At the April meeting of the Culver City Democratic Club, the membership voted to endorse the following bills:
AB 2684 (Bryan) Safety Element-Extreme Heat—requires local jurisdictions to address extreme heat in the safety element of their general plans or local hazard mitigation plans.
Assemblyman Bryan explains:
“Our cities, our counties, our local jurisdictions don’t plan for urban heat.It just hits every year and it’s the hottest year on record every single year. We set up a cooling center and pray that our seniors make it out of their house to this cooling center where I guess they’ll just sit all day. That’s not really a plan. We have hazard mitigation plans and disaster plans that cities and counties prepare. This bill proposes requiring local jurisdictions to prepare for urban heat in a meaningful way. It matters because if you have a disaster plan in a local jurisdiction and something happens against that plan, you are eligible for federal dollars, you’re eligible for FEMA dollars.”
AB 2716 (Bryan) Oil and gas: low-production wells: sensitive receptors – Imposes penalties of $10,000 a day for each oil or gas well that continues to be operated despite being “low producing” for over a period of two years.
Assemblyman Bryan tells us:
“Those oil wells, the Inglewood oil field, many of them are doing less than 15 barrels a day. Now, less than 15 barrels is insignificant and the industry refers to it as a “stripper well” which I think is an appropriate name because it is stripping us of our life expectancy, it is stripping us of our right to breath, it is stripping our communities of green space and land that can be transformed into other things. But, when I heard this and I saw 3 reports confirming this and I also read that the environmental impact – whether you get a thousand barrels or 3 barrels–is the same to the community…You mean to tell me you’re killing me and you’re not lowering my gas prices? You’re not getting any tangible extraction that you can make a false argument that it is improving the conditions of our lives. You’re just letting them drill ‘cause you don’t want to pay to clean ‘em up? So we’re going to change the cost calculation. If you’re drilling within 3200 feet of where we eat, sleep and play…if you’re operating a well that’s doing less than 15 barrels a day for two years or more, I’m going to fine you $10,000 for every single day you keep drilling and I’m going to use that money to invest in communities.”
SCA-1 (Newman) Elections: recall of state officers—reforms the recall election process so that if a recall of state or legislative official qualifies for the ballot, voters would be asked only to decide the fitness of the elected official in question. The bill would eliminate the second question, in which voters choose from among replacement candidates. If a recall suceeds, the process for replacement “would follow the same steps as currently provided in other scenarios in which a state or legislative office is vacated.”
Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, who is a principal coauthor, writes:
“Our statewide recall process has become a costly partisan tool used to subvert the will of the people. We can do better, and with SCA 1, we will do better.”
AB 1657 `(Wicks) The Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2024 – authorizes a 10 billion dollar bond to fund the state’s affordable housing programs, including affordable rental housing for lower income families, homeownership opportunities, and supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness. We are in a housing and homelessness crisis. Current programs are running out of funds. This bill would provide the funds needed to prevent the affordable housing pipeline from shutting down. Press release
These bills join the bills the Club previously endorsed in March and February.