Existing law authorizes, until January 1, 2020, San Diego County to conduct, as a pilot program, an all-mailed ballot special election or special consolidated election to fill a congressional or legislative vacancy under specified conditions. If such an election is conducted, existing law requires San Diego County to report certain information to the Legislature and the Secretary of State regarding the success of the election. This bill, until January 1, 2021, would authorize San Diego County, or any city, school district, community college district, special district, or other district or political subdivision whose boundaries are located wholly within San Diego County, to conduct an all-mailed ballot special election or special consolidated election to fill a vacancy on the legislative or governing body of those entities. The bill would authorize those entities to also hold an all-mailed ballot special election for county initiatives, city initiatives, district initiatives, bond issues, and school measures conducted pursuant to specified provisions. The bill would extend the pilot program for San Diego County, as described above, until January 1, 2021. The bill would also require certain voter education workshops to be conducted in-person. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of San Diego.
Sponsored bills
(1) Existing law requires all children with disabilities residing in the state, regardless of the severity of their disabilities, and who are in need of special education and related services, to be identified, located, and assessed. Existing law provides that a pupil who is assessed as being dyslexic and meets certain eligibility criteria for the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act category of specific learning disabilities is entitled to special education and related services. Existing law defines a "specific learning disability" as a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, and includes in that definition dyslexia and other specified conditions. This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop, and to complete in time for use no later than the beginning of the 2017–18 academic year, program guidelines for dyslexia to be used to assist regular education teachers, special education teachers, and parents to identify and assess pupils with dyslexia, and to plan, provide, evaluate, and improve educational services, as defined, to pupils with dyslexia. The bill would require the Superintendent to disseminate the program guidelines through the State Department of Education's Internet Web site and to provide technical assistance regarding their use and implementation to specified persons. (2) Existing regulations adopted by the State Board of Education include specific basic psychological processes in the definition of "specific learning disability." This bill would require the state board to include "phonological processing" in that description of basic psychological processes.
Existing law establishes a state policy that no adoptable animal should be euthanized if it can be adopted into a suitable home. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to prescribe rules under which approval shall be granted to persons who wish to keep or use animals for diagnostic purposes, education, or research. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to make, promulgate, modify, amend, or rescind reasonable rules and regulations relating to the use of animals in diagnostic procedures and medical research. A person who violates these provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor. Under existing law, the segments of postsecondary education in this state include the University of California, the California State University, the California Community Colleges, and independent institutions of higher education, as defined. This bill would require a campus of the University of California, the California State University, or the California Community Colleges, or an independent institution of higher education, as defined, or an employee or student thereof, that confines dogs or cats for science or research purposes, if the institution assesses the health of an animal and determines, after the completion of any testing or research, that the animal is suitable for adoption, the animal's destruction is not required, and the animal is no longer needed, and if the institution's existing procedures for adopting the animal do not result in an adoption, to offer the dog or cat to an animal adoption organization or animal rescue organization, as defined, prior to euthanizing the animal. The bill would not apply to animals suffering from a serious illness or severe injury, or to newborn animals that need maternal care and have been impounded without their mothers.
Existing law authorizes various local governmental entities, subject to certain limitations and approval requirements, to levy a transactions and use tax for general purposes, in accordance with the procedures and requirements set forth in the Transactions and Use Tax Law, including a requirement that the combined rate of all taxes that may be imposed in accordance with that law in the county not exceed 2%. Existing law, the Bay Area County Traffic and Transportation Funding Act, authorizes nine specified counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the County of San Mateo, to establish a county transportation authority and levy a retail transactions and use tax of either 0.5% or 1% for specified transportation purposes if certain requirements are met, including that the ordinance levying the tax meets the requirements of the Transactions and Use Tax Law and is approved by 23 of the electors voting on the measure. This bill would authorize the County of San Mateo to, in accordance with the Bay Area County Traffic and Transportation Funding Act, impose a transactions and use tax for countywide transportation programs at a rate of no more than 0.5% that, in combination with other specified taxes, would exceed the combined rate limit. The bill would also authorize the Transportation Agency for Monterey County to impose a transactions and use tax for the support of countywide transportation programs at a rate of no more than 0.375% that, in combination with other specified taxes, would exceed the combined rate limit. These provisions would be repealed by their own terms on January 1, 2026, if an ordinance is not approved, as specified. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of San Mateo and the Transportation Agency for Monterey County.
Existing law, the California Child Day Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of day care centers by the State Department of Social Services. Existing regulations require a separate license to be issued for each component of a combination center, and establishes teacher-child ratio requirements. Existing law requires the department to develop guidelines and procedures to authorize licensed child day care centers serving infants or preschool age children to create a special optional toddler program component for children between 18 and 30 months of age, and requires the program to be considered an extension of the infant center or preschool license. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to willfully or repeatedly violate any of these provisions or a rule or regulation promulgated under these provisions. This bill would require a day care center with a toddler program to extend the toddler program to serve children between 18 months and 3 years of age, and would make conforming changes relating to the guidelines and procedures the department is required to develop. By changing the definition of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated 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 measure would proclaim April 12 through April 19, 2015, as California Holocaust Memorial Week and would urge Californians to observe these days of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.
This measure would designate November 2015 as Court Adoption and Permanency Month and would encourage the courts and their local communities to join in activities to expedite permanency for children.
This measure would establish the California Task Force on Family Caregiving, to meet, if a nonstate organization agrees to provide administrative support to the task force, to examine issues relative to the challenges faced by family caregivers and opportunities to improve caregiver support, review the current network and the services and supports available to caregivers, and make policy recommendations to the Legislature. The task force would be required to submit an interim report to the Legislature no later than January 1, 2017, and a final report no later than July 1, 2018.
This measure would recognize the California Association of County Veterans Service Officers for helping veterans secure their federal and state benefits over the past 70 years.
The Community Redevelopment Law authorizes the establishment of redevelopment agencies in communities to address the effects of blight, as defined by means of redevelopment projects financed by the issuance of bonds serviced by tax increment revenues derived from the project area. Existing law dissolved redevelopment agencies and community development agencies, as of February 1, 2012, and provides for the designation of successor agencies to wind down the affairs of the dissolved agencies and to fulfill the enforceable obligations of those agencies. Existing law also provides for various economic development programs that foster community sustainability and community and economic development initiatives throughout the state. This bill would authorize certain local agencies to form a community revitalization authority (authority) within a community revitalization and investment area, as defined, to carry out provisions of the Community Redevelopment Law in that area for purposes related to, among other things, infrastructure, affordable housing, and economic revitalization. The bill would provide for the financing of these activities by, among other things, the issuance of bonds serviced by tax increment revenues, and would require the authority to adopt a community revitalization and investment plan for the community revitalization and investment area that includes elements describing and governing revitalization activities. The bill would also provide for periodic audits by the Controller. The bill would also require the Department of Housing and Community Development, advised by an advisory committee appointed by the Director of Housing and Community Development, to periodically review the calculation of surplus housing under these provisions. The bill would require certain funds allocated to the authority to be deposited into a separate Low and Moderate Income Housing Fund and used by the authority for the purposes of increasing, improving, and preserving the community's supply, as specified. The bill would, if an authority failed to expend or encumber surplus funds in the Low and Moderate Income Housing Fund, require those funds to be disbursed towards housing needs. The bill would require an authority to make relocation provisions for persons displaced by a plan and replace certain dwelling units that are destroyed or removed as part of a plan. The bill would authorize an authority to acquire interests in real property and exercise the power of eminent domain, as specified.