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Board reviews 2025 state and federal legislative priorities; asks lobbyists to add public safety and flood resiliency
Summary
County supervisors heard presentations from state and federal advocacy firms and discussed adding public safety, flood resiliency and roads to the county’s 2025 lobbying priorities. Firms emphasized uncertainty in federal funding and the need to align county priorities with state and federal opportunities.
Lake County supervisors discussed draft 2025 legislative priorities during their annual governance workshop and heard presentations from the county’s Sacramento and Washington, D.C. lobbyists, Nielsen Merksamer and Paragon Government Relations.
Jeff Neal of Nielsen Merksamer and Joe Cron of Paragon outlined likely themes for the year: affordability, wildfire response and resilience, broadband implementation, and the interplay between state and federal programs and funding. Both firms recommended keeping the priority lists brief and flexible so advocates can act quickly as bills and NOFAs (notices of funding availability) emerge.
Supervisors emphasized local needs during the discussion. Supervisor Pyska highlighted the county’s successful defensible-space and fire mitigation work and urged continued focus on sustaining mitigation grants and local contractors. Supervisor Owen pressed to add roads funding to the infrastructure priorities after describing dangerous pavement conditions in District 1. Several supervisors asked that the Highway 175 corridor be considered for middle-mile broadband funding.
Vice Chair Rasmussen and Supervisor Sabatier proposed adding a public safety priority, citing changes to criminal justice funding and the county’s needs for law enforcement, prosecution and services for victims. Supervisors also recommended distinguishing flood resiliency from broader water reliability language, so federal and state advocacy can specifically target sediment, floodplain and insurance issues. The board asked staff and the lobbyists to revise the draft to add public safety and to frame disaster resiliency as a category with subtopics for wildfire and flood.
Federal update and immediacy: Paragon flagged an OMB directive issued by the new federal administration requiring agencies to review financial assistance programs, potentially pausing discretionary and formula grants while the directive is litigated and interpreted. The firm said the county and its advocates are monitoring litigation and agency guidance closely because the hold could delay awards for mitigation or community programs in 2025.
Board direction: Supervisors gave staff and their contracted lobbyists consensus to add public safety and more explicit flood resiliency language to the county’s state and federal priority lists and asked that the revised draft be circulated for formal adoption.
