Sen. Jerry Hill

Existing law provides various circumstances that constitute oral copulation against an individual's will and sexual penetration against an individual's will, including an act accomplished with an individual who is not the spouse of the perpetrator where the individual submits under the belief that the individual committing the act is the victim's spouse, and this belief is induced by artifice, pretense, or concealment practiced by the accused, with the intent to induce the belief. This bill would instead provide that these types of oral copulation and sexual penetration occur where the individual submits under the belief that the individual committing the act is someone known to the victim other than the accused. By expanding the definition of a crime, 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law sets forth procedures for voting by mail and requires the local elections official to compare the signature on the identification envelope of a vote by mail ballot with the voter's signature that appears on his or her affidavit of registration. If the signatures compare, existing law requires the elections official to deposit the ballot in a ballot container. If the ballot is rejected because the signatures do not compare, existing law requires that the ballot not be counted and that the cause of the rejection be written on the face of the identification envelope. Existing law also requires the elections official to establish procedures to track and confirm the receipt of vote by mail ballots that are voted and to make that information available by means of online access using the county's elections division Internet Web site, or, if it has no Internet Web site, by a toll-free telephone number that may be used to confirm the date the ballot was received. This bill would require the county elections official to establish a free access system by which a vote by mail voter may learn whether his or her ballot was counted and, if not, the reason why it was not counted. This bill would require the elections official to make the free access system available to a vote by mail voter upon completion of the official canvass and for 30 days thereafter. This bill would permit the county elections official to use the county's free access system for provisional ballots to establish the free access system for vote by mail ballots. By requiring elections officials to provide a higher level of service, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires the appropriate elections official to prepare sample ballots for each election and to cause to be printed at least as many copies of the sample ballot as there are voters in each voting precinct. Existing law requires the elections official to mail a sample ballot to each voter who registered at least 29 days prior to the election. This bill would permit the elections official to elect not to mail a sample ballot to a voter if specified conditions are satisfied. For each voter to whom the elections official elects not to mail a sample ballot, this bill would permit the elections official to cause to be printed one less copy of the sample ballot. If a county elections official elects not to mail a sample ballot to a voter, this bill would require the elections official to use any savings achieved to offset the costs associated with establishing a free access system for vote by mail ballots before the savings may be used for any other purpose. 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 provides various circumstances that constitute rape, including an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a person who is not the spouse of the perpetrator where the person submits under the belief that the person committing the act is the victim's spouse, and this belief is induced by artifice, pretense, or concealment practiced by the accused, with the intent to induce the belief. Existing law provides various circumstances that constitute sodomy against an individual's will, including an act accomplished with an individual who is not the spouse of the perpetrator where the individual submits under the belief that the individual committing the act is the victim's spouse, and this belief is induced by artifice, pretense, or concealment practiced by the accused, with the intent to induce the belief. This bill would instead provide that these types of rape and sodomy occur where the person submits under the belief that the person committing the act is someone known to the victim other than the accused. By expanding the definition of a crime, 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law generally regulates the operation of swap meets, flea markets, and open-air markets where personal property is exchanged, sold, or offered for sale or exchange. Existing law also regulates food vendors operating at swap meets. This bill would authorize, subject to exceptions and commencing January 1, 2016, a swap meet operator to permit a vendor to offer animals for sale at a swap meet provided the local jurisdiction has adopted certain standards for the care and treatment of those animals during the time that the animals are present at the swap meet and transported to and from the swap meet. These provisions would not apply to the sale of a particular species of animal if a local jurisdiction has adopted a local ordinance prior to January 1, 2013, that applies specifically to the sale of that particular species of animal at swap meets. The bill would provide that a swap meet vendor who offers animals for sale at a swap meet in violation of the requirements of this bill would be guilty of an infraction punishable by a fine not to exceed $100 for the first violation, or for a 2nd or subsequent violation, a fine not to exceed $500. By creating new crimes, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

This measure would honor the sesquicentennial of the National Academy of Sciences.

Existing law generally requires any person planning to conduct an excavation to contact a regional notification center prior to excavation, and, if practical, to delineate the areas to be excavated. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General, a district attorney, or the state or a local agency that issued a permit to excavate to bring an action for the enforcement of a civil penalty against an operator or excavator who negligently or knowingly and willfully violates the requirements of these and related provisions. The bill would require statewide information, as defined, provided by operators and excavators regarding facility events, as defined, to be compiled and made available in an annual report by regional notification centers and posted on the Internet Web sites of those regional notification centers.

Proposition 117, an initiative measure approved by the voters at the June 5, 1990, statewide direct primary election, enacted the California Wildlife Protection Act of 1990. The act establishes that the mountain lion is a specially protected mammal under the laws of this state, and makes it unlawful to take, injure, possess, transport, import, or sell any mountain lion or any part or product thereof. The act authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife, or a specified appropriate local agency authorized by the department, to remove or take any mountain lion that is perceived to be an imminent threat to public health or safety or that is perceived by the department to be an imminent threat to the survival of certain sheep species. Under the act, mountain lions that are authorized to be taken are required to be taken by the most effective means available, except a taking by certain designated means is prohibited. This bill would require nonlethal procedures, as defined, to be used when removing or taking any mountain lion that has not been designated as an imminent threat to public health or safety, as defined. The bill would authorize the department, as the department determines is necessary to protect mountain lions or the public, to authorize qualified individuals, educational institutions, governmental agencies, or nongovernmental organizations to implement nonlethal procedures. The California Wildlife Protection Act of 1990 prohibits the Legislature from changing the act, with specified exceptions, except by a 45 vote of the membership of both houses of the Legislature and then only if consistent with, and in furtherance of, the purposes of the act. This bill would declare that it is consistent with, and furthers the purposes of, that act.

Existing law, commencing on January 1, 2012, prohibits an employment contract for a local agency executive, as defined, from providing an automatic renewal of a contract that provides for an automatic compensation increase in excess of a cost-of-living adjustment or a maximum cash settlement in excess of certain limits, as specified. Existing law defines the term "local agency executive" for these purposes, and includes within that definition any person who is either the chief executive officer of the local agency or a department head of a local agency. This bill would additionally include within the definition of "local agency executive" any person who is a deputy or assistant chief executive officer, and any person whose position is held by an employment contract between that person and the local agency. By expanding the duties of local officials, 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 these statutory provisions.

Existing law creates the High-Speed Rail Authority with specified powers and duties relating to the development and implementation of an intercity high-speed rail system. Existing law, pursuant to the Safe, Reliable, High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, authorizes $9,950,000,000 in general obligation bonds for high-speed rail development and other related purposes. Existing law appropriates specified funds from the High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Fund and from federal funds for high-speed rail and connecting rail projects. This bill would add detail to provisions governing the expenditure of certain of those appropriated funds. The bill would specify that of the $1,100,000,000 appropriated for early high-speed rail improvement projects in the Budget Act of 2012, $600,000,000 and $500,000,000 shall be allocated solely for purposes of specified memoranda of understanding approved by the High-Speed Rail Authority for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission region and the southern California region, respectively. The bill would limit fund transfer authority between certain appropriations to temporary transfers for account management purposes. The bill would restrict use of certain appropriated funds, to the extent they are allocated to the San Francisco-San Jose segment of the high-speed rail system, to implement a rail system in that segment that primarily consists of a 2-track blended system to be used jointly by high-speed trains and Caltrain commuter trains, with the system to be contained substantially within the existing Caltrain right-of-way. These provisions would be effective until a specified time, and would be inoperative thereafter. This bill would also require any track expansion for the San Francisco to San Jose segment beyond the blended system approach to be approved by all 9 parties to the Bay Area High-Speed Rail Early Investment Strategy Memorandum of Understanding, as specified.