BOMA California Advocacy Update: Water Package, Automatic External Defibrillators, and Title 24 Updated Standards

Water Package Passes

In a sign that the California State Legislature can move quickly when it wants to, recently a $1 Billion Emergency Drought Package, was proposed, passed, and signed into law by the Governor.

The legislation includes more than $1 billion for local drought relief and infrastructure projects to make the state’s water infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather events.

The law includes $267 million for water development, including recycling, desalination and drinking water; $131 million for direct drought response, including food assistance, emergency drinking water, protection of fish and wildlife, invasive species protection, and emergency water supply and education; $660 million for urban/rural flood protection, mainly in the Central Valley. The funding comes from the Proposition 1e water bond approved by voters in 2006 that must be spent before 2016.

We praise the Governor and Legislative leaders for acknowledging the problem that we have been concerned about for years. For more than a decade we have been speaking with policymakers about the need to address the lack of new storage and conveyance in a generation, and complicated environmental laws that make even the smallest infrastructure extremely difficult and expensive to undertake.

Click here to read the Governor’s press release.

Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) BILLS 

Two bills in the California State Legislature are addressing the issue of AEDs (defibrillators) in commercial buildings.

SB 658 Hill – Addresses onerous training requirements.

SB 287 Hueso – Mandates installations in New Buildings with 200+ Occupancy

From the feedback we've received from BOMA members, one reason AEDs are not omnipresent is due to the training requirements that addressed in SB 658, that is why BOMA is supporting the measure. 

 

Title 24 - California Energy Commission (CEC) April 10th Hearing

Although the new California Energy Code – commonly referred to as Title 24 Standards – just came online earlier this year, the state is just about to adopt an updated standard (review the next article below for details).

On April 10, the California Energy Commission is hosting a public hearing regarding the 2013 Energy Code Standards and we would like your feedback about policy and cost concerns to carry forward to this hearing.  

Send all comments to mhargrove@cbpa.com.

A number of BOMA California members have let us know that the lighting control issue is having a major impact on costs and complexity of Tenant Improvements. This issue has been discussed at length at several CEC board meetings, and BOMA members and staff have used anecdotal information to work with CEC staff and commissioners to get the item on the agenda for review. However, actual examples of this issue are needed so that we can advocate changes to the regulation. These examples can be used sans company name. If you can provide assistance on this issue please let us know.

Below is an article on the lighting control issue that can give you some additional background and the CEC notice of hearing.

Businesses Are in the Dark about New Lighting Regulations
CEC Hearing regarding 2013 Energy Code

Proposed Changes To Title 24

The official proposed changes by the California Energy Commission to Title 24, Part 6 (CA Energy Code) was released earlier this week. BOMA California is currently trying to analyze the proposal and prepare comments on behalf of industry.

The Notices of Proposed Action for the 2016 revisions to the Title 24 Part 6 Building Energy Efficiency Standards, and separately for the voluntary provisions in Title 24 Part 11, can be found here.

If you have experts at your company that can review the proposed regulations and provide feedback that would be helpful.  Send all comments to mhargrove@cbpa.com.

Final proposed codes are scheduled for adoption at the CECs May 2015 Business Meeting.