Category: Advocacy

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.

IIDA is proud to recognize State Assemblymember Mike Gipson as the 2022 Legislator of the Year recipient. This annual award recognizes an elected official who has put forth extraordinary effort on behalf of causes championed by the commercial interior design community. IIDA leaders presented the award in October at his district office in Gardena, California in Los Angeles County.

Asm. Gipson represents the 64th Assembly District encompassing much of the South Bay region of Los Angeles County. He served for nearly a decade as a councilmember for the city of Carson before his election to the California State Assembly in 2014. Since 2016, he’s held the position of Democratic Caucus Chair, a role responsible for helping drive the legislative priority for members of his caucus.

Asm. Gipson has met with representatives from IIDA’s Northern and Southern California boards multiple times over the years, including this past spring during the 2022 sunset review process for interior design regulation. Asm. Gipson impressively recalled specific details of IIDA’s recommendations for modernization of California’s interior design regulation, recognizing both the negative impacts of current regulation on professionals and the public, and the opportunity for positive change, encouraging IIDA advocates to continue pursuing the elevation of the commercial interior design profession.

Moreover, Gipson’s legislative accomplishments and policy platform achieve progress with a lens of equity and justice. IIDA’s California chapters recognize the imperative responsibility of the commercial interior design profession to pursue justice in our industry and our communities and seek to offer the expertise of its members to lawmakers in their work.

As we turn the corner to the cooler months of the year, the summer heat isn’t the only thing coming to an end. The Legislature has wrapped up its work for the year, and now all members are back in their districts. Now that all bills have either stalled or been sent to the Governor, we wanted to provide a status check of the bills on which IIDA had positions during the 2022 legislative session.  As a quick reminder, both chapters of IIDA supported several bills this year – SB 1297 and AB 1369 which aimed to reduce the construction industry’s impact on global warming, and AB 2164 to improve disability access to commercial buildings.

SB 1297 by Senator Dave Cortese moved through the legislative process with relative ease, getting through committee hearings in a mostly partly-line vote. The bill, like so many others, failed to make it off the Suspense File of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which is a parking lot for bills that are deemed to have extraordinary cost to the state to implement. For a bill to make it off the Suspense File, Committee chairs, leadership, and the author’s office must agree to that move. The second house appropriations committee is the place where most bills have their final resting spot, and unfortunately SB 1297 was unable to escape that fate. 

Meanwhile, AB 1369 by Assemblymember Steve Bennett was able to clear the Suspense File, the author moved it to the inactive file on the Senate Floor, meaning he did not want to pursue the bill, or did not think he had the votes to pass the bill from the floor to the Governor. Whatever the rationale, this bill is also dead for the year. 

Our bright spot is AB 2164, which was passed from the Senate Floor to the Governor at the end of August. The bill will make permanent a source of funding that was set to expire on January 1, 2024, that local governments leverage to provide financial assistance to small businesses to improve disability access. Given the central role universal design plays in the practice of every commercial interior designer, this bill was an easy one to support. Governor Newsom has until the end of September to sign the bill, veto it, or do nothing (in which case the bill becomes law).

IIDA has alerted the Governor’s Office to our position on the bill, and now, we wait. Check back to learn what comes of AB 2164! Though this bill was not among those he took action on, the Governor recently signed several bills into law to combat climate change which you can learn more about that bill package here.

Last year, IIDA’s legislative relations hit a major and meaningful milestone, with both California chapters taking support positions on bills aimed at limiting construction’s carbon footprint. This year, IIDA’s legislative wingspan continues to broaden. The Northern and Southern California chapters again adopted support positions on two climate-related bills, and also voted to support a measure that would improve disability access to commercial buildings and provide funding for that work. 

SB 1297, authored by Bay Area Senator Dave Cortese, promotes use of low-carbon building and construction materials. Senator Cortese authored the suite of bills that garnered IIDA’s support last year, and also earned the California chapters’ first-ever Legislator of the Year Award. SB 1297 is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on August 3.

Sharing SB 1297’s climate-conscious building objectives, AB 1369 (Bennett, D – Ventura) would make important changes to the Buy Clean California Act (BCCA) of 2017 to provide updated and thorough information on the global warming impact of building and construction projects. AB 1369 is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee on August 1. 

SB 1297 and AB 1369 are closely aligned to the objectives of the IIDA Climate Action Committee, which you can learn more about here.

Finally, AB 2164 by San Jose member Alex Lee, would allow small businesses to access funds from business license or permit filings for disability access improvements. Additionally, the bill would make permanent the collection of those fees, which would provide a reliable funding source for the accessibility improvements. Supporting this bill was an easy decision for IIDA leadership to make. Commercial interior designers conceptualize and execute public environments, and we have the responsibility and distinct honor to champion universal design practices. AB 2164 acknowledges the importance of that practice, and would support California’s small businesses in implementing them as well. “Universal design was a matter of practice before it was a matter of law,” says IIDA Executive Vice President and CEO Cheryl Durst, Hon. FIIDA, LEED AP. “IIDA believes that access and equity are inherent in what designers do,  AB 2164 is currently in the Senate Appropriations Committee.