The California Constitution requires that the water resources of the state be put to beneficial use to the fullest extent of which they are capable and that the waste or unreasonable use or unreasonable method of use of water be prevented. The Water Rights Permitting Reform Act of 1988 authorizes any person to obtain a right to appropriate water for a small domestic, small irrigation, or livestock stockpond use upon registering the use with the State Water Resources Control Board, as prescribed, payment of a registration fee, and application of the water to reasonable and beneficial use with due diligence. Existing law generally provides that the owner of a dam or other water impoundment structure constructed before January 1, 1969, with a capacity not in excess of 10 acre-feet on January 1, 1975, has a valid water right for the use of the water for specified purposes relating to livestock watering use, if that person files a claim for a water right accompanied by a fee with the board not later than December 31, 1997. Existing law requires the board to issue a certificate of the validity of the water right to a claimant who establishes a water right under these provisions. This bill would provide that the owner of a stockpond built prior to January 1, 2019, that does not have a capacity greater than 10 acre-feet may obtain a right to appropriate water for the principal purpose of watering livestock if that person files a claim for a water right with the board accompanied by a fee not later than December 31, 2021, with certain exceptions. Upon the issuance of a certificate by the board for an appropriation of water obtained under the bill's provisions, the bill would require the board to provide in writing conditions to which the appropriation is subject. The bill would require the board to establish reasonable general conditions to which all appropriations of water made under the bill's provisions are to be subject and would authorize the board to revise the conditions from time to time. Existing law authorizes the board to adopt regulations requiring measurement and reporting of water diversion and use by persons including, among others, those authorized to appropriate water under a permit, a license, a registration for small domestic, small irrigation, or livestock stockpond use, or a certification for livestock stockpond use. This bill would require the board to assume for purposes of those measurement and reporting regulations that the capacity of a stockpond declared with a specified type of established water rights claim is the total amount of water diverted annually.
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The California Disaster Assistance Act provides that the state share for disaster project allocations to local agencies is no more than 75% of total state eligible costs, except for specified events for which the state share is up to 100% of state eligible costs. This bill would provide that the state share for the removal of dead and dying trees in connection with the Governor's Proclamation of a State of Emergency issued on October 30, 2015, is no more than 90% of total state eligible costs.
(1) The California Whistleblower Protection Act prohibits an employee from interfering with a person's rights to disclose improper activity and authorizes the State Auditor to conduct an investigative audit upon receiving specific information that an employee or state agency has engaged in an improper governmental activity, as defined. The California Whistleblower Protection Act applies to state agencies, as defined, and to the University of California, the California State University, and courts, as specified. Under the California Whistleblower Protection Act, a person who intentionally engages in acts of reprisal, retaliation, threats, coercion, or similar acts against a state employee or an applicant for state employment for having made a protected disclosure is subject to civil liability and criminal penalties. The California Whistleblower Protection Act defines a "protected disclosure" to mean, among other things, a good faith communication that discloses information that may evidence an improper governmental activity. This bill would expand the definition of the term "protected disclosure" to include a complaint made to a Member of the Legislature, the Legislature, or any subdivision thereof. By expanding the definition of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Other existing law, the Whistleblower Protection Act, prohibits a state or local governmental employee from interfering with the right of a person to disclose an improper governmental activity, as defined, to an investigating committee of the Legislature. The Whistleblower Protection Act defines other terms for its purposes, including defining "employee" to mean any individual appointed by the Governor or employed or holding office in a state agency, including the California State University and the University of California, defined public entities, or any agency of local government. This bill would authorize a legislative investigative committee to investigate and report on improper governmental activities or to refer the improper governmental activity to the State Auditor for investigation pursuant to the California Whistleblower Protection Act. The bill would also authorize the committee to prepare and send copies of investigative reports to an employee's appointing power if it finds that the employee may have participated in improper governmental activities. The bill would authorize a committee to request additional information from a person submitting an allegation, as specified. The bill would prescribe various requirements for maintaining the confidentiality of people providing information in confidence and information obtained on investigation. The bill would authorize a legislative investigative committee to request assistance from a state department, agency, or employee in evaluating an allegation or conducting any investigation of an improper governmental activity and would generally require that such assistance be provided, as specified. (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. (4) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law, the Gambling Control Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of various legalized gambling activities and establishments by the California Gambling Control Commission and the investigation and enforcement of those activities and establishments by the Department of Justice. Existing law requires the commission to establish a 10-member Gaming Policy Advisory Committee composed of representatives of controlled gambling licensees and members of the general public in equal numbers. Existing law requires the executive director of the commission to convene the committee, from time to time, for the purpose of discussing matters of controlled gambling regulatory policy and any other relevant gambling-related issue. This bill would increase the membership of the committee from 10 to 12 members, and would require the committee to be composed of 5 representatives of controlled gambling licensees, 5 members of the general public, and 2 representatives from the Department of Justice. The bill would require the executive director to convene the committee at least twice annually, rather than from time to time, for the purpose of discussing those gambling policy matters and any other gambling-related issue.
(1) Existing law provides for the licensure, registration, and regulation of clinical laboratories and various clinical laboratory personnel by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law makes a person who violates those requirements guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law requires a clinical laboratory license and the license or renewal permit of each person performing tests therefor to be posted in the clinical laboratory. This bill would instead require the license or renewal permit of each person to be posted only if the person performs tests in the clinical laboratory, and would allow a license of the clinical laboratory and each of those licensed test performers to be stored in a file, or electronically maintained. The bill would require the licenses to be produced to the department upon request. Because a violation of the requirement to produce a license to the department would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation by the State Department of Public Health of various health facilities, including general acute care hospitals. Existing law requires a general acute care hospital to annually post on its internet website its updated policy concerning the availability of language assistance services to the public, and to annually provide that updated policy and a related description to the department. Existing law requires the department to make those updated policies available on its internet website. This bill would repeal the requirements that a hospital provide those updated policies to the department and that the department post those policies on its internet website. (3) Existing law establishes the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) in the California Health and Human Services Agency to regulate health planning and research development, and designates OSHPD as the single state agency to collect health facility or clinical data. Existing law generally requires a health care facility to report specified data, including patient demographics, to OSHPD. Existing regulations require a general acute care hospital to submit to the State Department of Public Health various data, including demographic and medical data. This bill would provide that a general acute care hospital that submits specified data to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development is compliant with those regulatory reporting requirements. (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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires that every individual with exceptional needs, as defined, who is eligible be provided with educational instruction, services, or both, at no cost to their parent or guardian or, as appropriate, to them. A free appropriate public education is required to be made available to individuals with exceptional needs in accordance with specified federal regulations adopted pursuant to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This bill, until January 1, 2023, would establish a pilot program to be administered by the county offices of education in the Counties of El Dorado, Monterey, Sacramento, San Diego, and Sonoma to improve the social and behavioral skills of pupils who are autistic or have other special needs, as specified. The bill would require those county offices of education and school districts to submit a specified report to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee 2 on Education Finance no later than January 1, 2022. By requiring the county offices of education in the Counties of El Dorado, Monterey, Sacramento, San Diego, and Sonoma, to participate in the pilot program, this 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law establishes fees for the registration of vehicles to be collected by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) , and requires that a penalty be assessed for delinquent payment of vehicle registration, as specified. This bill would require the department to permit the payment of registration renewal fees in installments, as specified. The bill would subject a registered owner who fails to pay the registration renewal fees in full by the due date to the delinquent payment penalties described above.
Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Motor Vehicles implement procedures to ensure, to the fullest extent permitted by the resources made available to it, that a person who is requesting certain services will not be required under normal circumstances to wait in any one line for service longer than 12 hour during the department's published or posted hours of operation. This bill would instead require the department to implement those procedures. The bill would also require every office of the department to post information relating to wait times and would require the department to make that wait time information available on the department's Internet Web site and by telephone.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law provides that electrical cooperatives are subject to the regulatory authority of the commission pursuant to the Public Utilities Act, except as specified. Existing law requires each electrical corporation, local publicly owned electric utility, and electrical cooperative to construct, maintain, and operate its electrical lines and equipment in a manner that will minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfire posed by those electrical lines and equipment. Existing law requires each electrical corporation, local publicly owned electric utility, and electrical cooperative to annually prepare a wildfire mitigation plan. Existing law requires that a wildfire mitigation plan of an electrical corporation include protocols for disabling reclosers and deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public safety, as well as protocols related to mitigating the public safety impacts of those protocols, including impacts on critical first responders and on health and communications infrastructure. Existing law requires that a wildfire mitigation plan of an electrical corporation include appropriate and feasible procedures for notifying a customer who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines. Existing law requires that the procedures consider the need to notify, as a priority, critical first responders, health care facilities, and operators of telecommunications infrastructure. This bill would require each electrical corporation that deenergizes portions of the distribution grid as a wildfire mitigation measure to adopt protocols for when deenergization will be undertaken and for providing notice and other steps to be taken to minimize any adverse effects from deenergization, as specified. The bill would require that the electrical corporation, in developing the protocols, consult with persons and institutions that are reasonably likely to be affected by a deenergization, including local schools, water suppliers, wastewater agencies, disability rights advocates, consumer groups, fire departments, law enforcement agencies, local government officials, local elected officials, hospitals, and communications providers. The bill would require an electrical corporation that deenergizes portions of the distribution grid as a wildfire mitigation measure to maintain an internet website, or maintain a dedicated web page identified and accessible from its general internet website, that is devoted to public safety as it relates to the utility services provided by the electrical corporation, as specified.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish contracts for electronic programs that allow qualified private industry partners to provide services that include processing and payment programs for vehicle registration and titling transactions. Existing law authorizes the department to enter into a partnership with an interstate carrier partner to provide electronic vehicle registration services and to enter into contractual agreements with interstate carrier partners, if certain criteria are met. This bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to explore ways to increase its partnerships with motor clubs, qualified private industry partners, and others to provide services traditionally provided by the department and would authorize those partners to provide specified services. The bill would require the department to submit a report to the Legislature every 2 years beginning January 1, 2022, on its progress to expand and increase those partnerships.