July 31, 2015
Facility Planners Meeting
August 2015
Californians for Quality Schools (CQS) Update
With the help of our members and supporters, C.A.S.H. believes we will meet 100% or
greater of our State School Bond initiative signature gathering threshold and will be
qualified by the end of September 2015. Upon qualification, we will begin a campaign for
which we will need to raise $1.5 to $2.5 million. The total campaign cost is expected to be
approximately $10 million, so we will be expanding outreach to other education
organizations and to local school districts and county offices of education for grassroots
efforts.
For more information or to contribute, please visit www.cashissuesstateschoolbond.com.
Davis vs. Fresno USD
C.A.S.H. continues to provide information to our members and others about the impacts of
the Appellate Court ruling in the case of Davis vs. Fresno USD. We recently hosted a series
of regional meetings in Fresno, Kern, and Orange County to discuss the court decision in
detail, and the case was featured at the recent July C.A.S.H. workshop series. If you have a
project that may be affected by the decision, consult your legal counsel to discuss options.
Fresno Unified School District is appealing the Appellate Court ruling to the Supreme
Court, and C.A.S.H. will be filing its own request urging the Supreme Court to take up the
case. Despite the small number of cases that the Supreme Court accepts, we are hopeful that
the Court will find it necessary to address the uncertainty that the ruling has caused
regarding the use of lease-leaseback. It is important to emphasize that the Appellate Court
validated the legality of the lease-leaseback delivery method, while raising concerns
regarding financing and occupancy issues in the agreements and conflict of interest
provisions related to preconstruction activities.
C.A.S.H. will also be developing an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in support of
Fresno USD’s appeal, should the Supreme Court decide to take it up. The Supreme Court
has “at least 60 days” from the filing of an appeal to decide whether or not to take up a case,
but their procedures don’t specify a time by which the decision must be made.
We indicated previously that it was possible that we may see legislation introduced by
contractors or others to address the issues identified by the Appellate Court. At this time,
such language has not materialized in bill form in the Legislature, though it is still possible
to see something develop in the last weeks of the legislative session.
Legislative Update
The Legislature has adjourned for summer recess and will return to Sacramento on August
17. Bills had to pass out of the policy committee in their second house by July 17 in order
to continue moving through the legislative process this year. Upon reconvening, the Legislature has until September 11 to pass bills in the regular session in 2015. The
Governor called and the Legislature established two special sessions, which are not subject
to typical legislative deadlines and may continue beyond September 11. These sessions will
focus on the following specific policy issue areas:
– First Extraordinary Session – Transportation Infrastructure
– Second Extraordinary Session – Health Care/Managed Care Organization Funding
Below is an update on a selection of C.A.S.H. priority bills.
AB 566 (O’Donnell) – Prequalification and Lease-Leaseback
This bill was passed by the Legislature on July 16 and is now headed to the Governor for his
consideration. AB 566 pertains to prequalification and lease-leaseback. Regarding lease-leaseback, the bill creates more stringent requirements for projects using this delivery
method by requiring the use of a skilled and trained workforce (apprentices and
journeypersons). C.A.S.H. sought amendments to the bill and was ultimately successful in
limiting the proposed expansion of prequalification. The bill moved quickly through the
Senate and the vote was finalized by the Assembly before they adjourned for the legislative
summer recess, fast-tracking it to the Governor’s desk. Despite solid work by C.A.S.H.
staff and leadership, the author did not amend the bill to limit the workforce provisions. The
new requirements will ultimately make it more difficult for many districts to use the lease-leaseback method.
AB 715 (Daly) – Assessable Space
This bill has been passed by both houses of the Legislature and was signed by the Governor
on July 16. C.A.S.H. originally had an oppose position and worked in coordination with a
coalition of other education stakeholders to negotiate amendments accepted by the author in
Senate Education Committee. Originally, the bill revised the definition of assessable space
for the purposes of calculating developer fees, specifying that the following were excluded
from the definition: covered walkway, uncovered walkway, enclosed walkway, bike storage
locker, and detached personal property storage. The bill now simply adds the words
“covered or uncovered” to describe walkways for the purpose of calculating assessable
space. As such, C.A.S.H. removed its opposition.
AB 882 (Wilk) – Portable Electronic Devices and Local Bond Funding
We are pleased to report a positive outcome on AB 882, which became a two-year bill when
the author decided to remove it from the calendar in Senate Governance and Finance
Committee on July 8. C.A.S.H. has an oppose unless amended position and actively
advocated against the bill, which seeks to ensure that school districts appropriately match
the term of their bonds with the anticipated useful life of the objects being purchased.
C.A.S.H.’s opposition is based on the belief that this bill is unnecessary given existing
Federal tax code requirements, coupled with concerns that the bill would create additional
complexities and potential unintended consequences that could impact the structuring of
long-term bond issuances. Despite no opposition in any of the prior committees or on the
Assembly floor, we were able to stop the bill due to the technical concerns we raised in
Senate Governance and Finance Committee.
California Water Commission Approves New Restrictions on Landscaping
On Wednesday, July 15, the California Water Commission approved the Department of
Water Resources’ (DWR) revisions to the Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance
(MWELO), which Governor Brown ordered as part of his Executive Order B-29-15 in April
to increase water efficiency and limit areas that can be covered in turf. The revised
MWELO restrictions apply to new home construction, as well as new commercial and
public development, including schools.
The new restrictions limit the amount of turf around new homes, new commercial buildings
and public buildings to 25 percent of landscaped area, down from one-third under previous
rules. Specifically, the new MWELO restrictions apply to new construction with under 500
square feet of landscaped area, down from 2,500 square feet under previous rules. To
encourage the reuse of “greywater,” the revised MWELO allows landscapes under 2,500
square feet that are irrigated only with greywater and recaptured rainwater to meet a less
rigorous check list and not be subject to the entire ordinance. The revised MWELO
requirements take effect on December 1, 2015, and apply to landscaping built or
significantly modified to the point of requiring a local permit, plan check or design review.
As we previously reported (C.A.S.H. Register/May 5, 2015), on May 29 the Building
Standards Commission (BSC) approved emergency regulations proposed by the Division of
the State Architect (DSA) to update the California Green Building Standards (Title 24), to
create new water efficiency requirements for public schools and community college
irrigated landscape areas.
On July 21, the BSC took further action to amend the code with more details concerning the
requirements, which includes adoption of the revised MWELO (housed in Title 23) for
schools. C.A.S.H. staff has worked with the DSA on improving their proposal, which has
resulted in tangible improvements such as narrowing the proposal to new construction only,
reducing the landscape area to 75 percent of the building footprint, and other key
improvements.
C.A.S.H. Legislative Advisory Committee (LAC) Nominations and Next Meeting
The C.A.S.H. Nominating Committee is now accepting nominations for the Legislative
Advisory Committee. The Committee has one (1) public sector opening and one (1) private
sector opening. Terms run from September 1 to August 31. Each Committee member shall
serve a term of two (2) years and may serve a maximum of two (2) two-year terms for a
total of four (4) years of service on the Committee.
The Legislative Advisory Committee is advisory in nature. Its purpose is to provide the
C.A.S.H. Board of Directors with an annual draft legislative platform and recommendations
on action/positions to be taken by C.A.S.H. on existing or pending legislation. Membership
on this committee is by nomination and appointment by the C.A.S.H. Board of Directors
Nominating Committee.
Application Process/Deadline
Nominations should include the following:
- Name, position, address and phone number of the candidate;
- Nominee’s experience and background in school facility planning or management;
- Any involvement in C.A.S.H. conferences, committees and activities; and
- Reasons this individual would make a good committee member and what contributions this candidate would make to C.A.S.H.
If you are a member of C.A.S.H. and are interested in serving on the Legislative Advisory Committee or know someone who would make an excellent candidate, please forward the requested information to:
C.A.S.H. Nominating Committee
1130 K Street, Suite 210
Sacramento, CA 95814
Attention: Kyle Tanaka
Or email: ktanaka@m-w-h.com
Filing Deadline: Friday, August 28, 2015
LAC Meetings
There are many high priority issues for the LAC members to engage as the 2015 Legislative
Session concludes and as we anticipate the new session commencing in January 2016. These
include:
- The 2016 State School Bond Initiative
- Davis v. Fresno USD (lease-leaseback) and the appeal to the California Supreme Court
- The implementation of AB 566 (O’Donnell)
- Drought and water conservation
- The continuing implementation of the new DIR registration process initiated by SB 854
C.A.S.H. has begun holding LAC meetings around the state to provide additional outreach
and opportunities to our membership. Meeting periodically in different regions of the state
will give us an opportunity to hear from more members in the field. We will also be able to
devote more time in the discussion of legislative and regulatory proposals by meeting midmorning and concluding by 3:00 p.m.
Our first regional meeting was held on June 12th in Long Beach and was a huge success with
a massive turnout. There were 40 people in attendance, including seven members of the
LAC. We covered topics such as Davis v. Fresno, AB 566 (O’Donnell) on construction
trade worker and apprentice certification, and reviewed pending legislation and regulatory
issues. We also had an update from Assembly Education Chair Patrick O’Donnell (D, Long
Beach) on his own bill AB 566, as well as his thoughts on the future of the State
participating in school construction needs.
The next LAC meeting will be held:
Friday, August 21, 2015
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Poway Unified School District
Meeting open to all C.A.S.H. Members
For the latest updates on important matters affecting school facilities, be sure to check the new CASH Register news website at www.cashfacilitiesnews.org.
~ C.A.S.H. Staff
