(1) The Donahoe Higher Education Act authorizes the activities of the 4 segments of the postsecondary education system in the state. These segments include the 3 public postsecondary segments: the University of California, which is administered by the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, which is administered by the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, which is administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Private and independent postsecondary educational institutions constitute the other segment. Provisions of the Donahoe Higher Education Act apply to the University of California only to the extent that the regents act, by resolution, to make them applicable. Existing law urges textbook publishers to take specified actions aimed at reducing the amounts that students pay for textbooks, including providing to faculty and departments considering textbook orders a list of all the different products the publisher sells. Existing law requires the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and requests the Regents of the University of California, to take specific actions with their respective academic senates, college and university bookstores, and faculty to promote the selection of textbooks that will result in cost savings to students. This bill would express legislative findings and declarations relating to the cost of college and university textbooks. The bill would add provisions to the Donahoe Higher Education Act to establish the California Open Education Resources Council under the administration of the Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, or a successor group. The bill would specify that the council would have 9 members, including 3 faculty members from each of the public postsecondary segments, selected by the respective faculty senates of each segment. The bill would require the appointments to the council to be made no later than 90 days after the bill becomes operative. The bill would require the California Open Education Resources Council to determine a list of 50 lower division courses in the public postsecondary segments for which high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks and related materials would be developed or acquired, as specified, pursuant to the bill. The bill would also require the council to review and approve developed open source materials and to promote strategies for production, access, and use of open source textbooks to be placed on reserve at campus libraries in accordance with this section. The bill would require that the council regularly solicit and consider, from each of the statewide student associations of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, advice and guidance on open source education textbooks and related materials, as specified. The bill would require the council to establish a competitive request-for-proposal process in which faculty members, publishers, and other interested parties would apply for funds to produce, in 2013, 50 high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks and related materials, meeting specified requirements. The bill also would require the council to submit a report to the Legislature and the Governor on the progress of the implementation of these provisions by no later than 6 months after the bill becomes operative and to submit a final report by January 1, 2016. (2) Existing law requires publishers, as defined, to provide a captioned format of instructional materials, as defined, or an electronic format of those materials and a license to create a captioned format of the materials, upon request by a public postsecondary educational institution, and authorizes the public postsecondary educational institution to create a captioned format, subject to prescribed conditions, if the publisher provides a license to create the captioned format or fails to respond to a request for a captioned format. Existing law prescribes various requirements with respect to use and distribution of electronic and captioned formats of instructional materials by public postsecondary educational institutions that choose to participate in the request process. This bill would include digital open source textbooks and related materials within the definition of instructional materials for the purposes of this provision. The bill would prescribe a procedure for this request process relating to digital open source textbooks if and when the California Open Source Digital Library is established pursuant to statute. (3) These provisions would become operative only if funding for the purposes of this bill is provided in the annual Budget Act or another statute, or through federal or private funds, or through a combination of state, federal, and private funds.
Sponsored bills
Existing law establishes the Office of Planning and Research (OPR) in state government in the Governor's office and requires OPR to, among other things, coordinate the development of policies and criteria to ensure the federal grants-in-aid administered or directly expended by state government advance statewide environmental goals and objectives and to coordinate research activities of state government directed to the growth and development of the state and the preservation of environmental quality, and render advice to the Governor, his or her cabinet, to the Legislature, and any agency or department of state government, and provide information to, and cooperate with, the Legislature or any of its committees. Existing law declares the state policy to promote all feasible means of energy and water conservation and all feasible use of alternative energy and water supply sources. Existing law establishes various programs to provide to specified entities financial assistance for the installation of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy resources. This bill would require OPR to identify those state agencies that develop and implement state energy and environmental policies that directly impact on the United States Department of Defense's energy security and military mission goals. The bill would require those identified state agencies, when developing or implementing those state policies, to consider those direct impacts. The bill would require OPR to serve as a liaison to coordinate effective inclusion of the United States Department of Defense in the development and implementation of state energy and environmental policy.
Existing law, the Money Transmission Act, provides for the regulation of money transmission businesses in California by the Department of Financial Institutions. Existing law provides that corporations or limited liability companies may become licensed for money transmission, and that a licensee may appoint agents, as specified, to conduct money transmission on behalf of the licensee. This bill would require specified money transmission licensees to provide, on or before April 1, 2013, and annually thereafter, each of their agents with training materials on recognizing elder or dependent adult financial abuse, and on the appropriate response to suspected elder or dependent adult financial abuse in a transaction.
(1) The Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Wetlands Mitigation Bank Act of 1993 provides for the establishment of wetlands mitigation bank sites to increase the total wetlands acreage and values within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley. This bill would provide that no conservation bank, mitigation bank, or conservation and mitigation bank is operative, vested, or final, nor bank credits issued, until the Department of Fish and Game has approved the bank in writing and a conservation easement has been recorded on the site. The bill would require the department to follow certain procedures and authorize the department to charge and adjust specified fees to cover the reasonable costs of the department reviewing various documents when a person is interested in establishing a bank. The bill would require the department to deposit revenues of those fees in a separate dedicated account within the Fish and Game Preservation Fund. The bill would require the department to establish and maintain a database that includes certain information about banks and to make this data available on its Internet Web site or accessible by a link from the department's Internet Web site. The bill would require the department to adopt and amend guidelines and criteria to amend provisions relating to the department's review of a bank. (2) Under existing law, the changes in the Implicit Price Deflator for State and Local Government Purchases of Goods and Services is used as the index to determine an annual rate of increase or decrease in the fees for hunting and fishing licenses, stamps, permits, and tags. Under existing law, the department issues lifetime sportsman's licenses, hunting licenses, sport fishing ocean enhancement stamps, commercial fishing ocean enhancement stamps, commercial fishing ocean enhancement validations, commercial fishing licenses, commercial fish business licenses, commercial boat registrations, sport fishing ocean enhancement validations, trapping licenses, and sport fishing licenses, and existing law establishes base fees for those entitlements, adjusted annually pursuant to the index. This bill would require the Fish and Game Commission to adjust the base fees for lifetime sportsman's licenses, hunting licenses, sport fishing ocean enhancement stamps and validations, commercial fishing ocean enhancement stamps and validations, commercial fishing licenses, commercial fish business licenses, commercial boat registrations, trapping licenses, and sport fishing licenses, as necessary, to fully recover, but not exceed, all reasonable administrative and implementation costs of the department and the commission relating to those licenses. The bill would also authorize the department to establish fees and to adjust statutorily imposed fees by regulation for certain filings, permits, determinations, or other department actions. (3) Existing law relating to the Office of Planning and Research requires every officer, agency, department, or instrumentality of state government to cooperate in the preparation and maintenance of the State Environmental Goals and Policy Report and to ensure that their entity's functional plan is consistent with specified state planning priorities and annually demonstrate, when requesting infrastructure as specified, how the plans are consistent with those priorities. Existing law requires those entities to comply with any request for advice, assistance, information, or other material. This bill would specify that the subject entities include certain trustee agencies. (4) Existing law, the Trout and Steelhead Conservation and Management Planning Act of 1979, requires the department to determine whether a stream or lake should be managed as a wild trout fishery, or whether its management should involve the planting of native trout species to supplement wild trout populations. Existing law requires the commission to develop additional wild trout waters. Existing law requires the department to prepare a list each year of no less than 25 miles of stream or stream segments and at least one lake that it deems suitable for consideration as wild trout waters and to submit this list to the commission. Existing law requires the commission to annually submit a report to the Legislature that includes its reasons why any stream or lake listed by the department was or was not included in the program. Existing law requires the department to prepare and complete management plans for all wild trout waters not more than 3 years following their initial designation by the commission, and to update the management plan every 5 years following completion of the initial management plan. This bill would revise the findings and declarations of the act. The bill would require the department to maintain and continuously revise specified inventories prepared for each stream, stream system, or lake, with the goal of reviewing every watershed once per decade, and would require the department to make those inventories publicly available on the department's Internet Web site. The bill would require the commission, instead, to report to the Legislature regarding progress in implementing the wild trout program on even-numbered years and would require the report to be publicly available on the department's Internet Web site. The bill would require the department every 5 years to update the Strategic Plan for Trout Management published in November 2003 as necessary to guide the state's trout management. The bill would require the department to prepare and complete trout management plans consistent with the Strategic Plan for Trout Management for all wild trout waters, to be reviewed as prescribed, and to make the Strategic Plan for Trout Management and the trout management plans publicly available on the department's Internet Web site. The bill would require the department, by January 1, 2014, to form an intradepartmental strategic trout management team to provide statewide direction and trout management oversight and to be responsible for developing prescribed basin management plans. The bill would require the department to give priority to stocking native hatchery-produced species in California's waters where stocking is determined to be appropriate by the department. The bill would require the department to ensure that all trout stocked in waters of the state for recreational purposes, except as provided, are unable to reproduce through triploidy or other means. The bill would authorize the department to provide specified outreach to anglers to promote awareness, would authorize the department to develop, conduct, and respond to angler preference and satisfaction surveys, and would require educational programs utilizing the hatcheries to be encouraged. The bill would require the department to review angling regulations periodically and adjust those regulations to ensure consistency with the Strategic Plan for Trout Management. Existing law requires 3313% of the fees derived from the issuance of sport fishing licenses, with certain exceptions, to be deposited into the Hatchery and Inland Fisheries Fund within the State Treasury. Existing law authorizes moneys in the fund to be expended, upon appropriation, in support of department programs related to the management, maintenance, and capital improvement of California's fish hatcheries, the Heritage and Wild Trout Program, enforcement activities, and other activities eligible to be funded from revenue generated by sport fishing license fees. Existing law requires that those fund moneys be used for specified purposes, including the attainment of prescribed fish production and release goals for state hatcheries. This bill would instead authorize the expenditure of those moneys, consistent with specified existing law, to support programs of the department related to management, maintenance, and capital improvement of California's fish hatcheries, the Heritage and Wild Trout program, and enforcement activities related thereto, and to support other activities eligible to be funded from revenue generated by sport fishing license fees. The bill would require that the fees be used for the purposes of attaining a specified hatchery production goal, the Heritage and Wild Trout Program, the development of trout management plans, and staffing, as specified. The bill would require the department, on an annual basis, to invest in hatchery facility improvements and rehabilitation to ensure progress towards achievement of specified hatchery fish production targets. The bill would authorize the department, beginning January 1, 2015, to obtain California-based hatchery fish if specified criteria are satisfied. The bill would establish funding for "Heritage Trout Waters" as a priority for the fund. The bill would appropriate $1,000,000 from the Hatchery and Inland Fisheries Fund to the department for capital outlay expenditures necessary to improve state hatchery facility and system improvements to achieve specified hatchery fish production goals.
Existing law regulates the terms and conditions of residential tenancies and governs the obligations of tenants and landlords under a lease or tenancy. This bill would prohibit a landlord, that allows a tenant to have an animal on the premises, from advertising or establishing rental policies in a manner that requires a tenant or a potential tenant with an animal to have that animal declawed or devocalized as a condition of occupancy. The bill would authorize specified law enforcement prosecutorial entities to seek declaratory or injunctive relief for a violation of these prohibitions. The bill would impose a civil penalty, not to exceed $1,000, for each violation of these provisions, to be paid to the law enforcement prosecutorial entity that brings the action.
(1) Existing law establishes, in the Department of Parks and Recreation, the State Park and Recreation Commission consisting of 9 members appointed by the Governor, subject to confirmation by the Senate. Existing law requires the commission, among other things, to establish general policies for the guidance of the Director of Parks and Recreation in the administration, protection, and development of the state park system. This bill would establish qualification criteria for the members of the commission, including requiring one member to have demonstrated expertise in cultural or historical resources management. The bill would require the Speaker of the Assembly and the Senate Committee on Rules to each appoint one ex officio legislative member. The bill would require the commission to evaluate and assess the department's deferred obligations. The bill would also authorize the commission to, among other things, conduct an annual workshop to review the department's annual operating budget and proposed capital improvement projects. The bill would appropriate $120,000 annually in the 2012–13 and 2013–14 fiscal years from the State Parks and Recreation Fund to the commission to perform these activities. The bill would appropriate $20,500,000 from the State Parks and Recreation Fund to the department for expenditure as specified. The bill would prohibit the department from closing or proposing the closure of a state park in the 2012–13 and 2013–14 fiscal years. The bill would also appropriate $10,000,000 from the Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Water Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006, to be expended as specified, including for purposes of capital outlay and support for capital outlay projects of a state park. (2) Existing law requires the department to develop a revenue generation program as an essential component of a long-term sustainable park funding strategy. Existing law requires all revenues generated by the program to be deposited into the California State Park Enterprise Fund, as provided, and spent in a specified way, including allocating 40% of the total amount of revenues generated by a park district to that district, as specified. Existing law requires the department to provide an annual accounting to the Department of Finance and relevant legislative committees of the use of funds from a revolving loan program established by the department. Existing law requires the department to rank proposals and awards for loans based on specified criteria. This bill would require the program revenue to be available for encumbrance and expenditure until June 30, 2014, and for liquidation until June 30, 2016. The bill would require the incremental revenue generated by the program to be deposited into the State Parks and Recreation Fund, and revenue identified as being in excess of revenue targets established by the department shall be transferred to the California State Park Enterprise Fund, as provided. Among other things, this bill would require that 50% of the total amount of revenues deposited into the California State Park Enterprise Fund generated by a park district be allocated to that district, as specified. This bill would require the department to provide the annual accounting to the Department of Finance and the relevant legislative committees of the use of the revolving loan funds in accordance with the purpose outlined in specified voter-approved bond acts. This bill would include capacity of a project to improve services, park experiences, or both, for park visitors as one of the criteria for ranking a proposal or award of a loan. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.
Existing law authorizes the Attorney General to convene the grand jury to investigate and consider certain criminal matters. The Attorney General is authorized to take full charge of the presentation of the matters to the grand jury, issue subpoenas, prepare indictments, and do all other things incident thereto to the same extent as the district attorney may do. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General to impanel a special grand jury to investigate, consider, or issue indictments for specified activities relating to Medi-Cal fraud. This bill also would authorize the Attorney General to convene a special statewide grand jury, as prescribed, for cases involving fraud or theft that occur in more than one county and were conducted by a single defendant or multiple defendants acting in concert.
(1) Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board (state board) and the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste discharge requirements for the discharge of stormwater in accordance with the national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit program and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. Under existing law, the state board administers a water rights program pursuant to which the state board grants permits and licenses to appropriate water, upon an application to appropriate water. This bill would enact the Rainwater Capture Act of 2012, which would provide that use of rainwater collected from rooftops does not require a water right permit from the state board. (2) Existing law, the Contractors' State License Law, creates the Contractors' State License Board within the Department of Consumer Affairs and provides for the licensing and regulation of contractors. Existing law authorizes a landscape contractor working within the classification of his or her license to enter into a prime contract for the construction of a swimming pool, spa, or hot tub, an outdoor cooking center, or an outdoor fireplace, if certain conditions are met. Under existing law, a violation of these provisions and related provisions of existing law is grounds for disciplinary action. This bill would additionally authorize a landscape contractor working within the classification of his or her license to enter into a prime contract for the construction of a rainwater capture system, as defined, if the system is used exclusively for landscape irrigation or as a water supply for a fountain, pond, or similar decorative water feature in a landscaping project. The bill would authorize a landscape contractor holding a specified classification to design and install all exterior components of a rainwater capture system that are not a part of, or attached to, a structure.
Existing law, the Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port Security Bond Act of 2006, approved by the voters as Proposition 1B at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, authorizes the issuance of general obligation bonds for various transportation-related purposes, including reducing emissions and improving air quality in trade corridors. The State Air Resources Board is required to allocate the funds to be used for air quality purposes pursuant to specified requirements through the Goods Movement Emission Reduction Program. Projects for the provision of on-shore electrical power for ocean freight carriers calling at the state's seaports to reduce the use of auxiliary and main engine ship power are authorized for funding. This bill would require the state board to reimburse eligible project costs on a quarterly basis, as provided.
(1) Existing law requires a notice of sale to be posted before any power of sale can be exercised under the power of sale contained in any deed of trust or mortgage. Existing law, until January 1, 2013, requires a resident of property upon which a notice of sale has been posted to be provided a specified notice advising the resident that, among other things, if the person is renting the property, the new property owner may either give the tenant a new lease or rental agreement, or provide the tenant with a 60-day eviction notice, and that other laws may prohibit the eviction or provide the tenant with a longer notice before eviction. Existing law makes it an infraction to tear down the notice within 72 hours of posting. Existing law requires a state government entity to make translations of the notice available in 5 specified languages, for use by a mortgagee, trustee, beneficiary, or authorized agent, in order to satisfy the notice requirements. This bill would revise certain portions of the notice to instead require a resident of property upon which a notice of sale has been posted to be advised that if the person is renting the property, the new property owner may either give the tenant a new lease or rental agreement, or provide the tenant with a 90-day eviction notice. The bill would require the notice to advise a tenant who has a lease that the new property owner is required to honor the lease unless the new owner will occupy the property as a primary residence or under other limited circumstances. The bill would require the Department of Consumer Affairs to make translations of the notice available, as described above. The bill would provide that these changes to the notice would become operative on March 1, 2013, or 60 days following posting of a dated notice incorporating those amendments on the Department of Consumer Affairs Internet Web site, whichever date is later. The bill would extend the operation of these provisions until December 31, 2019. By extending the operation of provisions establishing a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law provides, that in an unlawful detainer action, if an owner or owner's agent has obtained service of a prejudgment claim of right to possession, as specified, no occupant of the premises, whether or not that occupant is named in the judgment for possession, may object to the enforcement of the judgment, as specified. This bill would provide that in any action for unlawful detainer resulting from a foreclosure sale of a rental housing unit pursuant to specified provisions, the above provisions regarding objection to the enforcement of a judgment do not limit the right of a tenant or subtenant to file a prejudgment claim of right of possession or to object to enforcement of a judgment for possession, regardless of whether the tenant or subtenant was served with a prejudgment claim of right to possession, as specified. (3) Existing law, until January 1, 2013, requires a tenant or subtenant in possession of a rental housing unit at the time that property is sold in foreclosure to be provided 60 days' written notice to quit before the tenant or subtenant may be removed from the property, as specified. This bill would instead require a tenant or subtenant in possession of a rental housing unit under a month-to-month lease at the time that property is sold in foreclosure to be provided 90 days' written notice to quit before the tenant or subtenant may be removed from the property. The bill would provide tenants or subtenants holding possession of a rental housing unit under a fixed-term residential lease entered into before transfer of title at the foreclosure sale the right to possession until the end of the lease term, except in specified circumstances. The bill would also extend the operation of these provisions until December 31, 2019. (4) 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.