Existing law establishes the State Coastal Conservancy and prescribes the membership and functions and duties of the conservancy with respect to preservation of coastal resources in the state. This bill would enact the Safe Water and Wildlife Protection Act of 2016, which would require the State Water Resources Control Board to establish and coordinate the Algal Bloom Task Force, comprised of specified representatives of state agencies, including the conservancy, in consultation with the Secretary for Environmental Protection, and would prescribe the functions and duties of the task force. The bill would require the task force to review the risks and negative impacts of toxic algal blooms and microcystin pollution and to submit a summary of its findings and recommendations to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature, the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, and the secretary on or before January 1, 2018. The act would require the task force, before providing funding recommendations or submitting a summary of findings, to notify the public about ongoing activities and provide opportunities for public review and comment on applied research, projects, and programs. The act would authorize the conservancy, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Wildlife Conservation Board, and the State Water Resources Control Board to enter into contracts and provide grants, upon appropriation, from specified bond funds available under the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014 or from other appropriate funds for applied research, projects, and programs, recommended by the task force, aimed at preventing or sustainably mitigating toxic blooms of cyanotoxins and microcystin pollution in the waters of the state.
Sponsored bills
Existing law establishes the California Earthquake Authority, which is authorized to transact insurance in the state as necessary to sell policies of basic residential earthquake insurance, as provided. Existing law provides that a public purpose will be served by a voluntary contractual assessment program that provides the legislative body of a public agency with the authority to finance the installation of seismic strengthening improvements that are permanently fixed to residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, or other real property. For purposes of financing the installation of seismic strengthening improvements, "public agency" means a city, county, or city and county. This bill would include the California Earthquake Authority as part of the definition of "public agency" for this purpose. The Improvement Bond Act of 1915 provides authority for the legislative body of any city to determine that bonds may be issued to pay for specified works of improvement. This bill would include the California Earthquake Authority as part of the definition of "city" or "municipality" for purposes of this act. Existing law authorizes the Earthquake Loss Mitigation Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, to be applied to supply grants and loans or loan guarantees to dwelling owners who wish to retrofit their homes to protect against earthquake damage. This bill would also authorize the money in the fund to be used to fund seismic strengthening improvements permanently fixed to residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, or other real property and an account for related loan losses, and to acquire debt obligations issued to fund these seismic strengthening improvements, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require the California Earthquake Authority to establish a loan loss reserve account in the fund for the deposit of moneys to be expended for loan losses incurred in connection with financing seismic strengthening improvements. This bill would (1) revise or waive certain notice and reporting requirements generally applicable to contractual assessments for contractual assessments that finance seismic strengthening improvements, (2) absent specified conditions, presume statewide scope of any California Earthquake Authority programs of contractual assessments for seismic strengthening improvements, and (3) provide for payment of assessments pursuant to the contractual payment schedule for any California Earthquake Authority program, notwithstanding any bonds secured by those assessments. The bill would require the California Earthquake Authority, prior to entering into a voluntary contractual assessment with a property owner to finance seismic strengthening improvements, to disclose the terms and conditions of the voluntary contractual assessment, and to notify the property owner, in writing, that he or she may be required to pay the remaining principal balance of the voluntary contractual assessment when he or she refinances or sells the property. The bill would specify that the California Earthquake Authority shall require each property owner to sign a document acknowledging his or her receipt of this written disclosure. The bill would also require that seismic strengthening improvements that are permanently fixed to real property and that are financed pursuant to the program comply with all applicable state and local building standards.
Existing law allows a person who has been subjected to gender violence to bring a civil action for damages against any responsible party and defines gender violence for this purpose as a crime of violence motivated by the gender of the victim or a physical intrusion or invasion of a sexual nature, as specified. The Unruh Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on a person's sex, race, religion, or sexual orientation, among others, and specifies that sex includes gender, which includes a person's gender identity and gender expression. This bill, for the purposes of the former provision, would specify that gender has the same meaning as in the Unruh Civil Rights Act. The bill would also allow a person who has been subject to sexual orientation violence, as defined, to bring a civil action for damages against any responsible party under provisions identical to those for gender violence.
The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act provides for specified labeling requirements for containers of alcoholic beverages sold within this state, including a requirement that any wine bottled on or after January 1, 2014, labeled with an American Viticultural Area established pursuant to federal law that is located entirely within a county of the 19th class, bear the designation "Sonoma County" on the label in specified type size as determined by the size of the wine container, as prescribed. The act provides that a violation of its provisions is a misdemeanor if not otherwise specified. This bill would require any wine bottled on or after January 1, 2019, labeled with an American Viticultural Area established pursuant to federal law that is located entirely within the County of Monterey to bear the designation "Monterey County" on the label in specified type size as determined by the size of the wine container, as prescribed. The bill also would provide that a violation of this provision does not subject a person to civil or criminal penalties pursuant to the act, except that the bill would authorize the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to suspend or revoke the license of any person who violates these provisions.
Existing law imposes various civil penalties for violations of specified provisions of the Fish and Game Code in connection with the production or cultivation of a controlled substance. Existing law requires all civil penalties collected to be apportioned as provided, including 30% of the funds to be distributed to the investigating agency to be used to reimburse the cost of any investigation directly related to the violations described in these provisions. Existing law authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife to impose those civil penalties administratively, subject to specified requirements relating to complaint and hearing procedures, among other things. Existing law authorizes the department to adopt regulations to implement these provisions and requires the administrative penalties collected to be apportioned in a specified manner. This bill would impose various additional civil penalties, subject to these provisions, for violations of specified provisions of the Penal Code and the Public Resources Code, in connection with the production or cultivation of a controlled substance.
Existing law, until January 1, 2016, establishes the California Sea Otter Fund and allows taxpayers to designate on their income tax returns that a specified amount in excess of their tax liability be transferred to the fund. Existing law requires money in that fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be allocated to the Department of Fish and Wildlife for the purposes of establishing a sea otter fund to be used for sea otter conservation, and to the State Coastal Conservancy for competitive grants and contracts for research, projects, and programs related to the Federal Sea Otter Recovery Plan or improving the nearshore ocean ecosystem. This bill would extend the operation of these provisions to January 1, 2021.
Existing law creates the Santa Clara County Open-Space Authority, and prescribes the jurisdiction and functions and duties of the authority. Existing law authorizes the authority, among other things, to acquire, hold, and dispose of real and personal property, within the authority's jurisdiction, necessary to the full exercise of its powers. Existing law further authorizes the authority to take by eminent domain any property necessary or convenient to accomplish the purposes of the authority, with the exception of lands in active ranching, lands in agricultural production, and lands in timberland production zones that are not threatened by imminent conversion to developed uses. Existing law provides that the maximum jurisdiction of the authority shall include all areas within the county, as provided. This bill would authorize the authority to acquire, but not to take by eminent domain, interests in real property that are without the authority's jurisdiction, necessary to the full exercise of its powers. The bill would also authorize the authority's boundaries to be altered by the annexation of contiguous territory, in the unincorporated area of a neighboring county, as provided. The bill would change the name of the authority to the Santa Clara Valley Open-Space Authority and make conforming changes.
This measure would proclaim the month of September 2015, and each year thereafter, as Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, and would express the Legislature's support of various programs that work to reduce obesity among children.
Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to establish a security department under the supervision of a chief of security, or a police department under the supervision of a school chief of police. The Federal Surplus Property Acquisition Law of 1945 authorizes a local agency, as defined, to acquire surplus federal property without regard to any law which requires posting of notices or advertising for bids, inviting or receiving bids, delivery of purchases before payment, or prevents the local agency from bidding on federal surplus property. Existing federal law authorizes the Department of Defense to transfer surplus personal property, including arms and ammunition, to federal or state agencies for use in law enforcement activities, subject to specified conditions, at no cost to the acquiring agency. This bill would require the governing board of a school district that has established a school police department to prohibit that school police department from receiving surplus military equipment pursuant to the above-described federal law unless specified conditions are satisfied.
Existing law authorizes an adult to give an individual health care instruction and to appoint an attorney to make health care decisions for that individual in the event of his or her incapacity pursuant to a power of attorney for health care. This bill would enact the End of Life Option Act authorizing an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for a drug prescribed pursuant to these provisions for the purpose of ending his or her life. The bill would establish the procedures for making these requests. The bill would also establish the forms to request an aid-in-dying drug and, under specified circumstances, an interpreter declaration to be signed subject to penalty of perjury, thereby creating a crime and imposing state-mandated local program. This bill would require specified information to be documented in the individual's medical record, including, among other things, all oral and written requests for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would prohibit a provision in a contract, will, or other agreement from being conditioned upon or affected by a person making or rescinding a request for the above-described drug. The bill would prohibit the sale, procurement, or issuance of any life, health, or annuity policy, health care service plan, contract, or health benefit plan, or the rate charged for any policy or plan contract, from being conditioned upon or affected by the request. The bill would prohibit an insurance carrier from providing any information in communications made to an individual about the availability of an aid-in-dying drug absent a request by the individual or his or her attending physician at the behest of the individual. The bill would also prohibit any communication from containing both the denial of treatment and information as to the availability of aid-in-dying drug coverage. This bill would provide immunity from civil, criminal, administrative, employment, or contractual liability or professional disciplinary action for participating in good faith compliance with the act, and would specify that the immunities and prohibitions on sanctions of a health care provider are solely reserved for conduct provided for by the bill. The bill would make participation in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions voluntary, and would make health care providers immune from liability for refusing to engage in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions. The bill would authorize a health care provider to prohibit its employees, independent contractors, or other persons or entities, including other health care providers, from participating in activities under the act while on the premises owned or under the management or direct control of that prohibiting health care provider, or while acting within the course and scope of any employment by, or contract with, the prohibiting health care provider. This bill would make it a felony to knowingly alter or forge a request for drugs to end an individual's life without his or her authorization or to conceal or destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request for a drug, if it is done with the intent or effect of causing the individual's death. The bill would make it a felony to knowingly coerce or exert undue influence on an individual to request a drug for the purpose of ending his or her life or to destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that nothing in its provisions is to be construed to authorize ending a patient's life by lethal injection, mercy killing, or active euthanasia, and would provide that action taken in accordance with the act shall not constitute, among other things, suicide or homicide. This bill would require the State Public Health Officer to adopt regulations establishing additional reporting requirements for physicians and pharmacists to determine the use of, and compliance with, the act, and would require the State Public Health Officer to annually review a sample of certain records and the State Department of Public Health to make a statistical report of the information collected. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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.