This year, the pace of the Legislature seems more intense than ever. It feels as if ten weeks have gone by, instead of two. Despite the online nature of the session, the Legislature continues to keep a heavy load of committee meetings and bill introductions. As of Friday, more than 650 bills had been introduced. We are now in the third week and it appears the Legislature’s effort to significantly limit the number of bill introductions is not panning out.

AWC staff is tracking and testifying on a broad array of bills that impact cities. You can get a sense of the most critical of those bills in our updated weekly Hot Sheet. It’s still too early to determine which bills are most likely to keep moving through the next phase of the session. This is an odd-numbered year and therefore a long session, and the first cutoff deadlines are still several weeks away. The first one, when bills move out of their policy committee, is set for February 22. That leaves three more weeks before the numbers begin to narrow.

Where is the action thus far?

So far this session, the hot topics rising to the top are mostly what we anticipated. There are a vast number of bills addressing housing issues. The good news is that many seek to provide more tools for developing affordable housing. However, there are several bills with mandates we find concerning. We will continue to vet the proposals and weigh in when appropriate.

Another area we expected the Legislature to focus on is pandemic response. Last week, the Legislature passed a Concurrent Resolution to extend many of the Governor’s emergency proclamations. The House also acted on a bill to allow for remote meetings during emergencies, HB 1056. The House took action on yet another bill that would exempt businesses from paying certain taxes on COVID-19 relief grants they may have received.

Police reform is the other area we knew would draw a great deal of interest and would see many proposals brought by multiple stakeholder groups. Last year, AWC’s Board adopted police reforms as a 2021 priority with specific areas to support.

AWC’s police reform priority

Support local control over city law enforcement policy decisions to meet the needs of each community and appropriately contain costs. Cities understand our obligation to address racial equity in policing – both state requirements and local policies. Read the fact sheet.

Cities support the following statewide reforms:

• Develop a statewide standard for use of force that preserves the right of local jurisdictions to enact more restrictive standards based on community input.
• Create a database to track officers who have been fired for misconduct.
• Expand grounds for decertification to include use of force violations.
• Require that officer misconduct investigations be completed, regardless of an officer’s resignation.
• Establish a duty for all law enforcement officers to immediately intervene and report misconduct or illegal activity by a fellow police officer.
• Require that all officers receive regular support for vicarious trauma and mental well-being, including peer support, mental health counseling, and appropriate mental health screenings. Officers involved in any fatal use of force must undergo a mental health screening prior to returning to duty.

AWC also supports:

• Additional training requirements, including adequate state funding for any training mandates, and full funding of the Criminal Justice Training Commission and Basic Law Enforcement Academy.
• Reviewing and revising existing binding interest arbitration requirements to clarify and empower local agencies to discipline officers who violate agency policies, state and local laws.

Many of the legislative proposals offered so far align with AWC priorities; however, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. These are complex pieces of legislation that make significant changes to the way cities approach certain aspects of law enforcement. AWC is working hard to maintain a constructive role in conversations with all stakeholders. We are honoring our priority commitments while also hearing and representing the concerns cities have about the costs and operational challenges some proposals would create.

Further complicating the situation, law enforcement strongly opposes most of the proposals. AWC will continue to balance cities’ need to maintain local oversight and budgetary control over police departments with our directive to support proposals that transform law enforcement in such a way that aligns with our priorities.

Currently, the conversations are intense and many proposals have been introduced. As mentioned above, over the next few weeks the focus will narrow as it becomes clear which proposals are likely to receive the necessary support to proceed through the legislative process. We encourage cities to continue providing us feedback on these proposals and to stay up to date by following our Legislative Bulletin.

A great line up for City Action Days

AWC’s City Action Days conference is online this year. It will be held February 10 and 11 and will feature the same great content as always on hot legislative issues from legislative speakers. We are pleased to announce that the Governor will address us live on February 10.

Even though you can’t attend in person, it is still important to make plans to meet with your legislators. This year CAD is nearly two weeks prior to that first key legislative cutoff deadline on February 22. It’s such an important time to weigh in with legislators. Make sure to arrange to meet remotely with yours.

Have questions?

As always, if you need assistance or additional information in navigating the legislative process, feel free to reach out to the Government Relations team. We are always happy to help.