Advocacy Update: April 2017
Monday, April 3, 2017
by:

Section: Government Affairs




2017 Statewide Legislation
 
Last week, BOMA San Diego staff traveled to Los Angeles for the annual California Business Properties Association (CBPA) legislative meeting.  More than 400 state bills were introduced this year that could impact the commercial real estate industry, and each was reviewed and discussed throughout the day.  Issues covered ranged from ADA, business, CEQA, water, energy and green house gas emissions to taxes and land use regulations. 
 
The meeting allows CBPA to discuss policy positions and priorities that are then carried out in Sacramento.  The highest priority bills will be discussed at the next GAC meeting on April 17th so please plan to attend. 
 
Here’s a small sampling of what’s to come:
 
AB 199 (Chu) – Prevailing Wage – OPPOSE
If passed, AB 199 will mandate the payment of Prevailing Wages in private residential projects in California. This will result in adding thousands of dollars per home in project costs and dealing another devastating blow to California’s already precarious housing situation.
 
AB 496 (Fong) – Transportation Funding – SUPPORT
If passed, AB 496 will create the Traffic Relief and Road Improvement Program and utilize existing sources of transportation related revenue to fund traffic congestion relief projects and deferred maintenance on highways and local street and road systems.
 
If you have any questions regarding a bill currently being discussed in Sacramento, please contact Craig Benedetto at craigb@calstrat.com or Julianna Tetlow at jtetlow@calstrat.com.
 
Reality Changers Job Shadow Week
 
For a little over a year BOMA has been a participant in the creation of the San Diego Regional Chamber Foundation’s Regional Jobs Strategy. Last month at the Government Affairs Committee meeting we received a presentation on the Final Report that outlined a number of goals and objectives to spur local job creation.
 
Goal 2 of the Report focuses on leveraging locally-proven job creation strategies including linking employers and students to facilitate work-readiness experiences such of job shadows, company tours, and internships. As such, the San Diego Regional Chamber will be supporting Reality Changers during their Job Shadow Week and encourages BOMA members, as a Regional Jobs Strategy partners to participate.
 
On the day of the Job Shadow event students will visit the work site and shadow professionals for 3 to 4 hours, observing and assisting them with their work. Reality Changers staff work directly with students to prepare them for the job-shadow experience.
 
If you wish to participate you will simply need to provide a brief job description to help Reality Changers’ match a student that has career interest that align with your company and work.
 
Job Shadow Week quickly approaching! If you would like to host a student from 4/10 (Monday) to 4/14 (Friday) please sign up here and Reality Changers will contact you with more information to help you prepare for the event. If you have any questions about Job Shadow Week or hosting a student, please contact Cella Chung, Reality Changers Volunteer Coordinator at (619) 516-2283 or by email at cella@RealityChangers.org.
 
 
From BOMA CAL  - Single User Bathroom Bill
 
On March 1st the new law that requires facilities with “single use bathrooms” make those bathrooms accessible to all genders, went into effect. In a nutshell, if you have bathrooms in any of your properties that one person can go in an use and lock the door, you need to change the door sign to indicate it is an “all-gender” bathroom (using “Unisex” signage where needed).
  
We are highlighting the effective date of this law to make sure BOMA members know exactly how to be in compliance, and that they need to be in compliance now.
Below is a compliance guidance from the Division of the State Architect that will give your facilities staff more technical direction.
 
DSA BULLETIN BU 17-01 IDENTIFICATION OF SINGLE-USER TOILET FACILITIES AS ALL-GENDER
https://www.documents.dgs.ca.gov/dsa/bulletins/BU_17-01.pdf
 
If you have any questions about this state law please contact Craig Benedetto at craigb@calstrat.com or Julianna Tetlow at jtetlow@calstrat.com