California Municipal Law Blog
by Layla A. Sarwari on March 4, 2026
posted in
Administrative Regulations, Landlord-Tenant, Legislative Updates,
A trio of newly enacted statutes is reshaping the regulatory landscape for mobilehome parks across California, expanding tenant protections, modernizing notice requirements and imposing new disaster-response obligations that directly affect local governments and public agencies.
Assembly Bill 391
Assembly Bill 391 (Michelle Rodriguez, D-Ontario) amends Section 798.14 of the Civil Code to allow mobilehome park management to provide required notices to homeowners and residents electronically with affirmative written consent. This includes annual notices required by the Mobilehome Residency ... Continue Reading
tags:
ASSEMBLY BILL 391, ASSEMBLY BILL 806, CIVIL CODE AMENDMENTS, MOBILE HOME, MOBILEHOME, New laws, PUBLIC AGENCY LAW, SENATE BILL 610, TENANT LAWS,
by Jason M. Ewert on December 8, 2025
posted in
Law Enforcement, Public Records Act,
In recent years, the California Legislature has taken significant steps to provide the public with greater access to peace officer personnel files, which were previously only accessible through formal law and motion proceedings, generally referred to as Pitchess motions. First, in 2018 Senate Bill 1421 (Skinner) amended section 832.7 of the California Penal code to require disclosure of certain categories of information from peace officer personnel files in response to California Public Records Act (CPRA) requests for information. Those categories include incidents involving discharge of a firearm ... Continue Reading
tags:
New laws, Pitchess, Police,
by Stephen J. Zelezny on October 23, 2025
posted in
Administrative Regulations, CEQA, Legislative Updates,
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed landmark California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) reform legislation into law on June 30, 2025. Together, Senate Bill 131 (SB 131) and Assembly Bill 130 (AB 130) exempt numerous development projects from extensive environmental review — enacting an urgent statewide effort to spur new housing construction. In addition to prioritizing housing, SB 131 also creates statutory exemptions for nonresidential developments, such as healthcare facilities, day care centers and broadband projects.
Municipalities, developers and residents will surely welcome these new CEQA reforms, ... Continue Reading
tags:
AB130, administrative record, CEQA, construction, developers, SB 131,
by Sarah B. Levett on October 8, 2025
posted in
Litigation, Municipal Law,
Vexatious litigants are especially vexing for public entities, which have an obligation to carefully steward finite amounts of tax dollars and which are frequently targeted by individuals alleging shadowy government conspiracies. Ordinarily, when a self-represented litigant who meets one or more of the criteria set forth in Code of Civil Procedure Section 391(b) files suit, their classification and treatment as vexatious is straightforward. The issue becomes less straightforward, however, when the litigant is not the plaintiff but the defendant. This scenario can arise in the context of code enforcement ... Continue Reading
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by Czarmaine C. Majan on September 3, 2025
posted in
Law Enforcement, Pitchess Motions,
A Pitchess Motion is a procedural tool used in both criminal and civil cases to seek the discovery of specific information contained in confidential personnel files of peace officers. Pitchess is used typically in criminal cases in an effort to support the defense’s case and/or to impeach an officer who may testify as a material witness.
Although California Penal Code Section 832.7 has opened specific categories of peace officer records to public disclosure, Pitchess Motions remain highly relevant. This is because many forms of officer misconduct still fall outside the statute’s automatic ... Continue Reading
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