Existing law requires the Department of Food and Agriculture, headed by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, to promote and protect the agricultural industry of the state. This bill would, until July 1, 2017, create the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative. It would require, by July 1, 2012, the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to prepare recommendations, to be presented upon request to the Legislature, regarding actions that need to be taken to promote food access in the state. The bill would establish the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative Council and would require the council to implement the initiative, as specified. The bill would require the department to establish an advisory group, as specified. The bill would create the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative Fund in the State Treasury, to be comprised of federal, state, philanthropic, and private funds, for the purpose of expanding access to healthy foods in underserved communities and, to the extent practicable, to leverage other funding, as specified. Moneys in the fund would be expended upon appropriation by the Legislature.
Sponsored bills
Existing law authorizes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to administer funds appropriated by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (federal act) for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program. Existing law establishes the Energy Efficient State Property Revolving Fund (fund) and continuously appropriates the moneys in the fund to the Department of General Services for loans for projects on state-owned buildings and facilities to achieve greater, long-term energy efficiency, energy conservation, and energy cost and use avoidance. This bill would, for the 2011–12 and 2012–13 fiscal years, authorize the commission to transfer an amount of money as the commission determines to be appropriate, up to a maximum of $50,000,000, from the moneys received from the federal act into the fund. By requiring the transfer of moneys into a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. The bill would require the commission to provide written notice to the Controller on the amount and the timing of the transfer. The bill would require the commission to notify, in writing, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
(1) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, which is administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, requires each city, county, and regional agency, if any, to develop a source reduction and recycling element of an integrated waste management plan containing specified components, including a source reduction component, a recycling component, and a composting component. With certain exceptions, the source reduction and recycling element of that plan is required to divert 50% of all solid waste from landfill disposal or transformation by January 1, 2000, through source reduction, recycling, and composting activities. The department is required to file an annual progress report with the Legislature by March 1 that includes specified information regarding the act. This bill would make a legislative declaration that it is the policy goal of the state that not less than 75% of solid waste generated be source reduced, recycled, or composted by the year 2020, and would require the department, by January 1, 2014, to provide a report to the Legislature that provides strategies to achieve that policy goal and also includes other specified information and recommendations. The bill would allow the department to provide the report required by the bill in conjunction with the annual progress report, if the combined report is submitted by January 1, 2014. The bill would repeal the report requirement on January 1, 2017. (2) Existing law requires a city, county, and city and county to incorporate the nondisposal facility element and any amendment to the element into the revised source reduction and recycling element at the time of the 5-year revision of the source reduction and recycling element. Existing law requires the department to review an amendment to a nondisposal facility element and requires a local task force to review and comment on amendments to a nondisposal facility element. This bill would repeal those requirements. The bill would instead require a city, county, city and county, or regional agency to update all information required to be included in the nondisposal facility element. The bill would provide that the update is not subject to approval by the department or comment and review by a local task force. (3) Existing law requires a local agency to impose certain requirements on an operator of a large venue or event to facilitate solid waste reduction, reuse, and recycling. This bill would require a business, defined to include a commercial or public entity, that generates more than 4 cubic yards of commercial solid waste per week or is a multifamily residential dwelling of 5 units or more to arrange for recycling services, on and after July 1, 2012. The bill would also require a commercial waste generator to take specified actions with regard to recyclable materials. The bill would require a jurisdiction, on and after July 1, 2012, to implement a commercial solid waste recycling program meeting specified elements but would not require the jurisdiction to revise its source reduction and recycling element if the jurisdiction adds or expands a commercial solid waste recycling program to meet this requirement. The bill would authorize a local agency to charge and collect a fee from a commercial waste generator to recover the local agency's costs incurred in complying with the commercial solid waste recycling program requirements. By requiring a jurisdiction to implement a commercial solid waste recycling program, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the department to review a jurisdiction's compliance with the above requirement as a part of the department's review of a jurisdiction's compliance with the 50% solid waste diversion requirement and would authorize the department to review a jurisdiction's compliance pursuant to a specified procedure. (4) Existing law requires each state agency to submit an annual report to the department summarizing its progress in reducing solid waste that is due on September 1 of each year starting in 2009. This bill would change the due date to May 1 of each year. (5) Existing law requires an operator of a solid waste facility that wants to change the design or operation of the solid waste facility in a manner not authorized by the current permit to apply for a revised permit. Within 60 days of receipt of the application for the revised permit, the enforcement agency is required to inform the operator, and in some circumstances the department, of its determination to allow the change without revision of the permit, disallow the change, require a revision of the permit to allow the change, or require review under the California Environmental Quality Act before a decision is made. This bill would also require the enforcement agency to give notice of its determination to allow certain changes without a revision to the permit through a modification to the permit allowed by regulations developed by the department. (6) 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 gives control of the state park system to the Department of Parks and Recreation. Existing law authorizes the department to enter into agreements with an agency of the United States, a city, county, district, or other public agency or any combination thereof, for the care, maintenance, administration, and control by a party to the agreement of lands under the jurisdiction of a party to the agreement, for the purpose of the state park system. This bill would authorize the department to enter into an operating agreement for the development, improvement, restoration, care, maintenance, administration, or operation of a unit or units, or portion of a unit, of the state park system, as identified by the director, with a qualified nonprofit organization, as provided. This bill would require the operating agreement to include, among other things, a requirement that the nonprofit organization annually submit a report to the department, to be available on the Internet Web site of both the department and the nonprofit organization. The bill would require the nonprofit organization and the district superintendent for the department to hold a joint public meeting for discussion of the report. The bill would require the department to notify a Member of the Legislature of an intention to enter into an operating agreement relating to a park in the member's district, as well as notify specified committees of the Legislature. The bill would also require the department to report to the Legislature, on a biennial basis, the status of any operating agreement. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2019.
Existing law, part of the hazardous waste control law, requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to adopt regulations to establish a process by which chemicals or chemical ingredients in products may be identified and prioritized for consideration as being chemicals of concern and to adopt regulations to establish a process by which chemicals of concern may be evaluated. The department is prohibited from duplicating or adopting conflicting regulations for regulated product categories. A violation of the hazardous waste control law is a crime. The bill would enact the Toxin-Free Infants and Toddlers Act, which would, except as specified, prohibit, on and after July 1, 2013, the manufacture, sale, or distribution in commerce of any bottle or cup that contains bisphenol A, at a detectable level above 0.1 parts per billion (ppb) , if the bottle or cup is designed or intended to be filled with any liquid, food, or beverage intended primarily for consumption by children 3 years of age or younger. This prohibition would not apply to a product subject to a regulatory response by the department, on the date that a prescribed notice is posted regarding the department's adoption of the regulatory response. The bill would also require manufacturers to use the least toxic alternative when replacing bisphenolA in containers in accordance with this bill.
Existing law sets forth the requirements for the solicitation and evaluation of bids and the awarding of contracts by public entities. This bill would authorize a public entity to use, enter into, or require contractors to enter into, a project labor agreement for a construction project, if the agreement includes specified taxpayer protection provisions. This bill would authorize the members of the governing board of a local public entity to choose by majority vote whether to use, enter into, or require contractors to enter into a project labor agreement for a specific project or projects awarded by that entity and whether to allocate funding to a specific project covered by such an agreement. This bill would prohibit a charter provision, initiative, or ordinance from preventing the governing board of a local public entity, other than a charter city, from exercising this authority on a project-specific basis. This bill would also provide that if a charter provision, initiative, or ordinance of a charter city prohibits the governing board's consideration of a project labor agreement for a project to be awarded by the city, or prohibits the governing board from considering whether to allocate funds to a city-funded project covered by such an agreement, then state funding or financial assistance may not be used to support that project, as specified.
The Veterans' Farm and Home Purchase Act of 1974 authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to assist veterans in acquiring homes and farms by generally providing that the department may purchase a farm or home which the department then sells to a purchaser, as defined. Existing law prohibits the department, except in limited circumstances, from acquiring a home in which the veteran has an interest of record. This bill would authorize the department to acquire a home for the purpose of refinancing an existing mortgage loan that is not an existing loan acquired under the Veterans' Farm and Home Purchase Act of 1974. This bill would require the department to adopt and publish rules and regulations, as specified.
This measure would recognize October 2011 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month and urge all Californians to take a stand against domestic violence.
This measure would urge the United States government to consider the California jobs and economic stimulus provided by the California floriculture industry when advancing free trade agreements, specifically with Colombia.
This measure would proclaim February 28, 2011, as Rare Disease Day.