Each year, the State Legislature and United States Congress consider several hundred legislative proposals, many of which may have a significant impact on the City.  To increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the City’s legislative advocacy program, the City Council periodically adopts an updated legislative platform, which serves as the foundation for the City’s advocacy strategy.  Adoption of the legislative platform allows the Mayor or City Manager to send letters to the Legislature and Congress consistent with the platform.  Additionally, the platform provides a vehicle for summarizing the City Council’s positions on various priority issues without precluding the consideration of additional legislative and budget issues that arise during the legislative session.  

With the California 2017-18 Legislative Session recently underway, staff has reviewed and updated the City’s current legislative platform.  The proposed legislative platform is similar to the prior platform, with the addition of several items that have been identified by City departments as important new advocacy issues, and the elimination of a few items that are no longer priorities.  The new items are identified by bold text.

Once approved by the City Council, the platform will be used by staff to respond to legislative proposals.  Utilizing this pre-approved list will allow the City to take timely action on top priority bills.  Additionally, the list will be used in ongoing discussions with elected officials serving Garden Grove regarding the City’s priorities and concerns.  The legislative platform will guide the City until a subsequent platform is adopted by the City Council.

No direct impact.

It is recommended that the City Council:

• Consider and approve the attached legislative platform for the 2017-18 Legislative Session.