So… a weekly newsletter was great at first, but things have been busy. I was recently elected to be a member-at-large for the Delaware River Chapter of IAHSS and I’m getting ready to announce some exciting new partnerships and publications!

Anyway, I dont want to overpromise here, so let’s call distribution of this newsletter moving forward as: monthly-ish.

Governor Newsom signed AB 817 and SB 716 on September 27, 2 laws written in response to the June 17 fire at the Lineage cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights. The fire burned for 8 days and the building couldn't reopen, which left 85 million pounds of refrigerated and frozen food to rot next to homes. Both laws take effect January 1, 2027.

AB 817 makes a cold storage facility's building permit depend on money set aside for the surrounding community. SB 716 raises the fines a city or county can charge when a large nonresidential building violates a local ordinance in a way that threatens health and safety.

AB 817 covers a facility of at least 20,000 square feet, with at least 20,000 square feet refrigerated to 45 degrees or below, that's also enrolled in California's Accidental Release Prevention program at any program level. That program covers sites that hold regulated toxic or flammable substances above set quantities, including anhydrous ammonia, a refrigerant used in large cold storage plants.

Until July 1, 2028, only facilities inside the Boyle Heights Community Plan area are covered. After that date the definition applies statewide.

A city or county can't approve a building permit for a covered facility unless the owner sets up and maintains a contingency fund. The owner can require the lessee or operator to carry it instead.

The fund is capped at $20 million and can take 4 forms: an account the city or county manages and funds through a fee on the facility, an account the owner manages, a surety bond, or an insurance policy covering the required uses. The owner has to produce evidence of the fund whenever the local government asks for it.

The fund can only be used after the president, the governor, or a local authority declares an emergency. On top of the declaration, either a health advisory has to name the facility or tie it to the conditions, or an inspection report has to show an unresolved violation at the facility that caused them. Once both are met, the fund pays for food assistance, housing and relocation assistance, air quality monitoring, vector control, and health care for the people affected.

AB 817 also excludes settlement money from the Boyle Heights fire from state income tax for Los Angeles County residents, property owners, and businesses, for tax years 2027 through 2031.

State law caps the fine for a city ordinance infraction at $100 for a first violation, $200 for a second within a year, and $500 after that. Building and safety code infractions top out at $130, $700, and $1,300.

SB 716 sets a separate ceiling for a nonresidential structure of 20,000 square feet or more when the violation threatens health and safety. The fine can reach $1,000 for a first violation, $2,000 for a second within 5 years, and $5,000 for each one after that. If the violation leads to a governor's state of emergency or a federal disaster declaration, those amounts can be multiplied by 10, up to $50,000 per violation.

The 10x increase applies only in Los Angeles County until July 1, 2028. After that it extends to the rest of the state, except in the 30% of communities that CalEnviroScreen, the state's pollution burden ranking, rates as least burdened. It never applies to buildings the state building code classifies as business, educational, institutional, or mercantile, such as offices, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and stores.

When the 10x fine applies and the violating condition is under a tenant's control, the fine goes to the tenant. The owner is still liable for the structure, the shell, the common areas, and its own maintenance of the property.

The Global Cold Chain Alliance, the cold storage industry's trade association, asked the governor to veto both bills. After the signing, CEO Sara Stickler said the legislation "adds real costs to an industry that keeps food and medicine available and safe for millions of Californians."

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When a pipe lets go or an engine company pulls up at 3 in the morning, the first question is where something is. It might be the main water valve, the gas shutoff, the electrical room, the sprinkler riser, or the fire department connection. In a building without a night engineer, the person being asked is whoever is at the security desk.

That information lives with facilities. It's on the as-built drawings and in the chief engineer's head, and it doesn't travel to the post order on its own because nobody ever had a reason to send it there.

Getting it there takes one walk with somebody from maintenance and a label maker. The labels go on the valves and panels. Each one also gets a photo with enough of the room in the frame to find it again, and the photos go in the post order with directions from the desk. The photos matter more than the labels, since a label only helps somebody who has already found the valve.

Every minute spent looking for a valve is more water on the floor, and a fire crew waiting for directions to the riser room is losing time too. Renovations move things, so the walk gets repeated after construction.

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New York's hospital workplace violence law took effect September 18, and four days earlier Cal/OSHA released a draft that would put weapons screening at every unrestricted entrance of a California hospital. Both apply to every hospital that fits the definition. New York has also been giving hospital security officers more authority to deal with violent visitors, but only by passing a separate bill for each hospital.

S5294B gives general hospitals and nursing homes 12 months from September 18 to establish a workplace violence prevention program, and annual safety and security assessments start January 1, 2027. Emergency departments in counties over 1 million people need security present at all times.

The Cal/OSHA discussion draft amends Title 8 Section 3342, the state's healthcare workplace violence standard. AB 2975 already requires screening at 3 doors, the main public entrance, the emergency department, and labor and delivery. The draft reaches every door anybody can walk through without a lock or access control, and the people running the equipment can't be healthcare providers. Comments close October 12.

On July 24 Governor Hochul signed 3 bills giving hospital security officers peace officer status under Criminal Procedure Law Section 2.10. Peace officer is a legal category in New York that carries arrest and ticketing powers private security doesn't have, short of a police officer's full authority. The bills cover Highland Hospital in Rochester, the St. Peter's Health Partners hospitals in Albany and Troy, and St. Joseph's Health in Syracuse. Officers can detain somebody who has committed an offense, issue appearance tickets, and remove trespassers until police arrive, and Highland's officers can transport an arrested person when local police aren't available. None of it includes a firearm. Highland's bill says its officers can't carry one without a separate license under the Penal Law.

Each hospital supported its bill with its own violence data. Highland reported a 100% increase in violent incidents over 2 years and 36 weapons confiscated in 2024. St. Peter's Health Partners reported a 109% increase from 2019 to 2025, with staff being punched, kicked, and bitten. Rochester Regional Health got the same status for Rochester General and Unity in 2024, through a bill of its own.

Issue 14 covered the counter-drone rule that took effect July 1. Detection and mitigation authority went to certified police and correctional agencies, and a facility owner still has none.

These are different kinds of law. The workplace violence laws are employee safety rules enforced by labor regulators, the peace officer bills amend criminal procedure, and the drone rule isn't about workplace violence.

The common thread is how each one reaches a hospital. A duty applies to every facility that meets a definition, whether that's a general hospital in New York or an unrestricted entrance in California. Authority to act on a person comes through a bill with the hospital's name in it, and authority to act on a drone went to the police. A New York hospital in a county over 1 million can be required to keep security in the ED around the clock with officers who hold the same arrest authority as any private person.

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Domestic water is off on the ground floor, the hallway by the dock is mopped, and Dennis has a plumber coming at 7. Pipe let go in the ceiling around 0310.

Back in August Mikey had me spend a whole afternoon in the basement with Dennis and a label maker. Every valve, every panel, a picture of all of it for the post order binder. I did it, but I made sure everybody knew it was Dennis's job, because it is. 11 years and nobody ever asked me where a valve was.

So the cleaning crew calls the desk and I go look and there's water coming out of the ceiling tiles like somebody left a faucet on. And I don't have to think about it at all. I go straight downstairs to the valve with the yellow label that says DOMESTIC WATER MAIN, which I know it says because I'm the one who wrote it.

Had it shut maybe 4 minutes after the call. Dennis says the last time a pipe went in this building, before any of us were here, it ran for 40 minutes while somebody found the key to the mechanical room and then found the valve.

Anyway the valve's labeled. I labeled it. There's a picture of it in the binder too, which I also took. Ticket submitted.

Know where the shutoffs are before the night you need them.

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