Under existing law, it is a crime to assault, batter, or interfere with, as specified, a police dog or police horse. Under existing law, a violation of these provisions is punishable as a misdemeanor, or, if a serious physical injury is inflicted upon the animal, as a misdemeanor or a felony. Additionally, under existing law, if a person, with the intent to inflict injury or death, causes the death or serious physical injury of the animal, that person is, upon conviction of a felony, punishable by an additional one-year term of imprisonment. Under existing law, for each felony case, a court is required to hold, and a prosecutor is required to attend, a preliminary hearing. This bill would instead make the intentional killing or infliction of serious physical injury to a police dog or police horse a felony punishable by imprisonment for 2, 3, or 4 years. By changing the penalty of an existing crime, and by imposing additional duties on local prosecutors by increasing the number of preliminary hearings, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Sponsored bills
Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to implement a single statewide Child Welfare Services Case Management System to administer and evaluate the state's child welfare services and foster care programs. This bill would require the department to submit a report to the Legislature that contains specified information, including the total number of referrals to child welfare services recorded for each year, the percentage of substantiated allegations in which substance use disorder was suspected, and the percentage of substantiated allegations of substance use disorder that resulted in the child or the child's caregiver, or both, seeking voluntary or court-ordered treatment for the substance use disorder. The bill would require the department to submit that report to the Legislature on or before December 31, 2019, and would require the report to include data for all the years from 2010 to 2018, inclusive, as available. The bill would require the department, on January 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, to submit an annual report to the Legislature that includes the above-referenced information for the previous year.
This measure would proclaim the week of March 4, 2018, through March 10, 2018, inclusive, as Women in Construction Week.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation. Existing law continuously appropriates 35% of the annual proceeds of the fund for transit, affordable housing, and sustainable communities programs and 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund for certain components of a specified high-speed rail project. Existing law, beginning with the 2017–18 fiscal year, suspended certain fire prevention fees. This bill, beginning in the 2019–20 fiscal year, would continuously appropriate $74,805,000 from the fund annually to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for purposes of fire prevention activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This bill also, beginning in the 2019–20 fiscal year, would continuously appropriate $450,000,000 from the fund annually to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for state and local healthy forest and fire prevention programs and projects that improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, for vegetation management projects of local entities that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and maximize certain cobenefits, for the implementation of memorandums of understanding regarding federal lands for vegetation management that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and maximize certain cobenefits, and for resource management, to be allocated as specified.
Existing law authorizes a person, firm, or corporation, or a group or combination of persons, firms, corporations, or groups, that owns or controls brush-covered land, forest lands, woodland, grassland, shrubland, or any combination thereof within a state responsibility area, as defined, to apply to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for permission to utilize prescribed burning for specified public purposes. This bill would provide that a property owner and his or her agent conducting a prescribed burn, as defined, shall not be liable for damage or injury caused by fire or smoke, unless negligence is proven, when the prescribed burn meets specified conditions, including that the prescribed burn in conducted under the supervision of a certified prescribed burn manager, as defined, and proper burn permits have been obtained from all appropriate state and local agencies. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2020, to develop a training and certification program for prescribed burn managers. The bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2020, subject to the receipt of funding, to secure an insurance policy to provide compensation for any injuries or property damage resulting from a prescribed burn operation performed according to the above provisions. The bill would require prescribed burn managers, companies engaging in prescribed burn operations, small landowners, and fire safe councils to be covered under the liability insurance policy. The bill would provide that compliance with specified department burning contracts or with a specified burn permit shall constitute prima facie evidence of due diligence for purposes of determining liability under specified provisions of law and that any person or entity that has been issued the burn permit may use fire to abate a fire hazard. The bill would express intent of the Legislature that, among other things, the department (1) dedicate adequate numbers of staff solely to prescribed burning and vegetation management activities, and (2) make spot weather forecasting available to entities engaged in these burning contracts and to entities that have been issued the burn permit.
Existing law provides that the state has the primary financial responsibility for preventing and suppressing fires in areas that the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has determined are state responsibility areas, as defined. Existing law until July 1, 2017, required that a fire prevention fee be charged on each habitable structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area, to be used for specified fire prevention activities, and prescribed procedures for the collection and processing of the fees by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. Existing law repeals those provisions requiring the payment of the fee on January 1, 2031. This bill would instead repeal those provisions on January 1, 2019. The bill would also require the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, no later than January 1, 2020, to develop and implement a process for providing for refunds of any fire prevention fees collected by the department, commencing in the 2011-2012 fiscal year until July 1, 2017, from each owner of a habitable structure located in a state responsibility area pursuant to those provisions. The bill would also require the department to adopt regulations setting forth requirements for the application, review, and refund of those fees paid by the owner of a habitable structure, as provided.
This measure would designate March 2018 as Irish American Heritage Month in honor of the multitude of contributions that Irish Americans have made to the country and state.