The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, is required to reduce, recycle, and reuse solid waste generated in the state to the maximum extent feasible in an efficient cost-effective manner to conserve water, energy, and other natural resources. This bill would create the California Product Stewardship Act of 2009 and would require the board to administer the program. The bill would require the board to adopt regulations by July 1, 2011, in order to implement the program to provide environmentally sound product stewardship protocols that encourage producers to research alternatives during the product design and packaging phases to foster cradle-to-cradle producer responsibility and reduce the end-of-life environmental impacts of the product. The bill, on and after January 1, 2012, would require the board to select covered products, as defined, according to certain requirements. The bill would exempt the selection of covered products from the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act. On and after July 1, 2012, a covered product would be prohibited from being sold or used for promotional purposes unless the producer or product stewardship organization, as defined, of the covered product, submits a product stewardship plan to the board that meets certain timelines and content requirements, including, but not limited to, a description of the system for collecting discarded covered products, methods proposed to maximize the recycling of packaging, a description of the processing and disposal system, and strategies for managing and reducing the life cycle impacts of covered products and packaging such as through redesign. The bill would establish an annual reporting requirement for producers or stewardship organizations, require administrative fees to be set by the board, and authorize civil penalties of up to $50,000 to be imposed by the board. The bill would require that the administrative fees be deposited into the Extended Producer Responsibility Account and that the penalties be deposited into the Extended Producer Responsibility Penalty Subaccount that the bill would create in the Integrated Waste Management Fund. The bill would authorize the fees and penalties to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to cover the board's program implementation costs and as incentives to enhance recyclability and redesign efforts and to reduce environmental and safety impacts of covered products.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, the Banking Law, provides for the regulation and certification of state chartered banks by the Commissioner of Financial Institutions. Existing law, the California Credit Union Law, provides for the regulation and certification of state chartered credit unions by the commissioner. This bill would prohibit a state chartered bank or credit union that is a recipient of federal or state emergency economic assistance from using money derived from that assistance for specified purposes, except as specified. The bill would make a bank or credit union that violates these provisions subject to a civil penalty of at least $100,000 per violation, would require those penalties to be deposited in either the State Banking Account or the Credit Union Fund, and would prohibit those banks or credit unions from receiving any future emergency economic assistance, as specified.
(1) Existing law specifies the types of securities that are eligible for the investment of surplus state funds. This bill would require that the first priority for the investment of surplus moneys in negotiable certificates of deposit under specified provisions be given to time deposits in an eligible community bank, as defined, or a credit union operating in this state to the maximum extent consistent with liquidity requirements and prudent management of surplus moneys. (2) Existing law prescribes the instruments in, and criteria by, which local agencies, as defined, may invest surplus funds. Existing law authorizes, until January 1, 2012, the investment of up to 30% of those funds in certificates of deposit at a commercial bank, savings bank, savings and loan association, or credit union that uses a private sector entity that assists in the placement of certificates of deposit, as specified. This bill would provide that a local agency, when it chooses to invest surplus funds in certificates of deposit, give priority to an eligible community bank or a credit union operating in this state.
Existing law creates a statewide greenhouse gas emission limit equivalent to what the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level was in 1990, to be achieved by 2020. The State Air Resources Board is the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of greenhouse gases in order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. This bill would require a person selling a voluntary offset, as defined, in the state to clearly and conspicuously disclose specific information in any marketing materials for the voluntary offset. The bill, beginning January 1, 2011, would require an entity that sells a voluntary offset in the state to ensure that each voluntary offset sold has a unique serial number and is registered with and tracked by a registry, as defined. The bill would require a registry to meet certain documentation and tracking requirements. The bill, except as specified, would prohibit a person from registering a voluntary offset with more than one registry concurrently. The bill would prohibit a person from selling, allocating, awarding, transferring, or claiming a voluntary offset for retirement more than once. The bill would authorize a person to resell a voluntary offset that has been previously sold if all rights and benefits associated with the voluntary offset are sold each time the offset is sold. The bill would subject any person who violates those provisions to a civil penalty of not more than $10,000 for each violation.
The Donahoe Higher Education Act sets forth, among other things, the missions and functions of California's public and independent segments of higher education, and their respective institutions of higher education. The act applies to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, act to make the act applicable. Existing law requires that a person, other than a nonimmigrant alien, as defined, who has attended high school in California for 3 or more years, who has graduated from a California high school or attained the equivalent thereof, who has registered at or attends an accredited institution of higher education in California not earlier than the fall semester or quarter of the 2001–02 academic year, and who, if he or she is a person without lawful immigration status, has filed a prescribed affidavit relating to obtaining lawful immigration status, is exempt from paying nonresident tuition at the California Community Colleges and the California State University. Existing law also requires the waiver of student fees charged by community college districts for students who demonstrate financial need or are otherwise eligible for the waiver. Existing law requires the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to allocate, to community college districts for determining financial need and delivering student financial aid services, an amount based on the amount of fees waived. This bill would amend the Donahoe Higher Education Act to require the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and to request the Regents of the University of California, to establish procedures and forms that enable persons who are exempt from paying nonresident tuition under that provision, or who meet equivalent requirements adopted by the regents, to be eligible to receive institutional financial aid awards. The bill would define institutional financial aid as financial assistance offered by a campus of the California Community Colleges, California State University, or University of California, including grant, scholarship, workstudy, and loan programs. The bill would specify that institutional financial aid does not include a specified board of governors fee waiver. The bill would declare that it is a state law within the meaning of a federal statute that permits a state to provide an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States with eligibility for a state or local public benefit only through the enactment of a state law affirmatively providing for that eligibility. The bill would apply to the University of California only if the regents, by appropriate resolution, act to make it applicable.
Existing law provides for the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, under which qualified aged, blind, and disabled persons receive services enabling them to remain in their own homes and avoid institutionalization. Existing law permits services to be provided under the IHSS program either through the employment of individual providers, a contract between the county and an entity for the provision of services, the creation by the county of a public authority, or a contract between the county and a nonprofit consortium. Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which health care services are provided to qualified low-income persons. Under existing law, IHSS recipients who are eligible for the Medi-Cal program are provided with personal care option services, as defined, in lieu of receiving these services under the IHSS program. Existing law, enacted in 2009, makes various statutory changes with respect to the provision of in-home supportive services, relating to matters, including, but not limited to, provider enrollment procedures, criminal background checks, orientation, and duties, as well as eligibility standards for recipients, unannounced home visits, and program integrity and fraud prevention. This bill would make the operation of the statutory changes described above subject to a stakeholder process, to be conducted, as specified, by the State Department of Social Services, prior to the implementation of those changes. The bill would require implementation of any of the statutory changes described in the bill to occur either on the date specified in an applicable statute, or 60 days after the department notifies the Joint Legislative Budget Committee that the changes may be implemented, whichever is later. This bill would prohibit information notices relating to the implementation of these statutory changes from being sent to recipients or providers until the stakeholder process is completed. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law provides that criminal trials may only be continued for good cause. Under existing law, good cause is defined to include when a prosecutor assigned to specific types of criminal cases has another trial, preliminary hearing, or motion to suppress in progress in that court or another court. This bill would include, as good cause, a case involving a violent gang felony, as defined, when the assigned prosecutor has another case in progress, as specified. Existing law provides that only one such continuance per case may be granted to the prosecutor for cases involving stalking, hate crimes, or cases handled under the Career Criminal Prosecution Program. This bill would also limit the prosecutor to one such continuance per case in cases involving violent gang felonies.
Existing law proscribes specified acts against animals and imposes criminal penalties for a violation. This bill would make it a misdemeanor for any person to have more than a combined total of 50 adult unsterilized dogs and cats, in the state, for breeding or raising them for sale as pets, as specified. The bill would also prohibit a business entity, as defined, from having more than a combined total of 50 adult unsterilized dogs and cats, in the state, for breeding or raising them for sale as pets, as specified. The bill would make it a misdemeanor to act in concert with another person or to voluntarily assist a business entity in violating these provisions. The bill would authorize certain officers to lawfully take possession of an animal kept in violation of those provisions, as specified. Because this bill would create a new crime, it 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 Subdivision Map Act requires a subdivider, at the time of filing a tentative or parcel map for a subdivision to be created from the conversion of a mobilehome park to resident ownership, to avoid the economic displacement of nonpurchasing residents by obtaining a survey of support of residents of the mobilehome park for the proposed conversion, among other things. The subdivider is required to be subject to a hearing by a legislative body or advisory agency, the scope of which is limited to the issue of compliance with the requirement of conducting a survey and avoiding economic displacement of nonpurchasing residents. This bill would authorize a legislative body or advisory body, in deciding whether to approve, conditionally approve, or disapprove a map, to consider, in that hearing, whether the survey demonstrates that the majority of residents support the conversion.
(1) Existing law, the Subdivision Map Act, requires the legislative body of a city or county to deny approval of a tentative map, or a parcel map for which a tentative map was not required, unless it makes certain findings. This bill would require the legislative body of a county to make 3 specified findings before approving a tentative map, or a parcel map for which a tentative map was not required, for an area located in a state responsibility area or a very high fire hazard severity zone, as defined. The bill would provide that this provision does not supersede the requirements of local ordinances and specified regulations that provide equivalent or more stringent minimum requirements. (2) Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to adopt regulations implementing minimum fire safety standards related to defensible space which are applicable to state responsibility area lands under the authority of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and provides that these regulations apply to the perimeters and access to all residential, commercial, and industrial building construction within state responsibility areas approved after January 1, 1991. This bill would require the board, prior to January 1, 2011, to initiate a rulemaking process to consider adopting regulations requiring a minimum of 2 separate access roads for a subdivision in a state responsibility area or very high fire hazard severity zone.