The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act generally requires the administrator for oil spill response, acting at the direction of the Governor, to implement activities relating to oil spill response, including emergency drills and preparedness, and oil spill containment and cleanup, and to represent the state in any coordinated response efforts with the federal government. Existing law requires the Governor to establish a California oil spill contingency plan that provides for an integrated and effective state procedure to combat the results of major oil spills within the state and that specifies state agencies to implement the plan. Existing law requires the administrator to submit to the Governor and the Legislature an amended California oil spill contingency plan that addresses marine oil spills, by January 1, 1993, and to submit revised plans every 3 years thereafter. Beginning January 1, 2017, and every 3 years thereafter, the administrator is required to submit an amended California oil spill contingency plan that addresses both marine and inland oil spills. Existing law requires the administrator to adopt and implement regulations governing the adequacy of oil spill contingency plans to be prepared and implemented and requires the regulations to provide for the best achievable protection of coastal and marine waters. Existing law requires an owner or operator of a facility, small marine fueling facility, or mobile transfer unit, or an owner or operator of a tank vessel, nontank vessel, or vessel carrying oil as secondary cargo, while operating in the waters of the state or where a spill could impact waters of the state, to have an oil spill contingency plan that complies with the rules, regulations, and policies established by the administrator, that meets specified minimum requirements, and that has been submitted to, and approved by, the administrator. This bill would define "nonfloating oil" for purposes of the act. The bill would require the administrator, by January 1, 2020, to conduct and complete an independent scientific study on the best achievable protection of state waters from spills of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oils, including criteria for oil spill contingency plans and oil spill response organizations (OSROs) responsible for remediating those spills. The bill would require that the scientific study evaluate the hazards and risks and potential hazards and risks that nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oils pose to natural resources and public, occupational, and environmental health and safety. The bill would require the administrator to post the results and recommendations of the completed scientific study on an Internet Web site maintained by the administrator. The bill would require the administrator, by January 1, 2019, to identify those oils transported into or through the state that place waters of the state at risk from an oil spill that are composed in whole or in part of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil and, through a public process, to establish criteria to identify specific characteristics of nonfloating and potentially nonfloating oil. The bill would require the administrator to periodically update and publicly release this list as the sources and types of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil change. The bill would, if nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil is present, require that the oil spill contingency plan that is filed with and approved by the administrator identifies one OSRO capable of oil spill response activities related to that nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil. The bill would additionally require the oil spill contingency plan to describe spill location-specific procedures, techniques, and demonstrated technologies effective for responding to a spill of the nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil. The bill would require that the 3-year update to the California oil spill contingency plan that addresses marine and inland oil spills that is to be revised and submitted to the Governor and the Legislature by January 1, 2020, and every 3 years thereafter, include consideration of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oils. Existing law authorizes an OSRO to apply to the administrator for a rating of that OSRO's response capabilities. Upon receiving a completed application for rating, the administrator is required to review the application and rate the OSRO based on the OSRO's satisfactory compliance with criteria established by the administrator, including specified elements. This bill would require that those elements include the type of oil, including nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil, the OSRO is capable of recovering and containing. The bill would require any OSRO seeking a nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil response capability rating to explain, in detail, the tools, technologies, and techniques it will deploy, including how these tools, technologies, and techniques will overcome identified challenges in remediating spills of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oils, in order to meet the criteria developed for remediating a nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil spill necessary to protect state waters. The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act prohibits a person from operating a marine facility, as defined, unless the owner or operator of the marine facility has obtained a certificate of financial responsibility. To receive a certificate of financial responsibility from the administrator for oil spill response, the act requires the owner or operator of a marine facility to make a specified showing of financial resources to the satisfaction of the administrator. The act authorizes the administrator to issue a certificate of financial responsibility on a lesser showing of financial resources for a period of not longer than 3 years if the administrator makes specified findings. This bill would require that the administrator, when determining whether to issue a certificate of financial responsibility on a lesser showing of financial resources, to consider the particular risks posed by the type of oil proposed to be carried and to differentiate the risk based upon whether the oil is floating oil or nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil.
Sponsored bills
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. This bill, for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2018, and before January 1, 2023, would allow a credit under those laws to a qualified employer that pays or incurs to a qualified employee a wage equal to or exceeding the minimum wage during the taxable year, as provided. The bill would define a qualified employee as an individual with a disability who may be paid a special minimum wage under existing state or federal law. The credit would be allowed in an amount equal to the difference between the special minimum wage and the minimum wage, multiplied by the hours worked by the qualified employee. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to submit a report containing specified data relating to these credits to the Legislature by June 1, 2023. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for any person who is required to register as a sex offender to come into any school building or upon any school grounds without lawful business and written permission from the chief administrative official of that school. This bill would delete the requirement that the registered sex offender have written permission from the chief administrative official of the school and would instead make it a misdemeanor for a registered sex offender to enter any school building or upon any school grounds without lawful business. The bill would authorize a registered sex offender who is subject to the above prohibition and who does not have the right to make educational decisions for a pupil who attends the school to enter a school building or upon school grounds to conduct lawful business at the school only when pupils are not present. The bill would authorize a person who is a registered sex offender to enter a polling place in a school building or on school grounds for the purpose of voting in an election. The bill would also authorize a registered sex offender who is subject to the above prohibition and who has the right to make educational decisions for a pupil in that school to enter a school building or upon school grounds for purposes relating to the exercise of that right. The bill would authorize a registered sex offender who is subject to the above prohibition and who has the right to make educational decisions for a pupil who attends the school to enter a school building or upon school grounds for any lawful purpose not related to the right to make educational decisions for a pupil, unless he or she has been convicted of specified crimes, except that the bill would specify that he or she may nonetheless attend a specific event if the principal or authorized administrator finds that it is in the best interest of the child and authorizes attendance. The bill would require the person to be supervised, as defined, by a school employee while in a school building or upon school grounds. The bill would exempt from its provisions any pupil who is registered as a sex offender for an offense committed as a juvenile. By changing the definition of a crime, 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.
Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to supervise the maintenance and operation of dams and reservoirs as necessary to safeguard life and property. Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to perform various flood control activities throughout the state. Existing law establishes the Central Valley Flood Protection Board and authorizes the board to engage in various flood control activities along the Sacramento River, the San Joaquin River, their tributaries, and related areas. Existing law also authorizes the board of supervisors of a county to appropriate and spend money from the general fund of the county for specified flood control purposes in connection with streams or rivers in the county. This bill would require a state agency to expedite permit processing and approval for a project that will maintain or improve human life safety protection through flood risk reduction or reduction of a risk of dam failure, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires school districts, county offices of education, and special education local plan areas (SELPAs) to comply with state laws that implement the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, in order that the state may qualify for federal funds available for the education of individuals with exceptional needs. Existing law requires school districts, county offices of education, and SELPAs to identify, locate, and assess individuals with exceptional needs and to provide those pupils with a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, and with special education and related services, including mental health services, as reflected in an individualized education program. This bill would authorize a county, or a qualified provider operating as part of the county mental health plan network, and a local educational agency to enter into a partnership to create a program that includes, among other things, targeted interventions for pupils with identified social-emotional, behavioral, and academic needs and an agreement that establishes a Medi-Cal mental health provider that is county operated or county contracted for the provision of mental health and substance use disorder services to pupils of the local educational agency and in which there are provisions for the delivery of campus-based mental health and substance use disorder services through qualified providers or qualified professionals to provide on-campus support to identify pupils with an individualized education program (IEP) , and pupils who do not have an IEP, but who a teacher believes may require mental health or substance use disorder services and, with parental consent, to provide those services to those pupils. The bill would require the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, in consultation with the State Department of Education and the State Department of Health Care Services, to develop guidelines for the use of funds from the Mental Health Services Fund by a county for innovative programs and prevention and early intervention programs to enter into and support the above-mentioned partnerships. The bill would create the County and Local Educational Agency Partnership Fund in the State Treasury, which would be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the State Department of Education for the purpose of funding these partnerships, as specified, and would require the State Department of Education to fund these partnerships through a competitive grant program. The bill would also make related findings and declarations.
Existing law, the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012, passed by the voters as Proposition 36 at the November 6, 2012, statewide general election, amended the Three Strikes Law and provided for lower sentences in specified circumstances, including when the current crime is not a serious or violent crime. The act provided a means by which a person serving an indeterminate term of imprisonment can be resentenced in conformance with the provisions of the act. Existing law, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, enacted by Proposition 47, as approved by the voters at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election, reduced the penalties for various crimes. Under the provisions of the act, a person currently convicted of a felony or felonies who would have been guilty of a misdemeanor under the act if the act had been in effect at the time of the conviction may petition or apply to have the sentence reduced in accordance with the act. That act requires that this petition or application be filed before November 4, 2017, or at a later date upon a showing of good cause. This bill would authorize a person who is committed to a state hospital after being found not guilty by reason of insanity to petition the court to have the maximum term of commitment reduced to what it would have been had Proposition 36 or Proposition 47 been in effect at the time of the original determination. The bill would require the petitioner to show that he or she would have been eligible to have his or her sentence reduced under the relevant proposition and to file the petition prior to January 1, 2021, or at a later date with a showing of good cause.
Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to conduct assessments of all inmates regarding the inmate's history of substance abuse, medical and mental health, education, family background, criminal activity, service in the United States military, and social functioning for use in placing the inmate in programs that will aid in his or her reentry to society and that will most likely reduce the inmate's chances of reoffending. This bill would require the department, in making an initial inmate housing assignment, to consider whether the inmate is eligible for public mental health services due to a serious mental illness or whether the inmate currently is eligible for benefits under the federal Social Security Disability Insurance program due to a diagnosed mental illness.
Existing law prohibits a person who has 0.08% or more, by weight, of alcohol in his or her blood from driving a vehicle. Existing law also prohibits a person while having 0.08% or more, by weight, of alcohol in his or her blood from driving a vehicle and concurrently doing any act forbidden by law, or neglecting any duty imposed by law in driving the vehicle, when the act or neglect proximately causes bodily injury to a person other than the driver. A violation of either of these prohibitions is a crime. Existing law authorizes a court, in addition to imposing penalties and sanctions for those violations, to require the person to enroll and participate in, and successfully complete, a driving-under-the-influence program, which may include, among other things, education, group counseling, and individual interview sessions. This bill would authorize the court to order a person convicted of a crime described above to enroll and participate in, and successfully complete, a qualified "24/7 Sobriety program," as defined, as a condition of probation, if the program is available and deemed appropriate, and the person committed the crime within 10 years of one or more separate crimes described above that resulted in a conviction. The bill would define a "24/7 Sobriety program," in part, as requiring a person in the program to abstain from alcohol and unauthorized controlled substances and be subject to frequent testing for alcohol and controlled substances, as specified. The bill would require a person participating in the program to pay the program costs, commensurate with the person's ability to pay, as specified. The bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish statewide uniform collection and reporting of specified data about the 24/7 Sobriety program. The bill would authorize a county to establish a 24/7 Sobriety program.
Under existing law, the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act, a penalty of $4 is imposed upon every conviction for a violation of the Vehicle Code, or a local ordinance adopted pursuant to the Vehicle Code, other than a parking offense. Existing law requires the county or the court that imposed the fine to transfer the moneys collected pursuant to this act to the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund. Under existing law, the assessment of these penalties will terminate on January 1, 2018, and any moneys unexpended and unencumbered in the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund on June 30, 2019, will transfer to the General Fund. Existing law repeals the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act on January 1, 2020. This bill would extend the dates of the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act, so that the assessment of the penalties will terminate commencing January 1, 2028, and any moneys unexpended and unencumbered in the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund on June 30, 2029, will transfer to the General Fund. The bill would extend the operation of the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act until January 1, 2030.
Existing law vests in the State Department of Developmental Services jurisdiction over state hospitals, referred to as developmental centers, for the provision of residential care to individuals with developmental disabilities, including the Fairview Developmental Center. Existing law requires the department, on or before October 1, 2015, to submit to the Legislature a plan or plans to close one or more developmental centers. Existing law authorizes the Director of General Services, with the consent of the State Department of Developmental Services, to lease up to 20 acres of property located within the grounds of the Fairview Developmental Center to a nonprofit corporation, as specified. This bill would require the Director of General Services, before offering the land associated with the Fairview Developmental Center for sale or lease, to complete an assessment of the site and facilities on the land to document the property's current condition and identify potential issues and limitations at the site. The bill would also require the Department of General Services and the State Department of Developmental Services to meet and confer with the City of Costa Mesa and the County of Orange throughout the transition process for any future use of the property.