BYE BYE 2020

BILLS THAT COULD RESURFACE NEXT YEAR

By Jennifer Wada, Esq.

The end of 2020 and sighs of relief are imminent. It is probably a safe bet that almost everyone is ready to close the book on the year that brought a pandemic, an economic recession, a slew of wildfires and one of the most divisive elections in history.

As far as the election goes, we all know what happened on a national level. On a state level, all 80 Assembly seats and 20 Senate seats were up for election this year. Democrats retained control of both chambers with a supermajority. In the Assembly, Republicans picked up a seat. At the writing of this article, there is still one race too close to call (AD-74) but if Democratic incumbent Cottie Petrie-Norris retains her lead, the Assembly will end with a 60 seat Democratic majority, with 19 Republicans and one Independent (Assemblymember Chad Mayes AD-42). In the Senate, the Republicans have lost two seats (SD-37 and SD-29). One race is too close to call (AD-21) but if Republican incumbent Scott Wilk retains his lead, the Senate Republican Caucus will consist of nine members and the Democratic Caucus will have a 31-seat majority. There are just under one million ballots that still need to be counted and the Secretary of State has until December 11 to certify the election.

As we prepare to leave 2020 behind us, we look forward to what lies ahead. As previously written about, the majority of legislation this year stalled due to the pandemic. The Legislature had to shift gears to focus primarily on issues relating to COVID-19. This left a significant number of dead bills that could come back in 2021. The bill numbers will change but the concepts will remain the same:

AB 2227 (Irwin – funds: insurance)

Sponsored by CAI-CLAC, this bill was a cleanup of their AB 2912 from 2018. AB 2227 proposed to require that the bank, savings association, or credit union that the managing agent deposits funds into on behalf of the association be insured by the FDIC, NCUA, or the SIPC. The bill also amended existing law that requires prior written board approval for electronic transfers by making it required for amounts greater than $10,000 but would eliminate the latter part of the provision “or 5% of an association’s total combined reserve and operating account deposits.” Lastly, the bill specifically required the association to maintain crime insurance, employee dishonesty coverage, and fidelity bond coverage, or their equivalent, for the association and the association’s managing agent or management company and would require the protection against computer and funds transfer fraud to be in an equal amount.

SB 969 (Wieckowski – SB 323 cleanup)

The final contents of this bill were never finalized given that it stalled early in the year. However, things being discussed for inclusion in the bill included expanding the voting by acclamation provisions to all associations, as well as expanding some of the language related to what kinds of insurance would trigger an association’s ability to utilize a criminal conviction disqualification from board elections.

SB 981 (Archuleta – document delivery and websites)

This bill was sponsored by the California Association of Realtors and proposed to require an association to deliver documents via email unless the member had not provided a valid email address or had revoked consent to electronic delivery. The bill also proposed to require an association that has at least 50 separate interests to maintain an internet website to provide general information to members and would authorize an association to satisfy a general delivery requirement by posting the document on that internet website. An association could be exempted from the website requirement if 2/3 of the members approve.

SB 1049 (Glazer – local ordinances and short-term rentals)

This bill would have authorized a city or county council, for the violation of a short term rental ordinance that is an infraction, to impose a fine not exceeding $1,500 for a first violation, $3,000 for a second violation of the same ordinance within one year, and $5,000 for each additional violation of the same ordinance within one year of the first violation. The fines only apply to public health and safety threats. SB 1120 (Atkins – subdivisions: duplexes and urban lot splits) This bill was considered one of the highest priority affordable housing bills of 2020 and is intended to increase the number of units in residential areas. However, due to an interhouse scuffle, it failed to make it out of the Legislature on the last night of session. The Pro Tem has already vowed to bring it back. The bill would have created a ministerial approval process to convert a house into a duplex or to demolish a house and build two units, either as a duplex or two single-family houses. Property owners could have split their lot in two and build two more units, resulting in four homes. The bill is intended to address housing affordability.

California Law Revision Commission Project re Emergency Measures in CIDs

This study is being done at the CLRC to allow for teleconference meetings during states of emergency or disaster. The proposal allows meetings to be conducted entirely by teleconference without any physical location as long as certain requirements are met. These requirements include notices providing clear technical instructions, the contact information for a person who can provide technical assistance before and during the teleconference and any person allowed to participate also be given a phone option. This study is intended to be proposed as legislation in 2021.

Of course, we anticipate that this is only a portion of CID bills that we will see introduced in 2021 and surely, a small fraction of housing bills overall. This upcoming year will prove to be a busy one and hopefully, a much safer and more stable one.

Jennifer Wada, Esq., is an attorney, CACM’s legislative advocate and principal of Wada Government Relations in Sacramento.