On Friday, September 30th, Governor Newsom took final action on bills sent to him by the Legislature. Last week, RCRC provided updates on several key bills signed or vetoed, including Assembly Bill 1717 (Vetoed), RCRC-sponsored Assembly Bill 2481 (Signed), and Assembly Bill 1078 (Vetoed), and Senate Bill 1013 (Signed). This week we offer a highlight of some of the bills signed or vetoed by the Governor, which impact rural counties in the areas of county operations, health care and social services, and public safety. 

For a robust guide to significant bills representing the advocacy efforts of RCRC Government Affairs staff during the legislative session, watch for the release of RCRC’s 2022 Legislative Digest coming in early December. 

Signed

  • AB 32 (Aguiar-Curry) makes various changes to Medi-Cal telehealth policy, including permitting the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to allow under specified circumstances new patients to be established with providers using audio-only synchronous and other modalities, and permits exceptions from requirements to ensure beneficiary choice of modalities.   
  • AB 759 (McCarty) requires elections for county sheriffs and district attorneys to be held during the presidential primary and specifically affirms that DAs and sheriffs elected in 2022 will serve six-year terms, with the next elections for those offices taking place at the 2028 presidential primary. Other provisions in AB 759 also permit a board of supervisors to determine by ordinance whether elections for the selection of any other county officer (except the county superintendent of schools) should be held at the presidential primary.  
  • AB 988 (Bauer-Kahan) enacts the Miles Hall Lifeline and Suicide Prevention Act to establish 9-8-8 centers in California for the purpose of connecting individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis with suicide prevention and mental health services. This bill also provides a dedicated revenue source to fund a 9-8-8 system in California.  
  • AB 2449 (Blanca Rubio) allows, until January 1, 2026, members of a legislative body of a local agency to use teleconferencing without identifying each teleconference location in the notice and agenda of the meeting, and without making each teleconference location accessible to the public, under certain circumstances.   
  • AB 2647 (Levine) allows writings that have been distributed to members of a legislative body of a local agency less than 72 hours before an open, regular meeting to be exempt from specified requirements of the Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act), if the agency meets certain requirements.   
  • SB 1186 (Wiener) enacts the Medicinal Cannabis Patients’ Right of Access Act, which, on and after January 1, 2024, would prohibit a local jurisdiction from adopting or enforcing any regulation that prohibits the retail sale by delivery within the local jurisdiction of medicinal cannabis to medicinal cannabis patients or their primary caregivers by medicinal cannabis businesses or that has the effect of prohibiting the retail sale by delivery within the local jurisdiction of medicinal cannabis in a timely and readily accessible manner.  
  • SB 1326 (Caballero), sponsored by RCRC, creates a process for California to enter into agreements with other states to allow cannabis transactions with entities outside California.  
  • SB 1338 (Umberg) creates the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act. CARE is intended to provide an opportunity in a civil court setting to develop an individualized care plan for persons with qualifying mental health conditions.  

Vetoed

  • AB 240 (Rodriguez) would have required the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to contract with an appropriate and qualified entity to conduct an evaluation of the adequacy of the local health department infrastructure, and to make recommendations for future staffing, workforce needs, and resources, to accurately and adequately fund local public health.   
  • AB 503 (Stone) would have presumptively limited juvenile probation terms to six months, although courts would have been given the option to extend the term under specified circumstances. The Governor’s veto message, which cites his concerns about the bill’s impact on the juvenile justice system in light of the imminent closure of the state’s detention facilities, can be found here.   
  • AB 731 (Bauer-Kahan) would have required county sheriffs to collect and submit extensive data to the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) about educational and rehabilitative programs in county jail and their impacts on recidivism rates. His veto message notes workload impacts and implementation costs.  
  • AB 1951 (Grayson) would have eliminated the local share of sales tax related to the purchasing of manufacturing equipment. Citing the softening economy and the impact of the loss of sales tax revenues on counties and cities, the Governor vetoed the measure, urging the Legislature to consider proposals in the context of the state budget. AB 1951 would have cost counties and cities well over $2 billion in lost revenue over the five years the exemption would be in effect.  
  • SB 1302 (Portantino) would have appropriated $250 million from the Mental Health Services Fund to provide grants of $250,000 to certain high schools to establish or improve school-based health centers that provide mental health services by licensed or credentialed mental health professionals. Governor Newsom vetoed this measure and his veto message echoed RCRC’s concerns of redirecting county funding with strict statutory defined goals and an established local planning process which would be contrary to the intent of MHSA.  

The Legislature will return for the start of the 2023-2024 legislative session on January 3, 2023; although, they will also return on December 5, 2022, to swear in new members and address related “housekeeping” matters.