Action Needed: Testify to Support SB 296
Friday, April 2, 2021
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Phone Testimony Needed On Monday To Support SB 296 - The Code Officer Safety Standards Bill HOW TO TESTIFY TO THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE ON SB 296 You will be giving your testimony by phone. Here is the number you will call at 9:00 AM on Monday, April 5th: 844-291-6364 You will then be prompted to enter your ACCESS CODE. Here is the Access Code: 7362832 # You will then be put into listening mode. When SB 296 is called, the telephonic monitor will ask you to enter the number “1 0” to speak in support of the bill. Wait a few minutes and the monitor will come back to give you a queue number. You will then go back to listening mode. When the moderator comes back on, you will be able to testify. When you testify, tell the Committee that SB 296 should not be on the suspense file. Instead, it should have been passed through the Committee under Rule 28.8. Rule 28.8 is a provision that provides that bills with no specific cost are removed from the Appropriations Committee agenda and passed directly to the floor. Here is some background about Senate Rule 28.8: Under Senate Rule 28.8 bills with no direct fiscal impact are not heard by the Appropriations Committee at all but are passed through to the Senate Floor. In this case, SB 296 merely says that employers of Code Enforcement Officers "shall develop code enforcement officer safety standards appropriate for the code enforcement officers employed in their jurisdiction." Please note that SB 296 leaves the discretion entirely to the employing agency as to what standards they may choose to institute in connection to the bill. For example, they could simply alter their organization chart to place Code Enforcement under a different spot in that organization chart; or they could simply require Code Enforcement to implement any existing safety protocols the employer already has in place; deployment assignments of existing personnel could be altered to have them accompanied by another employee on particular assignments; hiring standards could be set that requires new Code Enforcement Officers to be Certified pursuant to AB 2228 (Cooley) enacted in 2016; training in de-escalation techniques that are already being taught for other employees. All of these are in the array that is available of the employing agency and nowhere in SB 296 is there any mandate requiring expenditures or obligations outside of the existing responsibilities of the employing agency. When you call in, your message should be a simple one: “Senate Bill 296 should not be on Suspense Calendar, it should have been passed through to the Senate Floor under Rule 28.8.” Let’s overwhelm them with calls! The hearing will begin on Monday at 9:00. A couple of notes: Be patient. It will probably take about an hour before SB 296 comes up. The best remedy is to put your phone on speaker and multi-task until you are asked to enter “1 0” to get into the queue. Once you enter “1 0” don’t enter it again or you will be disconnected. Thank you for participating in this effort!
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