Existing law creates the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority with specified powers and duties relative to transportation planning, programming, and operations in the County of Los Angeles. The authority is governed by a 14-member board of directors, including the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, 2 public members and one Los Angeles City Council member appointed by the mayor, 4 members appointed from the other cities in the county, the 5 members of the board of supervisors, and one nonvoting member appointed by the Governor. This bill would expand the board of directors to 24 members by adding 2 members who reside in the County of Los Angeles, one member appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly and one member appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules, selected from a list of candidates submitted by the Los Angeles County City Selection Committee, and would prohibit these members from residing in the same city as another member of the authority, as specified. The bill would instead provide for the appointment of 8 members from the other cities in the county, 2 from each sector, as prescribed. The bill would also add as members of the board of directors the Mayor of the City of Long Beach, one additional public member, and 2 additional City Council Members of the City of Los Angeles appointed by the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles. By requiring the board membership to be expanded, the bill would thereby 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing provisions of the Warren-911-Emergency Assistance Act, establishes the number "911" as the primary emergency telephone number for use in the state and requires the providing of enhanced service capable of selective routing, automatic number identification, or automatic location identification. The act requires a telephone corporation serving rural telephone areas that cannot provide enhanced 911 emergency telephone service capable of selective routing, automatic number identification, or automatic location identification to present to the Office of Emergency Services a comprehensive plan detailing a schedule by which their facilities will be converted to be compatible with the enhanced emergency telephone system. This bill would require a facilities-based provider of telecommunications services that the Federal Communications Commission requires to provide access to 911 service to provide responder outage notification by email to the Office of Emergency Services whenever there is a rural outage, as defined, within 60 minutes of discovering the rural outage. The bill would make the Office of Emergency Services responsible for notifying any applicable county office of emergency services and the sheriff of any county affected by the outage. The bill would require the responder outage notification to the Office of Emergency Services to include the telecommunications provider's contact name and calling number with a description of the estimated area affected by the outage. The bill would require the telecommunications services provider to notify the Office of Emergency Services of the estimated time to repair the outage and when service is restored. The bill would require that the telecommunications service provider ensure that the calling number provided to the Office of Emergency Services with the responder outage notification be staffed by the indicated contact person, or by a person qualified to respond to inquiries about the outage, at all times until the provider notifies the office that service has been restored.
The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities Commission, with jurisdiction over all public utilities. The California Constitution grants the commission certain general powers over all public utilities, subject to control by the Legislature, and, among other things, authorizes the Legislature, unlimited by the other provisions of the Constitution, to confer additional authority and jurisdiction upon the commission that is cognate and germane to the regulation of public utilities, to establish the manner and scope of review of commission action in a court of record, and to enable the commission to fix just compensation for utility property taken by eminent domain. The Public Utilities Act and other provisions of the Public Utilities Code set forth the structure, funding, and responsibilities of the commission. This measure would authorize the Legislature to reallocate or reassign all or a portion of the functions of the commission to other state agencies, departments, boards, or other entities, consistent with specified purposes. The measure would direct the Legislature to adopt appropriate structures to provide greater accountability for the public utilities of the state and provide the necessary guidance to the commission to focus its regulatory efforts on safety, reliability, and ratesetting and to implement statutorily authorized programs for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. This measure would repeal the provisions of the California Constitution pertaining to the commission effective January 1, 2019, while specifying that a statute that was valid at the time the statute was enacted is not invalid by virtue of the repeal of those constitutional provisions.
Read. Amended. Adopted. (Page 5512.).
Existing law authorizes the beneficiaries of an irrevocable trust, upon the consent of all beneficiaries, to compel the modification or termination of the trust upon petition to the court. Existing law prohibits the modification or termination of an irrevocable trust if the continuance of the trust is necessary to carry out a material purpose of the trust, unless the court determines that modification or termination under the circumstances outweighs the interest in accomplishing a material purpose of the trust. Notwithstanding that provision, existing law prohibits the court from terminating a trust that is subject to a valid restraint on the transfer of a beneficiary's interest. This bill would revise and recast these provisions to instead require the court, in making the determination described above with respect to a proposed termination of an irrevocable trust, to consider whether the trust is subject to a valid restraint on the transfer of a beneficiary's interest. The bill would delete the provision that the court is prohibited from terminating an irrevocable trust that is subject to a valid restraint on the transfer of a beneficiary's interest. The bill would also make clarifying changes. Existing law authorizes the settlor and the beneficiaries of a trust, upon the consent of the settlor and all beneficiaries, to compel the modification or termination of the trust. This bill would revise and recast those provisions and instead authorize the trust to be modified or terminated by the written consent of the settlor and all beneficiaries without court approval of the modification or termination.
Read. Adopted. (Ayes 35. Noes 0. Page 4508.)
Existing law authorizes state and local entities to regulate businesses within their jurisdiction. Existing law provides various definitions for various purposes. This bill would define a California family owned business for purposes of any provision of the Government Code that explicitly references this definition. This bill would provide Legislative findings and declarations regarding California family owned businesses.
The Aboveground Petroleum Storage Act generally regulates aboveground storage tanks that contain petroleum and that meet certain requirements. The act requires the owner or operator of an aboveground storage tank that meets certain specifications to prepare a spill prevention control and countermeasure plan and to implement the plan in compliance with specified federal law. The act defines an "aboveground storage tank" as a tank that has the capacity to store 55 gallons or more of petroleum and that is substantially or totally above the surface of the ground or a tank in an underground area, as defined, except for certain types of tanks and vessels. This bill would prohibit a city, county, or city and county from enforcing standards for aboveground storage tanks that are more stringent than state or federal standards for aboveground storage tanks unless the city, county, or city and county first adopts an ordinance establishing those standards.
Existing law establishes the California Land Conservation Act of 1965, otherwise known as the Williamson Act, and authorizes a city or county to enter into 10-year contracts with owners of land devoted to agricultural use, whereby the owners agree to continue using the property for that purpose, and the city or county agrees to value the land accordingly for purposes of property taxation, as specified. Existing law provides a procedure to cancel a contract entered into under these provisions, and provides that the landowner and the Department of Conservation may agree on the cancellation value of the land. Existing law requires cancellation fees, when they are required to be collected, to be transmitted by the county treasurer to the Controller and deposited in the General Fund, except the first $2,536,000 of revenue paid to the Controller in the 2004–05 fiscal year, and any amount approved in the final Budget Act for each fiscal year thereafter, is required to be deposited in the Soil Conservation Fund, and as otherwise specified. Existing law provides that the money in the Soil Conservation Fund is available, when appropriated by the Legislature, for specified programs and administrative costs. This bill would provide that the money in the Soil Conservation Fund is available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, additionally for competitive grants and financial assistance to resource conservation districts to aid in the implementation of state programs or projects that improve soil conservation, carbon sequestration in soil, or moisture retention in soil, or other types of projects that improve the quality of agricultural and related land resources, subject to a specified condition. The bill would require the Department of Conservation to establish this competitive grant program.
Read. Amended. Adopted. (Page 5483.).
Read. Adopted. (Ayes 35. Noes 0. Page 4507.)
The Budget Act of 2016 made appropriations for the support of state government for the 2016–17 fiscal year. This bill would amend the Budget Act of 2016 by revising items of appropriation and making other changes. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a Budget Bill.
