Jan. 19, 2017
SB 465: Berkeley collapse leads to law
The bill is the first step to creating more stringent regulations for contractors in order to protect the public from negligent construction work. By Nicole Taubman and Eustace de Saint Phalle
Nicole R. Taubman
Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver PCFax: (925) 609-1690
Email: ntaubman@rlslawyers.com
Western State College of Law
Eustace de Saint Phalle
Rains, Lucia, Stern, St. Phalle & Silver PC
220 Montgomery Street
San Francisco , CA 94104
Phone: (415) 341-9341
Email: edesaintphalle@rlslawyers.com
University San Francisco Law School
In September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 465 into law after the bill received a unanimous 37-0 vote. The bill is the first step to creating more stringent regulations for contractors in order to protect the public from negligent construction work.
The bill was written in response to the collapse of an apartment balcony in Berkeley that killed six college students and injured seven others. After the senseless accident, the parents of the victims were concerned that nothing would be done to prevent similar tragedies from happening.
It was uncovered that that there were problems with the current building codes and that, under California law, the Contractors' Board is not notified about secret settlements when contractors are accused of negligent construction. Attorneys who represented the deceased went to the Berkeley city council and advocated for a change in the building code.
At the same time, California State Sens. Loni Hancock and Jerry Hill drafted a bill to increase oversight for contractors who had a history of secret settlements for construction defects. Despite the hard work of Hancock and Hill, the original draft of their bill was shelved. With the bill stalled, Jackie Donohoe, who lost her 22-year-old daughter, Ashley, and 21-year-old niece, Olivia, in the accident, began to meet with legislators to advocate for tougher building laws. Donohoe, with the assistance of Rains Lucia Stern PC, started an online petition supporting the legislation to prevent balcony collapses. In a short period of time, the petition gained strong support and, to date, the petition has received 12,153 signatures. Through the lobbying of the state senators and the tireless efforts of the families of the victims, the bill was resurrected and it became what is now SB 465.
The passage of SB 465 is just the first step in ensuring greater protections for the public against negligent builders and dangerous construction. The Donohoe family is committed to ensuring that the Legislature performs the proper studies and ultimately passes additional legislation to accomplish three goals: prevent secret settlements for contractors, change the building codes and provide greater access to information by the Contractors' Board so they may properly police contractors and enforce punishments upon those who do poor work and create a danger to the public. In the words of Jackie Donohoe, "we are still not done."
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