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?A-LZ Legislative Bill Action ............................................................... The following are summaries of just a few of the legislative bills that are currently being acted upon by the League of California Cities. For more information about these and other bills, please visit the League website's to access information about legislation, policy issues and related dev910p- ments. You can track information on bills (www.cacities.org/bilisearch), locate legislators and legislative committees, send letters to legislators or the media through the online Advocacy Center (www.cacities.org/advocacycenter), research League policy positions, access useful related links, and much more. HOUSING AND LAND USE AB 1192 (Villines) Prevailing Wages/Afford. able Housing: This bill exempts the construction, expansion, or rehabilitation of affordable housing by non-profit organizations from prevailing wage requirements. Housing for low-income households typically requires significant public subsidies (often above $100.000 per unit) to ensure that these units are constructed and maintained at affordable rents. SB 975 (Alarcon), of 2001, which the League opposed, required affordable housing builders to pay prevail- ing wages. SB 975 significantly increased the cost of building affordable units, thus reducing the total amount of affordable housing units produced. The League supports this measure because removing the prevailing wage mandate from afford- able housing projects will allow more affordable units to be constructed from the limited pool of affordable housing funds. Staff: Daniel Carrigg; Status: Assembly Labor and Employment, Hrg. 4/ 20; Position: Support. SB 135 (Kehoe) Community Service Dis. tricts: This measure contains comprehensive updates and revisions to laws affecting Community Service Districts, based upon the recommendations of a working group of stakeholders, convened by the Senate Local Government Committee, which met over the interim. The revisions affect the establishment, governing, powers and duties of these districts. Ken Cooley, Mayor of the City of Rancho Cordova, was the League's representative on the working group. On April 7th, the League's Housing and Commu- nity Development Policy Committee reviewed and adopted a Support recommendation to the League Board of Directors. The League Board will next meet on May 12th, 13th in Sacramento, where it will finalize our position on this bill. This measure is intended to be a reorganization and update of the law, without introducing signifi- cant policy changes. Still, given the comprehensive nature of this proposal, the League is encouraging cities to also review this measure for potential local impacts. Staff: Daniel Carrigg; Status: Senate Local Government Committee, Hrg. 4/20; Position: Preliminary Support/Review and Comment. PUBLIC SAFETY AB 260 (Bermudez). State Fire Marshal. Fire Response Time. Reports. AB 260 requires that fire data reported to the State Fire Marshal from departments operated by the state, a city, city and county, fire protection district, organized fire company, or other public or private entity, include a comparison of response times and staffing levels to benchmarks found in a nationally recognized standard for fire protection. AB 260 is substantially similar to AB 2406 from the 2004 Legislative ses- sion that was opposed by the League and subse- quently vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. As written, and as stated in the author's original background documents, the intent of this bill is to compare the response times and staffing Visit the League's Official Web Site..www.cacities.org PRIORITY FOCUS/PAGE 5