Santa Paula staff seeks council input on updated legislative and policy agenda; council adds watchlist items

City staff on March 5 presented an updated legislative and policy platform and asked the City Council to review a red‑lined draft and provide direction on additions or edits.

Jonathan Royer, who presented the update, explained that the platform is the council’s policy framework used to authorize rapid staff responses to legislative proposals (state or federal) and to request support or oppose letters when an item falls within the city’s stated priorities. Royer said staff has used the platform to prepare roughly 70 letters on behalf of the city since the last adoption.

Council discussion focused on several topic areas staff will add, track or clarify. Members asked to add or monitor: greater transparency around the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) methodology; language opposing unfunded mandates and advocating funding for housing planning and implementation; stronger and explicit support for funding that increases water affordability for low‑income customers and for water infrastructure projects that lower household costs; transportation safety and funding tools to reduce roadway fatalities and severe injuries; regional or interstate power‑grid collaboration and resilience; oil‑field cleanup funding and restoration; local control provisions related to solid‑waste acceptance to protect regional landfill capacity; and insurance market stabilization measures and protections for communities relying on the FAIR Plan.

Council also requested staff to incorporate references to workforce development funding, broadband access as an essential service (phrased to emphasize education and economic opportunity), and to watch state efforts on cap‑and‑trade extensions and vehicle‑miles‑traveled (VMT) policy where further detail is expected. Several council members supported renaming the document a “Legislative and Policy Agenda” to reflect both policy direction and legislative response authority.

Staff said it will incorporate the suggested edits, return a cleaned draft for adoption on a future consent calendar, and continue tracking bills identified by the council as priorities or watchlist items. A QR code provided in the presentation links to the city’s legislative actions and letters for past years.

The council asked staff to preserve flexibility in the platform so staff can timely respond to time‑sensitive requests that align with council policy; items outside the platform will continue to be brought back to council for direction.