Here’s What Each CSAC Policy Committee Worked on at LegCon

As hundreds of county leaders and staff convened gathered for CSAC’s 2025 Legislative Conference last week in Sacramento, they met to discuss complex policy issues facing California at the state and local levels.

Here’s a roundup of the highlights from each policy committee discussion. (For highlights of the entire conference, including general session speakers, click here.)

Background
The CSAC policy committees provide a focused and consistent setting for discussion and potential recommendations on matters of importance to California counties. Led by County Supervisors from across the state, and staffed by the legislative affairs team, policy committees are charged with guiding CSAC’s policy positioning on legislation, state regulations, statewide ballot initiatives, and more. The policy committee meetings in Sacramento last week, just a few blocks from the State Capitol building, offered an opportunity for robust participation from County Supervisors and county officials from across the state to provide timely insights on important policies affecting California counties. The engagement and leadership of the County Supervisors that are Chairs and Vice-Chairs of these policy committees ensured that all sessions were filled with thoughtful content that left attendees with a better understanding of pressing policy issues in 2025 and beyond.

The agendas and meeting materials from the policy committee meetings during the 2025 Legislative Conference are available on the CSAC website.

Administration of Justice (AOJ)
The Administration of Justice policy committee dedicated a majority of their time to a comprehensive and lengthy conversation to a single, yet large and complicated, issue of pressing importance for county governments in 2025: Proposition 36 implementation. Specifically, the agenda included:

• A panel discussion on Proposition 36 and implementation efforts across the state, with unique perspectives from representatives of the California District Attorneys Association, the California Public Defenders Association, Chief Probation Officers of California, California Behavioral Health Directors, California Sheriffs Association, and a chief county executive.
• An update from CSAC AOJ staff regarding critical funding via the federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA).

Although time did not permit for CSAC AOJ staff to provide an update on 2025 legislative advocacy, a summary of those efforts can be found at the end of the meeting packet.

Questions? Contact:
Ryan Morimune, Senior Legislative Advocate, at rmorimune@counties.org
Michaela Stone, Legislative Analyst, at mstone@counties.org

Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources (AENR)
For the first time, the Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources policy committee convened twice during the Legislative Conference. The policy committee met for two sessions to focus deeply on matters of critical importance for the local management of California’s resources; the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, wildfire prevention and response, and the biomass projects. The agendas for both sessions included:

• A panel conversation with perspectives from the state, county government, and the private sector regarding the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
• A briefing from Anale Burlew, Chief Deputy Director of CalFIRE, regarding the present landscape and future of wildfire prevention and response in California.
• An overview of the siting and piloting of biomass projects from two industry leaders in this field (California Law Empowering Renewable Energy and Phoenix Energy).
• A county roundtable discussion on biomass projects and forestry, which captured key insight from county officials regarding their unique experiences in their communities with these issues.

Although time did not permit for CSAC AENR staff to provide an update on 2025 legislative advocacy, a summary of those efforts can be found at the end of the meeting packet.

Questions? Contact:
Catherine Freeman, Senior Legislative Advocate, at cfreeman@counties.org
Jordan Wells, Legislative Advocate, at jwells@counties.org

Government Finance and Administration (GFA)
During the Legislative Conference the GFA policy committee focused on recent expansions to county legal liability and the impacts to counties’ fiscal condition, as well as a discussion of pending expansions of pension benefits that could roll back some of the pension reforms made through passage of PEPRA over a decade ago. The stark fiscal pressures outlined in this conversation were balanced by forward-looking presentations on successful local economic development initiatives. Specifically, the agenda included:

• An insightful conversation regarding the pressures of expanded county liability and the state of public insurance with representatives from Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (a fiscal assistance organization for local education agencies) and Public Risk Innovation, Solutions, and Management (PRISM), a risk sharing pool for local agencies.  
• A panel of state and local government experts on economic development shared pragmatic real-time examples of successful community developments projects, including innovative local improvements to the childcare market in Stanislaus County and an emerging lithium market in Imperial County.  
• Thoughtful commentary on the future of PEPRA and how agencies balance the costs of pension benefits with employee recruitment and retention.

Although time did not permit for CSAC GFA staff to provide an update on 2025 legislative advocacy, a summary of those efforts can be found at the end of the meeting packet.

Questions? Contact:
Eric Lawyer, Legislative Advocate, at elawyer@counties.org
Emma Jungwirth, Senior Legislative Advocate, at ejungwirth@counties.org

Health and Human Services (HHS)
In the usual way, the HHS Policy Committee had no problems filling the entire two-hour meeting with multiple presentations and robust discussions among county leaders. The agenda included:

• A panel of county health and human services leaders who discussed the numerous changes being made and proposed at the federal level, including how counties are preparing for impacts. Additional information about recent and proposed federal HHS changes can be found in the full policy committee packet.
• A discussion with the new Director of the California Department of Social Services, Jen Troia, who discussed updates related to IHSS, disaster response, the closure of Foster Family Agencies, and child care. Director Troia’s presentation slides are available here.
• An update on the CA 2030 effort from Department of Aging Director Susan DeMarois, including next steps related to Planning Service Areas (PSAs) and Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs), updating the funding formula, and statewide services. Director DeMarois’s slides are available here. In addition, Director DeMarois also shared new aging resources counties may order free of charge for older adults in their communities. You can find additional information about these resources, including how to order copies, through this flyer.
• A planning and implementation update on Proposition 1 with CalHHS Deputy Secretary Stephanie Welch. Deputy Secretary Welch’s slides are available here.

Although time did not permit for CSAC HHS staff to provide an update on 2025 legislative and budget advocacy, a summary of those efforts can be found at the end of the meeting packet.

Questions? Contact:
Justin Garrett, Senior Legislative Advocate, at jgarrett@counties.org
Jolie Onodera, Senior Legislative Advocate, at jonodera@counties.org
Danielle Bradley, Legislative Analyst, at dbradley@counties.org

Housing, Land Use, and Transportation (HLT)
Once again, the Housing, Land Use, and Transportation policy committee served as a forum to illuminate and provide detailed explanations of technical and sometimes “wonky” policies about essential issues such as land use, development, planning, and more. Specifically, the agenda included:

• The committee heard from two panels who provided background on the basic functions of modern telecommunications technology and regulations.
• The first panel included a presentation provided by Ernesto Falcone from the Public Utilities Commission. The presentations materials are available here.
• The second panel of representatives from AT&T provided a high-level overview of how current telecommunications function to provide service to our communities; there presentation is available here.
• Our final panel explored how the state’s competing requirements that more housing is built while discouraging the expansion of roads and freeways to accommodate population growth is being reconciled at the regional level. The presentation provided by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments is available here.
• Additional information and all attachments related to the HLT meeting  can be found in the full policy committee packet.

Although time did not permit for CSAC HLT staff to provide an update on 2025 legislative advocacy, a summary of those efforts can be found at the end of the meeting packet.

Questions? Contact:
Mark Neuburger, Legislative Advocate, at mneuburger@counties.org