This measure would proclaim May 2 through May 9, 2011, as Cinco de Mayo Week, and would urge all Californians to join in celebrating Cinco de Mayo.
This measure would designate a specified location on State Highway Route 1 in the City of Guadalupe in Santa Barbara County as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway. This measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering those costs, to erect those signs.
(1) Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, on or before September 1, 2011, to adopt emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee in an amount not to exceed $150 to be charged on each structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area, as defined, and requires that the fire prevention fee be adjusted annually using prescribed methods. Existing law requires the State Board of Equalization to collect the fire prevention fees, as prescribed, commencing with the 2011–12 fiscal year. Existing law establishes the State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fund and prohibits the collections of fire prevention fees if, commencing with the 2012–13 fiscal year, there are sufficient amounts of moneys in the fund to finance specified fire prevention activities for a fiscal year. Existing law requires that the fire prevention fees collected, except as provided, be deposited into the fund and be made available, to the board and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for certain specified fire protection activities that benefit the owners of structures in state responsibility areas who are required to pay the fee. Existing law further requires the board, on and after January 1, 2013, to submit an annual written report to the Legislature on specified topics. This bill would repeal the above provisions relating to the fire prevention fees. (2) The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. Governor Schwarzenegger issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 6, 2010. Governor Brown issued a proclamation on January 20, 2011, declaring and reaffirming that a fiscal emergency exists and stating that his proclamation supersedes the earlier proclamation for purposes of that constitutional provision. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared and reaffirmed by the Governor by proclamation issued on January 20, 2011, pursuant to the California Constitution.
This measure would proclaim October 22 to October 30, 2011, as including Red Ribbon Week, and would encourage all Californians to help build drug-free communities and participate in drug prevention activities.
(1) Existing law authorizes specified entities, including, among others, local agencies managing a groundwater basin or subbasin pursuant to existing law relating to groundwater management plans or integrated regional water management plans, to assume responsibility for monitoring and reporting groundwater elevations in all or a part of a groundwater basin or subbasin. Existing law requires an entity seeking to assume those functions to notify the Department of Water Resources, and requires the department to determine which entities will perform monitoring functions. Existing law requires monitoring entities to commence monitoring and reporting groundwater elevations on or before January 1, 2012. This bill would add to the list of entities that may assume responsibility for monitoring and reporting groundwater elevations, a local agency that has been collecting and reporting groundwater elevations and that does not have a groundwater management plan, if the local agency adopts a groundwater management plan in accordance with specified provisions of existing law by January 1, 2014. The bill would permit the department to authorize the local agency to conduct monitoring and reporting of groundwater elevations on an interim basis, until the local agency adopts a groundwater management plan or until January 1, 2014, whichever occurs first. The bill would authorize a monitoring entity to report groundwater elevations using specified alternate monitoring techniques for certain groundwater basins and subbasins meeting prescribed conditions. The bill would condition this authorization upon submission of a report to the department and a determination by the department that the monitoring entity may use the alternate monitoring techniques. The bill would require a monitoring entity, every 3 years, to submit to the department information establishing its continued eligibility to use the alternate monitoring techniques. (2) Existing law requires the department to identify the extent of monitoring of groundwater elevations that is being undertaken within specified groundwater basins and subbasins. If the department determines that all or part of a basin or subbasin is not being monitored, the department is required to attempt to contact all well owners within the area not being monitored and determine if there is an interest in establishing a specified groundwater management plan, integrated regional water management plan, or voluntary groundwater monitoring association. If the department determines that there is insufficient interest in establishing a plan or association, and the county decides not to perform groundwater monitoring and reporting functions, the department is required to determine whether existing monitoring wells provide sufficient information to demonstrate seasonal and long-term trends in groundwater elevations. If the department determines that the monitoring wells provide insufficient information to demonstrate those trends, and the State Mining and Geology Board concurs with that determination, the department is required to perform groundwater monitoring functions. This bill would delete the requirement that the State Mining and Geology Board concur with the department's determination regarding the sufficiency of information provided by existing monitoring wells for purposes of the department's performance of groundwater monitoring functions.
This measure would proclaim the month of March of every year as Read Across California Month and request that public and private stakeholders work together to raise awareness of the importance of reading to young children and the importance of independent reading among our pupils and citizens of California by encouraging everyone to read for 30 minutes for 30 days during the month of March of every year, in conjunction with the Read Across America campaign held annually on March 2.
Existing law establishes the Veterans' Home Allied Council pursuant to the constitution of the Allied Council, Veterans' Home of California, comprised of members of the home, as an advisory body to the Administrator of the Veterans' Home. This bill would provide for the recognition of a Veterans' Home Allied Council as an advisory body to the administration of each veterans' home, and would additionally permit each council to represent veterans who reside in the veterans' home for which the council was established in matters before the Legislature if each council, in the course of providing that representation, complies with specified requirements, as prescribed. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would recognize June 19, 2011, as Veterans of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces Day, in memory of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for freedom and democracy and the victims of the Vietnam War, and in honor of the survivors, activists, and freedom fighters of that war.
This measure would recognize March 31, 2011, as the anniversary of the birth of César Chávez, and would call upon all Californians to participate in appropriate observances to remember César Chávez as a symbol of hope and justice to all persons.
This measure would continue designation and observance of the month of October as Italian American Heritage Month. This measure would also encourage the Legislature to continue the Italian American Legislator Project and welcome the exhibit "The Italian American Legislator Project of 2011: A Legacy of Service to the California Legislature" to the State Capitol Building in October 2011 and encourage all Californians, through the K–12 curriculum and otherwise, to learn about the history, role, and contributions of Italian Americans to the State of California.
