Category: Advocacy

This year, over 2,630 bills were introduced across the Senate and Assembly houses–a higher number of bill introductions than is typical and the highest number in over a decade. This crush of bills paired with the State’s projected $31.5 billion budget deficit, foreshadows an unlikely future for some initiatives with big price tags. With the 2023 Legislative session nearly halfway complete, we wanted to provide an update of IIDA’s California chapters’ actions on a few pieces of key legislation.

The Northern and Southern California chapters of IIDA have joined together to adopt positions on seven bills which align with our chapters’ missions and core values. These bills include equity, climate and sustainability-focused initiatives, as well as two bond proposals that would, if passed by voters, provide funding for new construction to repair and modernize school facilities for California’s students.

This Spring, IIDA’s California Chapters joined together to evaluate and provide amendments to SB 816 which was heard and advanced by the Senate Business and Professions Committee this week. 

Committee Chair, Senator Roth, presented the bill to his colleagues on the committee and concluded his remarks with a pledge to continue advancement in this area, noting “I look forward to continuing to work with commercial designers and others in this space to determine what additional changes may be necessary to ensure efficiency and the appropriateness of the Council’s [California Council for Interior Design Certification] work.”

In prior conversations with the B+P Committee’s consultants – staff who work year-round on regulation of professions and vocations – IIDA representatives learned the primary purpose of this bill is to align statute to current practice. This alignment includes the codification of the Commercial Designation for Certified Interior Designers which has been issued by the Council since 2017 but was not previously recognized in statute which contributed to confusion among design professionals and issues of stamp acceptance at local building departments.

As the preeminent professional association for commercial interior designers, IIDA supports the bill’s recognition of the commercial interior design specialty. Several other states also differentiate the work of interior designers this way including Utah which passed the State Certification of Commercial Interior Designers Act in 2016.

IIDA also recommended minor clarifying language to committee consultants to ensure SB 816’s statutory updates do not contribute to confusion in the already-complex landscape of design professions in California. The clarifications included recommending that any further changes to the regulation of commercial interior designers should be brought to the Legislature for review, as is typical practice for regulating bodies of other professional boards who wish to make changes to requirements for education, testing, continuing education, etc.

Advocate designers as well as IIDA’s lobbyist team will continue to engage in the progress of SB 816 as it advances to the next phase of legislative review by the Senate Appropriations Committee for fiscal analysis. All legislative engagement by IIDA is rooted in the belief that regulated interior design is crucial for the public health, safety and welfare of all Californians and IIDA’s commitment to the ability of commercial interior designers to practice to the fullest extent possible.

For more information regarding IIDA’s EDI efforts, visit each chapter’s EDI resources:
Northern California EDI 
Southern California EDI

This spring, IIDA’s California Chapters joined together in support of Assembly Bill 342 which was heard and advanced by the Assembly Business and Professions Committee at the end of March. 

Introduced by Assemblymember Avelino Valencia of District 68 in Southern California, AB 342 allows the California Architect Board to ask licensees to provide demographic information including race, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity at the time of initial license and at the time of renewal. The American Institute of Architects state component in California sponsored the legislation stating that, “the collection of this demographic information is essential to [our] EDI efforts, as it allows for research to be done to understand attrition and recruitment patterns impacting the profession. From there, we can better develop strategies to address any patterns that create barriers to entry within the profession.”

As participants in the same broader commercial building design industry and passionate believers in an equitable, diverse, and inclusive professions, IIDA extended strong support for AB 342. We believe the collection of this demographic information will bring value to the industry at large, advancing us toward our shared Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion goals. More importantly this data aids in our effort to ensure the spaces designed by architectural professionals are created by a community that reflects the diversity of  residents of California. This data can also help inform future policies to address any professional equity gaps. 

For more information regarding IIDA’s EDI efforts, visit each chapter’s EDI resources:
Northern California EDI 
Southern California EDI

As the voice of the commercial interior design profession in California, IIDA’s Northern and Southern California chapters join together in efforts of interior design advocacy every day by working to raise the visibility of our members, educating public officials about the value of what we do, and generally increasing awareness and understanding of our work and the impact we make in our communities. 

Our advocacy efforts in 2022 were focused on the CCIDC Sunset Review. This process of legislative oversight is designed to ensure that boards and councils authorized by the state are acting in compliance with their laws and regulations, and are upholding their obligations to maintain license and certification standards, and preserve the safety of members of the public for whom the license or certificate holders provide services.

IIDA’s outreach with thought leaders and policy makers has arguably never been stronger than it was this year. Throughout the course of the Sunset Review, members of the IIDA Northern and Southern California advocacy teams met with both the chairs and several members of the Senate and Assembly of the Business and Professions Committees. Those Committees have jurisdiction over Sunset Review hearings, and are critical in shaping the outcome of the reauthorization conditions of the boards, bureaus and councils that come before it. In addition, countless meetings were held with committee staff, CCIDC leadership, and industry partners. 

The goal of our meetings was to convey IIDA’s position heading into and throughout the Sunset Review, and to make our case for thoughtful, collaborative changes to the current certification structure for commercial interior designers practicing in California, including the requirement of a national exam and the definition of  commercial interior designers’ scope, among other recommendations. Designers also communicate the caliber, technicality, and impactfulness of the work commercial interiors do, dispelling myths and correcting misperceptions that lawmakers, like all members of the public, have about our profession. 

Despite our efforts, the changes we were seeking did not make it into the final version of the Sunset Review legislation.

In early-August, staff from the Business and Professions Committee shared with stakeholders draft amendments that they were comfortable making to the Sunset Review bill. These amendments were minor, and essentially conformed statute to the current practices of CCIDC. While these amendments were a far cry from what IIDA was hoping to see, staff made it clear that anything more substantive would not be included in the bill. 

However, due to “procedural issues” late into the legislative session, even these minor amendments were not included in the bill. Instead, the amendments will be run again next year with other amendments that didn’t make it into their respective sunset review bills in 2022. The next sunset review for the CCIDC is slated for January 2026.

While the results weren’t what IIDA had hoped for going into the year, several developments unrelated to the sunset review indicate the status quo for interior design legislation is changing. For example, in July AIA California voted to change its decades-long policy of categorical opposition to the creation of an interior design practice act in a move that aligns with the same position reversal of AIA National and NCARB in 2021. Also in 2022, the expansion of commercial interior designers’ practice rights was passed and signed into law in Wisconsin and Illinois.

This year was undoubtedly a lesson in the minutiae of legislative procedures in a year when the statehouse is still clearing the backlog of work that was put on hold during the pandemic. However, there is strong momentum to continue our work with stakeholders and a new legislature in 2023 and beyond.