On the first week of December, Nevada County Supervisors Heidi Hall, Ed Scofield and Susan Hoek attended the 2019 Annual California State Association of Counties (CSAC) Conference in San Francisco California. CSAC holds its annual conference every year to provide summary reports on current state legislation and major priority issues, as well as to elect its annual officers. CSAC representation includes all 58 California counties whose policy positions are divided into five (5) policy committees: 1) Government Finance & Administration Policy Committee; 2) Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Policy Committee; 3) Administration of Justice Policy Committee; 4) Health and Human Services Policy Committee; and 5) Housing, Land Use and Transportation Policy Committee. Additionally, CSAC county members are also represented under three (3) caucuses that convene at the conference that include and Urban Caucus, Suburban Caucus, and Rural Caucus.
Currently Supervisor Ed Scofield is the County’s representative on the CSAC Board of Directors with Supervisor Heidi Hall as the alternate. Some of the major issues identified in the coming year included proposed changes to Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) funding that currently provides a wide variety of funding to Nevada County Behavioral Health. Additionally, discussion ensued regarding the challenges to the implementation of new regulatory requirements signed into law per SB 1383 that establishes targets to achieve a 50 percent reduction in the level of the statewide disposal of organic waste (including food waste) from the 2014 level by 2020, and a 75 percent reduction by 2025. One of the biggest topics addressed at the conference included the impacts of the Public Safety Power Shutoff’s that have so severely impacted much of California and Nevada County. CSAC has been a legal party and participant of the current CPUC initiated rule-making to institutionalize communication methodologies and requirements earlier this year and has recently opened up an inquiry to examine the October PSPS events with the potential for enforcement actions.
On the last day of the conference, attendees also had the opportunity to hear directly from the California State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announcing a one-year moratorium on homeowners insurance. The moratorium does not currently include areas within Nevada County but instead only impacts surrounding areas of the wildfire sounding areas of the fires that relate to the Governors recent Disaster Declaration this year.
