REGULATIONS
Many state agencies often develop regulations that impact small business. The Office of Administrative Law (OAL) has the final authority to approve all regulations. It maintains a register of all regulatory actions. The following departments frequently propose regulations that can have a major impact on small businesses. We suggest you check this list regularly.
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration
• California Environmental Protection Agency
• Employment Development Department
• California Air Resources Board
• Bureau of Automotive Repair
• Franchise Tax Board
• Department of General Services
• Department of Toxic Substance Control
Small Business Advocate's Blog
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Stimulus Opportunity Program Events - Jul 2, 2009 I had the pleasure of participating in the Stimulus Opportunity Program being produced by a partnership between California’s Small Business Development Centers and Business Matchmaking (see the June 17th blog, below). The program delivered a great deal of specific and useful information for the business people that attended. State, federal, and local government officials provided a range of ways for businesses to find contracting opportunities, and private sector businesses like American Express, Chevron, American Airlines, and Hewlett Packard also explained how they and other big businesses reach out to small business suppliers. Chuck Ashman of Business Matchmaking and Kristin Johnson of the SBDC network and their staffs were able to provide direct assistance to businesses seeking various opportunities or information right on the spot. I trust that everyone got something valuable from the presentations. The next event will be at the Scottish Rite Center in San Jose on Thursday, July 9. You must register to attend; all pertinent information can be found here. Weatherization is Upon Us! - Jun 19, 2009 We recently convened an important conference call regarding the federal stimulus weatherization program. Reneé Webster-Hawkins, Chief Deputy Director for the Department of Community Services and Development (CSD), gave us an in depth perspective on what the weatherization program means to local small businesses, and strategies on how to compete for the weatherization contracts coming to your neighborhood. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has allocated to California an additional $185 million over the next two years for CSD to expand its income weatherization projects; the Department of Energy announced today approval of $74.3 million to fund the program for the next twelve months. The 40 local action agencies around the state that administer the program have submitted their proposals to CSD on how they plan to apply these funds to their existing programs. They are now preparing to receive the money and start weatherizing homes. For many of the agencies, that includes hiring subcontractors in the form of local small businesses. The opportunity for small businesses to compete for these contracts is NOW. The first step is to contact your local agency and finding out when they will be sending out bids, what their needs will be, and what you need to do to position your business accordingly. A list of the local action agencies in your area can be found here, contact information included. Call your respective local action agency and find out more about the weatherization projects coming to your area. Information is the key and this will get you started toward competing for federal stimulus dollars. Ms. Webster-Hawkins stressed that these programs are part of a larger, more sustained effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Other programs are being managed by the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, and the California Air Resources Board. As a member of the Green Collar Jobs Council, I am happy to let you know that all these agencies, along with representatives of business and labor, are meeting monthly to help co-ordinate these efforts. Events About Recovery Act Business Opportunities - Jun 17, 2009 The state’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), in partnership with the non-profit Business Matchmaking, are presenting a series of workshops around the state to provide small businesses with detailed information about potential contracting and other business opportunities coming out of the federal economic stimulus bill. The first event will be held next week in the Laney Theatre at Laney College in Oakland, from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm. Laney College is part of the Peralta Community College District. We are honored to be hosted by the District President Elihu Harris, and to hear from Congresswoman Barbara Lee. I am excited about participating, and plan to bring up-to-date news about what’s going on at the state level. But there will be insights about all the various sources of stimulus dollars, including from the federal government and local agencies. Information about registration and the agenda, along with a map to the college, can be found here. Similar events will be held at regular intervals across the state. There is no cost to the participants, but you must register because space is limited. You can contact the SBDCs and Business Matchmaking for more information. The next event will be on July 9th in Ventura. Also, check out the nifty new projects map on the Governor’s Recovery website. Updates on Economic Stimulus, the Governor’s Conference, and Other Good Things - May 6, 2009 As I reported several weeks ago, Governor Schwarzenegger appointed me to his Economic Stimulus Task Force, which has been meeting twice a week since its inception in February. The Task Force is led by my immediate boss, Cynthia Bryant, who is Director of the Office of Planning and Research (OPR) and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor. Among our responsibilities is to ensure total transparency of the moneys being spent. One of our key tools is the state’s central Economic Stimulus web site at www.recovery.ca.gov. My direct task is to work with all of the state agencies that will be managing programs funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to list and publicize any and all opportunities for small businesses to participate in Stimulus projects. This is quite a daunting challenge. Congress chose, in crafting the ARRA, to use existing federal programs as vehicles for Stimulus spending, rather than to create entirely new programs. At the same time, it added new strings and conditions to many of those existing programs, which has forced the agencies that administer them to modify their rules for states and local agencies to receive and use the federal dollars. These modifications take time, so the state still doesn’t have guidance about how to spend billions of dollars that we ultimately expect to receive. What this means for small businesses is that almost all the opportunities to bid for and win contracts from Stimulus projects lie in the future. I and my team are working as quickly as we can to find and publish information about specific projects and chances for contracting. As soon as we can, we will make this information available both on this site and on www.recovery.ca.gov. We also expect other agencies like the Department of General Services to link to the information as well. I am pleased that OPR has lent us the very capable Brook Taylor to help accomplish this task. Many of you know Brook from the excellent work he did last year on the Governor’s Conference on Small Business & Entrepreneurship. This frees up our wonderful Michael Gonzalez to continue doing all the other things he does to ensure we are serving the state’s small businesses as effectively as possible. So while we are working on identifying the business opportunities created by ARRA, I strongly urge businesses that have not yet done so to get certified in the state’s small business certification program. You can do so on-line, and if you have the required financial documentation you can accomplish it in about twenty minutes. Governor’s Conference Update At our bi-monthly Small Business Advocate’s Advisory Committee meeting on April 21st, I gave an update on the status of the eleven recommendations ratified by the participants in last November’s Governor Conference on Small Business & Entrepreneurship. In the meantime, a number of the caucuses that developed the proposals considered by the general session have continued to meet to move and improve the small business agenda. In addition, two new working groups have been created: Water, which has had several conference calls, and Workers Compensation, which will have its first call next Monday, May 11. We will be posted a complete list of the caucuses, their conveners, and any regular established conference call times soon. We have also convened a new Steering Committee for the Second Annual Conference on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, which is tentatively scheduled for November 19, 2009, somewhere in the San Francisco Bay area. This will be a one-day event, preceded by an optional evening reception. We will be holding another Steering Committee conference call soon; Michael will send the details as soon as we get it scheduled. To get on our email distribution list and receive all of our regular updates, please email your contact information to Michael.Gonzalez@opr.ca.gov. Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy Committee Finally, I had the pleasure of testifying yesterday at an informational hearing on small business held by the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy. The Committee is chaired by V. Manuel Pérez (D-Coachella); its Vice Chair is Dan Logue (R-Yuba City). You can see my testimony here; the hearing begins at 3:00 into the video. After my testimony, the Committee heard from a number of experts on the current and expected financial and economic conditions that small businesses are operating in. I highly recommend spending some time listening to what they have to say, especially about the impact of the second wave of adjustments to Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) that began late last year on the stock of working capital for small businesses. Advisory Council Meeting Agenda - Apr 16, 2009 April 21, 2009 10:00am – 3:00pm California Community Colleges, Office of the Chancellor 1102 Q Street, Sacramento, CA Conference Room 3B/C I. Welcome/Introductions II. Update on the Governor’s Conference on Small Business & Entrepreneurship/ Status of Recommendations III. California Federal Economic Stimulus Task Force – Cynthia Bryant, Task Force Chair, Deputy Chief of Staff, Director of the Office of Planning & Research (OPR) IV. Business, Transportation & Housing (BTH) Agency’s Regional Economies Project – Brian McGowan, Deputy Secretary for Economic Development V. Update on SBA and the ARRA – Mark Quinn, District Director, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) San Francisco District Office VI. Update on Legislative Approach to ARRA (tentative) – Hon V. Manuel Pérez, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economy, and Economic Development (JEDE) VII. Study on the Cost of Regulations VIII. Legislative Update IX. Next Meeting/Adjournment Karen Mills Takes Over SBA - Apr 10, 2009 The Senate unanimously confirmed Karen Mills as Administrator of the Small Business Administration on April 2, and she took the oath of office last Monday. You might find her remarks to the Senate Small Business Committee, which recommended her confirmation, enlightening. We look forward to working with her and her new team to help California small businesses find the capital they need to continue to create wealth, provide jobs, and contribute the innovative, can-do spirit that so characterizes the Golden State. In the meantime, we are happy that SBA San Francisco regional Director Mark Quinn will be joining us at the Small Business Advocate’s advisory committee meeting here in Sacramento on April 21. He will update us on Administrator Mills’ plans and on the SBA’s role in the federal economic stimulus strategy. The meeting is in Conference Room 3B/C of the Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, 1102 Q Street, Sacramento, from 10 am – 3 pm. We will post the complete agenda shortly. KAREN MILLS CONFIRMATION HEARING - Mar 27, 2009 The Senate Committee on Small Business will take up the nomination of Karen Mills to be the Administrator of the Small Business Administration next Wednesday, April 1, at 9:30 am EDT. You can watch the hearing at the Committee’s website. Ms. Mills’ testimony should be quite revealing about her goals and strategy to use the SBA as a vehicle for economic stimulus and recovery. We all look forward to Ms. Mills assuming this very important position; there’s a lot of work to be done. California Prepares to Speed Economic Stimulus Dollars to Small Business - Feb 24, 2009 President Barack Obama signed the new federal economic stimulus bill, titled the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,” on February 17. The bill contains a myriad of provisions on hundreds of pages, so determining exactly what the people and businesses of the state of California can expect will take some time to pinpoint. We have taken a first shot at listing the programs and amounts of money that the bill authorizes and that we expect to impact small businesses. (The rule of thumb about California’s share of any general federal program is roughly 10-12%. That’s just a rough estimate; exact amounts are specified sometimes in the legislation but more usually through formulas that the federal agencies charged with managing the programs and money use). In the meantime, this office has convened a weekly Interagency Working Group for Small Business Success. This brings together all state agencies whose work impacts the state’s small businesses. We are working first to share information about the specifics of the stimulus programs and second to coordinate how the state will work with the federal government to get the appropriate stimulus funds to the street as quickly and efficiently as possible. We have also reached out to the Small Business Administration to support their efforts to meet the goals created for them in the stimulus bill. Information on their role in these efforts can be read here. We will keep you posted about specific programs the state will manage as the information becomes available. Advisory Group Meeting in Los Angeles - Jan 30, 2009 Yesterday the Small Business Advocate’s Advisory Group met in Los Angeles, graciously hosted by Mr. John Arena and the Metropolitan Water District. We had 22 people in attendance, with another dozen joining us by phone. It was our first opportunity to gather together since the Governor’s Conference and Small Business & Entrepreneurship last November. It goes without saying that a lot has changed since then, so it was a good opportunity for all of us to catch up on these things. The meeting had two primary focuses: first, a review of and follow-up to the Governor’s Conference, and second, to reaffirm our mutual agenda for 2009. I reported on several important matters:
We also discussed the impact of the looming water shortage as a small business issue. Several folks present agreed to serve as co-conveners of a new working group on this issue, including John Arena from MWD. We discussed the potential for building a database of all the local, regional, and ethnic chambers of commerce statewide to add them to the network. Some people suggested the possibility of a “chamber summit” to focus on the economy. There is new leadership in both houses of the legislature on the committees that generally oversee small business proposals. The Senate Committee on Business, Professions, and Economic Development is now chaired by Senator Gloria Negrete McCloud; Senator Mark Wyland is the vice chair. The Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy is now chaired by Assemblyman Manuel Perez, with Assemblyman Dan Logue serving as vice chair. Follow-up on the Governor’s Conference: I reported that the administration continues its review of the eleven top recommendations from the Governor’s Conference.
Next Meeting: The Small Business Advocate’s advisory group will next meet on Thursday, March 26, from 11 – 4 in the Executive Dining Room of the Department of General Services in West Sacramento. Mark your calendars; everyone is welcome. Staying Focused in Economically Challenging Times - Jan 13, 2009 We all know the difficulties many of the state’s small businesses are experiencing today. It is nonetheless a truism that challenging times offer significant opportunities for those entrepreneurs with a little vision and moxie. We thought you might find this article in today’s Los Angeles Times about how some businesses are taking the challenge on being inspirational. The Governor's Conference on Small Business & Entrepreneurship Nov. 18-19, 2008 Archived Video - Dec 18, 2008 Day one's proceedings of The Governor's Conference on Small Business & Entrepreneurship have been separated into 6 different videos that can be viewed by clicking here. Note: the Governor's Conference starts with the video entitled, "Welcome Remarks and Conference Overview" and ends with the video entitled, "Young Entrepreneurs." The second day's events are in the process of being edited and will be available for viewing soon! The Governor's Conference on Small Business & Entrepreneurship -- Top Ten Policy Recommendations - Nov 21, 2008 1. Ask the Legislature to restore investment in programs that support small businesses. Action Items:
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*Please note that 2 recommendations tied for the number 10 spot. Announcements & Events |
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