Without objection, those are approved. We will take the Public Comment. When Public Comment has been completed. All right. Lets get to item number, 3. And we are now joined by commissioner mar. Who is the chair of the committee. Item three. State and federal leg sislativep date, this is an action item. Welcome. Happy to be here today. I thought that i would give this a brief, overview of where we are at the capitol and where we are. Could you identify yourself . I am sorry, yes. Mark watts, advocate for the transportation, authority in sacramento. The legislature welcomed the new Assembly Speaker yesterday, when he was sworn in and he was elected in january and so he is now, fully in charge of the transition has been completed. And it was a very, very, happy ceremony. And i think that he has filled out priorities for his term. And i think that they will suit the state very well. Beyond that, where we are in the legislative process for the capitol, is on a sheet of paper here that i cant seem to find. Darn it. I apologize, here we go. The end of february was the last day to introduce measures and you will see that reflected in the matrix today, where we have gotten about 40 bills, that we reviewed and made recommendations on. And i will come back to that in a moment. But next major deadline for legislation would be april, 22nd. For the bills that were introduced in late february. And they have to clear the first Committ Committee or they are dead or they are dead for the remainder of this session. There is a spring recess in the midst of this process, on march 17th, and march 28, they will be in recess, so the hearing for these measures will be very, very, heavily attended. And very, heavy agenda. S and as they try to get through all of these by the end of april. In terms of note, on transportation, funding, which is a strong interest around the state right now, senator bell, has a measure in the special session and he intends to amend and we had hoped to see that on monday or tuesday at this point in time, his office says that he is refining some of the amendments, his amendments will add significant amounts of funding and finance for transit projects. Even though the main balance of the bill will be focusing on the state and local, road repairs. There is an indication that the Administration May elect to move on with a more stream lined proposal in about 2 billion range, that would not require a super majority vote in the legislature, we are trying to understand if that is something that they are working on. But there are indications that there are, or there is a preference to try to get a small amount of funding for state and local road repairs, rather than make the push for the larger amount, that is represented in senator bells bill and the Assembly Members frasiers bill. And i will be keeping you abreast of the developments as we go through the next couple of weeks. In terms of the matrix of the legislation, there are 13 specific recommendations that we are making to you. One is a changed position, and then the other 12 are new bills for your consideration. And in addition, there is like 32, or 33 other measures that we have recommended watch for one reason or another, and they have may have applied to a policy area, where there is not much flesh on the bill at this point in time and many cases there are spot bills on topics that may become of interest. And so rather than trying to find them again, when they get amended and we put them on the watch and that allows us to monitor that flux more evenly. And so if you would like, i can cover the 13 measures, starting with the first one, which is ab 1550 on page six. This is a position we had recommend that opposed in the past. And we are recommending watch. And it deals with disadvantaged communities in the cap and trade area. It did not change for the proportions of the projects or the funding that is required to be spent in the disadvantaged communities and as you may realize, or you may recall from the first go around of the money and the disadvantaged communities in the region did not fare well because of the way that is designed, and this bill, takes another step and leads the current, 25 percent requirement in place, but as the requirement and 25 percent of the funding must be for projects that benefit, low income households. And so, what we have or why we are recommending moving to a wasatch front rather than oppose. We would like to continue working on the definition of Disadvantaged Community more in the background and working with there is a green gas reduction, and working to see if we can improve the disadvantaged definition. And we are asking for your changed to a watch position. I just wanted to thank you so much for being sensitive to the low income communities. And in some ways whether they are in the San Francisco bay region or east la, so that we are taking in some ways a regional and even a state wide approach to equity but policies, but thank you. And we have seen a number of these types of measures over the last couple of years, and we are recommending oppose on ab 1768, and on page 10 of the matrix, and essentially, it directs, the, remainder of the high speed, rail bonds to be used to pay off the, outstanding high speed, rail bonds, effectively, turn nighting the stream for the project and so as a consequence, we are recommending oppose. And in the several more and i will cover them briefly, because i dont think that there is going to be concern about the recommendation and we are recommending oppose on 1866 on page, 12. And this would redirect, the remainder of the high speed, rail bonds to the state Water Project funding and again, that is a major change in the high speed rail. And we think that the policy of this before you is for the High Speed Rail Program. And the next measure, ab1886, we are recommending a support and i have to tell you that i have to draw a diagram, three or four times before i fully understood this one. And essentially, there is an exemption provided within the e seqa, where 25 percent of the projects are no further than a half mile. This takes it to 50 percent, so no more than 50 percent of the land mass, is an expansion of the sequa expansion for these types of project and we are recommending a support position. Ab 1964, on page, 14 is another, and a long series of bills, over the last couple of years, this one is little bit different than the ones that we have seen before. This simply extends the white sticker, authorization, to access hov lanes, and the white stickers are pure, battery and electrics and the natural gas vehicles as distinguished from the greenstickers, when are the hybrids. And so this, applies only to the white sticker vehicles, but they are growing in sales, and the population throughout the state, is growing. And the concern is, that allowing, the continued and expanding access of the hov lane and so we recommend an opposed position. Ab2034, on page 15, recommending the support position to you. And more than a decade ago, the federal government, authorized the delegation, to state transportation departments. To over see nefa, of the reviews, within their state. And that was enacted and it has been continued once and this simply continueses that authorization at the state level to allow cal transin circumstances to administer and over see both nepa and sequa documents but i will not comment on the effectiveness, but it is a continuation of an existing policy. And what will bring the High Speed Rail Program to an end. It says that no more bonds could be sold. And it will have to go back to the voters and so there is a double layer of protection against this becoming effective. Because i dont see this measure moving forward but that one is found on page 15, if you would like more details or more information. We are also recommending support on ab, 2126, on page, 16. Of the matrix. And this applies, to the states Current Authority to utilize construction manager, and general contractor and authority, for administering projects, large scale, complex, projects and it will be coming to another bill, similar to this in a moment that applies to you, about you this applies, only to the state. The state has the authority to do six and they have occupied the six slots in statute, and this will extend it to 12 for cal trans, to administer. Mr. Prazir is the author. And the state, highway and Protection Program is the main program or the main, financing source at the state level for the projects that are approved or we construct that provide, major maintenance and reconstruction, as well as the operational funding to operate the state highway system. And the funding is generally, only available to the cal trans. And the ctc and the annual report, recommended the expanding a one small provision within this program to allow the operations, to also have capitol improvements. So previously, up to now, the operations will be you know, widening the guard rail, and you know, expanding tauxiliary lane, and this allows for the capitol projects to qualify for the same projects. This bill, ab2374, was introduced by mr. Chui. And we are recommending that the Transportation Authority not only support but register as sponsors of this measure, because it came from staff conversations with the authors office. And it would uniquely expand, or authorize, some what uniquely authorize, that the ramps, for the island, program and the ramps that connect to the bridge system, would be eligible utilize the cmgc Authority Just like we, or just like cal transhas now for a certain number of projects. And i would specifically be targeted towards some of the complex engineering and construction that is anticipated for phase two of the ramp project. And i have been doing a lot of Due Diligence with state engineers and other folks who have had concerns in the passed about the similar authority. Senator bell, has introduced sb 1066 which is on page, 35, and we are recommending a support for this measure, it does not appear to do much on the surface. And it is more of a place holder sponsored by the and what it does is it provides in the state law, the authorization for the new fast act revenues approved by the federal government and by congress to flow to the regular programs at the state level that we anticipate them to. And in essence, it does not really change the law, but it is, and it, it would, actually be operative, if it were to pass. The game plan, however, is for the selfhelp counties to have, a joint, jointly, jointly managed bill that they can work on in case there are wrinkles in the fast act that the people have not anticipated and some of the funding formulas. So this is to preserve their option is to move the legislation. And senator glazier from the east bay has introduced us, and we are recommending the support position and it is on page, 35. The mtc, has commute benefits ordinance, and they have the authority to adopt a commute, benefits ordinance, and that is soon to expire. And this was, simply, extend that authorization, indefinitely, and consequently we are recommending support. And the final measure for your consideration, is sb, 1259, by senator runner, and on it is page, 36 of the matrix and we are recommending oppose. This picks up the idea that have been attempted several decade or more to allow veterans with special, decals and the ability to access toll facilities and there has been similar, authorizations in other states, where we have, and the reports are that, it can result in fraud. And associated decreases in the toll revenue. So, it is, mainly an issue of equity. With that i bring my oral part of the presentation open for questions if you have. And i will try to answer them. I am still trying to digest all of the bills. There is more than 1,000 in each house. So questions colleagues . I wanted to say on the sb1128, by glazer that the bay air quality district, and the Community Benefits policies and give many options or a couple of options to employers, and i think that is a really important one in insuring that we are reducing Greenhouse Gas and trips as possible. And the coalition that are really trying hard on automatic speed enforcement. And the speeding cameras. But i know that some communications with some of chuis office were fruitful up until the last minute but we are hopeful that there is legislation that comes forward, but it is a little disappointing but i want to give a shout out for the work behind the teams on those efforts but thank you so much, mr. Watts for the great presentation. And commissioner yee . Thank you, for your presentation, and i know that you mentioned some bills may not have all of the details, necessary, or whatever, and so you are watching it. And one of them may be, under or possibly may be ab 1677. On page, 9. Or 17 . I guess that what i would like to do is to move that to suggest that we urge you to move it from watch to support. And the reason for this, is because this is a bill that, so that the board of supervisors have already passed a resolution to support. And we want to keep it consistent and we want to keep the heat on. And we are actually, my office is working with the senator on this particular bill and we are trying to give them as much information in terms or suggestions about the bill, as possible. Hopefully, we will have some meat on it. So, commissioner yee has made a motion to add, ab 1677 from the move from watch to support. Is that your motion . Yeah, this is in regards to the tour buses. In terms of making it possible for local jurisdiction or the local government to have the additional inspectionses as sort of the general idea. Is there a second on the motion. So it is seconded by commissioner, breed. So we are adding 1677, to the action list, presented by mr. Watts. Any other comments, colleagues . Lets open this up for Public Comment. Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. And so on the motion to add ab1677, from a watch to a support, position, could we do that without objection . The house has changed. So the house has changed. Roll call on the motion. Breed . Aye. Campos . Absent. Kim. Aye. Mar. Aye. Yee . Aye. The motion passes. And then now on the recommendations on the new bills and the recommended positions can we do that same house, same call . Yes. Thank you. Thank you, so much mr. Watts. Next item . Item 4, introduction of new items. This is an information item. So lets open up this for Public Comment, anyone from the public that would like to speak . Public comment is closed. Next item. Item 5. . General Public Comment. Good morning, commissioners. inaudible trueself or wellbeing. inaudible money, inaudible making oneself a wellbeing. inaudible