Transportation.

(1) Existing law provides for the adoption of the state transportation improvement program by the California Transportation Commission and for the adoption of a congestion management program by specified local agencies. Existing law specifies the duties of the Secretary of Transportation with regard to these programs. This bill would correct obsolete references in these provisions. (2) Existing law establishes contracting procedures for local agencies to follow when engaged in public works projects, with different procedures applicable to contracts depending on the value of the contract. Existing law provides that competitive bidding may be dispensed with on certain types of lower value contracts, where work may be awarded under what are commonly known as force account or day labor provisions. Existing law imposes an annual limit on the amount of contracting for new road construction and reconstruction work that may done by day labor under certain force account provisions. This bill would revise the provisions governing new county road construction and reconstruction work done by day labor under force account provisions to exclude from the annual limit force account work necessary to administer private contracts, while including force account work necessary to administer work performed by county employees. The bill would make other related changes. (3) Existing law establishes the State Highway System and designates state highway routes from Route 1 to Route 980, unless otherwise specified by name, and authorizes the California Transportation Commission to relinquish all or a portion of designated state highway routes to specified local agencies, including the City of Oxnard and City of Newport Beach, if certain conditions are met. Portions of state highways that have been relinquished are not state highways and become ineligible for future adoption as a part of the State Highway System. This bill would acknowledge the relinquishment of specific portions of Routes 1, 34, and 232, to the City of Oxnard and the relinquishment of a specific portion of Route 55 to the City of Newport Beach, and would make other technical changes. (4) Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish the California Legacy License Plate Program, under which license plates are issued that replicate the look of license plates from the state's past. Existing law provides for payment of certain fees by an applicant for various services related to issuance of these plates, in addition to regular vehicle registration fees. This bill would allow an applicant for legacy plates, upon payment of associated fees, to request that the plate contain a particular combination of letters or numbers, or both. The bill would require payment of a fee of $38 when the holder of a legacy plate containing a particular combination retains the plate but does not renew a vehicle's registration. (5) Existing law authorizes a county, upon the adoption of a resolution by its board of supervisors, to impose a fee of $1 on all motor vehicles, except as provided, in addition to other fees imposed for the registration of a vehicle, and an additional service fee of $2 on specified commercial motor vehicles. After specified deductions are made, existing law continuously appropriates money collected from these fees for disbursement by the Controller to each county that has adopted a resolution to fund local programs relating to vehicle theft crimes. Existing law requires the Controller to annually prepare and submit to the Legislature a revenue and expenditure summary for each participating county. This bill would require the Controller to post the annual revenue and expenditure summary on the Controller's Internet Web Site instead of submitting the annual revenue and expenditure summary to the Legislature. (6) Existing law requires the Department of the California Highway Patrol to regulate the safe operation of certain classes of vehicles, including certain trucks and buses. Existing law includes within these responsibilities a truck or a combination of a truck and any other vehicle when transporting hazardous materials. This bill would instead refer to any vehicle or combination of vehicles transporting hazardous materials. (7) Existing law exempts a driver employed by an electrical corporation, a gas corporation, a telephone corporation, a water corporation, or a public water district from hours-of-service regulations while operating a public utility or public water district vehicle. This bill would also exempt a driver employed by a local publicly owned electric utility, as defined, from those hours-of-service regulations. The bill would exempt a driver hired directly as a contractor by one of the above-described exempted entities or by a local publicly owned electric utility, and a driver hired directly as a subcontractor by the original contractor, from hours-of-service regulations while operating a vehicle for the purpose of restoring utility service during an emergency, as defined, on behalf of the exempted entity. (8) Existing law prohibits a person from operating, transporting, or leaving standing certain off-highway motor vehicles if the vehicle is not registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles or identified under certain provisions relating to off-highway vehicles, unless identified, as specified. This bill would delete the transportation of certain off-highway motor vehicles from the prohibition described above. (9) The bill would also correct various other obsolete references and erroneous cross-references and make other related changes. (10) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 34500 of the Vehicle Code made by this bill and SB 611, to take effect if both bills are chaptered and this bill is chaptered last.