This measure would recognize February 2013 as Black History Month, urge all residents to join in celebrating the accomplishments of African Americans during Black History Month, and encourage the people of California to recognize the many talents, achievements, and contributions that African Americans make to their communities.
Sponsored bills
The California Constitution establishes that the civil service includes every officer and employee of the state, except as otherwise provided in the California Constitution, and requires civil service appointment to be made under a general system based on merit ascertained by competitive examination. The State Civil Service Act establishes standards for the use of personal services contracts by state agencies and authorizes personal services contracts when prescribed conditions are met. Existing law sets forth requirements for the acquisition of goods and services by state agencies and sets forth the various responsibilities of the Department of General Services and other state agencies in overseeing and implementing state contracting procedures and policies. The California Public Records Act provides for public access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business, except for public records exempt from disclosure by express provisions of law. The act also provides that a state or local agency may not allow another party to control disclosure of information that is otherwise subject to disclosure. This bill would require personal services contracts in excess of $25,000 between a state agency and a contractor to provide the state agency with the right to review and copy any records and files related to the performance of the personal services contract and to indicate that those records and files are subject to the California Public Records Act and may be disclosed. This bill would require any California Public Records Act requests pertaining to a personal services contract, as described, to be submitted directly to the state agency.
Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to allow pupils whom the district has determined would benefit from advanced scholastic or vocational work to attend community college as special part-time or full-time students, subject to parental permission. Existing law, until January 1, 2014, required credit to be awarded to these pupils, as specified, made the authority of a school principal to recommend a pupil for community college summer session contingent upon a determination that the pupil met various criteria, and prohibited the principal from recommending more than 5% of the total number of pupils from any particular grade level who completed that grade immediately before the time of recommendation for summer session attendance, except as specified. This bill would reinstate these provisions until January 1, 2017. The bill would, until July 1, 2020, authorize the governing board of a school district to enter into a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement with a community college district located within its immediate service area to allow pupils to attend community college. The bill would require a community college district and a school district, as a condition of, and before adopting, a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement, to take testimony from the public and approve or disapprove the proposed agreement at a regularly scheduled open public hearing of its respective governing board after having presented the agreement at a prior open public hearing. The bill would require the concurrent enrollment partnership agreement to outline the terms of the partnership, as specified. The bill would prohibit a school district from receiving a state allowance or apportionment for an instructional activity for which a community college district has been, or will be, paid an allowance or apportionment under a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement. The bill would authorize a participating high school to monitor the progress of its pupils attending a community college and to obtain the pupils' records from a community college district to do so. The bill would require, for each concurrent enrollment partnership agreement entered into under the bill, the affected community college district and school district to file an annual report, containing specified data, with the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. The bill would also authorize the governing board of a community college district to enter into a partnership with the governing board of a school district located within its service area with the goal of developing seamless pathways from high school to community college for career technical education or preparation for transfer. The bill would require the partnership agreement to outline the terms of the partnership, as specified, and would require copies of the partnership agreement to be filed with the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The bill would authorize a community college district to limit enrollment in a community college course to solely high school pupils under specified circumstances. The bill would authorize specified high school pupils to enroll in up to 15 units if those units are required for these pupils' partnership programs and specified circumstances are satisfied, and would authorize a community college district to exempt special part-time and full-time students taking up to a maximum of 15 units per term from specified fee requirements. The bill would prohibit a community college district from receiving a state allowance or apportionment for an instructional activity for which a school district has been, or will be, paid an allowance or apportionment under a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement. The bill would require, for each partnership agreement entered into under the bill, the affected community college district and school district to file an annual report, containing specified data, with the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. The bill would also make related and conforming changes.
(1) Existing law establishes the Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program, which requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to award a grant, for the purpose of purchasing or leasing agricultural career technical education equipment, to an applicant school district that operates an agricultural career technical education program and that meets specified requirements. Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to annually adopt or update a local control and accountability plan that contains specified information. This bill would continuously appropriate the sum of $4,134,000 in each fiscal year beginning with the 2015–16 fiscal year from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for purposes of funding the Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program. The bill would require the Superintendent to award a grant to a school district that, in addition to meeting the existing requirements, demonstrates how the expenditure of the grant funds will be consistent with its adopted local control and accountability plan. The bill would also express various findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to agricultural career technical education. (2) Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.
(1) Existing law establishes the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System, as provided. Existing law requires the State Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Finance and the Legislative Analyst's Office, and contingent upon the receipt of federal funds, to prepare the system to include data on pupil attendance, as specified. Existing law requires the system to support local educational agencies in their efforts to identify and support pupils at risk of dropping out and that it be capable of issuing periodic reports to local educational agencies that include district, school, class, and individual pupil reports on the rates of absence and chronic absentees. This bill would, subject to available state, federal, or private funding, require the State Department of Education to enhance the system, as provided. The bill would require the periodic reports to local educational agencies to include reports on the rates of absence, rates of chronic absenteeism and the number of chronic absentees, rates of truancy and the number of truants, rates of habitual truancy and the number of habitual truants, and rates of chronic truancy and the number of chronic truants. The bill would delete class information from the periodic reports. The bill would establish a definition for "rates of absence." (2) Existing law, once the system is prepared to accept data on a quarterly rate of pupil attendance, authorizes a local educational agency to submit data to the State Department of Education on a quarterly rate of pupil attendance, and other indicators as identified by the department. This bill would, once the system is enhanced to accept data on pupil attendance, authorize a local educational agency to submit the specified data to the system at any time throughout the year that meets its needs, but would require a local educational agency to, at a minimum, submit and certify the specified data, and other indicators identified by the department, to the system at the end of the school year or on dates to be determined by the department. The bill would authorize a local educational agency to receive reports with the specified data disaggregated as provided. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) This bill would also make conforming and nonsubstantive changes. (4) 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 defines a truant as any pupil subject to compulsory full-time education or to compulsory continuation education who is absent from school without a valid excuse 3 full days in one school year, or tardy or absent for more than any 30-minute period during the schoolday without a valid excuse on 3 occasions in one school year, or any combination thereof. Existing law provides that a pupil who is required to be reported as a truant is subject to specified penalties for the first to 4th instances that a truancy report is issued to a pupil, and, under certain circumstances, he or she may be judged a ward of the juvenile court. Existing law provides that a parent, guardian, or other person having control of or charge of any pupil who is a truant or chronic truant is guilty of, among other things, an infraction and subject to specified penalties for the first to 3rd or subsequent convictions. Existing law provides that any minor pupil who is a habitual truant, is irregular in attendance at school, or is habitually insubordinate or disorderly during attendance at school may be referred to a school attendance review board or to the probation department for services if the probation department has elected to receive these referrals. Existing law, under specified circumstances, authorizes a school attendance review board to notify the district attorney or the probation officer, or both, if the district attorney or the probation officer has elected to participate in a truancy mediation program, as specified. Existing law, under specified circumstances, also authorizes a school attendance review board or probation officer to direct the county superintendent of schools to request a petition on behalf of the pupil in the juvenile court of the county. This bill would require a state or local agency conducting a truancy-related mediation or prosecuting a pupil or a pupil's parent or legal guardian pursuant to these provisions, among others, to provide the school district, school attendance review board, county superintendent of schools, probation department, or any other agency that referred the truancy-related mediation, criminal complaint, or petition with the outcome of each referral, as specified. By imposing additional duties on local officials, 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.
Existing law authorizes the establishment of county and local school attendance review boards, and authorizes a school district to refer a pupil to a school attendance review board or the probation department for, among other things, truancy. Existing law, under specified circumstances, authorizes a school attendance review board or probation officer to direct the county superintendent of schools to request a petition on behalf of the pupil in the juvenile court of the county. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to adopt rules and regulations to require appropriate officers and employees of the school district to gather and transmit to the county superintendent of schools the number and types of referrals to school attendance review boards and of requests for petitions to the juvenile court. This bill would instead require the governing board of each school district that has established a local school attendance review board to adopt rules and regulations to require appropriate officers and employees of the school district to gather that information for the prior school year, and would expand the information required to be gathered to include, among other things, the number of pupils referred to a school attendance review board who improved their attendance and the number of pupils and parents or guardians referred to community services, as specified. The bill would require the information to be disaggregated by specified subgroups, including gender, ethnicity, and foster youth status. The bill would require the governing board of each school district to make available on its Internet Web site, if one is available, the contents of those school attendance review board reports no later than September 15 of every year. The bill would require the State Department of Education to maintain current Internet Web site links to the Internet Web sites of school attendance review board reports, and would require the governing board of each school district that posts school attendance review board reports to provide to the department current uniform resource locators for those Internet Web sites. The bill would make these provisions operative beginning June 1, 2015.
The Community Redevelopment Law authorizes the establishment of redevelopment agencies in communities to address the effects of blight, as defined by means of redevelopment projects financed by the issuance of bonds serviced by tax increment revenues derived from the project area. Existing law dissolved redevelopment agencies and community development agencies, as of February 1, 2012, and provides for the designation of successor agencies to wind down the affairs of the dissolved agencies and to fulfill the enforceable obligations of those agencies. Existing law also provides for various economic development programs that foster community sustainability and community and economic development initiatives throughout the state. This bill would authorize certain local agencies to form a community revitalization authority (authority) within a community revitalization and investment area, as defined, to carry out provisions of the Community Redevelopment Law in that area for purposes related to, among other things, infrastructure, affordable housing, and economic revitalization. The bill would provide for the financing of these activities by, among other things, the issuance of bonds serviced by tax increment revenues, and would require the authority to adopt a community revitalization plan for the community revitalization and investment area that includes elements describing and governing revitalization activities. The bill would also provide for periodic audits of the authority with respect to affordable housing, conducted as provided by the Controller, and for annual public reports by the authority as well as periodic proceedings for the consideration of public protests.
Existing law, until January 1, 2015, requires an application for an order authorizing the interception of a wire, oral, or other specified electronic communication to be made in writing upon the personal oath or affirmation of the Attorney General, Chief Deputy Attorney General, or Chief Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Law Division, or of a district attorney. Existing law, until January 1, 2015, authorizes the court to issue an order authorizing interception of those communications if the judge finds, among other things, that there is probable cause to believe that an individual is committing, has committed, or is about to commit, one of several offenses, including, among others, possession for sale of certain controlled substances, murder, and certain felonies involving destructive devices. This bill would add human trafficking to the list of offenses for which interception of electronic communications may be ordered pursuant to those provisions.
Existing law provides that every person who possesses for sale or purchases for purposes of sale cocaine base is subject to imprisonment in a county jail for a period of 3, 4, or 5 years. This bill instead would provide that every person who possesses for sale or purchases for purposes of sale cocaine base is subject to imprisonment in a county jail for 2, 3, or 4 years. Existing law generally provides that the interest of any registered owner of a boat, airplane, or any vehicle, except as specified, that has been used to facilitate the manufacture of, or possession for sale or sale of, 14.25 grams or more of cocaine base or 28.5 grams or more of cocaine is subject to forfeiture, as specified. This bill would revise that provision to instead make property that has been used to facilitate the manufacture of, or possession for sale or sale of, 28.5 grams or more of cocaine base or cocaine subject to forfeiture. Existing law, except in unusual cases, prohibits granting probation or suspending a sentence for persons convicted of specified crimes relating to controlled substances, including possessing for sale a substance containing 57 grams or more of a substance containing cocaine, 14.25 grams or more of cocaine base, or 57 grams or more of a substance containing at least 5 grams of cocaine base, and transporting or importing for sale, selling, or offering to sell cocaine base. This bill would delete those provisions and would instead prohibit, except in unusual cases, granting probation or suspending a sentence for persons convicted of possessing for sale or selling a substance containing 28.5 grams or more of cocaine base or 57 grams or more of a substance containing at least 5 grams of cocaine or cocaine base. By making additional persons eligible for probation, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.