(a) The Legislature finds and declares that:

(1) Small businesses serve as economic engines to the California economy by being the most effective net new job generators, supporting California’s access to global markets, serving as a key tool for supporting upward mobility, and helping to distribute economic benefits throughout the state.

(2) It is in the public interest to aid, counsel, assist, and protect, insofar as is possible, the interests of small business concerns in order to preserve free competitive enterprise and maintain a healthy state economy.

(b) In order to advocate the causes of small business and to provide small businesses with the information they need to survive in the marketplace, there is created within the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development the Office of Small Business Advocate, which shall be led by the Small Business Advocate.

(c) The Small Business Advocate shall be considered an advisor on key issues before the state, and the inclusion of the Small Business Advocate in cabinet- and department-level discussions that potentially impact small businesses is encouraged.

(Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 266, Sec. 1. (AB 2687) Effective January 1, 2019.)