Asm. Thurston "Smitty" Smith

Existing law establishes the Green Ribbon Science Panel and authorizes the panel to, among other things, assist the Department of Toxic Substances Control in developing green chemistry and chemical policy recommendations and implementation strategies and details. Existing law requires the department to provide for staff and administrative support to the panel. Existing law requires the panel to meet at least twice each year. This bill would increase the number of times the panel is required to meet to at least 3 times each year.

Existing law establishes the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019, which requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, to establish and administer a grant program to allocate funds for capital improvement projects for the development of a qualifying infill project or qualifying infill area, as those terms are defined. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. This bill would exempt from the requirements of CEQA a project financed pursuant to the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019, and would make all legal actions, proceedings, and decisions undertaken or made pursuant to the program exempt from CEQA. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes to the program by renumbering a code section and updating erroneous cross-references.

The Budget Act of 2017 appropriated moneys to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for purposes of, among other things, providing local assistance grants, grants to fire safe councils, and grants to qualified nonprofit organizations with a demonstrated ability to satisfactorily plan, implement, and complete a fire prevention project for these same purposes, as provided. Existing law, until January 1, 2024, authorizes the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to authorize advance payments to a nonprofit organization, a local agency, a special district, a private forest landowner, or a Native American tribe from the grant awards specified above. Existing law places specified requirements on the grantee of the advance payment, including that the grantee file an accountability report with the department, as provided. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.

Existing law provides for certain personal rights by statute, including the right to protection from bodily restraint or harm, from personal insult, from defamation, and from injury to personal relations. Under this bill, known as the California Parents' Bill of Rights, the state would recognize certain rights, including, among others, the right of a parent or guardian to advise on the moral or religious training of their minor child. The bill would specify that the recognition of those rights does not preclude an employee of a local educational agency, as defined, from acting in the employee's official capacity within the scope of the employee's authority. Existing law provides a parent or guardian of a pupil enrolled in a public school the right to participate in the education of their children, as specified, including, among others, the right to observe their child's classroom within a reasonable period of time following a request therefor. This bill would require a charter school, school district, or county office of education to, among other things, provide parents and guardians with opportunities to participate in schools to improve parent and teacher cooperation in areas including homework, school attendance, and discipline. The bill would also require those local educational agencies to post on their respective internet website specified information, including how to receive information about school choice options offered by the local educational agency. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, 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, 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 makes the fact that a controlled substance was furnished to someone who is pregnant, someone who has been previously convicted of a violent felony, or someone who was in psychological treatment for a mental disorder a circumstance in aggravation for purposes of sentencing a defendant convicted of specified controlled substance offenses. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to that provision.

Existing law, the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014, approved by the voters as Proposition 1 at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election, authorizes, among other things, the issuance of general obligation bonds in the amount of $7,120,000,000 to finance a water quality, supply, and infrastructure improvement program. Existing law provides for the sum of $900,000,000 to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature from the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Fund of 2014, for expenditures on, and competitive grants, and loans for, projects to prevent or clean up the contamination of groundwater that serves or has served as a source of drinking water, as provided. Existing law requires a project that receives funding to be selected by a competitive grant or loan process with added consideration for those projects that leverage private, federal, or local funding, and outlines the additional requirements and processes applicable to projects that receive funding. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to these latter provisions.

Existing law defines the crime of robbery as the felonious taking of another's personal property from the individual's person or immediate presence, against the individual's will, by means of force or fear. Existing law establishes that a robbery of a person who is performing their duties as an operator of a vehicle, as specified, and used for the transportation of persons for hire, a robbery of a passenger that is perpetrated on a vehicle for hire, a robbery that is perpetrated in an inhabited dwelling, as defined, such as a vessel, trailer coach, or inhabited floating home, and a robbery of a person using or immediately after using and in the vicinity of an automated teller machine, is robbery of the first degree. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.

Existing law provides that a county is the largest political division of the state that has corporate powers. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to this provision.

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of various professions and vocations by boards, as defined, within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law requires the department to receive specified complaints from consumers and to transmit any valid complaint to the local, state, or federal agency whose authority provides the most effective means to secure relief. Existing law requires the Attorney General to submit a report to the department, the Governor, and the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature, on or before January 1, 2018, and on or before January 1 of each subsequent year, that includes specified information regarding the actions taken by the Attorney General pertaining to accusation matters relating to consumer complaints against a person whose profession or vocation is licensed by an agency within the department. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to that provision.