Welcome to the CSLEA Government Affairs webpage!

Welcome to the CSLEA Government Affairs Division

The CSLEA’s Government Affairs Division educates the legislature on who CSLEA members are, their needs, and the vital jobs they perform on a daily basis in order to serve and protect our citizens and communities from the dangers and menaces of society.

STAFF AND CONSULTANTS

The CSLEA governmental affairs staff consists of President Alan Barcelona, Governmental Affairs Assistant Coby Pizzotti, and Executive Assistant Julia Marín. CSLEA also retains a contract lobbyist, Craig Brown, and political consultant, Peter Mitchell, for lobbying and campaign advice.

LEGISLATION

Through aggressive lobbying of legislation to improve salaries, benefits, and working conditions, CSLEA has obtained safety retirement (3% @ 50 for sworn members / 2.5% @ 55 for non-sworn members) for most CSLEA members. Recent lobbying victories include a cancer presumption for its lifeguards and a $250,000 lifeguard study. This page provides CSLEA’s active support/oppose & watch lists, complete with a descriptive summary of the bill (bills that have a direct effect, or could possibly effect CSLEA’s membership) and a direct link to a legislative search engine.

POLITICAL ACTION

CSLEA has highly successful, non-partisan political action committees (CSLEA Political Action Committee, Independent Expenditure Committee, 1 Million Dollar Governor's Fund) there committees are utilized to philosophically support and protect our members' issues and beliefs. The CSLEA political action committee makes contributions and/or independent expenditures for candidates at all levels of government, and the CSLEA PAC committee members are appointed by the CSLEA president.

PAC ENDORSEMENT PROCESS

CSLEA requires a lengthy endorsement process to ensure that the candidates we endorse best represent the interests of CSLEA and its members. Here you will find the description of the process and the downloadable questionnaire to apply for the CSLEA endorsement.

ENDORSEMENTS

Here you will find a list of candidates that have successfully won CSLEA’s endorsement. For a list of endorsed candidates for the June 2006, Primary election, please check the ELECTION RESULTS section of this webpage.

ELECTION RESULTS

This page shows the CSLEA endorsed candidates and the election results from the June 6, 2006 primary election. The CSLEA PAC endorses candidates for the California Constitutional Offices, state Assembly & Senate, and various other city/county elected positions.

LEGISLATIVE CORNER

CSLEA’s Government Affairs Division provides it membership with an ongoing blog spot. Here the Government Affairs staff will post blogs relating to legislative and political issues of interest to CSLEA’s membership.

ARTICLES IN THE NEWS

This page lists articles in the news for the past two weeks that pertain to endorsed candidates, CSLEA members and affiliates or other legislative issue of interest. You will also find a direct link to archived articles that were previously listed on this page.