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9, h 1 9 Legislative Bill Action ................................ ............................... ment as authorized under these provisions. Staff: Natasha Fooman, Status: AsTrans; Hrg -4/21, Position: Review and Comment. ADMINISTRATIVE send their comments to the League's Sacramento office. The League has a special subcommittee of experts who will assist in the technical review. Staff: Yvonne Hunter, Status: SenAg &WR; Hrg -4122, Position: Review and Comment. SB 219 (Romero). Public Agency Liability. Police Pursuit. This measure changes the stan- dards or conditions under which a public agency enjoys immunity against civil liability for personal injury or death of any person or damage to property resulting from a collision of a vehicle operated by a potential suspect who is being pursued by a public safety employee of the public agency. Under existing law, immunity exists if the public agency has adopted a written policy on vehicular pursuits that meets specific standards. This bill, with several exceptions, would require the public agency to be implementing the policy in order for the immunity to apply. City officials, and especially police chiefs and city attorneys, should carefully review SB 219 and send their comments to the League's Sacramento office. SB 219 has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and will be heard next in the Senate Public Safety Committee on April 29. Staff: Yvonne Hunter, Status: SenPubSfty;Hrg -4/29, Position: Review and Comment. ENVIRONMENTAL SB 312 (Machado). Water Efficient Landscap- ing Ordinances. SB 312 would propose a process that ultimately would require cities to update their existing water efficient landscape ordinances, required by previous law adopted in 1990. The sponsors, the East Bay Municipal Utility District and the Natural Resources Defense Council, have worked extensively with the League to address preliminary issues and concerns. SB 312 takes a different approach to legislation from last year that stalled, AB 2734 (Pavley), for which the League had a support if amended position. Of key interest to the League is the provision that would narrow the ability of jurisdictions to declare that they do not need a water efficient landscape ordinance from what is in current law to a much stricter standard. Interested cities should carefully review SB 312 and ACA 10 (Harman). Proposition 218. Storm Water Fees. Existing law, established by approval of the voters of Proposition 218, requires local voter approval of certain property related fees. Proposi- tion 218 exempts certain types of fees, such as those for water, sewer and garbage, from the voter approval requirement. When the initiative that became Proposition 218 was originally drafted, the issue of storm water permit compliance and how to fund such compliance was not as significant as it is today. Sponsored by the Planning and Conservation League, ACA 10 would include fees for storm water management programs to those exemptions already included in Proposition 218. If passed by the legisla- ture, ACA 10 would be placed on a statewide ballot. It would need statewide voter approval to become state law. Numerous cities have grappled with how to fund storm water programs in order to meet the requirements of new NPDES permits issued by regional water quality control boards. They have expressed interest in adding storm water fees to those types of fees already exempt from the Propo- sition 218 requirements. The League has talked with the author's office and sponsor to emphasize the importance of retaining the current focus of ACA 10 on storm water fees only, and to resist any attempt to alter the bill with amendments that would restrict existing flexibility in Proposition 218 for other areas. While the League will strongly support ACA 10 in its current form, we have made it clear that if hostile amendments result in problems, we would remove our support and oppose the bill unless it is dropped. The author's office and sponsor have assured the League that their intent is to focus on storm water fees and that they understand our concerns about impacting other areas of Proposition 218. Staff: Yvonne Hunter, Status: AsLG;Hrg -4/30/ pending AsElecRedist &ConAm, Position: Support. Visit the League's Official Web Site -- www.cacities.org PRIORITY FOCUS /PAGE 9