(1) Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to prescribe, by regulation, lighting, insulation climate control system, and other building design and construction standards that increase the efficiency in the use of energy and water for new residential and new nonresidential buildings. Existing law also requires the commission to prescribe, by regulation, energy and water conservation design standards for new residential and new nonresidential buildings. In order to implement these requirements, existing law requires the commission to develop a public domain computer program that enables contractors, builders, architects, engineers, and government officials to estimate energy consumed by residential and nonresidential buildings. This bill would require the commission to approve and make publicly available, not less than 6 months prior to the effective date of adopted or updated efficiency standards, a version of the public domain computer program that will function properly with these adopted or updated standards. The bill would require the commission, before approving the public domain computer program for use with adopted or updated standards, to perform preliminary tests of the public domain computer program using common examples of residential and nonresidential buildings and building systems to ensure the usability of the program. The bill would require the commission to make the results of those preliminary tests publicly available. (2) Existing law requires the commission to establish criteria for adopting a statewide home energy rating program for residential dwellings. For existing single-family residential dwellings and multifamily residential dwellings with up to 4 units, this bill would require the commission, in administering the statewide home energy rating program, to ensure that energy assessment tools approved by the commission are routinely adjusted to improve modeling accuracy and to ensure that consumers receive a notice with the output of the energy assessment tools explaining the assumptions used in the energy assessment tools and how they may differ from actual usage patterns.
Existing law establishes a specialized license plate program under which the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) issues specialized license plates on behalf of a sponsoring state agency that meets certain requirements. Existing law authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to sponsor a Gold Star Family specialized license plate program, which allows specified persons to apply for Gold Star Family license plates. Existing law requires that Gold Star Family license plates be issued in a sequential series. Existing law imposes additional fees for the issuance and renewal of specialized license plates, but exempts Gold Star Family license plates from these fees. Existing law also requires an applicant to pay specified environmental fees when applying for a specialized environmental license plate, and directs the DMV to deposit this revenue in the California Environmental License Plate Fund. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2017, require the DMV to issue Gold Star Family license plates as environmental license plates if the requester pays the above-described environmental license plate fees and specialized license plate fees. The bill would direct the revenue generated from the environmental license plate fees to be deposited into the Motor Vehicle Account within the State Transportation Fund until the DMV's upfront cost of implementing this program is covered. The bill would then direct this revenue to be deposited into the Veterans Service Office Fund.
Existing law prohibits the disclosure of the home addresses of certain public employees and officials, including an employee of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Facilities or the Prison Industry Authority, that appear in records of the Department of Motor Vehicles, except to a court, a law enforcement agency, an attorney in a civil or criminal action under certain circumstances, and certain other official entities. This bill would extend that prohibition, subject to those same exceptions, to the disclosure of the home addresses of an employee of the State Department of State Hospitals, as specified.
The California Constitution requires the reasonable and beneficial use of water. Existing law establishes various state water policies, including the policy that the water resources of the state be put to beneficial use to the fullest extent of which they are capable. Existing law, the Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation Development Act, declares, among other things, that electrical and natural gas utilities should have as a principal goal of their resource planning and investment to minimize the cost to society of reliable energy services, improve the environment, and encourage the diversity of energy sources. The act also declares that those utilities should seek to exploit all practicable and cost-effective conservation and improvements in the efficiency of energy use and distribution that offer equivalent or better system of reliability. This bill would declare the policy of the state that water use and water treatment shall operate in a manner that is as energy efficient as is feasible and energy use and generation shall operate in a manner that is as water efficient as is feasible. This bill would require all relevant state agencies to consider this state policy when revising, adopting, or establishing policies, regulations, and grant criteria when pertinent to these uses of water and energy.
(1) Existing law makes it a felony, punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years to unlawfully possess any amount of a substance containing cocaine base, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, or phencyclidine while armed with a loaded, operable firearm. This bill would instead make that felony punishable in a county jail. By requiring the felony to be served in county jail, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law imposes an enhancement of 3, 4, or 5 years on the sentence of a person who is personally armed with a firearm in the commission of a violation of specified controlled substance offenses. This bill would require the enhancement to be served in state prison. 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.
(1) Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to establish standards of expected pupil achievement at each grade level in each area of study and to evaluate and assess certificated employee performance on a continuing basis as it reasonably relates to the progress of pupils toward the established standards and, if applicable, the state adopted academic content standards as measured by state adopted criterion referenced assessments, the instructional techniques and strategies used by the employee, the employee's adherence to curricular objectives, and the establishment and maintenance of a suitable learning environment, within the scope of the employee's responsibilities. This bill would require the superintendent of a school district and a county superintendent of schools to make available to the public, and post on its Internet Web site, if it has one, specified information relating to the evaluation of teachers and principals. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (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, 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 law requires the State Department of Public Health, in cooperation with the State Department of Education, to establish a Public School Health Center Support Program to perform specified functions relating to the establishment, retention, or expansion of school health centers in California. Existing law, for purposes of those provisions, defines a "school health center" to mean a center or program located at or near a local educational agency that provides age-appropriate health care services at the program site or through referrals, and may conduct routine physical health, mental health, and oral health assessments. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health, to the extent funds are appropriated to the department, to establish a grant program to provide technical assistance, and funding for the expansion, renovation, and retrofitting of existing school health centers, and the development of new school health centers, in accordance with specified procedures. Existing law requires the department to develop a request for proposal (RFP) process for collecting information on applicants, and determining which proposals shall receive grant funding, giving preference for grant funding to schools in areas designated as federally medically underserved areas or in areas with medically underserved populations, or schools with a high percentage of low-income and uninsured children and youth. This bill would require the department to also give preference to schools with a high percentage of children and youth who receive free or low-cost health coverage through Medi-Cal.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Under existing law, certain aged, blind, and disabled Medi-Cal recipients are required to pay a share of cost as a condition of eligibility, with the share of cost determined in accordance with specified requirements. For purposes of determining the share of cost, existing law establishes a formula to calculate the personal and incidental needs deduction for an individual residing in a licensed community care facility. Existing law prohibits that deduction from exceeding the amount by which the Supplemental Security Income recipient retention amount, as defined, exceeds $20. This bill would revise the formula to determine the personal and incidental needs deduction. By increasing the responsibility of the counties in determining Medi-Cal eligibility, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also require that its provisions be implemented only to the extent that federal financial participation is available and that the department receives any necessary federal approvals. 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 law requires specified state agencies to prepare and submit to the Secretary for Environmental Protection specified information relating to the state agency's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including a list of measures adopted and implemented by the agency to meet GHG emission reduction targets, as defined, and a status report on GHG emissions reduced as a result of these measures. Existing law further requires the California Environmental Protection Agency to provide that information on its Internet Web site in the form of a state agency GHG emission reduction report card. This bill would create the Clean Energy and Low-Carbon Economic and Jobs Growth Blue Ribbon Committee in the California Environmental Protection Agency, comprising 7 members appointed by the Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Senate Committee on Rules, as provided. The bill would prescribe the terms and qualifications of committee members and would require the committee to hold its first meeting on or before December 1, 2016. The bill would require that any member who fails to attend 3 committee meetings in one calendar year be deemed removed from the committee, and would require the appointing power for that member to appoint a new member to fill the vacancy. The bill would require the committee to advise state agencies on the most effective ways to expend clean energy and GHG-related funds and implement policies in order to maximize California's economic and employment benefits, and to take specified actions in that regard. This bill would also require the committee to provide an annual update to the Governor and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature on its activities, as provided. The bill would require each state agency that has received advice from the committee to submit an annual progress report to the Governor and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature describing how it implemented or responded to the advice, guidance, and recommendations of the committee.
Existing law authorizes the expenditure of state funds for local assistance grants to cities, counties, and districts for the acquisition and development of various park and recreational areas and facilities. Existing law, the State Urban Parks and Healthy Communities Act, requires the Director of Parks and Recreation, in consultation with the State Department of Education, to develop a competitive grant program to assist state parks, state conservancies in existence as of January 1, 2003, urbanized and heavily urbanized local agencies, and community-based organizations within those jurisdictions, to provide outdoor educational opportunities to children. This bill would require the Department of Parks and Recreation to establish, on or before March 30, 2016, an Outdoor Environmental Education and Recreation Grants Program with the purpose of increasing the ability of underserved and at-risk populations to participate in outdoor recreation and educational experiences by awarding grants to public organizations, nonprofit organizations, or both. The bill would require the director to develop criteria, procedures, and accountability measures as may be necessary to implement the program and to administer the program to ensure that priority is given to underserved populations, as specified. The bill would authorize the director to develop an advisory task force to assist in the development of the program and would require the director to give priority funding to outdoor environmental education and recreation programs that have specified attributes. This bill would authorize the director to accept private donations made for the support of the program and would authorize the director to solicit and accept private funding to help offset the costs of the program. The bill would provide that, to the extent specified bond funds are available for grants under the program, those funds shall be awarded to programs that meet the criteria of the State Urban Parks and Healthy Communities Act. The bill would require that all moneys received for the purposes of the program be deposited into the California Youth Outdoor Education Account, which would be created by the bill and would be continuously appropriated for purposes of the program, thereby making an appropriation. This bill would require the department to gather specified information from applicants each award year and to annually report this information, commencing on or before September 1, 2017, to the appropriate budget and fiscal committees of the Legislature.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing law requires each county to establish a community child health and disability prevention program to include, among other things, health screening and evaluation services for all children that include immunizations and an assessment of immunization status. This bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to establish and administer the California Childhood Immunization Quality Improvement Fund (CCIQIF) program to improve childhood immunization rates, and would require the department to submit an application to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for a waiver to implement a 5-year demonstration project to implement the program. The bill would require the department to develop a plan for the collection and expenditure of CCIQIF moneys according to specified guidelines, including voluntary contributions from Medi-Cal managed care plans to be used for provider support payments and reward payments to Medi-Cal managed care plans, as specified. The bill would require the department to contract with specified researchers to develop and submit to the Legislature an evaluation of the effectiveness of the demonstration project. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on a specified date.
Existing law establishes a specialized license plate program and requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue specialized license plates on behalf of a sponsoring state agency that meets certain requirements. The DMV is required to charge specified fees related to the issuance of those plates and to deposit the fees, less the DMV's costs, in the Specialized License Plate Fund. Existing law requires that moneys in the fund be allocated, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to each sponsoring agency in proportion to the amount that is attributable to the agency's specialized license plate program. Existing law authorizes the sponsoring agency to use these moneys to fund projects and programs that promote the state agency's official policy, mission, or work. This bill would require the Department of Public Health to apply to the DMV to sponsor a license plate that promotes diabetes awareness, education, and research, and that displays the message "Cure Diabetes" under the numerical series. The bill would require the DMV to deposit the fees for the issuance, renewal, or transfer of these license plates, less the DMV's costs, into the Diabetes Awareness Fund, which the bill would establish in the State Treasury for the deposit of the revenue derived from these license plates. The bill would require that these funds be allocated, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Department of Public Health to fund projects and programs related to diabetes awareness and prevention in California.
