Sen. Fran Pavley

Existing law establishes the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, and authorizes the commission to issue teaching and service credentials, including a special education credential. Existing law also authorizes the commission to grant an added or supplementary authorization to a credentialholder who has met the requirements and standards of the commission for the added or supplementary authorization. This bill would authorize program sponsors, as defined, to offer comparability and equivalency, as those terms are defined, to a special education credentialholder seeking to add a special education authorization to his or her special education credential in accordance with specified guidelines and criteria.

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies to provide benefits for specified conditions, including coverage for behavioral health treatment, as defined, for pervasive developmental disorder or autism, except as specified. A willful violation of these provisions with respect to health care service plans is a crime. These provisions are inoperative on July 1, 2014, and are repealed on January 1, 2015. This bill would extend the operation of these provisions until January 1, 2017. By extending the operation of provisions establishing 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.

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health facilities, including hospitals, by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law, commencing January 1, 2014, requires all general acute care hospitals and special hospitals that have a perinatal unit, as defined, to have an infant-feeding policy. This bill would require all general acute care hospitals and special hospitals that have a perinatal unit to adopt, by January 1, 2025, the "Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding," as adopted by Baby-Friendly USA, per the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, or an alternate process adopted by a health care service plan that includes evidenced-based policies and practices and targeted outcomes, or the Model Hospital Policy Recommendations as defined.

Existing law imposes various responsibilities upon the State Department of Public Health and prenatal care providers with respect to prenatal care, screening, and counseling. Existing law requires the department to develop an education program designed to educate physicians and surgeons and the public concerning the uses of prenatal testing and the availability of the prenatal testing program. This bill would require the department to include prescribed information regarding environmental health in the California Prenatal Screening Program patient educational information, and to post that environmental health information on the department's Internet Web site. This bill would require the department to send a notice to all distributors of the patient educational information that informs them of the change to that information, and encourages obstetrician-gynecologists and midwives to discuss environmental health with their patients.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined. The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to ascertain and fix just and reasonable standards, classifications, regulations, practices, measurements, or service to be furnished, imposed, observed, and followed by specified public utilities, including all electrical corporations. If the commission finds after a hearing that the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, or service of any public utility, or of the methods of manufacture, distribution, transmission, storage, or supply employed by the public utility, are unjust, unreasonable, unsafe, improper, inadequate, or insufficient, the act requires that the commission determine and, by order or rule, fix the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, service, or methods to be observed, furnished, constructed, enforced, or employed. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. This bill would require the commission to require an electrical corporation to include in annual reliability reports, required by a specified decision of the commission, that are due after July 1, 2014, information on the reliability of service to end use customers that identifies the frequency and duration of interruptions in services and indicates areas with both the most frequent and longest outages, using local areas determined by the commission. The bill would require the commission to use the information to require cost-effective remediation of reliability deficiencies if the report, or more than one report, identifies repeated deficiencies in the same local area and would authorize the commission to suspend this requirement upon specified findings. The bill would require the electrical corporations to conspicuously post their annual reports on their Internet Web site. Because a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the definition of a crime. 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.

Under existing law, a person who, in good faith and not for compensation, renders emergency medical or nonmedical care or assistance at the scene of an emergency is not liable for civil damages resulting from any act or omission, except as specified. Existing law further provides that a person who has completed a basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation course that complies with specified standards, and who in good faith renders emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the scene of an emergency is not liable for any civil damages as a result of any act or omission, except as specified. Existing law provides that a health care provider, including any licensed clinic, health dispensary, or health facility, is not liable for professional negligence or malpractice for any occurrence or result solely on the basis that the occurrence or result was caused by the natural course of a disease or condition, or was the natural or expected result of reasonable treatment rendered for the disease or condition. This bill would prohibit an employer from having a policy of prohibiting an employee from providing voluntary emergency medical services, including, but not limited to, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, in response to a medical emergency, except as specified. The bill would state that these provisions do not impose any express or implied duty on an employer to train its employees regarding emergency medical services or cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Existing law provides that most felonies are punishable by a triad of terms of incarceration in the state prison, comprised of low, middle, and upper terms. Previous law that required the court to impose the middle term, unless there were circumstances in aggravation or mitigation of the crime, was amended to provide that the choice of the appropriate term rests within the sound discretion of the court. Existing provisions related to sentence enhancements involving criminal street gang activity, firearms, and sentencing generally, operative until January 1, 2014, specify that the appropriate term rests within the sound discretion of the court. Existing law, operative on and after January 1, 2014, instead requires the court to impose the middle term, unless there are circumstances in mitigation or aggravation of the crime. This bill would extend to January 1, 2017, the provisions of law that provide that the court shall, in its discretion, impose the term or enhancement that best serves the interests of justice. The bill would also make conforming changes. This bill would amend Proposition 21, an initiative statute adopted by the voters at the March 7, 2000, statewide primary election that provides that its provisions may be amended by the Legislature by a 23 vote of the membership of each house, and therefore requires a 23 vote.

Existing law requires that 14% of the local sales and use tax be transferred to the local transportation fund of each county for allocation, as directed by the transportation planning agency, for various transportation purposes. Existing law specifies the allowable uses for local transportation funds, and generally requires these funds to be used for transit purposes in urban counties, while in counties with a population under 500,000 as of the 1970 census and certain other counties, these funds may also be used for local streets and roads, if the transportation planning agency finds that there are no unmet transit needs or no unmet transit needs that are reasonable to meet, and for other specified purposes. Existing law, beginning July 1, 2014, for counties with a population of less than 500,000 as of the 1970 decennial census, but that have a population of 500,000 or more as of the 2000 decennial census or at a subsequent census, requires the local transportation funds apportioned to the urbanized areas of those counties to generally be allocated for public transit purposes and not for street and road purposes, except that cities in those counties with a population of 100,000 or fewer are exempt from this requirement. Under existing law, local transportation funds apportioned to the nonurbanized areas in those counties remain available for allocation to street and road purposes and for other specified purposes. Existing law exempts Ventura County from these provisions and instead authorized the Ventura County Transportation Commission to submit, by December 31, 2011, a report to the Legislature analyzing options for organizing public mass transportation services in the county and for expenditure of revenues in the local transportation fund, along with a recommended legislative proposal. Under existing law, if a legislative proposal was not enacted by the end of the 2011–12 Regular Session of the Legislature, local transportation funds in Ventura County would be required to be available solely for transit purposes beginning July 1, 2014. This bill would repeal the provisions specifically relating to Ventura County and the expenditure of local transportation funds there. This bill would also require the Ventura County Transportation Commission to post on its Internet Web site an annual report for 5 years, beginning September 1, 2014, on transit service within the county, thereby imposing 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.

(1) Existing law establishes a motor vehicle inspection and maintenance program, referred to as a smog check program, developed, implemented, and administered by the Department of Consumer Affairs. The duty of enforcing and administering the program is vested in the Chief of the Bureau of Automotive Repair within the department. This bill would require instead a motor vehicle to have been registered without substantial lapse, as determined by the department, in the state for at least 2 years prior to vehicle retirement and to have failed any type of smog check inspection lawfully performed in the state to qualify to receive a specified vehicle retirement payment. The bill would authorize, rather than require, the department to permit vehicle retirement for any motor vehicle that has been registered without substantial lapse in the state for at least 2 years prior to vehicle retirement and that fails any type of smog check inspection lawfully performed in the state. (2) Existing law creates an enhanced fleet modernization program for the retirement of high polluting vehicles to be administered by the Bureau of Automotive Repair pursuant to guidelines adopted by the State Air Resources Board. Existing law requires the department to pay a person who retires his or her vehicle $1,500 for a low-income motor vehicle owner, as defined, and $1,000 for all other motor vehicle owners, and authorizes additional payments above these amounts based on consideration of specified criteria. This bill would require the state board, in consultation with the bureau and no later than June 30, 2015, to update the guidelines for the enhanced fleet modernization program to include specified elements and to study and consider specified elements. The bill would make various findings and declarations. The bill, in addition, would establish compensation for replacement vehicles for low-income vehicle owners at not less than $2,500, would make replacement an option for all motor vehicle owners, and would make this compensation available to an owner in addition to the compensation for a retired vehicle. The bill would prohibit this compensation for all other motor vehicle owners from exceeding the compensation for low-income motor vehicle owners. The bill would authorize instead an increase in the compensation under these programs for either retired or replacement vehicles for only low-income motor vehicle owners as necessary to balance maximizing air quality benefits of the program while ensuring participation by low-income motor vehicle owners, as specified.

(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Under existing law, the local government renewable energy self-generation program authorizes a local government to receive a bill credit to be applied to a designated benefiting account for electricity exported to the electrical grid by an eligible renewable generating facility, as defined, and requires the commission to adopt a rate tariff for the benefiting account. This bill would enact the Green Tariff Shared Renewables Program. The program would require a participating utility, defined as being an electrical corporation with 100,000 or more customers in California, to file with the commission an application requesting approval of a green tariff shared renewables program to implement a program enabling ratepayers to participate directly in offsite electrical generation facilities that use eligible renewable energy resources, consistent with certain legislative findings and statements of intent. The bill would require the commission, by July 1, 2014, to issue a decision concerning the participating utility's application, determining whether to approve or disapprove the application, with or without modifications. The bill would require the commission, after notice and opportunity for public comment, to approve the application if the commission determines that the proposed program is reasonable and consistent with the legislative findings and statements of intent. The bill would require the commission to require that a participating utility's green tariff shared renewables program be administered in accordance with specified provisions. The bill would repeal the program on January 1, 2019. (2) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the provisions of the bill would require action by the commission to implement its requirements, a violation of these provisions would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the definition of a crime. (3) 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.