Waste Management (Letter)
Support in Concept - Bay Area Affordable Housing Measure (BAHFA) - Affordable Housing (Letter)

Throughout the year, staff continue to monitor and track bills of interest for Cupertino. The Legislative Bill Table below includes bills on which Council has taken a formal position and bills of interest to the City:

2024 Legislative Session Bill Table

Ballot Measures
Measure	Title	Summary	City Position	Status/Location
Initiative No. 21-0042A / Sponsored by California Business Roundtable (CBRT)	Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act Initiative	The ballot measure would amend the California Constitution to apply new rules to all new or increased taxes or fees adopted by the state legislature or local agencies. The measure would apply retroactively to new or increased taxes or fees adopted after January 1, 2022.	Opposed by City Council 3/21/23	6/20/24 California Supreme Court removed from ballot
Initiative 23-0017A1 (Prop 47 Changes)	Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act	The Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act would amend state law to (1) create a new court process for certain drug possession crimes, (2) require a warning of future criminal liability for people convicted of drug distribution, (3) increase penalties for certain drug crimes, and (4) increase penalties for certain theft crimes. Some of these changes would undo certain reductions in punishment enacted by Proposition 47.	Watch	Has qualified for the November 2024 election and will be listed as Proposition 36.
Bay Area Financing Housing Authority's Measure	The Bay Area Housing Bond - Regional Funding for Local Solutions	In November 2024, Bay Area residents could potentially vote on a regional bond measure to generate $10 -$20 billion to build approximately 72,000 new affordable homes. 80% of the bond revenue will go directly to the nine bay area counties and four cities—San Jose, Oakland, Santa Rosa, and Napa. BAHFA will invest 20% of the bond revenue in affordable developments throughout the region, while also generating new housing resources to support affordable housing development long after the bonds are fully spent.	Supported in concept by City Council 5/7/24	Removed from November 2024 Ballot.

State Bills
Bill/Author	Title	Summary	City Position	Status/Location
AB 1779 (Irwin)	Theft: Jurisdiction	Would no longer limit the jurisdictional rules for the above crimes to criminal actions brought by the Attorney General. If a case is brought by someone other than the Attorney General, the bill would require the prosecution to present written evidence in the jurisdiction of the proposed trial that all district attorneys in counties with jurisdiction over the offenses agree to the venue. The bill would require charged offenses from jurisdictions where there is not a written agreement from the district attorney to be returned to that jurisdiction.	Supported by City Council on 5/7/24	8/16/2024 Approved by the Governor. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 165, Statutes of 2024.
SB 1143 (Allen)	Household Hazardous Waste: Producer Responsibility	(1)Under existing law, as part of the hazardous waste control laws, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) generally regulates the management and handling of hazardous waste and hazardous materials. Existing law authorizes a public agency, as defined, to operate a household hazardous waste collection facility under permit from DTSC. This bill would create a producer responsibility program for products containing household hazardous waste and require a producer responsibility organization (PRO) to provide a free and convenient collection and management system for covered products. The bill would define “covered product” to mean a product that is flammable, toxic, ignitable, corrosive, reactive, or pressurized, and that meets other specified criteria. The bill would require a producer of a covered product to register with a PRO, which would be required to develop and implement a producer responsibility plan for the collection, transportation, and the safe and proper management of covered products. The bill would require DTSC to adopt regulations to implement the program with an effective date no earlier than July 1, 2027. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.	Supported by City Council on 5/7/24 Support based on the 4/18/24 version of this bill.	9/29/2024 Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 989, Statutes of 2024. Amended 8/19/2024 and no longer germane to the City.
AB 1999 (Irwin)	Electricity: Fixed Charges	Current law requires that fixed charges be established on an income-graduated basis, with no fewer than 3 income thresholds, so that low-income ratepayers in each baseline territory would realize a lower average monthly bill without making any changes in usage. This bill would repeal the provisions described in the preceding paragraph. The bill would instead permit the commission to authorize fixed charges that, as of January 1, 2015, do not exceed $5 per residential customer account per month for low-income customers enrolled in the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program and that do not exceed $10 per residential customer account per month for customers not enrolled in the CARE program. The bill would authorize these maximum allowable fixed charges to be adjusted by no more than the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for the prior calendar year, beginning January 1, 2016.	Watch	Bill is now dead.
SB 1011 (Jones)	Encampments: Penalties	This bill would prohibit a person from sitting, lying, sleeping, or storing, using, maintaining, or placing personal property upon a street or sidewalk if a homeless shelter, as defined, is available to the person. The bill would also prohibit sitting, lying, sleeping, or storing, using, maintaining, or placing personal property within 500 feet of a public or private school, open space, or major transit stop, as specified.	Watch	Bill is now dead.
AB 1657 (Wicks)	The Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2024	This measure would place a $10 billion bond measure on the March 2024 ballot to spur the production of affordable and supportive housing.	Watch	3/4/2024 From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on APPR. Location– Senate Appropriations Committee
SB 397 (Wahab)	San Francisco Bay Area: Public Transportation	Existing law creates the Metropolitan Transportation Commission as a local area planning agency for the 9-county San Francisco Bay area with comprehensive regional transportation planning and other related responsibilities. Existing law creates various transit districts located in the San Francisco Bay area, with specified powers and duties relating to providing public transit services. Existing law establishes the Transportation Agency, consisting of various state agencies under the supervision of an executive officer known as the Secretary of Transportation, who is required to develop and report to the Governor on legislative, budgetary, and administrative programs to accomplish comprehensive, long-range, and coordinated planning and policy formulation in the matters of public interest related to the agency. This bill would require the Transportation Agency to develop a plan to consolidate all transit agencies, as defined, that are located within the geographic jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.	Watch	Bill is now dead.

Updated as of October 2024

2023 Legislative Session Bill Table

State Bills
Bill/Author	Title	Summary	City Position	Status/Location
ACA 5 (Low)	Marriage Equality	The California Constitution provides that only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California, and federal law permanently enjoins the state from enforcing this constitutional provision. This measure would repeal this unenforceable constitutional provision and would instead provide that the right to marry is a fundamental right, as specified.	Supported by Council 4/13/23	7/20/23 Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 125, Statutes of 2023.
AB 1469 (Kalra)	Santa Clara Valley Water District	The Santa Clara Valley Water District Act creates the Santa Clara Valley Water District and authorizes the district to provide for the conservation and management of flood, storm, and recycled waters, and other waters, for beneficial uses and to enhance natural resources in connection with carrying out the purposes of the district. This bill would additionally authorize the district to take certain actions in order to assist unsheltered people living along streams, in riparian corridors, or otherwise within the district’s jurisdiction, in consultation with a city or the County of Santa Clara to provide solutions or improve outcomes for the unsheltered individuals. The bill would require the district to provide a report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature on or before July 1, 2029, and a subsequent report on or before July 1, 2034, containing specified information, including, among other things, the district’s actions taken to assist unsheltered people. By imposing new duties on the district, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.	Supported by Council 4/4/23	10/10/23 Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 729, Statutes of 2023.
Initiative No. 21-0042A	Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act Initiative	The ballot measure would amend the California Constitution to apply new rules to all new or increased taxes or fees adopted by the state legislature or local agencies. The measure would apply retroactively to new or increased taxes or fees adopted after January 1, 2022.	Opposed by Council 3/21/23 Opposed by LRC 12/10/21	2/1/23 Initiative qualified for the November 2024 general election ballot.
SB 403 (Wahab)	Discrimination on the basis of ancestry	The Unruh Civil Rights Act provides that all persons within the jurisdiction of this state are free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever. This bill would define “ancestry” for purposes of the act to include, among other things, caste, as defined.	Council considered at 7/18 Council meeting and took no position.	10/7/23 In Senate. Consideration of Governor’s veto pending. Location – Senate
SB 423 (Weiner)	Land use: streamlined housing approvals: multifamily housing developments	This bill would modify and expand SB 35 provisions that allow certain multifamily housing developments to take advantage of a streamlined, ministerial approval process. Specifically, this bill would: 1) Extends the Jan. 1, 2026, sunset to Jan. 1, 2036. 2) Applies SB 35 provisions to the Coastal Zone. 3) Allows the State to approve housing developments on property they own or lease. 4) Prohibits a city from enforcing its inclusionary housing ordinance if the income limits are higher than those in SB 35	Council considered at 7/25 Council meeting, took no position, and directed staff to monitor and update Council as needed.	10/11/23 Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 778, Statutes of 2023.
AB 1484 (Zbur)	Temporary public employees.	Would require temporary employees to be automatically included in the same bargaining unit as the permanent employees upon the request of the recognized employee organization, among other provisions.	Watch	10/10/23 Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 691, Statutes of 2023.
AB 1657 (Wicks)	The Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2024.	This measure would place a $10 billion bond measure on the March 2024 ballot to spur the production of affordable and supportive housing.	Watch	9/01/23 In committee: Held under submission. Location– Senate Appropriations Committee: Suspense File
AB 972 (Maienschein)	Local Assistance and Grant Program Streamlining Workgroup.	Would coordinate, align, and streamline local government assistance resources to ensure that every community has the same opportunity to compete for state funding opportunities by convening a statewide, cross-agency Local Assistance and Grant Program Streamlining Workgroup, no later than April 2024.	Watch	9/01/23 In committee: Held under submission. Location – Senate Appropriations Committee: Suspense File.
AB 744 (Carrillo)	Transportation Planning	Would, upon the appropriation of funds by the Legislature, require the California Transportation Commission to acquire public domain or procure commercially available or open-source licensed data, modeling, and analytic software tools to support the state’s sustainable transportation, congestion management, affordable housing, efficient land use, air quality, and climate change strategies and goals, as provided. This bill would authorize the commission to provide a direct allocation of funding to local agencies for the above purposes and would require state and local agencies that receive the funds or access to data, modeling, and analytic software tools to submit reports to the commission no later than August 1, 2026, regarding their use of the data, modeling, and analytic software tools. The bill would require the commission, based on those reports, to submit a report to the Legislature no later than June 1, 2027, regarding the use of the data, modeling, and analytic software tools by state and local agencies. This bill would authorize the commission to establish best practices for use of data in transportation planning and to identify data elements that should be made available to state and local agencies for transportation planning	Watch	10/8/23 Chaptered by Secretary of State – Chapter 541, Statutes of 2023.
AB 825 (Bryan)	Vehicle: Bicycles on Sidewalks	Would prohibit a local authority from prohibiting the operation of a bicycle on a sidewalk adjacent to a highway or corridor that does not include a Class I, Class II, or Class IV bikeway, as defined, and would require the Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol to submit a report to the Legislature regarding the effects of that prohibition. The bill would also require a person riding a bicycle upon a sidewalk to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians and to adhere to a 10-mile-per-hour speed limit. The bill would make these provisions applicable until January 1, 2031. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.	Watch	10/8/23 Vetoed by Governor.
AB 400 (Rubio) SB 706 (Caballero)	Public Contracts Design Builds	Current law authorizes a local agency, as defined, with approval of its governing body, to procure design-build contracts for public works projects in excess of $1,000,000, awarding the contract either to the lowest bid or the best value. “Local agency” is defined, in part, for this purpose to include specified local and regional agencies responsible for the construction of transit projects, including any joint powers authority formed to provide transit service. Current law, among other requirements for the design-build procurement process, requires specified information submitted by a design-build entity to be certified under penalty of perjury. These provisions authorizing the use of the design-build procurement process are repealed on January 1, 2025. This bill would delete from the definition of “local agency” any joint powers authority formed to provide transit services and would instead expand that definition to include any joint powers authority responsible for the construction of transit projects, thereby authorizing additional joint powers authorities to use the above-described design-build procurement process. The bill would extend the repeal date to January 1, 2031.	Watch	9/22/23 Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 201, Statutes of 2023. 10/08/23 Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 500, Statutes of 2023.
AB 1567 (Garcia) SB 867 (Allen)	Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparation, Flood Protection, Extreme Heat Mitigation, Clean Energy, and Workforce Development Bond Act of 2024.	Would enact the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparation, Flood Protection, Extreme Heat Mitigation, Clean Energy, and Workforce Development Bond Act of 2024, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $15,995,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance projects for safe drinking water, wildfire prevention, drought preparation, flood protection, extreme heat mitigation, clean energy, and workforce development programs.	Watch	6/14/23 Referred to Coms. on N.R. & W. and GOV. & F. 7/06/23 July 10 hearing postponed by committee. Location – Senate Natural Resources & Water Committee. Location – Assembly Natural Resources Committee
ACA 13	Voting threshold	The California Constitution provides that a proposed constitutional amendment and a statewide initiative measure each take effect only if approved by a majority of the votes cast on the amendment or measure. This measure would further provide that an initiative measure that includes one or more provisions that would amend the Constitution to increase the voter approval requirement to adopt any state or local measure would be approved by the voters only if the proportion of votes cast in favor of the initiative measure is equal to or greater than the highest voter approval requirement that the initiative measure would impose	Watch	9/14/23 Held at Desk by unanimous consent until November 1, 2023. Location – Senate Appropriations Committee
AB 50 (Wood)	Public Utilities: Timely Service: Customer Energization	This measure makes several interrelated changes to expedite the timely delivery of service by electrical utilities regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission. This measure seeks to establish clear expectations for how quickly utilities are expected to deliver service to new customers and fulfill requests for increased load from existing customers and seeks to improve utility planning and information sharing to facilitate systematic reductions in the time it takes to meet requests for new or increased levels of service from customers.	Watch	10/7/23 Chaptered by Secretary of State – Chapter 317, Statutes of 2023.
AB 573 (Garcia)	Organic Waste: Meeting Recovered Organic Waste Product Procurement Targets.	Current law requires the State Air Resources Board to approve and begin implementing a comprehensive short-lived climate pollutant strategy to achieve a certain reduction in statewide emissions of methane, including a goal of a 75% reduction in the level of the statewide disposal of organic waste from the 2014 level by 2025. Current law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, in consultation with the state board, to adopt regulations to achieve these organic waste reduction goals, that provide for, among other things, the calculation by the department of recovered organic waste product procurement targets for each local jurisdiction, and that may include penalties to be imposed by the department for noncompliance. This bill would require the department, for purposes of those regulations, to allow a local jurisdiction, until December 1, 2031, in procuring recovered organic waste products to meet the target procurement requirements, to use California-derived recovered organic waste that the local jurisdiction sends for processing at a facility or operation outside of the state that meets certain conditions, as provided.	Watch	9/01/23 In committee: Held under submission. Location – Senate Appropriations Committee: Suspense File
SB 397 (Wahab)	San Francisco Bay area: public transportation.	Existing law creates the Metropolitan Transportation Commission as a local area planning agency for the 9-county San Francisco Bay area with comprehensive regional transportation planning and other related responsibilities. Existing law creates various transit districts located in the San Francisco Bay area, with specified powers and duties relating to providing public transit services. Existing law establishes the Transportation Agency, consisting of various state agencies under the supervision of an executive officer known as the Secretary of Transportation, who is required to develop and report to the Governor on legislative, budgetary, and administrative programs to accomplish comprehensive, long-range, and coordinated planning and policy formulation in the matters of public interest related to the agency. This bill would require the Transportation Agency to develop a plan to consolidate all transit agencies, as defined, that are located within the geographic jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.	Watch	1/09/24 January 9 set for second hearing canceled at the request of author. Location – Senate