Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Pursuant to its existing authority, the commission issued Electrical Rule 21 establishing operational and metering requirements for a generation facility to be connected to an electrical corporation's distribution system. Existing law relative to private energy producers requires every electric utility, as defined, to develop a standard contract or tariff providing for net energy metering, as defined, and to make this contract or tariff available to eligible customer-generators, as defined, upon request for generation by a renewable electrical generation facility, as defined. The existing definition of an eligible customer-generator requires that the generating facility use a renewable source of energy, as specified, and have a generating capacity of not more than one megawatt. Existing law requires that every electric utility ensure that requests for an interconnection agreement from an eligible customer-generator are processed in a time period not to exceed 30 working days from the date it receives a completed application form from the eligible customer-generator for an interconnection agreement. This bill would require the commission to determine criteria that would allow an independent generation facility, as defined, to apply for interconnection to the utility electric distribution grid under the fast track review process, as defined under Rule 21. Under existing law, a violation of an order, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because a failure of an electric utility to process an interconnection request from an independent generation facility pursuant to Rule 21 would be a crime, this 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.
Sponsored bills
(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA also requires, in an action or proceeding alleging noncompliance with its requirements, that the grounds for noncompliance shall have been presented by any person to the public agency during the public comment period or prior to the close of the public hearing on the project before the filing of the notice of determination. CEQA requires a person bringing an action or proceeding alleging noncompliance with its requirements to have objected to the project during the public comment period or prior to the close of the public hearing on the project before the filing of the notice of determination. This bill would require that the alleged grounds for noncompliance shall have been presented to a public agency prior to the close of the public hearing on the project if the grounds for noncompliance were not known and could not have been known with the exercise of reasonable diligence during the public comment period or if no public comment period was provided by CEQA. The bill would limit the standing of a person objecting to the project prior to the close of the public hearing on the project before the filing of notice of determination to an action or proceeding challenging a project for which no public comment period was provided by CEQA. (2) CEQA, until January 1, 2016, precludes an organization formed after the approval of a project from maintaining an action unless a member of the organization has objected to the approval of the project orally or in writing and presented the grounds of noncompliance to the public agency. Existing law, on and after January 1, 2016, precludes an organization formed after the approval of a project from maintaining an action unless a member of the organization has objected to the approval of the project orally or in writing. This bill would extend the preclusion in effect until January 1, 2016, indefinitely.
Existing federal law authorizes airport sponsors to submit applications to the Secretary of Transportation for financial assistance for airport improvement projects. Under federal law, upon approval by the Secretary of Transportation, the United States government may pay for certain project costs. Existing law establishes the Aeronautics Account in the State Transportation Fund, and continuously appropriates the moneys in the account for expenditure by the Division of Aeronautics within the Department of Transportation and the California Transportation Commission. Existing law requires that funds in the account be paid to certain public entities owning and operating airports for projects for airport and aviation purposes, as defined, or operation and maintenance purposes, as defined. Existing law authorizes any balance remaining in the account to be used as a portion of the local match for federal Airport Improvement Program grants for certain airports. Existing law prohibits the California Transportation Commission from allocating funds until the federal grant offer is accepted by the public entity and authorizes the division, upon allocation of the funds by the commission, to pay a public entity 5% of the amount of a federal Airport Improvement Program grant. This bill would require the department to certify that, at the time a grant is issued, the department has all statements, resolutions, and other documentation required for fulfillment of grant terms and conditions. This bill would allow the recipient of the grant to begin the project for which the grant was awarded upon receipt of this certification. If, after transmitting this certification, the department determines additional documentation is required, this bill would allow the recipient of the grant 45 days to submit additional required documentation. The bill would prevent the applicant from losing eligibility for the grant due to the need for additional documentation during this 45–day period.
Existing law generally provides for the programming and allocation of state and federal transportation capital improvement funds pursuant to the state transportation improvement program process administered by the California Transportation Commission. Existing law additionally requires the Department of Transportation to prepare a state highway operation and protection program for the expenditure of funds for major capital improvements that are necessary to preserve and protect the state highway system but that do not add a new traffic lane to the system. The state highway operation and protection program is based on a 10-year rehabilitation plan and a 5-year maintenance plan prepared by the department. Existing law provides for the program to be submitted to the commission for approval in every even-numbered year. Existing law authorizes the commission to review the program relative to its overall adequacy, level of annual funding needed to implement the program, and impact of those expenditures on the state transportation improvement program, but does not provide for the commission to allocate funds to specific projects in the state highway operation and protection program. This bill would require the commission to allocate funding for all capital and support costs for a project in the state highway operation and protection program. For a project that experiences increases in capital or support costs above the amount originally allocated, the bill would require the department to submit a supplemental project allocation request for approval by the commission. The bill would authorize the commission to establish guidelines to provide exceptions to the requirements relating to these supplemental project allocation requests that it determines may be necessary to ensure projects are not unnecessarily delayed.
The Political Reform Act of 1974 provides for the comprehensive regulation of the lobbying industry and imposes various restrictions on public officials for the purpose of avoiding conflicts of interests. The act prohibits a lobbyist or lobbying firm from making gifts to any person aggregating more than $10 in a calendar month and prohibits an elected state officer, elected officer of a local government agency, or other designated individual from accepting gifts from any single source in any calendar year with a total value of more than $250. Existing law requires the Fair Political Practices Commission to adjust the gift limitation amount on January 1 of each odd-numbered year to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. This bill would prohibit a lobbyist or lobbying firm from making a gift of any amount. The bill would prohibit an elected state officer, elected officer of a local government agency, or other designated individual from accepting gifts from a single source in a calendar year with a total value of more than $200 and would authorize the Fair Political Practices Commission to increase the gift limitation amount each odd-numbered year based upon changes in the Consumer Price Index. The bill would further prohibit a candidate for elective state office, elected state officer, or legislative official from receiving a gift of tickets to specified venues and events or a gift comprised of specified recreational activities. The act prohibits a public official at any level of state or local government from making, participating in making, or in any way attempting to use the official's position to influence a governmental decision in which the official knows or has reason to know that he or she has a financial interest. The act provides that the public official has a financial interest in a decision if it is reasonably foreseeable that the decision will have a material financial effect on the official, the official's immediate family, or other prescribed persons, including a donor of a gift or gifts aggregating $250 or more in value within the 12 months preceding the decision. The act requires the Commission to adjust the gift value amount that creates a financial interest in the donor to equal the above-described limitation amount on the value of gifts from a single source in a calendar year. This bill would reduce to $200 the aggregate value of gifts that create a financial interest for a public official in the gift's donor. The bill would also require the Commission to adjust this amount to equal the amount of any adjustment made by the Commission to the above-described gift limitation on the value of gifts from a single source in a calendar year. Violation of the act is punishable as a misdemeanor. By creating additional crimes, 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. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.
This measure would designate a 5-mile portion of Interstate 10 as the CAL FIRE Firefighter Christopher Lee Douglas Memorial Highway. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost for appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
(1) Existing law establishes the Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program, which requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to award a grant, for the purpose of purchasing or leasing agricultural career technical education equipment, to an applicant school district that operates an agricultural career technical education program and that meets specified requirements. Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to annually adopt or update a local control and accountability plan that contains specified information. This bill would continuously appropriate the sum of $4,134,000 in each fiscal year beginning with the 2015–16 fiscal year from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for purposes of funding the Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program. The bill would require the Superintendent to award a grant to a school district that, in addition to meeting the existing requirements, demonstrates how the expenditure of the grant funds will be consistent with its adopted local control and accountability plan. The bill would also express various findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to agricultural career technical education. (2) Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.
Under existing law, there are programs providing assistance for, among other things, emergency housing, multifamily housing, farmworker housing, home ownership for very low and low-income households, and downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers. Existing law also authorizes the issuance of bonds in specified amounts pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law. Existing law requires that proceeds from the sale of these bonds be used to finance various existing housing programs, capital outlay related to infill development, brownfield cleanup that promotes infill development, and housing-related parks. This bill would enact the California Homes and Jobs Act of 2013. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to the need for establishing permanent, ongoing sources of funding dedicated to affordable housing development. The bill would impose a fee, except as provided, of $75 to be paid at the time of the recording of every real estate instrument, paper, or notice required or permitted by law to be recorded. By imposing new duties on counties with respect to the imposition of the recording fee, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The bill would require that revenues from this fee be sent quarterly to the Department of Housing and Community Development for deposit in the California Homes and Jobs Trust Fund, which the bill would create within the State Treasury. The bill would provide that moneys in the fund may be expended for supporting affordable housing, administering housing programs, and the cost of periodic audits, as specified. The bill would impose certain auditing and reporting requirements. Existing law requires the Department of Industrial Relations to monitor and enforce compliance with applicable prevailing wage requirements for specified public works projects that are funded by state bond proceeds. Moneys collected for this purpose are continuously appropriated to the department from the State Public Works Enforcement Fund to cover the costs of these monitoring and enforcement duties. This bill would require the Department of Industrial Relations to monitor and enforce prevailing wage requirements for construction contracts for certain public works projects over $1,000,000, that are funded, in whole or in part, by the bill. The bill would authorize the department to charge each person or entity awarding a construction contract for the reasonable and directly related costs of the monitoring and enforcement activities, and would require the department to deposit the moneys collected into the State Public Works Enforcement Fund. The bill would exempt projects with a collective bargaining agreement with a mechanism for resolution of wage disputes from this requirement. By establishing a new source of revenue for a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. 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.
Existing law generally defines "public work" as construction, alteration, demolition, installation, or repair work done under contract and paid for in whole or in part out of public funds; work done for irrigation, utility, reclamation, and improvement districts, and other districts of this type; street, sewer, or other improvement work done under the direction and supervision or by the authority of any officer or public body of the state or of any political subdivision or district thereof, and public transportation demonstration projects, as specified. Existing law, the Public Works Project Peer Review Act of 2013, authorizes a public agency principally tasked with administering, planning, developing, and operating a public works project to establish a peer review group, as defined. If a peer review group is established, existing law requires the administering agency to draft a charter, published on the agency's Internet Web site, related to the duties of the peer review group. This bill would authorize these provisions, instead, to be known and cited as the Public Works Project Oversight Improvement Act. The bill would define a "megaproject" as a transportation project with total estimated development and construction costs exceeding $2,500,000,000. The bill would require the agency administering a megaproject to establish a peer review group and to take specified actions to manage the risks associated with a megaproject including establishing a comprehensive risk management plan, and regularly reassessing its reserves for potential claims and unknown risks. The bill would require the agency administering a megaproject to make available to the public via its Internet Web site a list of all engineers in responsible charge of work related to the megaproject. Because this bill would require local agencies to perform additional duties, 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law provides that the Department of Transportation shall have full possession and control of the state highway system and specifies the duties and responsibilities of the department on various other transportation matters. Existing law requires the department to prepare the interregional transportation improvement program which, along with the regional transportation improvement programs adopted by regional transportation agencies, becomes part of the state transportation improvement program and identifies most transportation capital improvements to be undertaken over a multiyear period with state and federal funds. Existing law also requires the department to separately prepare the state highway operation and protection program, which identifies capital projects limited to maintenance, safety, and rehabilitation work necessary to preserve and protect the state highway system. Existing law requires the California Transportation Commission to, among other things, adopt the state transportation improvement program and approve the state highway operation and protection program, and further provides for the commission to allocate transportation capital funds to specific projects contained in the state transportation improvement program, but not the state highway operation and protection program, which is managed by the department. This bill would authorize the commission to prescribe study areas for analysis and evaluation by the department and to establish guidelines for updates to the California Transportation Plan, commencing with the plan required to be updated by December 31, 2020. The bill would require the department, on or before June 30, 2015, to submit to the commission for approval an interregional transportation strategic plan directed at achieving a high functioning and balanced interregional transportation system. The bill would revise the procedures for the development of the interregional transportation improvement program by requiring the department to submit a draft 5-year interregional transportation improvement program to the commission by October 15 of each odd-numbered year. The bill would require projects included in the draft interregional transportation improvement program to be consistent with the interregional transportation strategic plan. The bill would require the commission to hold public hearings by November 15 of each odd-numbered year regarding the draft program and to attempt to reconcile any objections. The department would be required to consider the input received at the hearings and develop and submit a final interregional transportation improvement program to the commission for approval not later than December 15 of each odd-numbered year. The bill would require the department, in consultation with the commission, to prepare a robust asset management plan to guide selection of projects for the state highway operation and protection, which plan would be subject to approval by the commission. The bill would require the department to specify, for each project in the program, a capital and support budget and projected delivery date for various components of the project. The bill would specifically authorize the commission to decline to adopt the program if it determines that the program is not sufficiently consistent with the asset management plan. This bill would require the department to report quarterly to the commission on the approved capital and support budgets compared to expenditures at contract construction acceptance for each major state highway operation and protection program project completed in the previous quarter. Existing law requires the department, by June 30, 1994, to apply for federal funding to be used for conversion of data pertaining to the state highway system from paper storage to intelligent computer information, and to commence implementation of the conversion process within 6 months of receiving federal funding approval. This bill would repeal these provisions. The bill would also make legislative findings and declarations.