Teacher housing bill goes to Brown

SACRAMENTO — San Francisco and other high-priced cities could build teacher-only affordable housing on school district properties under a bill headed to Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday.

The bill aims to address the growing number of teachers, classroom aides and other school district employees across the state who are being priced out of cities.

San Francisco already has two properties that officials are considering for the teacher-only housing. However, Mayor Ed Lee said the city needs state authority to permit the school district to construct the housing for teachers. With state authority, the development would qualify for state and federal grants.

“This is a major win for San Francisco’s teachers who have struggled, like many, in the current housing climate,” Lee said in a statement.

Under SB1413 by state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, school districts could partner with private companies to create housing options

that keep teachers in their communities. Leno said the bill would help cities where high housing costs have led to high teacher turnover rates.

“California’s growing teacher shortage and housing affordability challenges require innovative solutions,” Leno said.

The bill passed the Senate 30-8 on Monday. Last week, the Assembly passed it 62-18.

The Legislature has until Wednesday to consider hundreds of bills before the end of the session. Among the other bills passed by the Legislature on Monday was one that would allow California farmworkers to collect overtime after an eight-hour day.

Under current law, farmworkers receive time and a half only after a 10-hour shift. AB1066 would instead provide overtime after eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. The bill is headed to Brown.

Farmworkers were excluded from wage protections and hour standards in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Supporters of the bill, such as the legislation’s sponsor, the United Farm Workers, said the exemption is a wrong that lawmakers must right.

“There is a decades-old, archaic, now-outdated exemption in the law,” said Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda. “We are lawmakers, and we can change the law. We can chart a more just path for farmworkers.”

AB1066 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, passed 44-32 in the Assembly on Monday. The bill passed the Senate on Aug. 22 in a 21-14 vote. Several moderate Democrats voted against the bill, including Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D- Elk Grove (Sacramento County), and Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced.

The bill would gradually phase in overtime beginning in 2019 for farmworkers who work more than 9½ hours in a day or 55 hours in a week. Each year, the daily threshold would decrease by a half hour until 2022, when farmworkers would receive overtime for working more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week.

Smaller farms would have more time to meet the requirement, with the first phase-in beginning in 2022 and becoming fully implemented in 2025.

“We are asking for equality — eventually,” Gonzalez said. “It starts today, however.”

The bill would allow the governor to temporarily suspend the phase-in of overtime if the scheduled minimumwage increase is also suspended amid an economic downturn. After 2025, however, the governor could no longer freeze the overtime requirement.

Democrats were criticized for reviving the farmworker overtime bill after a substantially similar bill, AB2757 by Gonzalez, was defeated in the Assembly in June.

“What is most important about AB1066 is principle,” said Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount (Los Angeles County), who supported the bill. “The principle is that those who pick fruits in the fields should have the same overtime protections as those canning vegetables in a factory or those selling fruit in a market . ... It’s past time to right a wrong.”

Opponents of the bill said the added cost of overtime would hurt farmers and lead to decreased hours for workers.

“We want to help these people,” said Assemblyman Devon Mathis, R-Visalia (Tulare County). “They don’t want to see this happen. The majority of farmworkers whose voices have fallen silent on this issue because they are busy back home working providing for their families do not want to see their hours cut, and that is what will happen.”

On Monday, lawmakers also sent Brown SB450 by state Sen. Benjamin Allen, D-Santa Monica, which would require county registrars to mail ballots to all voters, who could then return them by mail or drop them off at several locations in their county.

That would replace the current system where voters can request mail ballots. Voters would also have the option of casting votes in person on election day or in the 10 days leading up to it.

The bill passed 26-11 in the Senate on Monday and heads to Brown. The bill passed the Assembly last week in a 47-31 vote.