Existing law, the Quality Education Investment Act of 2006, authorizes school districts and other local educational agencies to apply to the Superintendent of Public Instruction to receive funding to allocate to elementary and secondary schools and charter schools that are ranked in either decile 1 or 2 on the 2005 Academic Performance Index for use in performing various specified measures to improve academic instruction and pupil academic achievement. The act imposes certain program requirements on each funded school, including class size requirements, as specified. This bill would deem the King City Union School District to have met those class size requirements for the 2009–10 and 2010–11 fiscal years. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the King City Union School District.
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Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined, while local publicly owned electric utilities, as defined, are under the direction of their governing board. The existing Renewables Portfolio Standard Program (RPS program) requires a retail seller of electricity, as defined, and local publicly owned electric utilities to purchase specified minimum quantities of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, for specified compliance periods. The specified minimum quantities of electricity products are based upon a percentage of the utility's total retail sales of electricity in California. This bill would revise the RPS program so that the specified minimum quantities of electricity products required to be procured are based upon a percentage of the utility's net program retail sales of electricity in California. The bill would define "net program retail sales" of electricity as being the total retail sales of electricity by the retail seller or local publicly owned electric utility within California, minus those retail sales where the load was met by noneligible hydroelectric generation, as defined. The Renewable Energy Resources Program states the intent of the Legislature to increase the amount of electricity generated from eligible renewable energy resources per year so that amount equals at least 33% of total retail sales of electricity in California per year by December 31, 2020. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to increase the amount of electricity generated from eligible renewable energy resources per year so that amount equals at least 33% of net program retail sales of electricity in California per year by December 31, 2020.
(1) Existing law prohibits a permanent school employee from being dismissed except for one or more specified offenses. This bill would prohibit a collective bargaining agreement entered into or renewed on or after January 1, 2013, from requiring the removal, after a specified time period, from an employee's record of records pertaining to discipline, complaints, reprimands, or investigations relating to the employee's commission, or potential commission, of one of those specified offenses. (2) Existing law authorizes a governing board of a school district to give notice to a permanent employee of its intention to dismiss or suspend him or her for specified causes at the expiration of 30 days from the date of service of the notice, unless the employee demands a hearing. Existing law prohibits that notice from being given between May 15th and September 15th in any year. This bill would remove that prohibition. (3) Existing law prohibits the governing board of a school district from acting upon any charges of unprofessional conduct, or unsatisfactory performance, unless at least 45, or 90, calendar days, respectively, prior to the date of the filing of the charges the governing board, or its authorized representative, has given the employee written notice, as specified. This bill would remove those 45-day and 90-day requirements. (4) Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to immediately place an employee on compulsory leave of absence if the employee is charged with a mandatory leave of absence offense, as defined. This bill would require the governing board to transfer a certificated employee to nonclassroom duties that do not involve contact with pupils if the governing board has reasonable cause to believe that the employee is under investigation by a law enforcement agency for commission of a mandatory leave of absence offense. The bill would require an employee transferred under these provisions to continue to receive his or her regular salary during the period of the transfer. If the governing board returns the employee to classroom duties, the bill would require the governing board to record the reason or reasons for the return in a resolution adopted by the governing board. By placing additional duties on school district governing boards regarding the transfer of employee duties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) Existing law establishes a Commission on Professional Competence for each dismissal or suspension hearing requested by an employee, consisting of specified members. Existing law deems the decision of the Commission on Professional Competence to be the final decision of the governing board of the school district. This bill would make various changes to the provisions relating to the hearing, including requiring the Commission on Professional Competence to consist solely of an administrative law judge, as well as providing that the decision of the commission would be advisory, and the final decision regarding the discipline of the employee would be determined by action of the governing board of the school district. The bill would provide that an employee requesting a hearing may be placed on administrative leave without pay, and that an employee who is placed on administrative leave would be required to be paid his or her regular salary if he or she furnishes to the school district acceptable security, as specified. (6) Existing law prohibits testimony from being given or evidence being introduced at the hearing relating to matters that occurred more than 4 years prior to the date of the filing of the notice of dismissal or suspension. This bill would remove that 4-year limitation. (7) This bill would make nonsubstantive and conforming changes. (8) 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 provides for unemployment compensation benefits to eligible persons who are unemployed through no fault of their own. Existing law also provides that, insofar as federal law requires that state unemployment insurance law contains such a provision of certification, the amount of unemployment compensation benefits, extended duration benefits, and federal-state extended benefits payable to an individual in a period with respect to which that individual is receiving a governmental or other pension, retirement or retired pay, annuity, or any other similar periodic payment shall be reduced by an amount equal to the amount of the pension, retirement or retired pay, annuity, or other payment reasonably attributable to that week, as specified. This bill would provide that the amount of unemployment compensation benefits, extended duration benefits, and federal-state extended benefits payable to an individual for any week which begins after January 1, 2013, in a period with respect to which that individual is receiving a governmental pension, retirement or retired pay, annuity, or any other similar periodic payment, and which is based on the previous work of the individual, shall be reduced by an amount equal to the amount of the pension, retirement or retired pay, annuity, or other payment, which is reasonably attributable to that week, without a requirement from federal law, as specified.
Existing law authorizes the court in a criminal case to make a determination of a defendant's ability to pay all or a portion of the reasonable costs of imprisonment if the defendant is convicted of an offense and ordered to serve a period of imprisonment in the state prison. Existing law authorizes the court, in its discretion before any hearing, to order the defendant to file a statement setting forth his or her assets, liability, and income under penalty of perjury. If the court determines that the defendant has the ability to pay all or a portion of the costs, existing law requires the court to set the amount to be reimbursed and order the defendant to pay that sum to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in the manner in which the court believes reasonable and compatible with the defendant's financial ability, for deposit in the General Fund in the State Treasury. This bill would require the court to make a determination of the ability of a defendant to pay all or a portion of the reasonable costs of imprisonment in a state prison or a county jail, and would require the court to order the defendant to file a statement setting forth his or her assets, liability, and income before a hearing on the matter. The bill would further require a person sentenced to a county jail to pay the reasonable cost of imprisonment in the county jail, not to exceed the amount determined by the board of supervisors to be the actual average cost of imprisonment in the county jail, and would require payments for local incarceration costs to be made to the sheriff for deposit in the county general fund. By imposing additional duties on county prosecutors, 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.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA establishes judicial review procedures for challenging a lead agency action on the ground of noncompliance with CEQA. This bill would require a judicial proceeding challenging a project, except for a high-speed rail project, located in a distressed county, as defined, to be filed with the Court of Appeal with geographic jurisdiction over the project.
The Administrative Procedure Act governs the procedure for the adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations by state agencies and for the review of those regulatory actions by the Office of Administrative Law. This bill would enact the Government Accountability Act of 2012 and require that a major regulation, as defined, proposed on or after January 1, 2013, include a provision to repeal the regulation 2 years after the date that the regulation is approved by the office. The bill would require the office to return to an agency any proposed regulation that does not include the repeal provision. The bill would provide that the repeal date shall be void if the Legislature enacts a statute that expressly validates and approves the content of the regulation, as specified.
Existing law provides that any elected public officer who takes public office, or is reelected to public office, on or after January 1, 2006, who is convicted of any specified felony arising directly out of his or her official duties, forfeits all rights and benefits under, and membership in, any public retirement system in which he or she is a member, effective on the date of final conviction, as specified. This bill would require that an employee of a school district, county office of education, or charter school, who is convicted of any state or federal felony for conduct arising out of, or in the performance of, his or her official duties in pursuit of the office or appointment, or in connection with obtaining salary, disability retirement, or service retirement, or other benefits, forfeit retirement benefits earned or accrued from the earliest date of the commission of the felony to the forfeiture date, as specified. The bill would also require any contributions to the public retirement system made by the employee on or after the earliest date of commission of the felony to be returned, without interest, to the employee upon the occurrence of a distribution event, as defined, unless otherwise ordered by a court or determined by the pension administrator.
Existing law requires a local publicly owned electric utility that sells electricity at retail to 75,000 or more customers to adopt and implement a tariff for electricity purchased from an electric generation facility meeting certain size, deliverability, and interconnection requirements and to consider certain factors. Existing law requires the local publicly owned electric utility to make the tariff available to owners and operators of an electric generation facility within the service territory of the utility, upon request, on a first-come-first-served basis, until the utility meets its proportionate share of a statewide cap of 750 megawatts cumulative rated generation capacity served under the feed-in tariffs adopted pursuant to the above-described requirements. Existing law provides that the electricity purchased from an electric generation facility counts toward meeting the local publicly owned electric utility's renewables portfolio standard annual procurement targets. This bill would move this requirement to that portion of the Public Utilities Code concerning the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program. The bill would make other technical and nonsubstantive changes.
Existing law authorizes the California Veterans' Educational Institute, which is under the management and control of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to provide opportunities for veterans to continue their education. Existing law authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to work with authorized agencies of the United States in providing those opportunities. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to this provision.