Existing law creates the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) , governed by a 14-member board, with specified powers and duties relative to transportation planning, programming, and operations in the County of Los Angeles. Existing law prescribes a code of conduct for the board of MTA, which includes, among other things, rules pertaining to gifts and financial conflicts of interest. As part of the provisions establishing this code of conduct, existing law requires the board of MTA to appoint an ethics officer who reports to the board. Existing law also requires MTA to appoint an inspector general and requires the code of conduct to be enforced by the inspector general. This bill would revise and recast the code of conduct by, among other things, specifying that board members are subject to all ethics laws applicable to other public officials and by eliminating specific rules from the code of conduct including, among others, certain rules pertaining to gifts and financial conflicts of interest. The bill would also provide that the code of conduct is in addition to any rules or codes adopted by the board. The bill would require the ethics officer, in addition to reporting to the board, to operate in an independent manner, and would prohibit the ethics officer from being removed from office except under certain circumstances. The bill would require the ethics officer to provide advice to the board and MTA relating to codes of conduct, lobbying, governmental ethics, campaign finance, fair procurement practices, and conflicts of interest. The bill would also authorize the ethics officer to make recommendations regarding a potential violation to the inspector general. By imposing additional duties on the ethics officer, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires MTA to adopt and implement an ordinance for the regulation of lobbying. Existing law requires this ordinance to require lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbyist employers to submit an annual registration statement containing specified information and to submit quarterly reports containing specified information about their lobbying activities. Existing law also requires the ordinance to include specified prohibitions. Under existing law, a violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor and subject to a specified civil penalty, as specified. This bill would revise and recast these provisions by, among other things, authorizing the ethics officer to issue guidance and advice to implement these statutory requirements and by revising the required contents of the annual registration statements and quarterly reports. The bill would authorize the ethics officer to prescribe additional information to be included in the registration statements and quarterly reports, to conduct audits of those statements or reports, and to impose a late fee in a certain amount for a late filing of one of those statements or reports. The bill would subject lobbyist employers to various prohibitions applicable to lobbyists and lobbying firms. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires the authority to adopt an ordinance regulating the making of gifts to board members and employees of MTA. This bill would repeal this provision and would instead require any gifts to board members and employees of MTA to be governed by applicable state law and MTA's administrative code. Existing law prohibits any construction company, engineering firm, consultant, legal firm, or any company, vendor, or business entity seeking a contract with MTA from giving to a board member or employee of MTA, or to any member of their immediate families, a contribution of over $10 in value or amount, and imposes other related prohibitions with regard to contributions involving those entities. This bill would repeal those prohibitions. Existing law prohibits a board member or employee of MTA who has participated as a decisionmaker in the preparation, evaluation, award, or implementation of a contract and who leaves the authority from accepting, within 3 years of leaving the authority, employment with any company, vendor, or business entity that was awarded a contract as a result of their participation, evaluation, award, or implementation of that contract. This bill would repeal that provision and would instead prohibit a former board member or employee of MTA from accepting compensation from an MTA contractor as an employee, officer, director, or consultant of the contractor within 12 months after the former board member or employee served in certain capacities relating to an award of a contract to that contractor, as provided. The bill would authorize the inspector general to enforce this prohibition. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires the legislative body of a city or county to adopt a comprehensive general plan that includes various elements, including land use, housing, and conservation elements, as specified. Existing law requires the conservation element to consider the effect of development within the jurisdiction on natural resources located on public lands. This bill would additionally require the conservation element to consider the effect of development within the jurisdiction on the movement of wildlife and habitat connectivity. The bill would require the conservation element, upon the next update of one or more elements on or after January 1, 2028, to, among other things, identify and analyze connectivity areas, permeability, and natural landscape areas within the jurisdiction, identify and analyze existing or planned wildlife passage features, and consider the impacts of development and the barriers caused by development to wildlife, as defined, and habitat connectivity. The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to incorporate by reference into its general plan an existing plan, including a certified local coastal plan, that meets these requirements. The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county preparing to update its conservation element to consider incorporating appropriate standards, policies, and feasible implementation programs, consult with specified entities, and consider relevant best available science and the most appropriately scaled scientific information on linkages, corridors, and other locations that are essential to maintain landscape connectivity. The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to consult with other appropriate entities and meet the above-described requirements in a separate component or section of the general plan entitled a wildlife connectivity element. The bill would include related legislative findings and declarations. By adding to the duties of county and city officials in the administration of their land use planning duties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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.
Existing law establishes the California Racial Mascots Act, which prohibits public schools from using the term Redskins as a school or athletic team name, mascot, or nickname. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish and implement a system of complaint processing, known as the Uniform Complaint Procedures, for specified educational programs. This bill would exempt public schools operated by an Indian tribe or a tribal organization from this prohibition. The bill would prohibit, beginning July 1, 2026, public schools, except for public schools operated by an Indian tribe or tribal organization, from using any derogatory Native American term, as defined, as a school or athletic team name, mascot, or nickname, except as provided. The bill would require the Uniform Complaint Procedures to apply to school or athletic team names, mascots, or nicknames pursuant to the bill. To the extent that the bill would impose new duties on public schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law prohibits persons desiring to use an electric vehicle charging station that requires payment of a fee from being required to pay a subscription fee to use the station and from being required to obtain membership in any club, association, or organization as a condition of using the station. Existing law requires the total actual charges for the use of an electric vehicle charging station, including any additional network roaming charges for nonmembers, to be disclosed to the public at the point of sale. Existing law authorizes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to adopt interoperability billing standards for network roaming payment methods for electric vehicle charging stations if no interoperability billing standards have been adopted by a national standards organization by January 1, 2015. This bill would require the commission to apply any network roaming standards it adopts only to major electric vehicle charging network providers, as defined. The bill would require that those network roaming standards require major electric vehicle charging network providers to accept payment for charging made by users from multiple other major electric vehicle charging network providers and automakers.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. The Public Utilities Act prohibits any electrical corporation from beginning the construction of a line, plant, or system, or of any extension thereof, without having first obtained from the commission a certificate that the present or future public convenience and necessity require or will require its construction, except that the extension, expansion, upgrade, or other modification of an existing electrical transmission facility, including transmission lines and substations, does not require a certificate of public convenience and necessity. Existing law requires the commission, in considering an application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for an electric transmission facility, to consider cost‑effective alternatives to transmission facilities that meet the need for an efficient, reliable, and affordable supply of electricity, including demand-side alternatives such as targeted energy efficiency, ultraclean distributed generation, as defined, and other demand reduction resources. This bill would repeal the latter provision requiring the commission to consider cost-effective alternatives to transmission facilities, as specified.
Existing law regulates the use of pesticides and authorizes the Director of Pesticide Regulation to adopt regulations to govern the possession, sale, or use of specified pesticides, as prescribed. Existing law requires the director to endeavor to eliminate from use in the state any pesticide that, among other things, endangers the agricultural or nonagriculutral environment. Existing law requires the director to develop an orderly program for the continuous evaluation of all pesticides actually registered. Existing law authorizes the director, after a hearing, to cancel the registration of any pesticide that, among other things, is detrimental to vegetation, except weeds, to domestic animals, or to the public health and safety when properly used. This bill would require the Department of Pesticide Regulation, on or before January 1, 2029, to complete a reevaluation of paraquat dichloride, as provided, and make the determination to retain, cancel, or suspend its registration or to place new appropriate restrictions on the use of pesticide products containing the active ingredient paraquat dichloride.
(1) Existing law requires that, except as specified, not less than the general prevailing rate of per diem wages, determined by the Director of Industrial Relations, be paid to workers employed on public works projects. Existing law defines the term "public works" for purposes of requirements regarding the payment of prevailing wages to include construction, alteration, demolition, installation, or repair work done under contract and paid for using public funds, except as specified. Existing law defines "paid for in whole or in part out of public funds" to include, among others, projects that involved transfer by the state or political subdivision of an asset of value for less than fair market price or projects where the money loaned by the state or political subdivision will be repaid on a contingent basis. Existing law makes a willful violation of laws relating to the payment of prevailing wages in public works a misdemeanor. Commencing January 1, 2026, this bill would expand the definition of paid for in whole or in part out of public funds to include projects paid using credits against a tax, including certain low-income housing tax credits. The bill would also exempt from public works provisions, private residential projects built on private property when the public funds are less than $3,000,000 for a project that is the acquisition or rehabilitation of a specified residential project. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would make the bill's provisions operative only if AB 3160 of the 2023–24 Regular Session is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2025, and would repeal those provisions on January 1, 2031. (2) 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.
Existing law requires a court to consider issuing a protective order restraining the defendant from contact with the victim for up to 10 years in all cases in which a criminal defendant has been convicted of certain acts of domestic violence. A violation of a protective order is punishable as contempt, a misdemeanor. This bill would authorize a court to issue a protective order for up to 15 years. The bill would authorize the issuing court, upon a written petition by the prosecuting attorney, defendant, or victim, to modify or terminate the protective order for good cause if the parties receive notice at least 15 days before the hearing on the petition. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. 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. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 273.5 of the Penal Code proposed by AB 2907 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2907 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
Existing law defines a "fence-line monitoring system," for purposes of specified laws requiring the monitoring of toxic air contaminants from nonvehicular sources, to mean monitoring equipment that measures and records air pollutant concentrations at or adjacent to a stationary source that may be useful for detecting or estimating emissions of pollutants from the source, including the quantity of fugitive emissions, and in supporting enforcement efforts. Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to adopt, and revise when appropriate, standards and regulations for the management of hazardous wastes to protect against hazards to the public health, to domestic livestock, to wildlife, or to the environment, including the operation of metal shredding facilities for appliance recycling. Existing law authorizes the department to collect an annual fee from all metal shredding facilities that are subject to the requirements of the hazardous waste control laws, and to deposit those fees into a subaccount in the Hazardous Waste Control Account. Existing law makes those moneys available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to reimburse the department's costs to implement the hazardous waste control laws applicable to metal shredding facilities. Existing law establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency with primary jurisdiction over the regulation of air pollution. Existing law generally designates air pollution control districts and air quality management districts with the primary responsibility for the control of air pollution from all sources other than vehicular sources. This bill would require, instead of authorize, the department to collect the above-described annual fee from all metal shredding facilities that are subject to the requirements of the hazardous waste control laws, and would require the department to set the fee schedule at a rate sufficient to also reimburse the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment for its costs to implement these provisions, as provided. The bill would make the moneys in the subaccount additionally available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the office for its costs to implement these provisions, as provided. The bill would require an air district the jurisdiction of which includes metal shredding facilities, in consultation with the department and the office, on or before January 1, 2027, to develop requirements for facilitywide fence-line air quality monitoring at metal shredding facilities, as provided. The bill would require the air district to, among other things, develop threshold levels, in consultation with the office, for airborne contaminants, as specified, and, on or before July 1, 2027, to adopt regulations to implement, interpret, or make specific the requirements of the bill. The bill would authorize the air district to be reimbursed for these costs pursuant to its fee authority. The bill would require the department to require metal shredding facilities to monitor and report to the department hazardous waste constituents requested by the department and would authorize metal shredding facilities to report the results of that monitoring to local public health departments, as provided. The bill would also require the department to collect and analyze light fibrous material at the fence lines to determine the potential for release of hazardous waste. The bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2027, to develop a community notification procedure, as provided. By imposing new duties on air districts and local public health departments, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law requires the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to a person, other than that driver, or in the death of a person to immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of the accident and provide specified personal information to the injured person or the occupants of the other vehicle and to any traffic or police officer at the scene of the accident. Under existing law, if a vehicle accident results in permanent, serious injury or death, a person who violates the requirement to stop is subject to punishment by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days nor more than one year, or by a specified fine, or both the imprisonment and fine. Existing law prescribes the time after the commission of a crime in which a criminal action is required to be commenced, referred to as a statute of limitation. If a person flees the scene of an accident that caused death or permanent, serious injury, existing law prohibits a criminal complaint from being filed after 6 years after the commission of the offense, as specified. If a person is out of the state for the purpose of evading prosecution after committing this crime, this bill would allow the statute of limitations to be tolled for up to 3 years during any time the person is out of the state.
Under existing law, if a pupil completes the statewide coursework requirements for graduation while attending a juvenile court school, a county office of education is required to issue to the pupil a diploma of graduation and is prohibited from requiring the pupil to complete coursework or other requirements that are in addition to the statewide coursework requirements. Existing law, notwithstanding that requirement that the county office of education issue a diploma of graduation, permits the pupil to take coursework or other requirements adopted by the county board of education, and to defer the granting of the diploma until the pupil is released from the juvenile detention facility, as provided. Upon the release from a juvenile detention facility of a pupil who is entitled to a diploma, existing law authorizes that pupil to elect to decline the issuance of the diploma for the purpose of enrolling the pupil in a school operated by a local educational agency to take additional coursework, as specified. Existing law requires county offices of education to comply with specified notice and consultation procedures for these pupils, and to grant a diploma under specified circumstances, as provided. This bill would revise and recast these provisions by, among other things, requiring a county office of education to exempt from all coursework or other requirements of the county office of education that are in addition to the statewide coursework requirements a pupil who (1) transfers into a juvenile court school any time after the completion of the pupil's 2nd year of high school, (2) completes the statewide coursework requirements for graduation while attending a juvenile court school, and (3) is in their 3rd or 4th year of high school, unless the county office of education makes a finding that the pupil is reasonably able to complete these local graduation requirements in time to graduate from high school by the end of the pupil's 4th year of high school. The bill would require the county office of education to notify a pupil who may qualify for the exemption from local graduation requirements, the person holding the right to make educational decisions for the pupil, and the pupil's social worker and probation officer of the availability of the exemption and whether the pupil qualifies for the exemption, within 30 calendar days of the date that the pupil transfers into a juvenile court school for an enrollment period in the juvenile court school of at least 30 days, as provided. The bill would prohibit a county office of education from requiring or requesting that a pupil who is exempted from the local graduation requirements and completes the statewide coursework requirements graduate before the end of the pupil's 4th year of high school, as provided. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would also revise and recast the notice and consultation procedures for the above-described pupils by, among other things, requiring the county office of education to notify the pupil, the person holding the right to make educational decisions for the pupil, and the pupil's social worker and probation officer about how waiving the local coursework requirements that are in addition to statewide requirements may affect the pupil's postsecondary education or vocation plans, other options available to the pupil, including, but not limited to, staying enrolled in high school, possible credit recovery, and any transfer opportunities available through the California Community Colleges, and the option to defer or decline the exemption and take additional coursework, as provided. The bill would impose similar notice and consultation requirements on county offices of education, as applied to (1) a juvenile court school pupil who a county office of education determines is reasonably able to complete the local graduation requirements after the pupil's 4th year of high school, and (2) a juvenile court school pupil who a county office of education determines is not reasonably able to complete the local graduation requirements after the pupil's 4th year of high school, but is reasonably able to complete the statewide coursework requirements after the pupil's 4th year of high school, as provided. The bill would require specified exemptions from local graduation requirements be granted within 30 days, as provided. If a pupil is not eligible for the exemption from local graduation requirements, the bill would require a county office of education to reevaluate that pupil's eligibility, according to specified procedures. The bill would prohibit a county office of education from requiring or requesting a juvenile court school pupil to transfer schools in order to qualify for an exemption from local graduation requirements, and would also prohibit a juvenile court school pupil, the person holding the right to make educational decisions for the pupil, the pupil's social worker, and the pupil's probation officer from requesting a transfer solely to qualify for this exemption. The bill would require each county office of education to report annually to the State Department of Education the number of court school pupils who, for the prior school year, graduated with an exemption from the local graduation requirements, as provided, and would require the department to make this data publicly available on an annual basis aligned with other reporting timelines for the California School Dashboard graduation data. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law requires specified entities and individuals to maintain records required for the correct reporting of statistical data and to report that data to the Department of Justice at the time and in the manner prescribed by the Attorney General. This bill would require the above-described entities and individuals to disaggregate that data based on whether the incidents took place in Indian country, as defined. By expanding the duties of local law enforcement, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
