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 so that draft documents can be considered by the Legislation Committee in November and/or December of each year. Elements of the Platforms related to the subject matter 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 multiple occasions, convening a "2020 Platform Workgroup" to solicit input on Platform structural/formatting changes.Conference calls with the federal advocates from Alcalde & Fay and state advocates from Nielsen Merksamer were also conducted 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. 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 members were also occasionally included); and demographic and financial information were also sometimes included.
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Orange County developed additional 1-page documents specifically to identify their state and federal priorities.
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Sacramento County 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 recommended that the County move toward a two-year document to coincide with the next legislative cycle. The Workgroup also recommended 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 recommended 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.
At its October 3, 2019 meeting, the Legislation Committee provided direction to staff on the development of the Platforms, largely consistent with the recommendations of the Platform Workgroup. CAO staff continued soliciting input from Departments and advocates on the development of the 2020 Platforms consistent with the direction from Legislation Committee related to structural/format changes. Departments had an opportunity to provide further input at a Legislative Training and Platform Input session conducted on October 9, 2019, and several preliminary drafts were provided to the Platform Workgroup and CAO staff.
SUMMARY OF
PROPOSED STATE PLATFORM CHANGES
Additions to the Draft 2020 Platform:
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County Profile
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Demographic Highlights
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Governance
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Legislative Platform Purpose (including Attachments A & B )
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Mission, Vision, Values statement
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To Priorities: Added Climate Change, Housing and Homelessness (previously Homelessness), and Transportation for Seniors/Persons with Disabilities
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Re-framed the Priority related to Health to include Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorder
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Sponsored Bill proposals: Three new proposals have been included. Bill Proposal#1 related to legislation to increase the cap for a countywide general sales tax measure has not been authorized as yet by the Board of Supervisors. Bill Proposal #2 is a carry-over from the 2019 Platform. Bill Proposal #3 is a request from the Department of Conservation and Development. Bill Proposal #4 is a request from the Employment and Human Services Department.
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Included all Department input on text changes, when provided.
Substantive text changes were made to the sections related to:
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Climate Change
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The Delta
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Emergency Preparedness, Emergency Response
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Flood Control
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Health Care
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Homeless Services
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Human Services
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Justice Systems
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Land Use/Community Development (added "Natural Resources")
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Transportation
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Waste Management
Eliminated:
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All explanatory comments (including for Priorities)
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Removed State Budget and Realignment Implementation from Priorities
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Eminent Domain
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Indian Gaming
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Levees
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Pipeline Safety
Note that the Draft 2020 Platform includes the statement that "Until the 2021-2022 Platform is adopted, the 2019 Adopted Platform policies are considered a component of this Platform." This note was included (p. 5) as a recognition of the direction to move to a two-year Platform that is principle-based while recognizing that the 2020 Platform does not fully achieve that goal and, therefore, maintains (carries over) the adopted 2019 policies during this year.
In addition, the Legislation Committee will note that the Draft 2020 Platform does not contain the referenced Attachments A and B. Attachment A is intended to be the County's protocol for position development, which will be addressed in a subsequent agenda item. Attachment B is the County's adopted Delta Platform, which may be provided via an electronic link instead, if so directed by the Committee. |