(1) Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas of the state as very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria. Existing law requires a local agency, within 30 days after receiving a transmittal from the director that identifies very high fire hazard severity zones, to make the information available for public review, as provided. This bill, among other things, would also require the director to identify areas of the state as moderate and high fire hazard severity zones. The bill would modify the factors the director is required to use to identify areas into fire hazard severity zones, as provided. The bill would require a local agency to make this information available for public review and comment, as provided. By expanding the responsibility of a local agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would also make conforming changes. (2) Existing law requires a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains an occupied dwelling or structure in, upon, or adjoining a mountainous area, forest-covered land, brush-covered land, grass-covered land, or land that is covered with flammable material that is within a very high fire hazard severity zone, as designated by a local agency, or a building or structure in, upon, or adjoining those areas or lands within a state responsibility area, to maintain a defensible space of 100 feet from each side and from the front and rear of the structure, as specified. Existing law authorizes a greater distance than specified above on the specified land in a very high fire hazard severity zone. Existing law specifies that clearance beyond the property line may only be required if state law, local ordinance, rule, or regulation includes certain findings and specifies that clearance on adjacent property shall only be conducted following written consent by the adjacent landowner. This bill, among other things, would instead provide that fuel modification beyond the property line may only be required by state law, local ordinance, rule, or regulation in order to maintain the 100 feet of defensible space. This bill would also require the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to establish a statewide program to allow qualified entities, as defined, to support and augment the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in its defensible space and home hardening assessment and education efforts and to establish a common reporting platform for participating qualified entities to report defensible space and home hardening assessment data to the department. The bill would repeal this provision on January 1, 2026. Existing law requires the Office of the State Fire Marshal to develop a model defensible space program that is required to be made available for use by a city, county, or city and county in the enforcement of the above defensible space provisions. The program is required to have specified components, including general guidelines for creating and maintaining defensible space around structures, as provided. This bill would also include as a component of the model defensible space program, provisions for fuel modifications beyond the property line, as provided. The California Building Standards Law provides for the adoption of building standards by state agencies by requiring all state agencies that adopt or propose adoption of any building standard to submit the building standard to the California Building Standards Commission for approval or adoption. In the absence of a designated state agency, the commission is required to adopt specific building standards, as prescribed. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal, in consultation with the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Director of Housing and Community Development, to propose specified fire protection building standards in fire hazard severity zones, including very high fire hazard severity zones, in state responsibility areas. This bill would require the State Fire Marshal and the Department of Housing and Community Development to propose, and the State Building Standards Commission to adopt, expanded application of the above-described specified building standards to high fire hazard severity zones. The bill would also require the State Fire Marshal and the Department of Housing and Community Development to consider, if it is appropriate, expanding application of these building standards to moderate fire hazard severity zones. This bill would also make other related changes. (3) Existing law appropriates specified moneys to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for purposes of healthy forest and fire prevention programs and projects that improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by uncontrolled wildfires and to complete prescribed fire and other fuel reduction projects, as provided. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2026, the department, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board and the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, to report to the relevant fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature on moneys spent pursuant to the above provision, as provided. The bill would require the department to annually appear, until January 1, 2030, before specified legislative committees to provide information on the outcomes of completed projects relating to healthy forest and fire prevention programs, as provided. (4) Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to establish a local assistance grant program for fire prevention activities in the state. Existing law requires the local assistance grant program to establish a robust year-round fire prevention effort in and near fire threatened communities. Exiting law requires that the eligible activities include, among other things, fire prevention activities, as provided. Existing law permits the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to authorize advance payments, not exceeding 25% of the total grant award, from a grant awarded pursuant to the local assistance grant program. This bill, among other things, would specify that the above-described fire prevention effort in and near fire threatened communities focus on increasing the protection of people, structures, and communities, as provided. The bill would define "fire threatened communities" as provided. The bill would specifically include vegetation management along roadways and driveways to reduce fire risk, public education outreach regarding making homes and communities more wildfire resilient, projects to reduce the flammability of structures and communities to prevent their ignition from wind-driven embers, and developing a risk reduction checklist for communities as part of the eligible activities, among other things, as provided. The bill would authorize an advance payment not to exceed either 50% of the total grant award or the cost of equipment, whichever amount is less, for the purpose of purchasing necessary equipment. This bill would require the department to develop and implement a training program, as provided, to train individuals to support and augment the department in its defensible space and home hardening assessment and public education efforts. The bill would require the department to issue a certification of completion to individuals who have successfully completed the training program. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2026. (5) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 51177, 51178, 51178.5, and 51182 of the Government Code proposed by AB 9 to be operative only if this bill and AB 9 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 13108.5 of the Health and Safety Code proposed by AB 9 to be operative only if this bill and AB 9 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 4291 of the Public Resources Code proposed by AB 9 to be operative only if this bill and AB 9 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (6) 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Sponsored bills
Existing law establishes procedures for the formation of infrastructure financing districts, enhanced infrastructure financing districts, infrastructure and revitalization financing districts, community revitalization and investment authorities, and public-private partnerships, as specified, to undertake various economic development projects, including financing public facilities and infrastructure, affordable housing, and economic revitalization. This bill, until January 1, 2028, would authorize establishment of a Green Empowerment Zone for the Northern Waterfront area of the County of Contra Costa. The bill would authorize the Green Empowerment Zone to be composed of specified cities, upon adoption of a resolution by the city or county, and would provide for the Green Empowerment Zone to be governed by a board of directors. The bill would task the Green Empowerment Zone with various duties, including, among other things, identification of projects and programs that will best utilize public dollars and improve the economic vitality of the Northern Waterfront area of the County of Contra Costa in a coordinated effort to support the development of the clean energy economy. The bill would require the Green Empowerment Zone to create and maintain an internet website that is managed and updated by an entity designated by the board of directors, produce a report each year that includes recommendations for action by the Legislature and the progress of the zone, and post the report on its internet website, as specified. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Contra Costa
The existing federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 provides for the negotiation and execution of tribal-state gaming compacts for the purpose of authorizing certain types of gaming on Indian lands within a state. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to negotiate and conclude tribal-state gaming compacts, subject to ratification by the Legislature. Existing law expressly ratifies a number of tribal-state gaming compacts, and amendments of tribal-state gaming compacts, between the State of California and specified Indian tribes. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project, as defined, that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, as defined, or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. This bill would ratify the tribal-state gaming compact entered into between the State of California and the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California, executed on August 10, 2021. The bill would provide that, in deference to tribal sovereignty, certain actions related to this compact are not projects for purposes of CEQA. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, establishes, within the office of the Governor, the Office of Emergency Services, under the direction of the Director of Emergency Services for the purpose of mitigating the effects of natural, manmade, or war-caused emergencies. Existing law also establishes the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and establishes various programs for the prevention and reduction of wildfires. Existing law requires the office and the department to jointly establish and lead the Wildfire Forecast and Threat Intelligence Integration Center, and sets forth the functions and duties of the center, including serving as the state's integrated central organizing hub for wildfire forecasting. This bill would, until January 1, 2029, also establish the Office of Wildfire Technology Research and Development within the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection under the direct control of the Director of the department. The bill would make the office responsible for studying, testing, and advising regarding procurement of emerging technologies and tools in order to more effectively prevent and suppress wildfires throughout the state, through specified activities, as provided. This bill would establish the Wildfire Technology Research and Development Review Advisory Board consisting of 9 specified members, including the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, or their designee, the Director of the Office of Emergency Services, or their designee, and the Director of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or their designee, among others. The bill would make the Office of Wildfire Technology Research and Development subject to review by the board. The bill would require the board to meet at least 4 times per year, as specified. The bill would require the findings and recommendations of the board to be compiled and delivered to the office of the Governor and the Legislature no later than January 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, as provided. The bill would require members of the board to serve without compensation, but would allow members to be reimbursed for actual expenses incurred in connection with their duties.
Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, provides for the operation of public water systems and imposes on the State Water Resources Control Board various responsibilities and duties. The act authorizes the state board to order consolidation with a receiving water system where a public water system or a state small water system, serving a disadvantaged community, consistently fails to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water or where a disadvantaged community is substantially reliant on domestic wells that consistently fail to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water. This bill would revise those consolidation provisions, including, among other revisions, authorizing the state board to also order consolidation where a water system serving a disadvantaged community is an at-risk water system, as defined, or where a disadvantaged community is substantially reliant on at-risk domestic wells, as defined. This bill would require the state board, before ordering consolidation or extension of service, to consult with any groundwater sustainability agency, as defined, that provides groundwater supply to the affected area. The bill would require the state board to conduct outreach to ratepayers and residents served by an at-risk water system, consider any specified petitions submitted by members of a disadvantaged community served by the at-risk water system, and consider any information provided by the potentially subsumed water system in support of its contention that it is not an at-risk water system before ordering the consolidation of the at-risk water system, as prescribed. The bill would authorize the state board to prioritize consolidation of an at-risk water system that has historically been overburdened by pollution and industrial development or faced other environmental justice hurdles. The bill would require a finding that a disadvantaged community, in whole or in part, is substantially reliant on at-risk domestic wells to be based on specified aquifer maps and inspection or testing of the domestic wells, as provided.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Transportation, regional transportation agencies, and the San Diego Association of Governments to engage in a Construction Manager/General Contractor project delivery method (CM/GC method) for specified public work projects. This bill would, until January 1, 2033, authorize the Department of Water Resources to utilize the CM/GC method, as specified, for no more than 7 projects for elements of State Water Facilities, as defined. The bill would require the Department of Water Resources, on all projects delivered by the department, to use department employees or consultants under contract with the department to perform all project design and engineering services related to design, and construction inspection services, required for the CM/GC method consistent with specified existing law. The bill would specify that the CM/GC method authorized by these provisions does not include the authority to perform construction inspection services for water resources projects, except as provided. This bill would prohibit the use of the CM/GC method of procurement for the design or construction of through-Delta conveyance facilities of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The bill would require specified information provided to the Department of Water Resources to be verified under oath, thus imposing a state-mandated local program by expanding the scope of an existing crime. The bill would require the Department of Water Resources to prepare and submit to the Legislature an interim report that describes each CM/GC project approved under these provisions no later than July 1, 2025, as provided, and would require the Department of Water Resources to submit a final report providing specified data by July 1, 2028. Existing law, until January 1, 2025, authorizes the Department of General Services, the Military Department, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and specified local agencies to use the design-build procurement process for specified public works. Existing law authorizes the Department of Water Resources to use the design-build procurement process only for those projects at the Salton Sea. This bill would revise and recast the provisions applicable to the Department of Water Resources and would remove the limitation on the Department of Water Resources' authority to use the design-build method to only those projects at the Salton Sea, and would instead allow the Department of Water Resources, until January 1, 2033, to utilize the design-build method for no more than 7 projects, as specified. The bill would require specified information provided to the Department of Water Resources to be certified under penalty of perjury, thus imposing a state-mandated local program by expanding the scope of an existing crime. Existing law requires agencies authorized to use the design-build method of project delivery to notify the State Public Works Board before advertising the design-build project, except that for projects at the Salton Sea, the Director of Water Resources is required to notify the California Water Commission. This bill would revise and recast the provisions applicable to the Department of Water Resources and would exclude construction projects undertaken by the Department of Water Resources pursuant to its authority under the federal Central Valley Project from the requirement that the Director of Water Resources provide notification to another entity. The bill would specify that the design-build method authorized by these provisions does not include the authority to perform construction inspection services for water resources projects, except as provided. The bill would require the Department of Water Resources to prepare and submit to the Legislature an interim report that describes each design-build project approved under these provisions no later than July 1, 2025, as provided, and would require the Department of Water Resources to submit a final report providing specified data by July 1, 2028. This bill would require the Department of Water Resources, through the calendar year 2033, to provide to the Legislature by August 1 of each year, and to post on the department's internet website, a detailed accounting of the public works project undertaken by the department, as prescribed. Among other things, the accounting would be required to specify the total number of state-employed staff, including engineers and related positions, utilized by the department to design, inspect, and manage the project, the total number of consultant personnel utilized to design, construct, and manage the project, and a list of department contracts issued for a project, as described. This bill would, until January 1, 2033, require the Department of Water Resources to perform construction inspection services, as specified, for all water resources projects authorized pursuant to specified provisions. The bill would require the department to use employees or consultants under contract with the department and would require the construction inspection duties and responsibilities of the department to include a direct reporting relationship between the inspectors and senior department engineers responsible for all inspectors and construction inspection services. The bill would require the department to retain the authority to stop the contractor's operation wholly or in part and take appropriate action when public safety is jeopardized on specified water resources-related projects. The bill would require the department to ensure that public safety and convenience is maintained, to regularly inspect the job site, and to document and issue written notice if any deficiency is observed. 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 declares that small water suppliers and rural communities are often not covered by established water shortage requirements, and that the state should provide guidance to improve drought planning for small water suppliers and rural communities. Existing law required the Department of Water Resources, in consultation with the State Water Resources Control Board and other relevant state and local agencies and stakeholders, to use available data to identify, no later than January 1, 2020, small water suppliers and rural communities that may be at risk of drought and water shortage vulnerability. To implement this directive, the department formed a stakeholder advisory group, the County Drought Advisory Group. Existing law required the department, in consultation with the state board, to propose to the Governor and the Legislature, by January 1, 2020, recommendations and guidance relating to the development and implementation of countywide drought and water shortage contingency plans to address the planning needs of small water suppliers and rural communities, as provided. This bill would require small water suppliers, as defined, serving 1,000 to 2,999 service connections, inclusive, and nontransient noncommunity water systems that are schools, no later than July 1, 2023, to develop and maintain an abridged Water Shortage Contingency Plan that includes specified drought-planning elements. The bill would require a small water supplier serving fewer than 1,000 service connections to add drought planning elements to its emergency notification or response plan and submit the plan to the state board. The bill would require these water systems to report annually specified water supply condition information to the state board through the state board's Electronic Annual Reporting System or other reporting tool, as directed by the state board. The bill would require small water suppliers and nontransient noncommunity water systems that are schools to implement, subject to funding availability, specified drought resiliency measures, including, among others, having at least one backup source of water supply and metering each service connection. The bill would exempt from these provisions small water suppliers, or small water suppliers integrated into larger water systems, that voluntarily choose to instead comply with specified existing law relating to urban water management plans. This bill would require a county to establish a standing county drought and water shortage task force to facilitate drought and water shortage preparedness for state small water systems and domestic wells within the county's jurisdiction, as provided. The bill would authorize a county, in lieu of establishing a standing task force, to establish an alternative process that facilitates drought and water shortage preparedness for state small water systems and domestic wells within the county's jurisdiction, as provided. The bill would provide that a county that establishes a drought task force on or before January 1, 2022, shall be deemed in compliance with these requirements as long as the task force continues to exist. The bill would require a county to develop a plan that includes potential drought and water shortage risk and proposed interim and long-term solutions, as provided. Because the bill would impose additional duties on counties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the department to take specified actions to support implementation of the recommendations from the County Drought Advisory Group. The bill would require the department to establish a standing interagency drought and water shortage task force to, among other things, facilitate proactive planning and coordination, both for predrought planning and postdrought emergency response, which shall consist of various representatives, including representatives from local governments. Because the bill would impose additional duties on local governments, 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law establishes the Department of Community Services and Development within the California Health and Human Services Agency to supplement and coordinate public and private sector efforts to assist low-income participants, including homeless individuals and families, migrants, and the elderly poor, to secure and retain meaningful employment, attain an adequate education, make better use of available income, and obtain and maintain adequate housing and a suitable living environment. Existing law, the California Community Services Block Grant Program, requires the department to administer the federal Community Services Block Grant funds to provide financial assistance for activities designed to have a measurable and potentially major impact on causes of poverty in a community or areas of a community where poverty is a particularly acute problem. Existing law authorizes this funding to assist programs that, among other things, meet the needs of migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families, such as daycare for children and elderly persons, education, health services, improved housing and sanitation, legal advice and representation, and consumer training and counseling, and assistance in processing applications for legalization and citizenship. This bill, upon appropriation by the Legislature, would require the department to establish a grant program for counties to establish farmworker resource centers that provide farmworkers and their families information and access to services related to, among other things, labor and employment rights, education, housing, immigration, and health and human services. The bill would make a county's eligibility for funding under the grant program contingent upon the county working with local or statewide community-based organizations to develop the center, providing 25% of the center's funding under the program, and requiring the center to provide services in at least English and Spanish, to provide an assessment of the population the center would serve, and to maintain a cost-effective database to track the number and type of calls received, referrals made, and claims filed, and to monitor local trends. The bill would require the department to convene and facilitate a workgroup to help inform the establishment and administration of the grant program, as specified.
This measure would urge the Congress of the United States to work with President Joseph R. Biden to pass comprehensive immigration reform guided by empathy, inclusion, and opportunity, as provided.