Sen. Bill Dodd

This measure would designate a specified portion of Interstate 405 in the County of Orange as the James Mitchell "Mitch" Waller Memorial Highway. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the costs of erecting the appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.

This measure would declare 2015 as the International Year of Soils, and recognize the importance of healthy soils as a critical resource supplying an abundance of food, diverse habitats, water storage, and climate resiliency.

This measure would urge the Governor to proclaim the month of June 2015 as World War II Remembrance Month, and call upon all Californians to observe the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.

The Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act governs the management and operation of common interest developments. Existing law provides that, unless otherwise provided in the common interest development declaration, the association is responsible for repairing, replacing, or maintaining the common area, other than exclusive use common area, and the owner of each separate interest is responsible for maintaining that separate interest and any exclusive use common area appurtenant to that interest. Existing law makes void and unenforceable any provision of the governing documents or architectural or landscaping guidelines or policies that prohibits use of low water-using plants, or prohibits or restricts compliance with water-efficient landscape ordinances or regulations on the use of water, as specified. Existing law also prohibits an association, except an association that uses recycled water for landscape irrigation, from imposing a fine or assessment on separate interest owners for reducing or eliminating watering of vegetation or lawns during any period for which the Governor has declared a state of emergency or the local government has declared a local emergency due to drought. This bill would make void and unenforceable any provision of the governing documents or architectural or landscaping guidelines or policies that prohibits use of artificial turf or any other synthetic surface that resembles grass. This bill would also prohibit a requirement that an owner of a separate interest remove or reverse water-efficient landscaping measures, installed in response to a declaration of a state of emergency, upon the conclusion of the state of emergency. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The California Safe Drinking Water Act provides for the operation of public water systems and imposes on the State Water Resources Control Board various duties and responsibilities for the regulation and control of drinking water in the State of California. The act requires the state board to adopt primary drinking water standards for contaminants in drinking water based upon specified criteria, and required a primary drinking water standard to be established for hexavalent chromium by January 1, 2004. Existing law authorizes the state board to grant a variance from primary drinking water standards to a public water system. Existing law makes certain violations of the act a crime. This bill would authorize, until January 1, 2020, the state board, at the request of a public water system that prepares and submits a compliance plan to the state board, to grant a period of time to achieve compliance with the primary drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium by approving the compliance plan, as prescribed. This bill would require a public water system to provide specified notice regarding the compliance plan to the persons served by the public water system and the public water system to send written status reports to the state board. This bill would prohibit a public water system from being deemed in violation of the primary drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium while implementing an approved compliance plan or while state board action on its proposed and submitted compliance plan is pending. The bill would authorize the state board to direct revisions to a compliance plan if the board makes certain determinations and would prohibit a public water system from being granted a period of time to achieve compliance under certain circumstances, including if the public water system does not submit a revised compliance plan or the revised compliance plan is disapproved. The bill would authorize the state board to implement, interpret, or make specific these provisions by means of criteria, published on its Internet Web site. To the extent that a public water system, when requesting approval of a compliance plan or submitting a report pursuant to these provisions, would make any false statement or representation, this bill would expand the scope of a crime and 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This measure would urge the Supreme Court of the United States to uphold the federal constitutional principle of "one person, one vote" and not deny California's children and immigrants equal protection under the law.

This measure would declare the importance of the arts to the state and the essential role of the Arts Council in promoting the arts throughout the state, and urge a unified effort between the Legislature and the Governor to provide a substantial increase in the General Fund appropriation to the California Arts Council in the 2015–16 Budget Act.

Existing law establishes various programs to fund the development, construction, and repair of local roads, bridges, and other critical transportation infrastructure in the state. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to establish permanent, sustainable sources of transportation funding to improve the state's key trade corridors and support efforts by local governments to repair and improve local transportation infrastructure.

This measure would designate the bicycle-pedestrian path constructed as part of the project to widen State Highway Route 101 in the County of Ventura as the Ralph Fertig Memorial Bicycle-Pedestrian Path and the pedestrian undercrossing of State Highway Route 101 in the community of La Conchita in the County of Ventura as the Peter Douglas Coastal Access Way. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing each of these special designations and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering the cost of the signs for which the donations were made, to erect those signs.

This measure would recognize that every child who needs comprehensive health and early intervention services and supports in order to achieve his or her developmental potential should have those services easily accessible, sufficient, responsive, timely, and of high quality. The measure would further urge the Legislature to leverage existing efforts and statutes to ensure an accountable, results-oriented, and coordinated network of resources in order to provide multidisciplinary early identification and intervention services and supports to California infants and toddlers.