Sen. Dean Florez

Existing law requires the Fish and Game Commission to establish fish hatcheries for the purposes of stocking the waters of California with fish, and requires the Department of Fish and Game to maintain and operate those hatcheries. This bill would enact the Delta Smelt Preservation and Restoration Act of 2009. The act would require the department to develop a Delta smelt hatchery program to preserve and restore the Delta smelt. The program would operate as a mitigation bank that provides take authorizations to banking partners and obtains funding from banking agreements. The bill would transfer an unspecified amount of funds from an unspecified source which would be continuously appropriated to the department for purposes of the act.

(1) Existing law establishes the Multifamily Housing Program under the administration of the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide assistance to housing projects in the form of a deferred payment loan to pay for the eligible costs of specified developments. Existing law includes as eligible costs, the cost of developing dwelling units, transitional housing, and child care, and after school care and social service facilities integrally linked to the assisted dwelling units. This bill would include as an eligible cost the cost of supportive service facilities integrally linked to homeless veteran dwelling units assisted pursuant to the Homeless Veterans Housing and Supportive Services Act of 2010. (2) Under existing law, there are programs providing assistance for, among other things, multifamily housing, emergency housing, farmworker housing, home ownership for very low and low-income households, and downpayment assistance for first-time home buyers. This bill would enact the Homeless Veterans Housing and Supportive Services Act of 2010, which, if adopted, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $1,500,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law. Proceeds from the sale of these bonds would be used to finance supportive housing projects for homeless veterans, or veterans at risk of homelessness, with incomes below limits determined by the Department of Housing and Community Development. The bill would provide for submission of the bond act to the voters at the November 2, 2010, statewide general election in accordance with specified law. (3) Existing law defines "veteran" for the purposes of the various programs bestowing benefits upon veterans. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to that definition. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Under existing law, prosecution for specified felony sex offenses, including rape, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts, oral copulation, continuous sexual abuse of a child, and acts of sexual penetration that are alleged to have been committed when the victim was under the age of 18 years, may be commenced at any time prior to the victim's 28th birthday. Existing law also allows a complaint alleging one or more of these offenses to be filed beyond this time limitation in certain specified instances if the crimes involve substantial sexual conduct and there is independent corroborating evidence of the allegations. This bill would allow the prosecution of the felony sex offenses specified above to be commenced at any time if the crime is alleged to have been committed when the victim was under the age of 14.

(1) Existing law, the Equity in Higher Education Act, provides that it is the policy of the state to afford all persons, regardless of disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or other specified bases, equal rights and opportunities in the postsecondary institutions of the state. The act requires a postsecondary educational institution, as defined, prior to the receipt of any state financial assistance or state student financial aid, to provide assurance to the agency administering the funds that each program or activity conducted by the institution will be conducted in compliance with the act and all other applicable provisions of state law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex. The act permits a postsecondary educational institution to provide a single assurance, not more than one page in length and signed by an appropriate responsible official of the institution, for all programs and activities conducted by the institution. This bill would additionally require a postsecondary educational institution to provide assurance that each program and activity conducted by the institution will be conducted in compliance with applicable provisions of federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex. The bill would require the assurance provided by the postsecondary educational institution to be signed by specified officers of the institution, would require the assurance to apply to all programs and activities, including, but not limited to, academic and athletic programs, and would delete the one-page limit on the assurance. The bill would require that assurance to include specified information regarding compliance with the act. The bill would require that information to be available for public inspection, upon request. The bill would provide for a civil penalty for a false declaration of specified matters required by these provisions. The bill would authorize any person to bring a civil action in the public interest to recover the civil penalty. The bill would require 50% of a civil penalty collected pursuant to these provisions to be deposited in the General Fund and 50% of the penalty to be paid to the person who brought the civil action. Because this bill would impose new requirements on community college districts under the act, it would constitute a state-mandated local program. (2) 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 prohibits the creation of an emission reduction credit from air pollution reductions funded by certain public programs. Existing law creates air quality management districts and air pollution control districts and requires these districts, except as otherwise provided, to establish a system by which all reductions in the emission of air contaminants that are to be used to offset certain future increases in the emission of air contaminants are to be banked prior to use to offset future increases in emissions. This bill would authorize a district to create an emission reduction credit from a marine vessel or locomotive emission reduction project that is funded from both public and private moneys if specified requirements are met. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law, known as the Ortiz-Pacheco-Poochigian-Vasconcellos Cal Grant Program, establishes, among other programs, the Cal Grant A Entitlement Program, the Cal Grant B Entitlement Program, the California Community College Transfer Cal Grant Entitlement Program and the Competitive Cal Grant A and B award program, under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs. This bill would, commencing with the 2010–11 academic year, entitle an otherwise eligible student who is a member or former member of the Armed Forces of the United States, as defined, who meets prescribed requirements, including enrollment in a qualifying undergraduate certificate or degree program, to a Cal Grant A Entitlement Award or a Cal Grant B Entitlement Award. The bill also would require the Student Aid Commission to make preliminary awards to all applicants currently eligible for an award under the program, and would require each person who receives a preliminary award to affirm, in writing, that he or she meets specified requirements for eligibility in the program. The bill would require the commission to randomly select at least 10% of the new and renewal awards made under the program and verify that the student meets specified requirements for eligibility. The bill would require the commission to seek repayment of any funds found to be improperly disbursed under the program, and would require the commission to submit an annual report to the Legislature and the Governor regarding, among other things, the number of awards made under this program.

Existing law authorizes a landowner to petition a county board or supervisors or a city council for cancellation of any Williamson Act contract for all or part of the subject land. The board or council is authorized to grant tentative approval for cancellation of a contract if it finds that cancellation is in the public interest. For these purposes, the board or council is required to find that other public concerns substantially outweigh the objectives of the Williamson Act and that either there is no proximate noncontracted land that is both available and suitable for the use to which it is proposed the contracted land be put, or that development of the contracted land would provide more contiguous patterns of urban development than development of proximate noncontracted land. This bill would establish a rebuttable presumption that where a federally recognized Indian tribe has petitioned for a contract cancellation that tribal cultural centers, infrastructure, and housing are alternative uses that are public concerns that substantially outweigh the objectives of the act and that for tribal cultural centers, infrastructure, and housing, land contiguous to existing tribal land would provide more contiguous patterns of urban development than development of proximate noncontracted land.

Existing law requires the Fish and Game Commission to establish fish hatcheries for the purposes of stocking the waters of California with fish, and requires the Department of Fish and Game to maintain and operate those hatcheries. Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Game to prepare and maintain a detailed and comprehensive program for the protection and increase of salmon, steelhead trout, and anadromous fisheries. This bill would require the department to conduct a prescribed 5-year study to assess interactions between wild and naturally spawned salmon, as defined, and to develop hatchery and stream management practices to ensure the viability of fish populations and to sustainably support fisheries. The department would be required, on or before January 1, 2015, to prepare and submit to the Legislature a report on the study. The bill would require the department to establish a study team of not fewer than 12 members, with membership as prescribed.

The Pupil Nutrition, Health, and Achievement Act of 2001 requires a school to follow the Enhanced Food Based Meal Pattern, Nutrient Standard Meal Planning, or Traditional Meal Pattern developed by the United States Department of Agriculture or the Shaping Health as Partners in Education (SHAPE) Menu Patterns developed by the state in order to qualify for reimbursement for free and reduced-price meals sold or served to pupils. The act additionally prescribes nutrition standards for snacks sold to pupils in middle, junior, or high school with certain exceptions, and prohibits the sale of certain beverages to a pupil at an elementary school, except as specified. Existing law, commencing July 1, 2009, prohibits schools from making available to pupils food containing artificial trans fat, as specified. This bill would authorize a school district to make every effort to purchase poultry and meat products that have not been treated with nontherapeutic antibiotics, and authorize each school district that purchases such poultry or meat products to report annually to the Superintendent of Public Instruction certain information relating to those products. The bill would require the Superintendent to request information from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) relating to the use of nontherapeutic antibiotics in meat available to California schools through certain USDA programs. The bill would require the Superintendent, by July 1, 2011, to provide the Legislature with a copy of any information provided by the USDA.

Existing law appropriates the sum of $402,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the 2009–10 fiscal year to be allocated to schoolsites selected to participate in the Quality Education Investment Act program, as specified. Existing law requires the Superintendent, for each school district and chartering authority receiving an allocation pursuant to these provisions, to reduce its revenue limit or its general purpose entitlement, as specified, for the 2009–10 school year by the amount of the allocation received pursuant to these provisions. This bill would condition this reduction upon certification by the Superintendent that an equivalent amount of additional federal or state funds that may be used by a school district or chartering authority for revenue limit or general purpose uses have been made available to the school district or chartering authority. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Director of Finance to report to the Legislature by March 1, 2010, the amount of the reductions specified in the bill that will not be eligible for restoration with available federal funding. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to use $64,872,000 in federal funds, as specified, in combination with other available funds, for the purpose of awarding grants to local educational agencies that participate in the Quality Education Investment Act Program in the 2009–10 fiscal year, thereby making an appropriation.