SACRAMENTO — As voters put together to resolve Gov. Gavin Newsom’s destiny in Tuesday’s recall election, a whole bunch of recent proposed legal guidelines will probably be awaiting motion on his desk.
State legislators despatched Newsom a hefty stack of payments over the past week, earlier than they have been anticipated to adjourn for the yr late Friday evening. Newsom, if he stays in workplace, has till Oct. 10 to resolve whether or not to signal or veto the measures.
The listing of high-profile payments features a pair of measures to extend housing density, a invoice to create a system to strip downside cops of their badges and one other to cease the deceptive use of recycling labels.
However in some ways, the lawmakers’ session was once more overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic, particularity as issues concerning the unfold of extremely infectious delta variant restricted the power of legislators, lobbyists and activists to assemble on the Capitol.
The hassle to recall Newsom has, in the meantime, dominated the dialog in Sacramento, as Democrats and a bunch of unions and different highly effective teams centered their sources on serving to the governor keep in energy.
A number of important payments died amid these distractions, together with a measure to require the state to realize carbon neutrality by 2045 and one other to scale back the position of money bail within the prison justice system.
Nevertheless, lawmakers nonetheless moved ahead with choices on a bunch of main proposals. Among the many key payments earlier than Newsom:
Housing
The 2 most high-profile housing payments this session have been contentious proposals to increase neighborhood density:
• SB9, by Senate President Professional Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, would make it simpler to transform properties into duplexes and cut up heaps in single-family neighborhoods.
• SB10, by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would enable cities to rezone some parcels, together with these close to public transit, for small condominium buildings of as much as 10 models. Regardless of intense opposition from native governments and a few suburban home-owner organizations, Newsom recommended he would possibly signal the 2 measures in a uncommon assertion on pending laws final week.
• SB478, additionally by Wiener, would attempt to deal with California’s housing scarcity by loosening regulations that limit square footage for a project based on lot size, which might clear the way in which for extra small condominium buildings.
Policing
Activists fell far short of their ambitious plans final yr to overtake California policing practices within the wake of widespread racial justice protests.
They returned this session with one other suite of payments that extra efficiently navigated the legislative obstacles, although probably the most important proposals have been scaled back in the face of law enforcement opposition. The measures embrace:
• SB2, by Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena (Los Angeles County), which might establish a statewide process for stripping police officers of their badges once they commit skilled misconduct.
• AB26, by Meeting Member Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, which units new requirements for what police departments should embrace of their use-of-force insurance policies about officers intervening once they see extreme pressure by their colleagues.
• AB481, by Meeting Member David Chiu, D-San Francisco, which might require legislation enforcement businesses to seek approval from their local governing bodies once they purchase surplus navy gear.
• AB118, by Sen. Sydney Kamlager, D-Los Angeles, which might create a pilot program to check community-based alternate options to a police response when folks name 911.
• AB48, by Meeting Member Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, which might prohibit officers from firing rubber bullets or tear fuel at a protest until it’s a life-threatening state of affairs.
• AB1238 by Meeting Member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, which might decriminalize jaywalking all through the state when no vehicles are current in a roadway. Ting stated bans on jaywalking are disproportionately enforced towards folks of coloration. The legislation would sundown in 2029.
Setting
Total, it was powerful yr for environmentalists on the State Capitol. Whereas legislators authorised a funds with a file $3.7 billion for local weather resiliency applications, many different eco-friendly measures hit a legislative buzz noticed.
Almost each main environmental measure died earlier in the session, from a proposal that may required buffer zones round oil drilling websites close to properties to a different that sought to ban on-line retailers from utilizing sure kinds of plastic packaging that isn’t recyclable.
One other huge defeat got here Friday, when the Senate rejected AB1395, by Meeting Member Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance (Los Angeles County), which might have declared that the state should obtain carbon neutrality by 2045. The invoice confronted fierce opposition from oil corporations, farmers and different enterprise pursuits.
Legislators did, nevertheless, move a handful of buzz-worthy environmental payments:
• SB343, by Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, would prohibit producers from labeling merchandise with the phrase “recyclable” or the chasing-arrows image related to recycling if they aren’t really recyclable in most elements of the state.
• AB1346, by Meeting Member Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, would ban the sale of recent gas-powered leaf blowers, garden mowers and different small off-road engines, which emit disproportionately excessive ranges of air pollution, beginning in 2024.
• AB525, by Meeting Member David Chiu, D-San Francisco, would jump-start the manufacturing of offshore wind farms. It could set a selected targets for the way a lot offshore wind energy the state ought to produce by 2030 and 2045.
Different
• AB101, by Meeting Member Jose Medina, D-Riverside, would add a one-semester ethnic studies course to the state’s highschool commencement necessities, beginning with the 2029-30 educational yr.
• AB1084, by Meeting Member Evan Low, D-Campbell, requires massive retail shops to have a gender-neutral space or show for promoting kids’s toys and gadgets. The invoice wouldn’t ban girls and boys sections in shops, however require the addition of a impartial space.
• AB37, by Meeting Member Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, would require elections officers to mail each registered voter in California a poll for all future elections, completely adopting a pandemic-era security measure.
Dustin Gardiner and Alexei Koseff are San Francisco Chronicle employees writers. Electronic mail: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com, alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner, @akoseff
