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BACKGROUND At the January 19, 2021 Pleasanton City Council meeting it was requested that an item be brought forward to the City Council to provide information regarding the Governor's budget measure to create a Housing Accountability Unit at the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and to authorize a written response to this measure. Governor Gavin Newsome submitted his $227.2 billion budget to the California legislature on January 8, 2021. The budget bill was introduced in each house of the legislature and has begun review in various committees. The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) has completed its analysis and overview which assists the legislature in their work. In May, the Governor will submit a "May Revise" of the budget with updated general fund revenue projections along with any line item adjustments. The "May Revise" proposals must be adopted by the legislature during the subcommittee process and each house retains discretion to make changes to the proposals. After both houses complete their versions of the budget a Conference Committee is formed for both houses to reconcile difference and develop a single reconciled budget. After the Conference Committee completes their work, the budget is presented in each house for a vote by June 15 and then the Governor signs the budget. The Governor's budget includes resources to create a Housing Accountability Unit at the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to further facilitate affordable housing production through monitoring, technical assistance, and enforcement of existing housing production laws such as the Density Bonus Law and Housing Accountability Act. This includes a $4.3 million allocation from the general fund for HCD to provide technical assistance to help local governments meet planning and zoning requirements and provide proactive engagement before enforcement becomes necessary. These additional resources will allow HCD to act as an ombudsman and help local governments navigate and comply with state housing laws and make sufficient progress toward their Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). Included in the budget narrative regarding this new Housing Accountability Unit, Governor Gavin Newsom stated: "Let me just make this clear to all my friends," Newsom said, "this is to monitor city council meetings. This is to monitor board of supervisors meetings, planning commission meetings. We're not going to wait for an article to be written to be proactive in terms of holding local government accountable to increasing housing production."1 The budget also recognizes that while many important streamlining and exemption provisions already exist in current law, incongruent definitions or processes sometimes It is not clear what the Governor means by"monitoring"City Council meetings but it seems plausible that it would involve tracking housing proposals as they move through the local process,and commenting on staff interpretation of state law and their recommendation to Council if HCD staff concluded that their interpretation and project recommendation were insconsistent with state law. Page 2 of 4