This measure would declare the week of September 13, 2015, through September 19, 2015, and the third week of September every year thereafter, as provided, as Sierra Nevada Watershed Protection Week. The measure would applaud public schools that include watershed protection in the Sierra Nevada Region as part of their outdoor education curriculum whenever possible during the month of September. The measure would also commend state, federal, and local agencies, along with nongovernmental organizations for working cooperatively to achieve the goal of increasing the pace and scale of watershed and forest restoration in the region with the Sierra Nevada Conservancy playing a key role in the development of a plan and program to address these issues.
Sponsored bills
This measure would declare the month of August 2015 as Dropout Recovery Month, and would state that the Legislature intends to encourage the support of dropout recovery high schools with creative teaching strategies, alternative accountability metrics, and adequate resources.
This measure would designate the portion of Interstate 15 from Camino Del Norte to Scripps Poway Parkway/Mercy Road in the County of San Diego as the Tony Gwynn Memorial Freeway. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
This measure would declare October 2, 2015, as California Manufacturing Day.
This measure would designate a specified portion of Interstate 405 in the County of Orange as the James Mitchell "Mitch" Waller Memorial Highway. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the costs of erecting the appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
This measure would declare 2015 as the International Year of Soils, and recognize the importance of healthy soils as a critical resource supplying an abundance of food, diverse habitats, water storage, and climate resiliency.
This measure would urge the Governor to proclaim the month of June 2015 as World War II Remembrance Month, and call upon all Californians to observe the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.
(1) Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to prepare a State Highway Operation and Protection Program every other year for the expenditure of transportation capital improvement funds for projects that are necessary to preserve and protect the state highway system, excluding projects that add new traffic lanes. Existing law provides for the programming of transportation capital improvement funds for other objectives through the State Transportation Improvement Program administered by the California Transportation Commission, which includes projects recommended by regional transportation planning agencies through adoption of a regional transportation improvement program and projects recommended by the department through adoption of an interregional transportation improvement program, as specified. This bill, by January 1, 2017, would require the California Transportation Commission to establish a process whereby the department and local agencies receiving funding for highway capital improvements from the State Highway Operation and Protection Program or the State Transportation Improvement Program prioritize projects that provide meaningful benefits to the mobility and safety needs of disadvantaged community residents, as specified. (2) Existing law creates the Active Transportation Program in the Department of Transportation for the purpose of encouraging increased use of active modes of transportation, such as biking and walking, with specified available funds to be awarded to eligible projects by the California Transportation Commission and regional transportation agencies, as specified. This bill would specifically require $125,000,000 to be appropriated annually from the State Highway Account to the Active Transportation Program, with these additional funds to be used for network grants that prioritize projects in underserved areas, as specified.
The California Safe Drinking Water Act provides for the operation of public water systems and imposes on the State Water Resources Control Board various duties and responsibilities for the regulation and control of drinking water in the State of California. The act requires the state board to adopt primary drinking water standards for contaminants in drinking water based upon specified criteria, and required a primary drinking water standard to be established for hexavalent chromium by January 1, 2004. Existing law authorizes the state board to grant a variance from primary drinking water standards to a public water system. Existing law makes certain violations of the act a crime. This bill would authorize, until January 1, 2020, the state board, at the request of a public water system that prepares and submits a compliance plan to the state board, to grant a period of time to achieve compliance with the primary drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium by approving the compliance plan, as prescribed. This bill would require a public water system to provide specified notice regarding the compliance plan to the persons served by the public water system and the public water system to send written status reports to the state board. This bill would prohibit a public water system from being deemed in violation of the primary drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium while implementing an approved compliance plan or while state board action on its proposed and submitted compliance plan is pending. The bill would authorize the state board to direct revisions to a compliance plan if the board makes certain determinations and would prohibit a public water system from being granted a period of time to achieve compliance under certain circumstances, including if the public water system does not submit a revised compliance plan or the revised compliance plan is disapproved. The bill would authorize the state board to implement, interpret, or make specific these provisions by means of criteria, published on its Internet Web site. To the extent that a public water system, when requesting approval of a compliance plan or submitting a report pursuant to these provisions, would make any false statement or representation, this bill would expand the scope of a crime and 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would urge the Supreme Court of the United States to uphold the federal constitutional principle of "one person, one vote" and not deny California's children and immigrants equal protection under the law.