The Public Utilities Act prohibits, with certain exemptions, any public utility from selling, leasing, assigning, mortgaging, or otherwise disposing of or encumbering specified property necessary or useful in the performance of the public utility's duties to the public without first, for qualified transactions valued above $5,000,000, securing an order from the Public Utilities Commission authorizing it to do so or, for qualified transactions valued at $5,000,000 or less, filing an advice letter and obtaining approval from the commission. Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, provides for the operation of public water systems and imposes on the State Water Resources Control Board related responsibilities and duties. Existing law authorizes the state board to order consolidation of public water systems where a public water system or state small water system serving a disadvantaged community consistently fails to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water, as provided. This bill, the Consolidation for Safe Drinking Water Act of 2019, would authorize a water or sewer system corporation to file an application and obtain approval from the commission through an order authorizing the water or sewer system corporation to consolidate with a public water system or state small water system that has fewer than 3,300 service connections and serves a disadvantaged community, or to implement rates for the subsumed water system. The bill would require the commission to approve or deny the application within 8 months, except as provided. Unless the commission designates a different procedure because it determines a consolidation warrants a more comprehensive review, the bill would authorize a water or sewer system corporation to instead file an advice letter and obtain approval from the commission through a resolution authorizing the water or sewer system corporation to consolidate with a public water system or state small water system that has fewer than 3,300 service connections and serves a disadvantaged community, or to implement rates for the subsumed water system. The bill would authorize the executive director of the commission or the director of the division of the commission having regulatory jurisdiction over the water or sewer system corporation to approve an uncontested advice letter and would require the commission to approve or deny the advice letter within 120 days, except as provided.
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Existing law, the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law, establishes the requirements for the formation and operation of a nonprofit public benefit corporation and provides that a corporation is subject at all times to examination by the Attorney General. Existing law generally requires a corporation to give written notice to the Attorney General before it sells, leases, conveys, exchanges, transfers, or disposes of its assets, except as specified. Existing law provides specific procedures for health facilities and additionally requires these facilities to obtain the consent of the Attorney General prior to entering into a specified agreement or transaction. This bill would require a nonprofit corporation that operates or controls a private postsecondary educational institution to obtain the Attorney General's consent before entering into certain agreements or transactions, including an agreement or transaction to sell or convey its assets to, or to transfer control, responsibility, or governance of a material amount of its assets to, a for-profit corporation or mutual benefit corporation. The bill would require the Attorney General to consider specified factors in consenting to, giving conditional consent to, or not consenting to, the agreement or transaction, and would authorize the Attorney General to contract with experts, consultants, and state agencies, including the Bureau for Postsecondary Education, to receive advice in reviewing the agreement or transactions that are subject to the above-specified provisions. The bill would authorize the Attorney General, as a condition of approving the agreement or transaction, to transfer assets from the proceeds of the sale or transaction to the Student Tuition Recovery Fund, a continuously appropriated fund. By authorizing the deposit of additional moneys into a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law prohibits certain stores from providing a single-use carryout bag to a customer at the point of sale and prohibits full-service restaurants from providing single-use plastic straws to consumers unless requested by the consumer. This bill would require a business, as defined, that accepts payment through cash, credit, or debit transactions, subject to certain exceptions, to provide a proof of purchase to a consumer only at the consumer's option and would prohibit a business from printing a paper proof of purchase if the consumer opts to not receive a proof of purchase, unless otherwise required by state or federal law. The bill would prohibit a paper proof of purchase provided to a consumer by a business from containing bisphenol A or bisphenol S, and from including items not essential to the transaction, including, but not limited to, coupons or advertisements. The bill would specify that the first and 2nd violations of any of those provisions would result in a notice of violation and any subsequent violation would be punishable by a civil penalty of $25 for each day the business is in violation, but not to exceed an annual total of $300. The bill would authorize the Attorney General, a district attorney, or a city attorney to enforce those provisions. The bill would make these provisions operative on January 1, 2022.
Existing law defines the crime of burglary to include entering a vehicle when the doors are locked with the intent to commit grand or petit larceny or a felony. Existing law makes the burglary of a vehicle punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony. This bill would make forcibly entering a vehicle, as defined, with the intent to commit a theft therein a crime punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a period not to exceed one year or imprisonment in a county jail for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years. By creating a new crime, 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 requires specified categories of law enforcement officers to meet training standards pursuant to courses of training certified by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. Existing law requires the commission to implement a course or courses of instruction for the training of law enforcement officers in California in the handling of domestic violence complaints and also to develop guidelines for law enforcement response to domestic violence. Existing law also requires the commission to adopt rules establishing minimum standards relating to the recruitment and training of local public safety dispatchers having a primary responsibility for providing dispatching services for local law enforcement agencies. This bill would require the commission to develop and implement, on or before January 1, 2021, a course of training regarding gun violence restraining orders. The bill would require the course to be incorporated into the course or courses of basic training for law enforcement officers on or before January 1, 2021, and would require the course or courses to include specified topics, including the process of filing a petition for gun violence restraining orders and situational training to assist officers in identifying when a gun violence restraining order is appropriate. The bill would authorize law enforcement officers, administrators, and executives to participate in supplementary training that includes these topics.
The California Clean Energy Jobs Act, an initiative approved by the voters as Proposition 39 at the November 6, 2012, statewide general election, made changes to corporate income taxes and, except as specified, provided for the transfer of $550,000,000 annually from the General Fund to the Clean Energy Job Creation Fund for 5 fiscal years beginning with the 2013–14 fiscal year. Moneys in the fund are available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes of funding eligible projects that create jobs in California improving energy efficiency and expanding clean energy generation. Existing law provides for the allocation of moneys remaining in the fund after the 2017–18 fiscal year and, commencing with the 2018–19 fiscal year, establishes the Clean Energy Job Creation Program to fund projects that create jobs in California improving energy efficiency and expanding clean energy generation, and provides for the allocation of moneys appropriated by the Legislature to community college districts and local educational agencies for purposes of the program. Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, in allocating grants to local educational agencies as part of the program, to give priority based on specified criteria. This bill would require the commission, in allocating grants to local educational agencies as part of the program, to also give priority based on a local educational agency's utilization of apprentices from state-approved apprenticeship and preapprenticeship programs, as specified. The bill would explicitly authorize program expenditures associated with employee training and energy managers.
Existing law requires school districts to establish, maintain, and destroy pupil records according to regulations adopted by the State Board of Education, and requires those regulations to establish state policy concerning pupil records. Existing law authorizes the parent or guardian of a pupil or former pupil to challenge the content of a pupil record by filing a written request with the superintendent of the school district to correct or remove any information the parent or guardian alleges to be, among other things, inaccurate or misleading. If the superintendent refuses to correct or remove the information, existing law authorizes the parent or guardian to appeal that decision to the governing board of the school district. Existing law requires the governing board to hold, within 30 days of the appeal, a closed session with the parent or guardian and the employee who recorded the information in question, and sustain or deny the appeal. If the governing board sustains a parent's or guardian's request, existing law requires the governing board to order the superintendent to correct, remove, or destroy the information at issue, as provided. Existing law requires records of the administrative appeal proceedings to be maintained in a confidential manner and destroyed one year following the final decision of the governing board of the school district, unless the parent or guardian initiates legal proceedings relative to the disputed information within the prescribed period. This bill would require a school district, charter school, or county office of education to update a former pupil's records to include the pupil's updated legal name or gender if the school district, charter school, or county office of education receives government-issued documentation, as described, demonstrating that the former pupil's legal name or gender has been changed. This bill would require the school district, charter school, or county office of education to reissue specified documents conferred upon, or issued to, the former pupil with the former pupil's updated legal name or gender, if requested by the former pupil. The bill would also require the school district, charter school, or county office of education to add a new document to the former pupil's file documenting specified details of the request and reissuance, as provided. This bill would specify that a former pupil without government-issued documentation demonstrating the former pupil's legal name or gender change may use the process to correct or remove any information recorded in a pupil's record, as described above, to correct records in the former pupil's record with the former pupil's updated name or gender. The bill would require the school district to add a new document to the pupil's or former pupil's record documenting specified details of a sustained name or gender request, as provided. The bill would also require the school district to indefinitely maintain the new document in a confidential manner. By imposing a new duty on school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education, 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, 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 authorizes a peace officer, as defined, or a regularly employed and salaried employee, who is engaged in directing traffic or enforcing parking laws and regulations, of a city, county, or jurisdiction of a state agency in which a vehicle is located, to remove a vehicle located within the territorial limits in which the officer or employee may act, under designated circumstances, including, but not limited to, when a vehicle is found upon a highway or public land or removed pursuant to the Vehicle Code, and has been issued 5 or more notices of parking violations to which the owner or person in control of the vehicle has not responded within a designated time period. Under existing law, a vehicle that has been removed and impounded under those circumstances that is not released may be subject to a lien sale to compensate for the costs of towage and for caring for and keeping safe the vehicle. Existing law authorizes a peace officer and specified public employees, as an alternative to removal of a vehicle, to immobilize the vehicle with a device designed and manufactured for that purpose, if, among other circumstances, the vehicle is found upon a highway or public lands by the peace officer or employee and it is known to have been issued 5 or more notices of parking violations that are delinquent because the owner or person in control of the vehicle has not responded to the appropriate agency within a designated time period. This bill would delete the authority of a peace officer or public employee, as appropriate, to remove or immobilize a vehicle under those circumstances. The bill would also modify the authority to remove a vehicle parked or left standing for 72 or more consecutive hours in violation of a local ordinance by requiring the vehicle to remain parked or left standing for 5 or more business days after a notice is affixed to the vehicle specifying the date and time after which the vehicle may be removed. The bill would also require the notice to include specified information. The bill would repeal the related authority to conduct a lien sale to cover towing and storage expenses. The bill would make various conforming and technical changes. By requiring local authorities to provide specified information on parking notices, 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, 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.
This measure would state the Legislature's commitment to lower the cost of prescription drugs for all Californians and to support the expansion of California's single-purchaser system for prescription drugs, and would encourage the Governor to engage with the States of Washington and Oregon and others who wish to partner with our state to lower prescription drug prices across the nation.