Sen. Ted Lieu

This measure would memorialize the Legislature's support of legislation currently pending in the United States Congress that would protect the Pacific Coast from new offshore oil drilling. This measure would also memorialize the Legislature's opposition to the proposed expansion of oil and gas drilling off the Pacific Coast and any federal energy policies and legislation that would weaken California's role in energy siting decisions due to those policies.

Existing law specifies that there is in the Department of Veterans Affairs a Veterans Home of California, Yountville, and that the department may establish and construct a second veterans home located on one or more sites in specified counties. Existing law specifies the particular sites of the second home. This bill would revise and recast these provisions to state, in the same order as listed in current law, that there is a veterans home at Yountville and at each of the locations currently specified as a site of the second home. This bill would provide for the Veterans Home of California, Chula Vista, to also be known as the "John Smith Memorial Veterans Home," and for the Veterans Home of California, Lancaster, to also be known as the "William J. 'Pete' Knight Veterans Home."

Existing law requires the Governor to call a special election to fill a vacancy in a congressional or legislative office within 14 calendar days of the occurrence of the vacancy and provides that all candidates be listed on the ballot and, if any candidate receives a majority of all votes cast, he or she shall be declared elected. If a candidate does not receive a majority of all votes cast, the names of the candidates receiving the most votes representing a qualified political party are placed on the special general election ballot as that party's candidate. Under existing law, the special primary and the special general elections are required to be conducted within specified time periods. This bill would instead authorize the board of supervisors of a county affected by the special election to make a determination within 30 days of a vacancy on whether to fill a vacancy in the office of United States Representative in Congress, State Senator, or Member of the Assembly by using a prescribed instant runoff voting method, except that if 2 or more counties are affected, all affected counties would have to agree to use the instant runoff voting method. The bill also would require the Governor to call the special election within 5 calendar days after the determination of the affected county or counties on whether it will use the instant runoff procedures or within 35 days of the vacancy if no determination is made.

Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, restricts the employment of licensed physicians and surgeons and podiatrists by a corporation or other artificial legal entity, subject to specified exemptions, and makes it a crime to practice medicine without a license. Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2011, a pilot project to allow qualified district hospitals that, among other things, provide more than 50% of patient days to the care of Medicare, Medi-Cal, and uninsured patients, to employ a physician and surgeon, if the hospital does not interfere with, control, or otherwise direct the professional judgment of the physician and surgeon. The pilot project authorizes the direct employment of a total of 20 physicians and surgeons by those hospitals to provide medically necessary services in rural and medically underserved communities, and specifies that each qualified district hospital may employ up to 2 physicians and surgeons, subject to specified requirements. This bill would delete that pilot project and would instead, until January 1, 2021, authorize a health care district, as defined, and a clinic owned or operated by a health care district, as specified, to employ physicians and surgeons if the health care district's service area includes a Medically Underserved Area (MUA) or a Medically Underserved Population (MUP) , or has been federally designated as a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) ; the district board conducts a public hearing and adopts a specified resolution declaring the need for the district to recruit and directly employ one or more physicians and surgeons; and the executive officer of the district provides specified documentation to the Medical Board of California. Upon receipt of that documentation, the bill would require the board to approve the employment of up to 5 primary or specialty care physicians and surgeons by the district, and, upon receipt of additional documentation after that employment, to approve an additional 5 primary or specialty care physicians and surgeons. The bill would provide that a district may, until December 31, 2020, enter into, renew, or extend any employment contract with a physician and surgeon for up to 10 years. The bill would require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, in consultation with the State Department of Public Health and the board, to report to the Legislature by June 1, 2018, with regard to the efficacy of the employment of physicians and surgeons by health care districts, as specified.

Existing law requires the Director of General Services to establish and staff an activity within the department, known as the "forms management center," for the orderly design, implementation, and maintenance of a statewide forms management program. Existing law requires the director to provide notice to state agencies, forms management representatives, and departmental forms coordinators, that appropriate references to state-registered domestic partner, parent, or state-registered domestic partnership are to be included in revising all public-use forms, as specified. This bill would require the director to provide notice to state agencies, forms management representatives, and departmental forms coordinators, that in the usual course of reviewing and revising all public-use forms that collect demographic data, that appropriate voluntary self-identification information shall be included in the forms that relate to sexual orientation, domestic partnership status, and gender identity, as specified.

Existing law prohibits the sale of any gift certificate that contains an expiration date or service fee. Existing law excepts from those provisions specified gift certificates, including, but not limited to, those that are distributed by the issuer to a consumer pursuant to an award, loyalty, or promotional program without any money or other thing of value being given in exchange for the gift certificate by the consumer, as specified. Gift certificate is defined for these purposes to include gift cards, but does not include any gift card usable with multiple sellers of goods or services, as specified. This bill would prohibit a retailer from advertising as a gift certificate or gift card any promotional item, award, or loyalty that does not comply with the laws pertaining to gift certificates. The bill would require any of those items resembling a gift certificate or gift card to include on the front of the item the terms and conditions of use as well as a notice in 10-point boldface type that the item is not a gift certificate or gift card. The bill also would prohibit the sale of a gift card usable with multiple sellers of goods or services that requires a service fee, including, but not limited to, a service fee for activation, application, installation, or dormancy.

(1) Existing law authorizes the establishment of regional occupational centers or programs to provide career technical education and technical training to students. Existing law provides a system for the funding of regional occupational centers or programs that includes a provision for the apportionment of state funds to these centers or programs. This bill would require from the 2009–10 fiscal year to the 2012–13 fiscal year, inclusive, that a regional occupational center or program established and maintained by school districts as a joint powers agency receive its operating funds directly from the county office of education of the county in which it is located, in a manner that is consistent with the apportionments for those school districts that comprise the joint powers authority that are provided to the county office of education pursuant to the annual Budget Act. The bill would authorize a joint powers agency receiving an apportionment for a school district pursuant to the bill to disburse those funds to the school district for which that apportionment was made. The bill would provide that nothing in its provisions would prevent any school district or county office of education from using funding received from a specified item of the annual Budget Act for any educational purpose. (2) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This measure would recognize the Lunar New Year 4708 celebration.

This measure would declare February 23, 2010, to be Spay Day USA 2010 in California, and would request that Californians observe that day by having their dogs and cats spayed or neutered and by providing voluntary services or other support to organizations that provide spay and neuter services.

This resolution would respectfully request that the International Maritime Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, adopt the North American Emission Control Area, as proposed by the United States, Canada, and France at the 60th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee, scheduled for March 2010.