Without his home-field advantage, the bill could receive tougher scrutiny, according to Assemblyman Gene Mullin. The bill’s sponsor says he is visiting senators’ offices this week to garner support for the bill.
“It’s going to be a little more difficult for me personally,” Mullin said. “I don’t have the type of connection with senators that I have with my colleagues on the Assembly side.”
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“This bill was identified as a priority bill, and one of the few that the environmental community is opposing this year,” said Pete Price, legislative advocate for the League of Conservation Voters. “I think this bill will get an extra level of scrutiny in the Senate.”
In a mirror image of the battles waged in the Assembly, the bill faces its first test in the Rules Committee, which selects the committees to review the legislation before allowing it to go for a floor vote. Mullin staffers say they are hoping for a similar committee slate as that given at the Assembly Rules Committee, which declined to send the bill to the Natural Resources Committee despite pressure from environmentalist groups.
“We think this is a land issue, but others consider it to be an environmental concern,” Mullin said. “Both of those are in play here.”
Mayor Bonnie McClung says she and other city officials will be visiting with senators in the coming days to persuade them to support the bill.
“We’re doing the same as what we did with the Assembly members: we’re telling our story,” said McClung. “To some extent, the Senate has a different personality.”
One senator has encountered this bill before. San Francisco Democrat Sen. Leland Yee says he needs more time and information before he can decide whether to support AB 1991.
In April, when Half Moon Bay officials were negotiating a settlement agreement with Keenan, Yee offered his support to city officials, saying he would sponsor a bill that would help the city reach an acceptable compromise. However, the day after the settlement agreement was made public, Yee withdrew his support, saying the settlement gave too much to Keenan and could set up a dangerous environmental precedent.
“I’m not prepared to say whether we’ll give up on Mullin’s bill quite yet,” Yee said. “I pulled my support after the settlement agreement, but I continue to be open to finding a solution that is going to be workable for all parties, both the environmental community and the city.”
Yee could not say what such a solution would look like.
Just last week, the fate of the divisive bill seemed in doubt during its final phase in the Assembly. The bill passed on the third attempt at a vote. The final tally was 43-19 vote — with most of the support coming from the Republican side of the aisle. That’s just two votes more than required for passage.
Legislators voted two times earlier in the afternoon on the bill, but in both instances only a fraction of Assembly members cast votes.
Mullin attributed the voting lag to subcommittee proceedings distracting many of the members. The assemblyman said he remained confident the bill would eventually pass.
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