(1) The Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 governs surface mining operations and reclamation of mined lands and provides, among other things, for the submission of reclamation plans to, and issuance of permits by, lead agencies with respect to surface mining operations. Until December 31, 2017, a site specific plan in conjunction and consistent with the Cache Creek Resource Management Plan is to be considered a functional equivalent of a reclamation plan for purposes of the act. The board of supervisors of the county in which the Cache Creek Resource Management Plan is to be implemented is required, until December 31, 2017, to prepare and forward to the Director of Conservation annually a report containing specified information relating to mining operations. This bill would delete the repeal date for these provisions, thereby extending the operation of these provisions indefinitely. By extending the duties of the board of supervisors of the county in which the Cache Creek Resource Management Plan is to be implemented, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the board of supervisors of that county to include the quantity of materials produced in an annual report and would exempt the board from the payment of annual reporting fees. The bill would make a surface mining operator, acting under the authority of the management plan, responsible for payment of annual fees associated with the quantity of materials produced and require the operator to include the quantity of materials produced in the operator's annual report to the director. The bill would also require the release of required financial assurances to comply with specified regulatory provisions and incorporate certain cross-reference changes made by Chapter 7 of the Statutes of 2016. (2) 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.
Sponsored bills
Existing law authorizes the Sonoma Valley Health Care District and, until January 1, 2025, the Marin Healthcare District, to use the design-build process when contracting for the construction of a building or improvements directly related to a hospital or health facility building at the Sonoma Valley Hospital or the Marin General Hospital. Existing law sets forth the procurement process for design-build projects, as specified, and requires specified information by submitted design-build entities to be verified under penalty of perjury. This bill would instead authorize, until January 1, 2025, any health care district to use the design-build process when contracting for the construction of a hospital or health facility building. Because the bill would expand the application of the procurement process to additional design-build entities, the bill would expand the crime of perjury, 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.
Existing law, until December 1, 2019, creates the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority. Existing law provides for the authority to be governed by the same board as that governing the Sonoma County Transportation Authority and imposes certain duties on the authority. Existing law authorizes the authority to perform coordination and implementation activities within the boundaries of the County of Sonoma, in cooperation with local agencies, as defined, that elect to participate, to assist those agencies in meeting their greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. Existing law authorizes the authority to develop, coordinate, and implement programs and policies to comply with the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 and other federal or state mandates and programs designed to respond to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. This bill would extend these provisions indefinitely. By extending the duties of the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority, 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 establishes a system of public elementary and secondary education in this state. Existing law establishes school districts throughout the state and authorizes these school districts to provide instruction at the elementary and secondary schools they operate and maintain. Existing law provides for the governance of these school districts through elected school district governing boards. This bill would authorize school district governing boards to transfer to another school in that school district pupils enrolled in that school district who have been convicted of violent felonies, as defined, or designated misdemeanors if the pupil to be transferred and the victim of the crime for which the pupil was convicted are enrolled at the same school, if certain requirements are satisfied, including, but not limited to, that the governing board of the school district adopts a policy and notifies parents or guardians of the policy as part of its annual notification to parents and guardians, as specified.
This measure would recognize the year of 2016 as the 50th anniversary of California's community-based developmental services system, and would reaffirm the commitment of the Legislature to support this system. This measure would declare the importance of ensuring a sustainable system that protects the rights of individuals with developmental disabilities.
Existing law, the Marks-Roos Local Bond Pooling Act of 1985, authorizes joint powers authorities, among other powers, to issue bonds and loan the proceeds to local agencies to finance specified types of projects and programs. This bill would enact the Water Bill Savings Act, which would authorize a joint powers authority to provide funding for a customer of a local agency or its publicly owned utility to acquire, install, or repair a water efficiency improvement on the customer's property served by the local agency or its publicly owned utility. The bill would require the customer to repay the authority through an efficiency charge on the customer's water bill to be established and collected by the local agency or its publicly owned utility on behalf of the authority pursuant to a servicing agreement. The bill would authorize the authority to issue bonds to fund the program. The bill would require the Department of Water Resources to provide ongoing oversight of activities undertaken pursuant to these provisions, including, but not limited to, monitoring an authority's administration of an efficiency improvement financing program, as specified. The bill would also make technical changes.
This measure would recognize 2016 as the 150-year anniversary of public service and protection of state parks by state park rangers and would encourage the Department of Parks and Recreation, the California State Park Rangers Association, and the California State Parks Anniversary Committee to take all appropriate action to celebrate that anniversary.
The California Constitution requires that the proceedings of each house of the Legislature and the committees thereof be open and public, except as specified. This measure would require the Legislature, commencing January 1, 2018, to make audiovisual recordings of the open and public proceedings of each house of the Legislature and the committees thereof, as prescribed, and to authorize members of the public who attend those proceedings to make recordings of and to broadcast the proceedings, as prescribed. The measure would require the Legislature to provide its recordings to the Legislative Counsel for purposes of making the recordings promptly available to the public and would require that the recordings remain reasonably accessible to the public for not less than 20 years. The measure would require the Legislature to enact laws to implement these provisions, provided that the bills enacting such laws would be required to be published in final form on the Internet for at least 12 days prior to the final vote in each house. The California Constitution prohibits either house from passing a bill until certain requirements are met, including that a committee or house not hear or act on the bill until the 31st day after it is introduced and that the bill with amendments has been printed and distributed to the Members of the Legislature. This measure would authorize a committee to hear or act on a bill on the 16th day after the bill is introduced. The measure would also prohibit a bill from being passed in either house until the bill, in the form to be voted on, has been made available to the public by publishing it on the Internet for at least 72 hours before the vote. The measure would authorize the Legislature to waive these requirements, as prescribed, if specified requirements are met with respect to a state of emergency declared by the Governor.
Existing law makes specified provisions in construction contracts void and unenforceable, including provisions that purport to indemnify the promisee against liability for damages for death or bodily injury to persons, injury to property, or any other loss arising from the sole negligence or willful misconduct of the promisee or the promisee's agents who are directly responsible to the promisee, or for defects in design furnished by those persons. This bill would specify, with certain exceptions, for contracts and amendments to them entered into on or after January 1, 2017, that a design professional, as defined, only has the duty to defend himself or herself from claims or lawsuits that arise out of, or pertain or relate to, negligence, recklessness, or willful misconduct of the design professional. The bill would prohibit these provisions from being construed to affect any duty of a design professional to defend any claims brought against him or her on an ongoing basis during their pendency or the design professional's obligation to reimburse reasonable defense costs incurred by other persons or entities, limited to the design professional's degree of fault, as determined by a court, arbitration, or negotiated settlement. The bill would provide that contracts and solicitation documents are deemed to incorporate its provisions by reference and would define claim to include a demand for money or services, lawsuit, or demand for arbitration. The bill would prohibit waiver of these provisions and would provide that any clause, covenant, or agreement contained in, collateral to, or affecting a contract that requires a design professional to defend claims or lawsuits against other persons or entities is void and unenforceable. The bill would provide legislative findings and declarations in support of these provisions.