Representing Regional Needs on Legislative and Regulatory Policies
In 2013, the Regional Water Authority Board of Directors approved a five-year strategic plan. A key component of the plan was advocacy. The Board’s goal: Ensure that regional needs and concerns are positively represented on legislative and regulatory policies and actions. To achieve this goal, RWA launched the Advocacy Program and dedicated resources to a contract lobbyist and staffing for the program.
Since 2015, RWA members have worked together to develop the program by creating a structure, identifying priorities, setting goals and engaging members in a vision. In 2016, RWA launched the program on a subscription basis. In 2019, the Advocacy Program embarked as a permanent program offered to members. The transition was testament to the program’s accomplishments and results.
2019 Legislative Session
RWA is engaged on numerous bills in the 2019 legislative session. A current list of bills with a formal position can be found through the link below. Additionally, please see the position letter that RWA has sent on each of these bills. Please check back on this list regularly throughout the year as the legislative session can bring twist and turns that will change where RWA stands.
AB 533 Support Letter
SB 19 Support Letter
SB 134 Support Letter
SB 669 Support Letter
Read the 2018 Advocacy Program Highlights
Read RWA’s policy principles on public good charges (adopted by the RWA Board on November 12, 2015)
Read RWA’s priority issues and policy principles (approved by the RWA Board on September 10, 2015)
For information about RWA’s Advocacy Program, contact Ryan Ojakian, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Manager.
Legislative and Regulatory News
On February 19, 2019 the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) accepted comments on their draft “Framework and Tool for Evaluating California’s Progress in Achieving the Human Right to…
On February 1, 2019 the Water Resources Control Board accepted comments on their draft water affordability report issued as required by AB 401 (Dodd, Chapter 662, Statutes of 2015). The…
The Regional Water Authority (RWA) is pleased to announce that Ryan Ojakian has joined as Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Program Manager. Ojakian brings more than a decade of experience working…
The Regional Water Authority joins more than 200 water providers, cities, business organizations and others to oppose Senate Bill 845 by Sen. Bill Monning, a newly amended proposal to add…
Below are links to presentations from the March 15, 2018 symposium on Making Safe, Clean, Affordable and Accessible Water a Reality in California. You can read an overview of the event…
SACRAMENTO—A capacity crowd of leaders from state government, local water providers and the non-profit sector came together on March 15 in Sacramento at a symposium to explore the challenges and…
PLEASE JOIN US FOR A SYMPOSIUM ON Making Safe, Clean, Affordable and Accessible Water a Reality Thursday, March 15, 2018, 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Capitol Event Center at the…
The February 2018 issue of the RWA Update is now available online. Read about the March 15 Symposium on Making Safe, Clean, Affordable and Accessible Water a Reality, the Regional…
2017 was a significant year for the Regional Water Authority’s Advocacy Program that represented the culmination of a five-year process initiated by the RWA Board of Directors in 2013. A…
