As part of its mission to build better communities, Community Associations Institute (CAI) educates legislators at the state and national level, and advocates for legislation that will benefit homeowners, managers, and common interest communities as a whole. The California Legislative Action Committee (sometimes called “CLAC”) has been an effective advocate in Sacramento for over 20 years. At its annual planning meeting in October 2015, the Legislative Action Committee introduced a grassroots advocacy campaign to enhance its statewide efforts.
California’s Assemblymembers and Senators care about their constituents’ views, including the views of you, the members of CAI’s eight California chapters. The grassroots advocacy campaign will assist you in educating your representatives. You will meet with them and their staff members in their district offices.
Each chapter, with the assistance of the chapter’s Liaison to the Legislative Action Committee and Legislative Support Committee, will identify chapter members’ state representatives and ask you to help by meeting with those representatives. They will assist you in introducing your Assemblymembers and Senators to CAI and legislative issues affecting community associations. The goal is for you to visit elected officials in their local offices three times a year, in the winter, mid-summer, and fall. The Legislative Action Committee also encourages you — all CAI members — to attend its annual Legislative Day at the Capitol, which will be April 17 and 18 in 2016.
The Legislative Action Committee website, caiclac.com, offers more resources to assist you with legislative visits. The resources include suggestions for written materials to provide and a video showing a typical district office visit. You can also identify your representatives using a link on the website.
CAI will specifically identify members who are represented by key legislators, including committee chairs and other influential leaders in the Assembly and Senate. It is especially important that these leaders have a dialog with their constituents about community association living and the impact of legislation.
Our elected representatives in Sacramento are eager to hear from us, and input from just one person can make a difference. If you are contacted by your chapter’s Liaison to the Legislative Action Committee and Legislative Support Committee, please step forward to assist with this important work. With your assistance, the Legislative Action Committee looks forward to making an even greater impact with this grassroots advocacy campaign.
John R. MacDowell, Esq. is managing shareholder of Fiore, Racobs & Powers’ Orange County office and is a Delegate to CLAC from the Orange County Regional Chapter of CAI. He serves as Vice-Chair for CLAC.