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2020 State Legislative Summary Page 2 of 6 staff, and San Leandro’s elected leaders in Sacramento. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and a vastly different legislative session, TPA and San Leandro were able to secure important funds, and help pass and halt legislation that have an impact on the City. Please note the following state legislative highlights: COVID-19 Funding and Recovery As the Covid-19 crisis unfolded, Townsend Public Affairs sent and continues to send regular updates on policy actions, legislation, and funding opportunities to support the City during this unprecedented time. As Federal Stimulus dollars for Local Governments were being considered, TPA worked closely with City staff to draft, finalize, and distribute COVID specific funding request letters to San Leandro’s Legislative Delegation, Budget and Policy Committee Staff, State Legislative Leadership, and the Governor’s Administration. • TPA followed up and received confirmation that our requests were appreciated and discussed within all the previously mentioned offices, including with the Pro Tem and Speaker’s lead local government policy advisors. • TPA also engaged in aggressive advocacy efforts to get local governments more funding from the State’s allocation of Federal CARES Act dollars. When coronavirus relief dollars were allocated, San Leandro received nearly $1.1 million from the State for COVID-19-related expenses. Impacts of COVID and Interfacing with State Agencies With the shelter in place in effect, the City was seeking support for its homeless population. Through the County, the City was able to secure hand washing stations and portable bathrooms. The ideal location to provide direct support to a portion of the City’s homeless was on Caltrans right of way. The TPA and City team, working with Senator Skinner’s office, the Governor’s office, and Caltrans secured the necessary support and approval for the placement of the washing stations and portable bathrooms, thereby ensuring vulnerable populations received as much support as possible. Local Revenue Streams One significant policy topic that became a priority for San Leandro this year was Utility User Tax. TPA worked with City staff to draft a letter and advocate in support of Senate Bill 1441 (McGuire) which would help protect a City’s existing utility user tax revenue by removing from state law the current sunset provision. This bill passed the through the Legislature and was signed by the Governor Transportation and Mobility One of TPA’s priorities on behalf of the City of San Leandro was to identify, support, and advance legislative proposals encouraging transportation infrastructure and related transit funding streams. • TPA worked closely with the City to identify priority projects and strategize how to work them into the provisions of major Legislative proposals. • TPA was extremely active in advocating for San Leandro’s transportation infrastructure needs to the Senate and Assembly Transportation Committee Chairs, Members, and Key Committee Consultants. Often times, our team met with Legislators and staff on a weekly basis. • We also engaged with the sponsors a major piece of transportation infrastructure financing legislation and other key stakeholders, holding various meeting to highlight priority projects and how they would benefit the City and Bay Area Region as a whole. • We emphasized projects such as railway grade separation projects at the Niles Subdivision crossings at Hesperian Boulevard, Halcyon Drive, and Washington Avenue, as well as the Interstate-880/Interstate-238 connection reconfiguration and Northbound 880 HOV lane extension. 81