Pub. 2 2020-2021 Issue 3

13 Senate Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Shannon Grove, argued heatedly against Senator Hertzberg’s motion, characterizing his effort as a partisan move engineered to silence Republican voices. Senator Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore) was even heard on a hot mic angrily calling the motion “bullshit,” a senti- ment that she later emphasized on Twitter. After a series of sudden Senate recesses, it became clear that Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins was working feverishly behind the scenes to moderate a solution that would be acceptable to both sides and get the Chamber working again. After an hour or two of these negotiations, the Senate came back online, Senator Hertzberg’s motion to limit debate was withdrawn, and the night continued. Below are the top three measures CNCDA focused on this past year. AB 326 — Electric Mobility Manufacturers Of the few thousand bills introduced this session, many had to be abandoned; some were then used as ve- hicles for coronavirus relief efforts. One notable piece of discontinued legislation was SB 1445 by Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) related to electric mobility manu- facturers. The bill was introduced in February 2020, but it quickly became apparent that legislators had much bigger issues that needed attention and so the bill was dropped. This bill aimed to create a new category under the law for an “electric mobility manufacturer” called Canoo to offer vehicle subscriptions directly to consum- ers. The bill had an abundance of consumer protection flaws. It raised serious franchise-related concerns, but once Senator Allen dropped it in response to leadership requests to abandon non-COVID bills, it seemed like a battle we would have another year. However, the bill was resurrected in a surprise gut- and-amend about a month before the end of session into AB 326, carried by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) — a surprise since the bill was not related to COVID in any way. Some supporters of the bill didn’t even realize the bill had been gutted and amended and accidentally continued their support of the measure, including the City of Thousand Oaks, which had been in support of the bill in its previous form — a bill trying to regulate motorized scooters on public rights of way. Once the city was made aware of its official support position on a completely different bill than what they signed up for, they immediately rescinded their support of the measure, noting the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall and its positive impact on the region. CONTINUED ON PAGE 14