Public Utilities Commission: telecommunications service: natural disasters: reports.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law requires the commission, in consultation with the Office of Emergency Services, to identify the need for telecommunications service systems not on customers' premises to have backup electricity to enable telecommunications networks to function, and to enable customers to contact a public safety answering point operator during an electrical outage, to determine performance criteria for backup systems, and to determine whether specified best practices for backup systems have been implemented by telecommunications service providers operating in California. Existing law requires the commission to report certain information to the Legislature. This bill would, for the duration of a fire- or natural disaster-related state of emergency or a local emergency declared by the Governor, require the commission to collect specified information from telecommunications service providers relating to the provider's efforts and resources used to restore telecommunications service outages caused by, and to repair or replace related network infrastructure or facilities that were damaged as a result of, the emergency or a natural disaster. The bill would require the commission to annually prepare a report that summarizes the information collected and the service providers' plans for restoring telecommunication service outages caused by, or repairing or replacing related network infrastructure or facilities, as necessitated by, the emergency or natural disaster. The bill would require the report to be broken down by each emergency or natural disaster and submitted to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature. The bill would require the commission to post the report in a conspicuous area of its Internet Web site. The bill would also require the President of the commission to annually present a summary of the information collected to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature. The bill would authorize the commission to require telecommunications service providers to collect and forward to the commission any relevant information for these purposes and would authorize the commission to make this information public. The bill would authorize the commission to withhold from the public information it deems would pose a security threat if publicly disclosed. Under existing law, a violation of any provision of the Public Utilities Act or of any of the rules or orders issued under the act is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill are within the act and require action by the commission to implement its requirements, a violation of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.