Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law establishes, among other funds related to telecommunications, the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) in the State Treasury. Existing law requires the commission to develop, implement, and administer the CASF to encourage deployment of high-quality advanced communications services to all Californians that will promote economic growth, job creation, and the substantial social benefits of advanced information and communications technologies, as provided in specified decisions of the commission and in the CASF statute. Existing law requires the commission to give priority to projects that provide last-mile broadband access to households that are unserved by an existing facility-based broadband provider. Existing law establishes that the goal of the program is, no later than December 31, 2015, to approve funding for infrastructure projects that will provide broadband access to no less than 98% of California households. Existing law authorizes the commission to collect a surcharge for deposit into the CASF not to exceed $315,000,000 in total and authorizes the surcharge until 2020. Existing law establishes 4 accounts, the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account, the Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia Grant Account, the Broadband Infrastructure and Revolving Loan Account, and the Broadband Public Housing Account, within the CASF and specifies the amount of moneys to be deposited into each account. This bill would revise the goal of the program to provide that its goal is to approve funding by December 31, 2022, for infrastructure projects that will provide broadband access to no less than 98% of California households in each consortia region, as identified by the commission on or before January 1, 2017. The bill would eliminate the Broadband Infrastructure and Revolving Loan Account and would require the transfer of the remaining unencumbered moneys in that account as of January 1, 2018, and the deposit of moneys collected that would be owed to that account into the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account. The bill would establish within the CASF the Broadband Adoption Account and would require specified amounts of moneys to be deposited into this new account, the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account, and the Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia Grant Account. The bill repeals the current authorization to collect up to $315,000,000 for deposit in the CASF at a rate of up to $25,000,000 per year through the 2020 calendar year, and instead would authorize the commission to collect $330,000,000 for deposit into the CASF beginning January 1, 2018, and continuing through the 2022 calendar year. The bill would revise the eligibility requirements for projects and project applicants for grants funded from the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account. The bill would make moneys from the Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia Grant Account available to facilitate the deployment of broadband infrastructure by assisting infrastructure grant applicants in the project development or grant application process. The bill would require recipients of those moneys to conduct an annual audit and to submit to the commission an annual report regarding activities funded by those moneys. The bill would make available moneys in the Broadband Adoption Account to specified entities for digital literacy training, public education, and outreach programs to increase broadband adoption by consumers. Existing law requires the commission to conduct and report to the Legislature, by April 1, 2021, a final financial audit and a final performance audit of the CASF. This bill would require the commission to conduct and report to the Legislature, by April 1, 2020, an interim financial audit and an interim performance audit. The bill would delay the date for the submission of the final audits to April 1, 2023. Existing law requires the commission to annually report specified information relative to the CASF to the Legislature. Existing law repeals these reporting requirements on January 1, 2022. This bill would revise the information specified for inclusion in the report. The bill would repeal these reporting requirements on January 1, 2024. The bill would require the commission to identify unserved areas and delineate the areas in the annual reports. The bill would require the commission to consult regional consortia, stakeholders, and consumers regarding priority areas and cost-effective strategies to achieve the broadband access goal through public workshops conducted at least annually no later than April 30 of each year. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because a violation of an order or decision of the commission implementing the bill's requirements would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. 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 bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Sponsored bills
(1) Existing law, with specified exceptions, requires an agency that processes notices of parking violations and notices of delinquent parking violations to proceed under only one of 3 specified options in order to collect an unpaid parking penalty, including filing an itemization of unpaid parking penalties and service fees with the Department of Motor Vehicles for collection with the registration of the vehicle. This bill would instead authorize a processing agency to proceed under one of those 3 specified options. With regard to the option involving an itemization of penalties and fees, the bill would authorize a processing agency, commencing July 1, 2018, to file that itemization only after the issuing agency provides a payment plan option for indigent persons, as specified, the processing agency provides notice of the payment plan and the process related to indigency determination in a specified manner, and the registered owner or lessee fails to enroll in the payment plan within the time specified in the notice or is not eligible for the payment plan, as specified. The bill would authorize a person to demonstrate that he or she is indigent by providing specified information relating to, among other things, his or her income or receipt of benefits under certain social services programs. The bill would require the processing agency to rescind the filing of an itemization of unpaid parking penalties and service fees with the department for an indigent individual, for one time only, if the registered owner or lessee subsequently enrolls in a payment plan, as specified. The bill would make conforming changes to related provisions. This bill would require each California State University and community college district governing board, by August 1, 2018, to adopt a parking citation payment plan, with specified requirements, for individuals with multiple unpaid parking citations. The bill would require a California State University or community college district governing board that does not adopt a parking citation payment plan by the required date to implement specified payment plan provisions as described in the bill. (2) Existing law, with specified exceptions, requires the department to refuse to renew the registration of a vehicle if the registered owner or lessee has been mailed a notice of a delinquent parking violation relating to standing or parking, the processing agency has filed or electronically transmitted to the department an itemization of unpaid parking penalties, and the owner or lessee has not paid the parking penalties, unless he or she pays to the department, at the time of application for renewal, the full amount of all outstanding parking penalties and administrative fees, as shown by records of the department. This bill would add an exception to the requirement to refuse to renew the registration if the itemization of unpaid parking penalties has been rescinded. The bill would also require the department to allow a registered owner or lessee to file a certification that the vehicle will not be operated, moved, or left standing upon a highway if the registered owner or lessee currently owes parking penalties and administrative fees for that vehicle, regardless of whether or not that registered owner or lessee is currently on an active payment plan, as specified. (3) Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to refuse to issue or renew a driver's license if the applicant has been mailed a notice of his or her delinquent parking violation relating to standing or parking, the processing agency has filed or electronically transmitted to the department an itemization of unpaid parking penalties, including administrative fees, and the applicant has not paid the parking penalty and administrative fee, unless the applicant pays to the department, at the time of application, the full amount of all outstanding parking penalties and administrative fees, as shown by records of the department. This bill would repeal that provision and make a conforming change.
Existing law authorizes individuals to contribute amounts in excess of their personal income tax liability for the support of specified funds, including the Emergency Food Assistance Program Fund. Existing law also has general administrative provisions applicable to voluntary contributions. Existing law provides for any new or extended voluntary contribution fund, to include the words "voluntary tax contribution" in the name of the fund, require the administering agency to include specified information about the fund on its Internet Web site, continuously appropriate from the fund the contributions made to the administering agency, and set a minimum contribution amount for the continuation of any voluntary tax contribution on the tax return form and include a generally applicable repeal date for a voluntary tax contribution. Existing law requires that the Emergency Food Assistance Program Fund equal or exceed a minimum contribution amount, which initially was $250,000 and which was required to be and has been adjusted for inflation. This bill would change the name of the Emergency Food Assistance Program Fund to the Emergency Food for Families Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund, would provide that the required calendar year minimum contribution amount for the fund to continue appearing on the return is an unadjusted $250,000, and would extend the provisions that apply to that voluntary contribution fund to January 1, 2026. The bill would make a continuous appropriation from the Emergency Food for Families Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund to the Franchise Tax Board and the Controller for reimbursement of all costs incurred in the administration of these provisions and to the State Department of Social Services for allocation to the Emergency Food Assistance Program. The bill would also make additional changes to conform to the provisions described above.
Existing law establishes the Sexual Assault Victims' DNA Bill of Rights, which, among other things, encourages a law enforcement agency assigned to investigate specified sexual assault offenses to perform DNA testing of rape kit evidence or other crime scene evidence in a timely manner to ensure the longest possible statute of limitations. Existing law also requires a law enforcement agency to inform victims of certain unsolved sexual assault offenses if the law enforcement agency elects not to analyze DNA evidence within certain time limits. This bill would require law enforcement agencies to report information regarding rape kit evidence, within 120 days of the collection of the kit, to the Department of Justice through a database established by the department. The bill would require that information to include, among other things, whether biological evidence samples were submitted to a DNA laboratory for analysis and if a probative DNA profile was generated. The bill would additionally require a public DNA laboratory, or a law enforcement agency contracting with a private laboratory, to provide a reason for not testing a sample every 120 days the sample is untested, except as specified. The bill would only impose these requirements for a kit collected on or after January 1, 2018. By imposing additional duties on local law enforcement, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The bill would require that money received by the Office of Emergency Services from the federal Office on Violence Against Women be used before appropriating money from the General Fund for purposes of reimbursing any costs determined by the Commission on State Mandates to be mandated by the state to a local law enforcement agency by the bill. This bill would require the department to file a report to the Legislature on an annual basis summarizing the information in its database. The bill would prohibit law enforcement agencies or laboratories from being compelled to provide any contents of the database in a civil or criminal case, except as required by a law enforcement agency's duty to produce exculpatory evidence to a defendant in a criminal case. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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 provides, for many criminal offenses, 3 possible terms of punishment. Existing law authorizes a court, in sentencing a person convicted of such a crime, to select the appropriate term which, in its sound discretion, best serves the interests of justice. Existing law allows the court to consider, in choosing an appropriate punishment, the record of the case, specified reports received by the court, and specified statements in aggravation or mitigation. This bill would authorize the court to consider that a defendant convicted of a specified violent felony willfully recorded a video of the commission of the violent felony with the intent to encourage or facilitate the offense as a factor in aggravation in sentencing that defendant.
Existing law specifies that a food facility that donates any food that is fit for human consumption at the time it was donated to a nonprofit charitable organization or a food bank is not liable for any damage or injury resulting from the consumption of the donated food, unless the injury resulted from negligence or a willful act in the preparation or handling of the donated food. This bill, the California Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, would expand these provisions to persons and gleaners who donate food, as defined. The bill would narrow the exception to protection from liability to injury resulting from gross negligence or intentional misconduct. The bill would specify that the immunity from civil liability provided by these provisions applies to the donation of food that is fit for human consumption and that has exceeded the labeled shelf life date recommended by the manufacturer, provided, in instances of perishable food, the person that distributes the food to the end recipient makes a good faith evaluation that the food is wholesome. The bill would authorize food facilities to donate food directly to end recipients for consumption. Existing law specifies that a nonprofit charitable organization or food bank is not liable for an injury or death from distributing food without charge that is fit for human consumption unless the injury or death is a direct result of negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct. This bill would narrow the exception to protection from liability to injury or death as a direct result of gross negligence or intentional misconduct. Existing law authorizes a person engaged in the business of processing, distributing, or selling an agricultural product to donate, free of charge, a product that is in a condition that it may be used as food for human beings, to a nonprofit charitable organization. Existing law limits the liability of a county, its agencies, and persons who donate agricultural products. Existing law provides that these provisions do not relieve any nonprofit charitable organization from any liability for any injury, including, but not limited to, injury resulting from the ingesting of an agricultural product, as a result of receiving, accepting, gathering, or removing any donated agricultural product. This bill would expand this provision to include a gleaner and also authorize food facilities to donate food directly to end recipients for consumption. The bill would specify that these donations are protected under this act if the donated food has exceeded the labeled shelf life date recommended by the manufacturer, provided, in instances of perishable food, the person that distributes the food to the end recipient makes a good faith evaluation that the food is wholesome. The bill would repeal these provisions relating to not relieving nonprofit charitable organizations from liability for injuries. Existing law authorizes a food facility to donate food to a food bank or to any other nonprofit charitable organization for distribution to persons free of charge. Existing law exempts a food facility that donates food from civil or criminal liability or penalty for violation of any laws, regulations, or ordinances regulating the labeling or packaging of the donated product or, with respect to any other laws, regulations, or ordinances, for a violation occurring after the time of the donation. This bill would also authorize a person or gleaner to donate food to a food bank or to a nonprofit charitable organization and exempt the person or gleaner from civil or criminal liability relating to the donated food. The bill would also expand these provisions to include the donation of food by food facilities directly to end recipients. The bill would specify that the immunity from civil or criminal liability or penalty applies to the donation of food that has exceeded the labeled shelf life date recommended by the manufacturer, provided, in instances of perishable food, the person that distributes the food to the end recipient makes a good faith evaluation that the food is wholesome. The bill would require enforcement officers to promote the recovery of food fit for human consumption, as specified. Because the bill would require local officials to perform additional duties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would make other conforming and nonsubstantive changes. 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 sets forth various requirements for the issuance of diplomas conferred upon a pupil as evidence of graduation from high school. Existing law establishes the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma for the purpose of recognizing pupils who have mastered the high school curriculum. Existing law also establishes the State Seal of Biliteracy, awarded by the Superintendent of Public Instruction in accordance with specified criteria, to recognize high school graduates who have attained a high level of proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing in one or more languages in addition to English. This bill would require the Superintendent, on or before January 1, 2020, to recommend to the State Board of Education criteria for awarding a State Seal of Civic Engagement to pupils who have demonstrated excellence in civics education and participation and have demonstrated an understanding of the United States Constitution, the California Constitution, and the democratic system of government. The bill would require the Superintendent to consider, among other criteria, the successful completion of history, government, and civics courses, including courses that incorporate character education, and voluntary participation in community service or extracurricular activities. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 31, 2021, to adopt, reject, or modify the criteria recommended by the Superintendent. The bill would require the Superintendent to prepare and deliver to participating school districts the seal insignia to be affixed to the diploma or transcript of a pupil awarded the State Seal of Civic Engagement. The bill would also require participating school districts to maintain records in order to identify pupils who have earned the State Seal of Civic Engagement and to affix the appropriate insignia to the diploma or transcript of those pupils.
Existing law requires certain elected officers to forfeit their office upon the conviction of a crime pursuant to the federal Stolen Valor Act of 2005 that involves a false claim of receipt of any military decoration or medal, as specified, or the California Stolen Valor Act that involves a false claim, made with the intent to defraud, that the person is a veteran or a member of the Armed Forces of the United States. Existing law, the federal Stolen Valor Act of 2013, prohibits a person, with the intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible property, from fraudulently holding oneself out to be a recipient of a military decoration or medal, as specified. This bill would instead require these elected officers to forfeit their office upon the conviction of a crime pursuant to the federal Stolen Valor Act of 2013 or the California Stolen Valor Act that involves a fraudulent claim, made with the intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit, as defined, that the person is a veteran or a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, as prescribed in those acts. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for a person to falsely represent himself or herself as a veteran or member of the Armed Forces of the United States in connection with specified acts. Existing law provides that any person who, orally, in writing, or by wearing any military decoration, falsely represents himself or herself to have been awarded any military decoration, with the intent to defraud, is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would conform those provisions to the federal Stolen Valor Act of 2013, and impose a misdemeanor only if the prescribed actions described above are made fraudulently with the intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit, as defined. The bill would expand the above-described crime related to misrepresentation to include a person who fraudulently represents himself or herself as a veteran or member of other specified armed forces with the intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit. The bill would additionally make it a misdemeanor for a person to misrepresent himself or herself as a member or veteran of specified armed forces in connection with certain acts, such as, among other things, the forgery or use of falsified military documentation, or for purposes of employment or promoting a business, charity, or other endeavor, as prescribed. By creating new crimes, 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 divides the state into agricultural districts and provides for the management of these agricultural districts by district agricultural associations. Existing law requires a district agricultural association with an annual budget of less than $5,000,000 to have its books and accounts examined and reviewed annually and audited every 3 years. This bill would require, solely for the 50th District Agricultural Association, which has entered into a joint powers agreement to manage the responsibilities of the association, that the joint powers agency is the entity responsible for ensuring that the annual examinations and reviews and the audits are conducted, as specified. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 4051 of the Food and Agricultural Code proposed by AB 1351 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1351 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
Existing law requires specified businesses and other establishments to post a notice, as developed by the Department of Justice, that contains information relating to slavery and human trafficking, including information regarding specified nonprofit organizations that a person can call for services or support in the elimination of slavery and human trafficking. This bill would require the notice to specify that a person can also text a specified number for services and support and would revise the names of the nonprofit organizations listed in the notice. The bill, by January 1, 2019, would also require the department to revise and update the notice, as specified. The bill would provide that any business or establishment required to post the model notice would not be required to post the updated model notice until on and after January 1, 2019. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 52.6 of the Civil Code proposed by AB 260 to be operative only if this bill and AB 260 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.