July 6, 2018
Back in “the Good Ol’ Days,” reaching the legislative policy deadline marking the start of “Summer Recess” didn’t necessarily mean that the Legislators got to go back to their districts, but usually marked the start of a long hot budget stalemate that sometimes lasted months and even resulted in state workers getting paid in IOU’s. Then … More »
Because of the lull in legislative activity, the eWeekly will also take a little siesta until Friday, August 10, the week they come back. But don’t worry, we will be here keeping an eye on the place and preparing for the final push of Session. And we will definitely alert you of any major breaking news. … More »
California’s mandatory commercial building benchmarking law is one of the topics we are contacted about the most and since the law finally went into place on June 1, of this year, the amount of questions we have received have spiked dramatically. Because of the increase in interest (and the fact that many of your buildings must comply with the law) … More »
With a few exceptions, if you have a building that is 50K s.f. or more you need to benchmark it annually using Energy Star and report numbers to the Energy Commission. Our industry has worked with policymakers and regulators all along the process to provide input that will hopefully make compliance for a vast majority of our members relatively simple. However, … More »
June 22, 2018
This week the annual California Commercial Real Estate Summit (CCRES) was held in Sacramento and attended by over 80 real estate leaders who converged on California’s Capitol to advocate on behalf of the commercial, retail, and industrial real estate industry. “Teams” of advocates, made up of leaders from all over the state, met with almost … More »
We were also pleased to present our 2018 Legislators of the Year award to Senator Steven Glazer (D-Orinda) and Assemblymember Catharine Baker (R-Dublin). At a packed dinner in Old Sacramento on Tuesday night, we heard how the two legislators with overlapping districts have evolved from rivals running against each other, to a bi-partisan “dynamic … More »
The United State Supreme Court handed down a decision in a case we have been closely following and, in California, have helped drive much of the discussion. The South Dakota v. Wayfair decision overturns the outdated Quill decision from 1992 and clears the way for states to collect sales taxes from retailers that do not have a physical presence in their … More »
Two bills are making their way through the California State Legislature that would expand requirements for lactation accommodations at the workplace. We believe that one, if not both, of these bills will make it to the Governor and have a good chance at being signed. With that in mind our industry is moving to support AB 1976 (Limón-D; Santa Barbara) … More »
In 2017, Cal/OSHA convened two stakeholder advisory committees to tackle the challenge of reaching consensus among interested parties from industry, labor, management and academia on how to regulate the prevention of heat illness for indoor workers. To date, Cal/OSHA has provided draft rules for discussion only—no formal rulemaking has begun. These … More »
May 25, 2018
The Primary Election on June 5th holds a lot of intrigue for political junkies and many of us waiting to see how many same-party-on-party battles we will see in the General Election. However, there are several propositions on the ballot too. The State Legislature changed the way ballot proposition work a few years ago and only those approved by the … More »