Citing concerns about voting for legislation they haven't yet seen, lawmakers on Tuesday refused to support a bill that would have required building contractors to report lawsuit settlements to the state.
The emergency measure was crafted in the wake of the June 16 collapse of an apartment building balcony in Berkeley that killed six young people and gravely injured seven others. Berkeley city officials say the support beams were rotted, causing the balcony to give way.
While city officials and the Alameda County district attorney have launched their own investigations into the accident, the California Contractors State License Board is also mounting its own inquiry into the general contractor on the apartment complex eight years ago, Segue Construction.