Each year in January, the Board of Supervisors adopts a State Legislative Platform that establishes priorities and policy positions with regard to potential State legislation and regulation. The State Legislative Platform includes County-sponsored bill proposals, legislative or regulatory advocacy priorities for the year, and policies that provide direction and guidance for identification of and advocacy on bills which would affect the services, programs or finances of Contra Costa County. Every January, the Board of Supervisors also adopts a Federal Legislative Platform that establishes federal funding needs and policy positions with regard to potential federal legislation and regulation. These documents are utilized by the County's state and federal advocates and staff as the basis for advocacy efforts.
The State and Federal Legislative Platforms are prepared each year by staff of the County Administrator's Office in collaboration with County department heads, other key staff, the County state and federal advocates, and with input from the Board's commissions/committees and the public. CAO staff generally conducts outreach in the fall of year year regarding the Platform process and invites input during the month of October, so that draft documents can be considered by the Legislation Committee in November and/or December of each year. Elements of the Platforms that related to the work of the Transportation, Water and Infrastructure Committee are also reviewed by that committee prior to the Proposed Platforms being presented to the Board of Supervisors in January for adoption.
With direction from the Board of Supervisors for the 2020 Platforms to be more streamlined, concise and provide greater prioritization, staff of the CAO's office has conducted 2020 Platform input meetings on three occasions to date, convening a "2020 Platform Workgroup" to solicit input on Platform structural/formatting changes. A conference call with the federal advocates from Alcalde & Fay was conducted on September 9, 2019 as part of this process.
With assistance from the Platform Workshop, CAO staff gathered the legislative platforms of 10 urban counties (including Contra Costa County) and analyzed their structure and content. (See Attachment A.) Of note:
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Several counties combine their federal and state advocacy agendas into one document.
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Some counties adopt 2-year platforms to coincide with the two-year legislative cycle.
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Most platforms contain information about the County, a map of the County and its Supervisorial districts, the members of the Board of Supervisors (congressional delegation and CAO staff was also occasionally included), demographic and financial information.
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One County (Orange) also developed 1 page documents specifically for their State and Federal Priorities.
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One County (Sacramento) included its procedures and protocols for expedited positions and consideration of statewide ballot measures.
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Many platforms also included the County's mission, vision, values, and principles.
The consensus of the staff comprising the Platform Workgroup was to recommend that the County maintain separate Federal and State platforms. However, the Workgroup recommends that the County move toward a two-year document to coincide with the next legislative cycle. The Workgroup also recommends that the documents be modified to include 1-2 pages of introductory and demographics information about the County, similar to what other county platforms provide, and that the County's mission, vision and values be incorporated as well. In order to reduce the size of the Platforms, moving away from specific policy based platforms to principle-based platforms could be implemented. However, staff recommends retaining or incorporating the existing 2019 Platform as an appendix to the document or a reference in the document so that existing policies could be retained until amended by the Board of Supervisors.
The federal advocate expressed support for reforms to the Platform that will include, or as an appendix or even a separate document, specifically-stated federal objectives grouped along the lines of: whether the County is seeking project-specific funding, program-specific funding, a few program initiatives and policy modification requests, or reflect the County's general principles/programs of interest (not necessarily items the County would be initiating). The federal advocate also noted that projects the Board agrees should be part of the Legislative Platform should be accompanied by one-pager type documents suitable for general use as briefing papers/handouts.
CAO staff will continue soliciting input from Departments on the development of the 2020 Platforms consistent with the direction from Legislation Committee related to structural/format changes. Departments will have an opportunity to provide further input at a Legislative Training and Platform Input session scheduled for October 9, 2019. CAO staff will present draft Platforms for the Legislation Committee's consideration at its November meeting, when that meeting date is established.
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