Existing law requires the governing boards of each community college district, the Trustees of the California State University, the Regents of the University of California, and the governing boards of independent postsecondary institutions to adopt and implement written procedures or protocols to ensure that students, faculty, and staff who are victims of sexual assault on the grounds or facilities of their institutions receive treatment and information, including a description of on-campus and off-campus resources. This bill would require the governing boards of each community college district, the Trustees of the California State University, the Regents of the University of California, and the governing boards of independent postsecondary institutions, in order to receive state funds for student financial assistance, to adopt policies concerning sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking that include certain elements, including an affirmative consent standard in the determination of whether consent was given by a complainant. The bill would require these governing boards to adopt certain sexual assault policies and protocols, as specified, and would require the governing boards, to the extent feasible, to enter into memoranda of understanding or other agreements or collaborative partnerships with on-campus and community-based organizations to refer students for assistance or make services available to students. The bill would also require the governing boards to implement comprehensive prevention and outreach programs addressing sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. By requiring community college districts to adopt or modify certain policies and protocols, 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 these statutory provisions.
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Under existing law, the Department of Veterans Affairs has specified powers and duties relating to various programs serving veterans. The department constitutes a public corporation that is authorized to hold property on behalf of the state. This bill would require the department, by July 1, 2016, to create a prioritized list of unused or underutilized nonresidential real property owned by the department, and to propose one or more potential uses that will benefit California veterans, as specified. The bill would require the department to consider its inventory of properties as an integrated system, and to address how prospective uses of the properties could complement each other. This bill would include a legislative finding and declaration that after a use option for a given location is identified pursuant to the bill's provisions, further study and evaluation may be necessary in order to determine the feasibility of that use option and take steps toward its implementation.
Title 38 of the United States Code provides educational awards for eligible active duty members and veterans of the Armed Forces of the United States. Existing law requires an institution headquartered or operating in California desiring to enroll students eligible for federal Title 38 awards in accredited institutions and programs to make application for approval of these courses to the California State Approving Agency for Veterans Education, commonly known as CSAAVE, and authorizes CSAAVE to approve the application of the school when the school and its accredited courses satisfy the specified criteria and any additional reasonable criteria established by CSAAVE. Unless an exception applies, this bill would deem a public or private postsecondary educational institution that is accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the United States Department of Education eligible for Title 38 awards if the institution satisfies specified criteria for qualification for Title 38 awards in the bill. The bill would, if another specified bill is enacted, deem an institution that may claim a specified exemption from the requirements of the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009 eligible for Title 38 awards if the institution satisfies other criteria for qualification for Title 38 awards in this bill. The bill would deem a private postsecondary educational institution eligible for Title 38 awards if the institution is issued an approval to operate from the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education, as specified, and satisfies the other criteria for qualification for Title 38 awards in the bill. The bill would require CSAAVE to notify initial Title 38 recipients seeking to attend, or attending, an institution that is ineligible for Title 38 awards that the institution is ineligible for Title 38 awards for the academic year, and to provide initial and renewal Title 38 recipients at an ineligible institution with a complete list of all California postsecondary educational institutions at which the student would be eligible to receive a Title 38 award.
(1) Under existing law, when the Department of Motor Vehicles determines that an applicant is lawfully entitled to a driver's license, the department is required to issue that license to the applicant. Existing law specifies the contents of a driver's license and requires the application for a driver's license or identification card to contain a space for an applicant to indicate whether he or she has served in the Armed Forces of the United States and to give his or her consent to be contacted regarding eligibility to receive state or federal veterans' benefits. This bill would, commencing November 11, 2015, allow an in-person applicant for a driver's license or identification card to request the driver's license or identification card be printed with the word "VETERAN." The applicant would be required to present verification of veteran status to the Department of Motor Vehicles, on a form developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs in consultation with the California Association of County Veterans Service Officers and the Department of Motor Vehicles. The bill would require county veterans service offices to verify an applicant's veteran status for these purposes, as specified. The department would be required to print the word "VETERAN" on the face of a driver's license or identification card issued to a person who makes that request and presents that verification to the department. (2) Existing law establishes certain fee amounts for the applications for, and renewal of, driver's licenses and identification cards. This bill would require the department to charge an additional one-time fee of $5 to a person who requests that the person's driver's license or identification card be designated as provided above.
Existing sales and use tax laws impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state, measured by sales price. That law, with certain exceptions, defines a retailer as a seller who makes any retail sale of tangible personal property and as a person who makes more than 2 retail sales of tangible personal property during any 12-month period, and defines a retail sale as a sale of tangible personal property for any purpose other than resale in the regular course of business. Existing law, from April 1, 2010, to January 1, 2022, provides that a qualified itinerant vendor, as defined, is a consumer, and not a retailer, of tangible personal property owned and sold by the qualified itinerant vendor, except for alcoholic beverages or items sold for more than $100, so that the retail sale subject to tax is the sale of tangible personal property to the qualified itinerant vendor and not the sale by the qualified itinerant vendor. This bill would provide a procedure for a qualified veteran, who is a person who met specified requirements for being a qualified itinerant vendor, to submit a claim for qualified repayments, as defined, with the State Board of Equalization, as provided. This bill would, on or before March 1, 2016, require the board to certify to the Controller the amount of qualified repayments to be made to each qualified veteran, and would appropriate $50,000 from the General Fund to the board to make the payments of qualified repayments. This bill would limit the total amount of money available to make qualified repayments to not more than $50,000. This bill would require the board to report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation, and the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance, the name of each qualified veteran who was issued a qualified repayment and the amount of the qualified repayment. This bill would require the Controller to transfer any balance remaining from the amount reported to the Controller back to the General Fund. This bill would make findings regarding the public purpose served by the bill.
Existing law, until January 1, 2016, authorizes the retention proceeds withheld from any payment by an awarding entity, as described, from the original contractor, by the original contractor from any subcontractor, and by a subcontractor from any subcontractor to exceed 5% on specific projects where the director of the applicable department, as specified, has made, or the governing body of the public entity or designated official of the public entity has approved, a finding prior to the bid that the project is substantially complex and requires a higher retention and the department or public entity includes both this finding and the actual retention amount in the bid documents. This bill would extend the operation of these provisions to January 1, 2018, and, instead of requiring that the finding and actual retention amount be included in the bid documents, would require that the bid documents include details explaining the basis for the finding in addition to the actual retention amount. The bill would also require any finding by a public entity that a project is substantially complex to describe the specific project and why it is a unique project that is not regularly, customarily, or routinely performed by the agency or licensed contractors.
Existing law, the Ortiz-Pacheco-Poochigian-Vasconcellos Cal Grant Act, establishes the Cal Grant C program under the administration of the Student Aid Commission and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under this program. The act requires that a Cal Grant C award be used only for occupational or technical training, as defined, in a course of not less than 4 months. The act requires the commission, after consultation with state and federal agencies, to determine the areas of occupational or technical training for which Cal Grant C awards shall be awarded. Existing law also requires the Student Aid Commission to develop, and regularly review and update at least every 5 years, the areas of occupational or technical training for which students may utilize Cal Grant C awards and to give priority in granting the awards to students pursuing occupational or technical training in areas that meet specified criteria. The act requires the commission to give priority in granting the awards to students pursuing occupational or technical training in areas that meet specified criteria. This bill would revise and recast the act in regard to Cal Grant C awards to, among other things, require the commission to give special consideration to the social and economic situations of the students applying for the grants, giving additional weight to applicants facing specified challenges. In determining the individual award amounts, the bill would additionally require the commission to take into account the financial means available to the student to fund his or her course of study and costs of attendance. The bill would revise the criteria that areas of occupational or technical training are required to meet to be given priority for awards, as specified. The bill would require the commission, in consultation with specified entities, for purposes of the Cal Grant C program, to prioritize occupational training programs and industry clusters. The bill would require the commission to consult with specified public entities to develop a plan to publicize the grant award program to California's long-term unemployed to be used by those specified public entities when they come into contact with members of the population who are likely to be experiencing long-term unemployment and would require the commission to develop a plan to make students receiving awards aware of job search and placement services available through specified public entities. The bill would specify that the local workforce investment boards are required to participate in the outreach efforts only to the extent that those efforts are a part of their existing responsibilities under federal law. Existing law authorizes the Director of Employment Development to use information in his or her possession to the extent necessary to achieve specified purposes. This bill would authorize the director, to the extent permitted by federal law and regulations, to provide the commission with wage information to verify the employment status of an individual applying for a Cal Grant C award. This bill would incorporate changes made by SB 1141 and AB 1792 to Section 1095 of the Unemployment Insurance Code contingent on the prior enactment of each of those bills.
Existing law requires pesticides to be registered by the Department of Pesticide Regulation. Existing law requires that a pesticide be thoroughly evaluated prior to registration, and provides for the continued evaluation of registered pesticides. This bill would require the department, by July 1, 2018, to issue a determination with respect to its reevaluation of neonicotinoids. The bill would require the department, on or before 2 years after making this determination, to adopt any control measures necessary to protect pollinator health. The bill would require the department to submit a report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature if the department is unable to adopt those control measures and to update the report annually until the department adopts those control measures.
Existing law establishes the Department of Food and Agriculture, which is tasked with, among other things, promoting and protecting the agricultural industry of the state, and seeking to enhance, protect, and perpetuate the ability of the private sector to produce food and fiber in a way that benefits the general welfare and economy of the state. Existing law also establishes the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative for the purpose of promoting healthy food access in the state. This bill would create the Office of Farm to Fork within the department, and would require the office, to the extent that resources are available, to work with various entities, including, among others, the agricultural industry and other organizations involved in promoting food access, to increase the amount of agricultural products available to underserved communities and schools in the state. The bill would require the office to, among other things, identify urban and rural communities that lack access to healthy food, and to coordinate with local, state, and federal agencies to promote and increase awareness of programs that promote greater food access. The bill would create the Farm to Fork Account in the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund that would consist of money made available from federal, state, industry, and other sources, and would continuously appropriate the money deposited in the account without regard to fiscal years to carry out the purposes of the Office of Farm to Fork. By creating a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill, until January 1, 2020, would also require the department, in any year in which funds are received into or expended from the Farm to Fork Account, to submit to the Legislature an overview of the account's income and expenditures.
(1) The Public Utilities Act requires the Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the Independent System Operator, to establish resource adequacy requirements for all load‑serving entities, as defined, in accordance with specified objectives. The definition of a "load-serving entity" excludes a local publicly owned electric utility. The act requires each load‑serving entity to maintain physical generating capacity adequate to meet its load requirements to provide reliable electric service. The act requires the Public Utilities Commission to determine the most efficient and equitable means for achieving prescribed objectives. The Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Act establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and requires it to undertake a continuing assessment of trends in the consumption of electricity and other forms of energy, to analyze the social, economic, and environmental consequences of those trends and to collect from electric utilities, gas utilities, and fuel producers and wholesalers, and other sources, forecasts of future supplies and consumption of all forms of energy. That act requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, beginning November 1, 2003, and every 2 years thereafter, to adopt an integrated energy policy report that includes an overview of major energy trends and issues facing the state. This bill would include, as an objective for the resource adequacy requirements referenced above, establishing new or maintaining existing demand response products and tariffs that facilitate the economic dispatch and use of demand response that can either meet or reduce an electrical corporation's resource adequacy requirements, as determined by the Public Utilities Commission. The bill would additionally require each load-serving entity to maintain both electrical demand response and physical generating capacity adequate to meet its load requirements. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to determine the most efficient and equitable means to ensure that investments are made in new and existing demand response resources that are cost effective and help to achieve electrical grid reliability and the state's goals for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to ensure appropriate valuation of both supply and load modifying demand response resources and to establish a mechanism to value load modifying demand response resources, including, but not limited to, the ability of demand response resources to help meet distribution needs, transmission system needs, and to help reduce a load-serving entity's resource adequacy obligation. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission, State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, and the Independent System Operator to ensure that changes in demand caused by load modifying demand response are expeditiously and comprehensively reflected in the integrated energy policy report forecast, as well as planning proceedings and associated analyses, and encourage reflection of these changes in demand in the operation of the grid. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission, in establishing a demand response program, to take certain actions. (2) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or an order or direction of the Public Utilities Commission is a crime. This bill would be part of the Public Utilities Act and an order or other action of the Public Utilities Commission would be required to implement the bill. Because a violation of this bill or an order or other action of the Public Utilities Commission implementing those provisions would be a crime, and because the bill would make certain violations by a load‑serving entity a crime, this bill would thereby impose a state-mandated local program by creating new crimes and by expanding the definition of existing crimes. (3) 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.