California Bills

Existing law encourages and authorizes all state agencies to cooperate with federally recognized California Indian tribes on matters of economic development and improvement for the Indian tribes. Existing law provides that cooperation by state agencies with federally recognized California Indian tribes on those matters may include certain activities, including, among others, providing information on programs to assist Indian tribes. Existing federal law requires the Secretary of the Interior to publish a list of all federally recognized Indian tribes in the federal register. This bill would add to the nonexclusive list of topics that state agencies may cooperate with federally recognized Indian tribes by consulting on a government-to-government basis, in a respectful and meaningful manner, with respect to a fee-to-trust land acquisition application, as specified. The bill would prohibit a state agency from opposing specified fee-to-trust land acquisition applications. The bill would define a federally recognized Indian tribe as a tribe appearing on the list published by the Secretary of the Interior.

(1) Existing law requires the driver of a schoolbus to activate a flashing amber light warning system on the approach to a schoolbus stop where pupils are loading or unloading from the schoolbus and to operate flashing red signal lights and a stop signal arm at all times when the schoolbus is stopped for the purpose of loading or unloading pupils. Existing law also requires a schoolbus driver to load or unload pupils only at a schoolbus stop designated for pupils by the school district superintendent or authorized by the superintendent for school activity trips. This bill would also authorize the director, head, or principal of a private school to designate schoolbus stops for loading or unloading pupils or for school activity trips. Existing law prohibits a schoolbus driver from activating the amber warning light system or the flashing red signal lights and stop signal arm at a location determined by a school district, with the approval of the Department of the California Highway Patrol, to present a traffic or safety hazard. This bill would also make this prohibition applicable to locations determined by private schools to present a traffic or safety hazard. (2) Existing law prohibits any person from stopping, parking, or leaving a vehicle standing, among other places, on a crosswalk, except for a bus engaged as a common carrier or a taxicab stopped for the purpose of loading or unloading passengers, pursuant to a city ordinance. Existing law authorizes a transit system and a school district to enter into an agreement, by ordinance, for the loading or unloading of passengers alongside curb spaces designated for the loading or unloading of passengers of the transit system buses. This bill would authorize a transit system to enter into an agreement with a private school for the same purposes. The bill would also prohibit a schoolbus stop at a location otherwise prohibited by law, and other specified locations, without the approval of, and authorization by, the Department of the California Highway Patrol. (3) Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to designate a schoolbus stop at a place where there is not a clear view of the stop from a distance of 200 feet in each direction along a highway, if it is necessary for the safety of pupils being transported to and from schools, and the stop is authorized and approved by the Department of the California Highway Patrol. This bill would require, where there is not a clear view of a schoolbus stop from a distance of 200 feet in each direction along a highway, or where there is not a clear view of a schoolbus stop from 500 feet in each direction along the main portion of a highway and the speed limit is more than 25 miles per hour, that the stop may only be authorized annually by the Department of the California Highway Patrol upon the request of a school district superintendent or the director, head, or principal of a private school.

Existing law authorizes a bus operated by a publicly owned transit system on regularly scheduled service to be equipped with illuminated signs that display information directly related to public service and include, among other things, destination signs, route-number signs, run-number signs, public service announcement signs, or a combination of those signs, visible from any direction of the vehicle, that emit any light color, other than the color red emitted from forward-facing signs, pursuant to specified conditions. Existing law authorizes, until January 1, 2017, a pilot program that allows up to 25 buses operated by the City of Santa Monica's publicly owned transit system for the first 2 years of the pilot program, and up to 30 buses thereafter, to be equipped with illuminated signs that display advertising subject to certain conditions, including a display area of not greater than 4,464 square inches. This bill would require the Antelope Valley Transit Authority on or before March 1, 2013, if it elects to implement the pilot program authorized by the bill, to determine whether the City of Santa Monica has at least one transit bus equipped with illuminated signs that is operational pursuant to the pilot program authorized under existing law. If the Antelope Valley Transit Authority determines that the City of Santa Monica does have such a transit bus, the bill would prohibit the Antelope Valley Transit Authority from implementing the bill's pilot program. If the Antelope Valley Transit Authority determines that the City of Santa Monica does not have such a bus, the Antelope Valley Transit Authority would be authorized to implement the bill's pilot program. The bill would authorize, until January 1, 2018, a pilot program that would allow up to 25 buses operated by the Antelope Valley Transit Authority's publicly owned transit system for the first 2 years of the pilot program, and up to 30 buses thereafter, to be equipped with illuminated signs that display advertising subject to certain conditions, including a display area of not greater than 4,464 square inches. The bill would require the authority to submit a specified report to the Legislature and the Department of the California Highway Patrol by July 1, 2017, on the incidence of adverse impacts, if any. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations concerning the need for special legislation.

Existing law requires, if the number of pupils who wish to attend a charter school exceeds its capacity, preference to be extended to pupils currently attending the charter school and pupils who reside in the school district. Existing law also authorizes other preferences to be extended, on an individual school basis, if consistent with the law. This bill would prohibit preferences based on a parent's or guardian's contribution of time to support charter school activities or financial contribution to the charter school.

Existing law authorizes a city, county, or city and county to establish infrastructure financing districts, as defined, for the sole purpose of financing public facilities utilizing incremental property tax revenues, subject to adoption of a resolution by the legislative body and affected taxing entities proposed to be subject to division of taxes and 23 voter approval. Existing law authorizes the legislative body to, by majority vote, initiate proceedings to issue bonds for the financing of district projects by adopting a resolution, subject to specified procedures and 23 voter approval. A district may not include a redevelopment project area and a redevelopment project area may not include any portion of a district. This bill would authorize a military base reuse authority to form an infrastructure financing district for purposes of financing public facilities and issuing bonds. The bill would further authorize infrastructure financing districts to finance homeless accommodations, as specified.

Existing law generally requires a person who reasonably believes that he or she has observed the commission of a lewd or lascivious act on a child who is under 14 years of age by use of force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury to notify a peace officer. A failure to report pursuant to those provisions is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $1,500, by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than six months, or by both that fine and imprisonment. This bill would require a person to notify a peace officer when the person believes that he or she has observed the commission of a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 14 years of age, regardless of whether force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and lawful bodily injury is used. By expanding the scope of a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

The Charter Schools Act of 1992 authorizes any one or more persons to submit a petition to the governing board of a school district to establish a charter school that operates independently from the existing school district structure as a method of accomplishing specified goals. Existing law requires a charter school to comply with its charter and exempts charter schools from the laws governing school districts except those of the Charter Schools Act of 1992, those establishing minimum age for public school attendance, specified building code regulations, and other specified laws. Existing law deems a charter school to be a school district for specified purposes, including for purposes of the state's minimum funding obligation for school districts and community colleges. Existing law governs the tort liability and immunity of, and claims and actions against, public entities and their officers and employees. A public entity, as defined, is not liable for an injury, except as otherwise provided by statute, whether the injury arises out of an act or omission of the public entity or a public employee or any other person. Existing law establishes in the state government the California Law Revision Commission and requires the commission to file a report at each regular session of the Legislature that contains a calendar of topics selected by it for study. Existing law requires the commission also to study any topic that the Legislature, by concurrent resolution or statute, refers to it for study. Existing law requires the commission to submit its reports, and its recommendations as to revision of the laws, to the Governor and the Legislature, and to distribute them to the Governor, the Members of the Legislature, and the heads of all state departments. This bill would require the commission, by January 15, 2013, to submit to the Legislature its analysis of the legal and policy implications of treating a charter school as a public entity for purposes of the law governing the tort liability and immunity of, and claims and actions against, public entities and their officers and employees.

Existing law dissolved redevelopment agencies and community development agencies, as of February 1, 2012, and provides for the designation of successor agencies, as defined. Existing law imposes various requirements on successor agencies and subjects successor agency actions to the review of oversight boards. Existing law requires successor agencies to wind down the affairs of the dissolved redevelopment agencies and to, among other things, dispose of assets and properties of the former redevelopment agencies, as directed by the oversight board. Proceeds from the sale of assets are transferred to the county auditor-controller for distribution as property tax proceeds to taxing entities, as prescribed. This bill would establish a Sustainable Economic Development and Housing Trust Fund, to be administered by a Sustainable Communities Investment Authority (authority) , to serve as a repository of the unencumbered balances and assets of the former redevelopment agency. The bill would authorize moneys from the fund to be expended for specified purposes relating to economic development and affordable housing. The bill would require an authority to prepare a long-range asset management plan that governs the disposition and ongoing use of the fund. The bill would require an authority to submit the plan to the Department of Finance by December 1, 2012, and would require the department to approve or return the plan for revision to the authority prior to final approval by December 31, 2012.

Existing law authorizes counties and cities to issue dog licenses and dog license tags for a fee, as specified. Existing law also prohibits a public animal control agency, animal or humane shelter, or a rescue group, as defined, from selling or giving away to a new owner any dog that has not been spayed or neutered, except as specified. A violation of provisions governing the regulation and licensing of dogs is an infraction or a misdemeanor, except as specified. This bill, until January 1, 2018, and only in the Counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Sacramento, San Diego, and Santa Clara, would additionally require each pet dealer, as defined, humane society, rescue group, society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, or other specified entity to submit once a month, except as specified, a report to the local governmental entity that is responsible for licensing dogs in the city or county in which the pet dealer, humane society, rescue group, society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, or other specified entity is located. The bill would require the report to contain the name, address, and telephone number of the person who receives a dog, and other information regarding the dog that was adopted or sold in the previous month, as specified, by the entity submitting the report. The bill would require the entity that submits the report to retain a copy of the report for 12 months. The bill would prohibit the use, distribution, or release of the information contained in the report for any purpose except to ensure compliance with existing state and local law for the purposes of (1) providing notice to the person adopting or purchasing the dog regarding laws requiring the person to obtain a license for the dog and (2) providing notice to another local governmental entity responsible for licensing dogs in the jurisdiction in which the person resides that the person has adopted or purchased a dog, if the person does not reside in the jurisdiction of the local governmental entity that is providing the notice. The bill would exclude a rescue group that places fewer than 20 dogs in a calendar year from these reporting requirements. A violation of these provisions would be punishable by a civil fine of $50 for the first offense and $100 for each subsequent offense. The bill would exempt an act in violation of the above-described provisions from the provision which makes the violation a crime. The bill would authorize other counties not described above to enact local ordinances implementing a program consistent with these provisions. This bill would authorize a licensing agency to issue a puppy license to the owner of a puppy that is 6 months of age or less, which would expire when the puppy reaches one year of age, except as specified. The bill would require the owner of a puppy to obtain a dog license tag upon the expiration of the puppy license. Because a violation of this provision would be an infraction, the bill would create a new crime, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would also make conforming changes. Existing law authorizes a dog license tag to be issued for 12 or less of the usual fee required for a dog if a certificate indicating that the dog has been spayed or neutered is presented from a licensed veterinarian. This bill would authorize the city, county, or city and county to specify the means by which the dog owner may provide proof that the dog has been spayed or neutered. 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, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975 (Knox-Keene Act) , provides for the regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides that health care service plans shall not be deemed to be engaged in the practice of a profession, and may employ, or contract with, any licensed health care professional to deliver professional services, and may directly own, and may directly operate through its professional employees or contracted licensed professionals, offices and subsidiary corporations. Existing law provides that those professionals may not own or control offices or branch offices unless otherwise expressly authorized. This bill would authorize a registered dispensing optician, an optical company, a manufacturer or distributor of optical goods, or a nonoptometric corporation to own a specialized health care service plan that provides or arranges for the provision of vision care services, share profits with the specialized health care service plan, contract for specified business services with the specialized health care service plan, and jointly advertise vision care services with the specialized health care service plan. The bill would prohibit those persons or entities from engaging in conduct that would influence or interfere with the clinical decisions of an optometrist, as specified, and would set forth provisions that apply to medical records. Because a willful violation of these provisions would be a crime under the Knox-Keene Act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires the Department of Managed Health Care to conduct periodic onsite medical surveys of the health delivery system of each health care service plan. Survey results are publicly reported and subject to public inspection. Existing law requires the Director of the Department of Managed Health Care to notify a health care service plan of any deficiencies found by a survey. This bill would require the director to provide to a health care service plan and to the executive officer of the State Board of Optometry or the Medical Board of California a copy of information relating to the quality of care of any licensed optometrist or optician contained in any survey report that, in the judgment of the director, indicates incompetent or negligent treatment, as specified. 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.