ARTICLE
By Dustin Steiner, Vice President Government & Industry Relations and Felipe Fuentes, Legislative Advocate, Apex Group - partial article published in Monday Morning Quarterback on January 20, 2025 The New Year always brings with it new laws. AGC’s Sacramento advocates, the Apex Group, do a great job lobbying on behalf of our industry. To learn more about what they do and how you can be involved, please join us at our first Government Relations Committee meeting on February 20 at 11:30 A.M. at our Lakeside HQ where Felipe Fuentes and Melanie Perron will be on hand to discuss the new laws that just went into effect. They will also give a real-time update on what’s happening in the state capital. One month later, mark your calendars for our Joint Legislative Committee meeting, hosted in conjunction with AGC Cal, on March 20 from 9 A.M. - 1 P.M. in Sacramento. In the meantime, please see the update here from Felipe at Apex Group: The legislature wrapped up the 2024 legislative session last August sending the Governor 1,206 bills for his consideration. With a deadline of September 30, the Governor signed 1,017 bills and vetoed 189 bills. Averaging a veto rate of 15% over the past couple of years, those bills signed by Governor Newsom went into effect on January 1 of 2025. For the most part, the transportation and contractor community were unscathed by legislation this year, despite the State facing a budget deficit exceeding $40 billion. Down $4.5 billion from the prior year, the transportation budget totaled $30.4 billion. Voters granted bond authority to state officials for school building construction/rehabilitation and climate resiliency projects for $10 billion in each category this election cycle. The list below highlights a few of the laws, and positions AGC took, that are wins for our industry in the subject area of bids, warehouse construction, liability, and mandatory project labor agreements. BIDS AB 1957 (Wilson) This bill would authorize any county of the state to utilize best value, as defined, for construction projects totaling more than $1 billion dollars and extends the operation of those provisions until January 1, 2030. The bill now requires the board of supervisors of a participating county to submit reports required by this law to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee before March 1, 2029. Support – Chapter 58, Statutes of 2024 SB 956 (Cortese) This bill would extend indefinitely a school district’s authority to procure design-build contracts for public works projects of more than $1,000,000, awarding the contract to either the low bid or the best value, as provided. Support – Chapter 177, Statutes of 2024 WAREHOUSES AB 98 (Carrillo, Juan) This bill, beginning January 1, 2026, would prescribe various statewide warehouse design and build standards for any proposed new or expanded logistics use developments. This includes specific standards for building design and location, parking, truck loading bays, landscaping buffers, entry gates, and signage. The bill would not impact existing logistics use developments, proposed expansions of a logistics use development, and property currently in a local entitlement process to become a logistics use, under prescribed conditions. The bill would require a facility operator, prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy, to establish and submit for approval by a city, county, or city and county a truck routing plan to and from the state highway system based on the latest truck route map of the city, county, or city and county, as prescribed. The bill would require a facility operator to enforce the plan. This compromise bill came together after multiple year efforts by advocates attempting to stop the development of warehouses. Support – Chapter 931, Statutes of 2024 LIABILITY AB 1034 (Grayson) The Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) of 2004 exempts, until January 1, 2025, from its provisions an employee in the construction industry with respect to work performed under a valid collective bargaining agreement in effect any time before January 1, 2025, that expressly provides for the wages, hours of work, and working conditions of employees, premium wage rates for all overtime hours worked, and for the employee to receive a regular hourly pay rate of not less than 30% more than the state minimum wage rate. It also does certain things, including prohibiting all of the violations of the Labor Code that would be redressable pursuant to PAGA and providing for a grievance and binding arbitration procedure to redress those violations. This bill would delete the January 1, 2025, date described above and would extend the sunset of the exemption described above until January 1, 2038. AGC Sponsored Bill – Chapter 803, Statutes of 2024 AB 2288 (Kalra) PAGA authorizes an aggrieved employee, as defined, to bring a civil action, on behalf of that employee and other current or former employees, to enforce a violation of any provision of the Labor Code that provides for a civil penalty to be assessed and collected by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency or any of its departments, divisions, commissions, boards, agencies, or employees pursuant to certain notice and cure provisions, as prescribed. This bill would, among other things, instead authorize an aggrieved employee to bring a civil action as described above on behalf of the employee and other current or former employees against whom a violation of the same provision was committed. This measure brought long overdue reforms to PAGA and was sponsored by the CalChamber. Support – Chapter 44, Statutes of 2024 SB 92 (Umberg) This bill would, among other things, authorize, on or after October 1, 2024, an employer that employed fewer than 100 employees in total during the period covered by the required notice to, within 33 days of receipt of the notice, submit to the agency a confidential proposal to cure one or more of the alleged violations and, upon completing the cure, provide a sworn notification to the employee and agency that the cure is completed, as prescribed. Support – Chapter 45, Statutes of 2024 PLAs SB 984 (Wahab) This bill would require the Judicial Council and the California State University, by January 1, 2027, to identify and select a minimum of three major state construction projects that are required to be subject to the requirements of a project labor agreement, as specified, and would define various terms for these purposes. The bill would require the Judicial Council and the California State University, on or before January 1, 2027, to each submit a report to the Legislature regarding the selection of projects, as specified. AGC served as lead opposition to this measure and lobbied the administration for a veto. Oppose – Vetoed by the Governor
By Dustin Steiner, Vice President Government & Industry Relations and Felipe Fuentes, Legislative Advocate, Apex Group - partial article published in Monday Morning Quarterback on January 20, 2025
The New Year always brings with it new laws. AGC’s Sacramento advocates, the Apex Group, do a great job lobbying on behalf of our industry. To learn more about what they do and how you can be involved, please join us at our first Government Relations Committee meeting on February 20 at 11:30 A.M. at our Lakeside HQ where Felipe Fuentes and Melanie Perron will be on hand to discuss the new laws that just went into effect. They will also give a real-time update on what’s happening in the state capital. One month later, mark your calendars for our Joint Legislative Committee meeting, hosted in conjunction with AGC Cal, on March 20 from 9 A.M. - 1 P.M. in Sacramento.
In the meantime, please see the update here from Felipe at Apex Group:
The legislature wrapped up the 2024 legislative session last August sending the Governor 1,206 bills for his consideration. With a deadline of September 30, the Governor signed 1,017 bills and vetoed 189 bills. Averaging a veto rate of 15% over the past couple of years, those bills signed by Governor Newsom went into effect on January 1 of 2025.
For the most part, the transportation and contractor community were unscathed by legislation this year, despite the State facing a budget deficit exceeding $40 billion. Down $4.5 billion from the prior year, the transportation budget totaled $30.4 billion. Voters granted bond authority to state officials for school building construction/rehabilitation and climate resiliency projects for $10 billion in each category this election cycle.
The list below highlights a few of the laws, and positions AGC took, that are wins for our industry in the subject area of bids, warehouse construction, liability, and mandatory project labor agreements.
BIDS
AB 1957 (Wilson) This bill would authorize any county of the state to utilize best value, as defined, for construction projects totaling more than $1 billion dollars and extends the operation of those provisions until January 1, 2030. The bill now requires the board of supervisors of a participating county to submit reports required by this law to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee before March 1, 2029. Support – Chapter 58, Statutes of 2024
SB 956 (Cortese) This bill would extend indefinitely a school district’s authority to procure design-build contracts for public works projects of more than $1,000,000, awarding the contract to either the low bid or the best value, as provided. Support – Chapter 177, Statutes of 2024
WAREHOUSES
AB 98 (Carrillo, Juan) This bill, beginning January 1, 2026, would prescribe various statewide warehouse design and build standards for any proposed new or expanded logistics use developments. This includes specific standards for building design and location, parking, truck loading bays, landscaping buffers, entry gates, and signage. The bill would not impact existing logistics use developments, proposed expansions of a logistics use development, and property currently in a local entitlement process to become a logistics use, under prescribed conditions. The bill would require a facility operator, prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy, to establish and submit for approval by a city, county, or city and county a truck routing plan to and from the state highway system based on the latest truck route map of the city, county, or city and county, as prescribed. The bill would require a facility operator to enforce the plan.
This compromise bill came together after multiple year efforts by advocates attempting to stop the development of warehouses. Support – Chapter 931, Statutes of 2024
LIABILITY
AB 1034 (Grayson) The Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) of 2004 exempts, until January 1, 2025, from its provisions an employee in the construction industry with respect to work performed under a valid collective bargaining agreement in effect any time before January 1, 2025, that expressly provides for the wages, hours of work, and working conditions of employees, premium wage rates for all overtime hours worked, and for the employee to receive a regular hourly pay rate of not less than 30% more than the state minimum wage rate. It also does certain things, including prohibiting all of the violations of the Labor Code that would be redressable pursuant to PAGA and providing for a grievance and binding arbitration procedure to redress those violations. This bill would delete the January 1, 2025, date described above and would extend the sunset of the exemption described above until January 1, 2038. AGC Sponsored Bill – Chapter 803, Statutes of 2024
AB 2288 (Kalra) PAGA authorizes an aggrieved employee, as defined, to bring a civil action, on behalf of that employee and other current or former employees, to enforce a violation of any provision of the Labor Code that provides for a civil penalty to be assessed and collected by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency or any of its departments, divisions, commissions, boards, agencies, or employees pursuant to certain notice and cure provisions, as prescribed. This bill would, among other things, instead authorize an aggrieved employee to bring a civil action as described above on behalf of the employee and other current or former employees against whom a violation of the same provision was committed. This measure brought long overdue reforms to PAGA and was sponsored by the CalChamber. Support – Chapter 44, Statutes of 2024
SB 92 (Umberg) This bill would, among other things, authorize, on or after October 1, 2024, an employer that employed fewer than 100 employees in total during the period covered by the required notice to, within 33 days of receipt of the notice, submit to the agency a confidential proposal to cure one or more of the alleged violations and, upon completing the cure, provide a sworn notification to the employee and agency that the cure is completed, as prescribed. Support – Chapter 45, Statutes of 2024
PLAs
SB 984 (Wahab) This bill would require the Judicial Council and the California State University, by January 1, 2027, to identify and select a minimum of three major state construction projects that are required to be subject to the requirements of a project labor agreement, as specified, and would define various terms for these purposes. The bill would require the Judicial Council and the California State University, on or before January 1, 2027, to each submit a report to the Legislature regarding the selection of projects, as specified. AGC served as lead opposition to this measure and lobbied the administration for a veto. Oppose – Vetoed by the Governor