Asm. Wilmer Amina Carter

Existing law states that all pupils need to be provided with opportunities to explore and make career choices and to seek appropriate instruction and training to support those choices. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to encourage school districts to plan programs and activities that utilize the resources of career fairs and youth leadership activities as an integral part of the vocational instructional program and career decisionmaking. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to the provision describing the requirement stated above.

(1) The Community Redevelopment Law authorizes the establishment of redevelopment agencies in communities to address the effects of blight, as defined, in blighted areas in those communities known as project areas. Existing law requires that each redevelopment agency submit the final report of any audit undertaken by any other local, state, or federal government entity to its legislative body and to additionally present an annual report to the legislative body containing specified information. This bill would impose new requirements on the agency with respect to implementation plans and evidentiary standards and expand existing prohibitions on agency direct assistance to certain projects. The bill would require the Controller, on or before January 1, 2013, to issue regulations revising and consolidating reporting for redevelopment agencies and to develop a simple, uniform, and consistent methodology for the calculation, payment, and reporting of passthrough payments. The bill would also require the Controller to review and revise the guidelines adopted for the content of the final report at least every 5 years, as specified. The bill would also transfer certain reporting requirements from the Department of Housing and Community Development to the Controller, as specified, and require that agencies send certain notifications to the Controller in addition to sending the notifications to the department. The bill would require that the department develop guidelines establishing standards to evaluate agency performance. (2) The bill would require the State Auditor to conduct audits of selected redevelopment agencies to ensure compliance with existing law. The bill would require each agency, immediately upon receipt, to deposit 0.025% of tax increment into the Redevelopment Agency State Audit Fund, which the bill would create, to fund the audits. (3) The California Constitution authorizes a redevelopment agency to receive funding through tax increment revenues attributable to increases in assessed property tax valuation of property in a project area due to redevelopment. Existing law prescribes the procedure by which the tax increment revenue is allocated. The bill would provide, for purposes of the above provisions, tax increment revenue transferred to an agency exclude any funds considered educational agency property tax revenues. The bill would provide that this provision applies only to tax increment revenues generated from any redevelopment project established on or after January 1, 2012. (4) The bill would authorize an agency to loan or grant funds for projects relating to energy efficiency. The bill would also authorize an agency to provide direct assistance, as described, to businesses within project areas for industrial or manufacturing uses or similar uses of statewide benefit.

This bill would urge the United States Patent and Trademark Office to place a satellite office in California.

This measure would designate that January 16, 2012, be observed as the official memorial of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth, commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement in changing public policy in California and in the United States of America.

Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with approval of the State Board of Education, to develop an Academic Performance Index (API) , as part of the Public School Performance Accountability Program, to measure the performance of schools, especially the academic performance of pupils. The API consists of a variety of indicators including specified achievement test scores, attendance rates, and graduation rates. Existing law requires the Superintendent, with approval of the state board, to develop an alternative accountability system for specified types of schools, including, among others, community day schools and continuation schools. Existing law allows these schools to receive an API score, but prohibits them from being included in the API rankings of schools. This bill, until January 1, 2017, would require the Superintendent and the state board, as part of the alternative accountability system for schools, or any successor system, to allow no more than 10 dropout recovery high schools, as defined, to report the results of an individual pupil growth model that is proposed by the school and certified by the Superintendent pursuant to specified criteria instead of reporting other indicators.

The California Constitution requires the Governor to fill judicial office vacancies by appointment and to nominate candidates for election to the California Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeal, as specified. Existing law requires the Governor to submit to a designated agency of the State Bar of California the names of all potential appointees or nominees for judicial office for evaluation of their judicial qualifications. Existing law provides that the membership of the designated agency shall consist of attorney members and public members, and be broadly representative of the ethnic, gender, and racial diversity of the population of California, as specified. Existing law also requires, on or before March 1 of each year, the Governor, the designated agency, and the Administrative Office of the Courts to collect and release specified demographic data relative to the ethnicity, race, and gender of judicial applicants or judges, as specified. This bill would require each member of the designated agency of the State Bar responsible for evaluation of judicial candidates to complete a minimum of 60 minutes of training in the areas of fairness and bias in the judicial appointments process at an orientation for new members, and an additional 60 minutes of that training during his or her service on that agency if the member serves more than one term. The bill would revise the provision requiring the Governor, the designated agency, and the Administrative Office of the Courts to collect and release specified demographic data annually, as described above, to specifically require that the information be for the prior calendar year. The bill would also require, with respect to the collection and release of demographic data, the State Bar and the Administrative Office of the Courts to use specified ethnic and racial categories, as those categories are defined by the United States Census Bureau for the 2010 Census for reporting purposes. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 12011.5 of the Government Code proposed in SB 182, that would become operative only if SB 182 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2012, and this bill is chaptered last.

(1) Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board (state board) and the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste discharge requirements for the discharge of stormwater in accordance with the national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit program and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. Existing law authorizes a city, county, or special district to develop, jointly or individually, stormwater resource plans that meet certain standards. This bill would enact the Rainwater Capture Act of 2011, which would authorize residential, commercial, and governmental landowners to install, maintain, and operate rain barrel systems, as defined, and rainwater capture systems, as defined, for specified purposes, provided that the systems comply with specified requirements. The bill would require a local agency to provide notification to the operator of a public water system, as defined, if the local agency chooses to adopt a permitting program for rainwater capture systems and approves a permit for a rainwater capture system connected to the public water system. (2) Existing law, the Contractors' State License Law, creates the Contractors' State License Board within the Department of Consumer Affairs and provides for the licensing and regulation of contractors. Existing law authorizes a landscape contractor working within the classification of his or her license to enter into a prime contract for the construction of a swimming pool, spa, or hot tub, an outdoor cooking center, or an outdoor fireplace, if certain conditions are met. Under existing law, a violation of these provisions and related provisions of existing law is grounds for disciplinary action. This bill would additionally authorize a landscape contractor working within the classification of his or her license to enter into a prime contract for the construction of a rainwater capture system, as defined, if the system is used exclusively for landscape irrigation. The bill would authorize a landscape contractor holding a specified classification to design and install all exterior components of a rainwater capture system that are not a part of, or attached to, a structure.

Existing law provides for a state park system of which the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park in Tulare County is a unit. This bill would require the Department of Parks and Recreation to notify the State Park and Recreation Commission of any proposed development that may substantially impact the historical, cultural, or recreational significance of the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, and would require the commission, upon receipt of that notification to hold a duly noticed public hearing to receive public input regarding the potential impacts of the proposed development on the park. The bill would require the commission, following the public hearing, to submit, in writing, to the department a summary of its conclusions on the potential park impacts that may be caused by the proposed development for transmission by the department to the appropriate local government entities. The bill would also require the department, in consultation with the State Office of Historic Preservation, to study the feasibility of recommending that the park be considered for designation as a National Historic Landmark. The bill would make legislative findings as to the necessity of a special statute.

Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop, in conjunction with specified persons and entities, a report that explores the feasibility of expanding and establishing career multiple pathway programs, as defined, in California. This bill, commencing with the 2012–13 school year, would establish the Linked Learning Pilot Program to be administered by the State Department of Education according to specified requirements for the purpose of implementing districtwide linked learning programs, as defined, in all participating school districts. The bill would authorize a school district that maintains any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, to apply to the Superintendent to operate a pilot program. The bill would require the department to review these applications and would authorize the Superintendent to initially approve no more than 20 applications. The bill would require that, if funds become available for purposes of the pilot program, the Superintendent allocate these funds on a competitive basis, based on the applications submitted. The bill would require the Superintendent to transmit a report to the Legislature and the Governor by September 30, 2016, that makes specified evaluations and recommendations. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2017, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2018.

Existing law, the Open Enrollment Act, allows the parent of a pupil enrolled in a low-achieving school to submit an application for the pupil to attend school in a school district other than the school district in which the parent of the pupil resides, but in which the parent nevertheless intends to enroll the pupil. Existing law defines a low-achieving school, for purposes of these provisions, as a school identified by the Superintendent of Public Instruction by inclusion on a list of 1,000 schools ranked by increasing Academic Performance Index score. Existing law provides that no local educational agency may have more than 10% of its schools on the list and that specified types of schools, including charter schools, may not be included on the list. This bill would instead provide that the list created by the Superintendent to define low-achieving schools may include up to 1,000 schools, that a local educational agency shall not have more than 10% of its schools on the list, calculated as specified, and that county offices of education operating a special education program and state special schools not be included on the list. The bill would also provide that a school shall only be identified as a low-achieving school if it is identified on the list for 2 consecutive years and would delete the provision excluding charter schools from inclusion on the list. Existing law requires a school district of enrollment to conduct a lottery to select pupils at random if the number of pupils who request a particular school exceeds the number of spaces available at that school. This bill would provide that a school district of enrollment shall not reject the transfer of an individual with exceptional needs or an English learner if he or she is randomly selected through the lottery.