b'SACRAMENTO SUMMARYBy Michael J. Arnold & Michael Belote, Esq.Legislative AdvocatesLegislative Wins (Mostly) for CMAO n August 31 at midnight, theThis made holding the usual number ofa stunning loss for proponents.The bill California Legislature concluded, aspolicy committee hearings impossible,required 41 affirmative votes and obtained it must under the state constitution,with obvious impact on the ability toonly 39.Unfortunately, we knew that the the 2019-2020 two-year legislative session.thoughtfully consider complicated policystory would not end there, as the pandemic And at midnight, September 30, Governorquestions.And for CMA and thousands ofcontinued to rage.Meanwhile, AB 828 Newsom concluded, as he must, affixingother stakeholders," virtually all lobbyingwas never heard in the Senate, and SB 939 his signature or veto to the more than 425had to be performed remotely, as there waswas held in the Senate Appropriations bills which reached his desk.The Governoressentially no one in the Capitol to meetCommittee.vetoed approximately 11% of the bills sentwith, and no ability to even enter the Capitol to him, meaning that approximately 375except to testify, alone, on individual bills.As the session approached its conclusion bills were ultimately signed and chapteredThis changed lobbying strategy enormously,in August, it became clear that some into the California Codes. putting a premium on having cell phonelegislators favored very significant action numbers for legislators and staff. on evictions and foreclosures, and CMA And so ended the weirdest, most frustrating,obtained drafts of language essentially and probably most difficult year of modernWith the legislature home and courtsidentical to the mandatory forbearance California history. effectively closed, Governor Newsom waselement contained in AB 2501.basically running the entire state.To date, Of course, no segment of society wenthe has issued over 60 executive orders, fromAgain participating in a large coalition unaffected by the pandemic, but thehuge issues like stay-at-home orders, to theof real estate groups, and working with California Legislature was dramaticallymundane, like permitting publicly-tradedGovernor Newsoms office, language impacted, practically, legally and evencompanies to hold shareholder meetingsultimately was included in AB 3088 (Ting) constitutionally.On the practical side,online.While everyone is entitled to theirwhich created no foreclosure moratorium the Assembly and Senate were forcedopinions, and feelings run strong, theor mandatory forbearance, but did require to drastically scale back the numberGovernor has enjoyed high approval ratingslenders not providing forbearances to of bills considered, because there wasfor his handling of the pandemic. disclose the reason why.The bill also simply no way to process the usualprovided a short moratorium on evictions 2500 or so bills introduced in a typicalCertainly one of the biggest issuesinto 2021, and added small landlords to the year.Constitutionally, COVID forcedconsidered by the Legislature throughoutprotected class of borrowers under the consideration of such fundamentalthe pandemic was evictions and mortgages.Homeowners Bill of Rights.On the basis of questions as whether operations couldLegislators expressed sentiments to us likethis far more moderate approach, CMA and be moved out of the Capitol to facilitateIf I dont do something about evictions, Iother groups all adopted neutral positions, social distancing, whether the Capitolliterally cant go back to my district.Earlythe bill obtained large majority votes in could be closed during session andon, the Legislature considered AB 2501each house, and Governor Newsom signed whether members would be permitted(Limon), which mandated forbearancethe bill just prior to the expiration of the to vote remotely or by proxy.While thoseon residential mortgage loans, car loans,state Supreme Courts eviction moratorium.questions were never answered definitively,payday loans, and PACE assessments. by the end of session Senators had to beResidential evictions were the subject ofThis was an excellent result for CMA permitted to vote remotely when oneAB 828 (Ting) and commercial tenanciesmembers, but not everyone in the Senator tested positive and potentiallywere addressed in SB 939 (Wiener). Legislature was happy.Some Senators exposed virtually the entire Senaterailed against what they perceived as an Republican Caucus. CMA participated in a very broad coalitioninappropriate surrender to big lenders, of real estate lending organizations andpredicting that more significant eviction The Assembly and Senate were sentothers in opposition to AB 2501, which home for nearly half the legislative year.failed passage on the Assembly floor incontinued on page 29Points of InterestFall 2020Page 5'