In a legislative update issued Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a handful of bills from Santa Clarita Valley legislators have been signed into law, including long-sought reforms on landfill regulations and the Department of Child and Family Services, as well as policy governing public works.
Newsom announced the signings, as well as a number of vetos for local lawmakers, in an email published on his website over the weekend.
From the Assembly
After nearly a decade of effort and 13 years after the tragic death that inspired the legislation, Assemblyman Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, was able to get the governor’s signature on Gabriel’s Law.
Gabriel Fernandez was an 8-year-old Antelope Valley boy who died in 2013 after enduring torturous treatment at the hands of his mother, Pearl Fernandez, and Isauro Aguirre, Pearl’s boyfriend.
The tragedy highlighted systemic failures with the system, according to a news release from Lackey’s office Monday.
Assembly Bill 2304 requires a social worker to ensure a child receives appropriate medical care when the child appears to need immediate emergency medical, surgical, or other remedial care. The bill also clarifies that social workers who knowingly falsify or manipulate official records can be held accountable under existing law.
““I have carried this bill for years, and I cannot put into words what it means to finally see Gabriel’s Law be signed,” Lackey said in a statement with the release. “We came back, we made changes, we fought again, and we refused to let another rejection be the end of this effort. Through all of it, Gabriel was never just a name on a bill to me. He was an 8-year-old boy who needed someone to protect him, and the people and systems responsible for doing that failed him.”
Lackey’s AB 2290 amended civil procedure for how depositions can be recorded and certified in civil cases.
He did receive a veto message regarding AB 2337, an attempt by Lackey to codify theft by an officer as “serious misconduct,” for purposes of ineligibility or revocation of a peace officer’s certification.
Newsom argued it was duplicative, because “abuse of power” and “dishonesty” are already enumerated.
Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, received the governor’s signature on AB 28, a regulatory framework for landfills that would prevent the problems at Chiquita Canyon Landfill from happening elsewhere, with required protocols and protective action plans. It also authorizes CalRecycle to impose penalties of up to $100,000 daily for certain violations.
“No one should have to choose between staying in their home and protecting their family, and those around the Chiquita Canyon Landfill are not alone,” Schiavo said in a July news release. “That’s why I authored the Landfill Safety and Transparency Acts — to make sure that our state responds to communities that are facing public health disasters, like toxic landfill gases, with urgency, accountability and compassion.”
AB 2674 is somewhat related to Chiquita’s issues. it creates a public-outreach component for the California Air Resources Board to make landfill methane-monitoring information available online rather than only in regulatory records
AB 1660 deals with probate law and makes several changes to how an authorized party can take control of property and administer the estates of people who are unable to manage things on their own.
AB 1715 concerns utilities by requiring each one to have a searchable online database when letters are submitted to state regulators.
Schiavo received a veto letter on AB 539.
This bill would have required a health care provider’s approved prior authorizations for treatment or care to remain valid for one year after being issued.
The governor said that would create an overbroad law, limiting health plans’ ability to reassess medical necessity as a member’s condition changes.
From the Senate
Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares, R-Acton, had two bills signed into law in the recent update from Newsom, which had no veto messages for her legislation.
Valladares was the primary author for two bills that Newsom just signed: Senate Bill 1080 and SB 1205.
SB 1080 has to do with how county clerks can certify records.
The bill allows county clerks to use a printed, stamped, photographically reproduced facsimile, electronic, or otherwise digitally created signature in certifying to a record in the county clerk’s office, provided that the certification includes the official seal of the county clerk’s office.
This bill is sponsored by the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.
SB 1205 takes effect at the start of next year, and changes how a local government can handle public works projects in terms of retention payments.
The law now caps what a city can withhold from a contractor, pending the completion of work, at 5%.
“This bill would prohibit any retention payments from exceeding 5% of the payment for contracts under design-bid-build, and amendments thereto, entered into on or after Jan. 1, 2027, directly between a public entity and an individual or legal entity permitted by law to practice the profession of architecture or engineering,” according to the text of the bill.
Martinez Valladares issued a statement Monday in response to her office working to bring back $10 million to the region, including about half of that for Castaic Lake boat-ramp repairs.
“Our communities send plenty of money to Sacramento,” Valladares wrote in a statement sent by Ashley Giovannettone, her communications director. “I’ve fought to make sure some of those dollars come back home, to invest in our community and our future.”
