Existing law, the California High-Speed Rail Act, creates the High-Speed Rail Authority to develop and implement a high-speed rail system in the state, with specified powers and duties. Existing law, pursuant to the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, approved by the voters as Proposition 1A at the November 4, 2008, general election, provides for the issuance of $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds for high-speed rail and related purposes. The federal Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA) and the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provide funding for allocation nationally to high-speed rail projects. This bill would require federal high-speed rail funds received on a reimbursement basis from ARRA to be deposited in the federal trust fund. The bill would require certain ARRA funds to be used for planning and engineering, and for capital costs, for the high-speed train system consistent with federal law and regulations and specified provisions of SB 965 of the 2009–10 Regular Session. The bill would identify the corridors eligible for federal PRIIA funds. The above provisions would become operative only if SB 965 is also enacted and becomes operative. Existing law provides for appointment of an executive director by the authority, who is exempt from civil service and serves at the pleasure of the authority. Under existing law, the salary of the executive director is established by the authority and approved by the Department of Personnel Administration. This bill, for purposes of managing and administering the ongoing work of the authority in implementing the high-speed rail project, would authorize the Governor, upon recommendation of the executive director and subject to an appropriation, to appoint up to 6 additional executive staff exempt from civil service who would serve in specified positions at the pleasure of the executive director. The bill would require the authority to cause a salary survey to be conducted to determine the compensation for the executive director and additional exempt staff, and would require the salaries to be approved by the Department of Personnel Administration. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature to approve additional positions at the authority for purposes of creating an Office for Project Controls and Risk Management in the authority.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act of 1999, establishes the Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund, continuously appropriated to the University of California, for the purpose of awarding grants to perform spinal cord injury research projects. The fund consists of moneys from private entities, as specified, as well as public moneys transferred to the fund. Existing law, with the approval of the Regents of the University of California, also creates a Spinal Cord Injury Research Program in the University of California to promote spinal cord injury research in California. The program and the fund are repealed as of January 1, 2011. This bill would eliminate the Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund, and instead permit the University of California to establish a spinal cord injury research fund, independent of the State Treasury, to accept public and private funds for spinal cord injury research programs and grants, as prescribed. It would delete the repeal date of provisions relating to the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program thus indefinitely extending the duration of those provisions.
Existing law establishes the California State University and its various campuses under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University. Existing law requires the California State University to offer undergraduate and graduate instruction through the master's degree in the liberal arts and sciences and professional education, including teacher education. This bill, until July 1, 2018, would authorize the California State University to establish a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree pilot program at 3 campuses chosen by the Board of Trustees to award the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. The bill would distinguish the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the doctor of philosophy degree offered at the University of California. The bill would require the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree pilot program to be designed to enable professionals to earn the degree while working full time, train nurses for advanced practice, and prepare clinical faculty to teach in postsecondary nursing programs. The bill would require the California State University to enroll and maintain no more than 90 full-time equivalent students in the degree pilot program at all 3 campuses combined. The bill would require initial funding to come from existing budgets, without diminishing the quality of undergraduate programs or reducing enrollment therein. The bill would require the California State University, the Legislative Analyst's Office, and the Department of Finance to jointly conduct a statewide evaluation of the degree pilot program and report the results to the Legislature and the Governor on or before January 1, 2017.
Existing law encourages every law enforcement and social services agency in this state to develop, adopt, and implement written policies and standards for their response to narcotics crime scenes where a child is either immediately present or where there is evidence that a child lives. Existing law provides that these policies shall reflect the fact that exposing a child to the manufacturing, trafficking, and use of narcotics is criminal conduct and that a response coordinated by law enforcement and social services agencies is essential to the child's health and welfare. This bill would make these provisions applicable also to crime scenes involving hallucinogens, methamphetamine, cocaine, PCP, and heroin. The bill would delete obsolete language. Existing law further provides that the needs of a drug-endangered child are best served with written policies encouraging the arrest of an individual for child endangerment where there is probable cause that an offense has been committed coordinated with an appropriate investigation of the child's welfare by child protective agencies, and that protocols that encourage a dependency investigation contemporaneous with a law enforcement investigation at a narcotics crime scene, when appropriate, are consistent with a child's best interest. This bill would provide that protocols that encourage the removal of a child from a crime scene if an immediate threat to the child's health or safety exists, when appropriate, are also consistent with the child's best interest. This bill would provide that protocols, policies, and standards adopted or developed pursuant to the above provisions shall comply with and be consistent with existing provisions of law relating to the jurisdiction over, and temporary custody and detention of, dependent children.
(1) Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt a state master plan for services to migrant children, as defined, that includes the provision of specified services and activities. Under existing law, a child may be deemed a "migrant child" for a period not to exceed 5 years during which the child resides in an area where programs are provided for migrant children. Existing law requires priority to be given to programs and activities for migrant children and prohibits migrant programs from being provided solely for children who have ceased to migrate. This bill would reduce the number of years a child may be deemed a migrant child from 5 years to 3 years. The bill would delete the provisions above regarding priority and the prohibition against programs solely for children who have ceased to migrate, and would instead specify that priority for services shall be consistent with federal law. (2) Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish the service regional system as the primary method for the delivery of services to migrant children and requires that regions be contiguous, with no less than 1,500, and no more than 8,000, migratory children. The bill would delete the cap on the number of migratory children that may be served in a region. (3) Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to sponsor an annual State Parent Advisory Council Conference, and requires the council to prepare and submit a report to the Legislature, the State Board of Education, and the Governor regarding the status of the migrant education program. Existing law also requires the Superintendent and each operating agency to establish and implement training programs for members of the statewide and operating agency parent advisory councils to enable them to carry out their responsibilities. The bill would require the report to include an evaluation of the program, a review of annual needs, a year-end assessment, policy recommendations, and the data collected regarding the program. The bill would require the council to submit the report within 120 days from the conclusion of a training program on preparing the report provided by the Superintendent. (4) The bill also would make clarifying and nonsubstantive changes.
This measure would recognize March 31, 2010, 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 designate a specified portion of State Highway Route 168 in Fresno County as the Deputy Sheriff Joel B. Wahlenmaier Memorial Highway. The 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.
This measure would proclaim April 12 through April 18, 2010, as California Holocaust Memorial Week and would urge Californians to observe these days of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.
This measure would memorialize the Congress to support federal legislation to protect American horses from slaughter for human consumption.
This measure would encourage greater protections in federal and state law for domestic workers.