Sen. Steve Bradford

The California Constitution prohibits the state from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting. This measure would eliminate this prohibition on state discrimination or preference in the operation of public education.

This measure would declare that the Legislature joins the County of Riverside in opposing base realignment and closure affecting the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Corona Division, and March Air Reserve Base.

Existing law provides that a crime punishable with death, by imprisonment in the state prison, or by imprisonment in a county jail for more than one year is a felony and all other offenses, except those that are classified as infractions, are misdemeanors. Existing law further provides that a crime that is punishable, in the discretion of the court, as a felony or as a misdemeanor is a misdemeanor under certain circumstances, including when the court grants a defendant probation without imposing a sentence and, at the time of granting probation or on application of the defendant or probation officer thereafter, the court declares the offense to be a misdemeanor. This bill would require the court, when a defendant has not been convicted of any new offenses within a period of 5 years following release from custody, is not currently subject to probation or mandatory supervision, and upon application by the defendant, to declare the felony that is the subject of the application to be a misdemeanor. These provisions would not apply if the felony is a violent felony, a serious felony, or an offense that requires a person to register as a sex offender.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined, while local publicly owned electric utilities, as defined, are under the direction of their governing board. 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. Existing law authorizes a local publicly owned electric utility to elect to instead offer co-energy metering, which uses a generation-to-generation energy and time-of-use credit formula, as specified. Existing law establishes separate requirements for wind energy co-metering that provides a credit against the generation component of an electricity bill of an electric utility for those eligible customer-generators utilizing a wind energy project with a generating capacity greater than 50 kilowatts, but not exceeding one megawatt, unless approved by the electric utility. This bill would provide that, for the United States Marine Corp Logistics Base, Barstow, wind energy co-metering is available if the generating capacity does not exceed 1.5 megawatts.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations, as defined. The Public Utilities Act requires the Public Utilities Commission to review and adopt a procurement plan for each electrical corporation in accordance with specified elements, incentive mechanisms, and objectives. The act requires that an electrical corporation's proposed procurement plan include certain elements, including a showing that the electrical corporation will first meet its unmet needs through all available energy efficiency and demand reduction resources that are cost effective, reliable, and feasible. Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, to identify all potentially achievable cost-effective electricity efficiency savings, and to establish efficiency targets for electrical corporations to achieve pursuant to their procurement plan. The act requires the Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, to identify all potentially achievable cost-effective natural gas efficiency savings and to establish efficiency targets for gas corporations to achieve, and requires that a gas corporation first meet its unmet resource needs through all available gas efficiency and demand reduction resources that are cost effective, reliable, and feasible. This bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to encourage electrical corporations and gas corporations to expedite implementation of energy efficiency measures and enable the achievement of additional energy goals at United States Department of Defense military bases and facilities and United States Coast Guard facilities. This bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to approve financial incentives for energy efficiency upgrades at military bases and facilities and United States Coast Guard facilities through existing energy efficiency programs administered by electrical corporations and gas corporations. Because a violation of an order or a direction of the commission is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would repeal the above requirements on January 1, 2020. 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 measure would call upon all Californians to observe César Chávez's birthday, March 31, as a day of public service, to recognize the hard work and self-sacrifice that farmworkers go through to feed all the families in our state, and to learn from César Chávez's life and his mission of nonviolence, social justice, and selfless service to others.

Existing law, the California Child Day Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of family day care homes by the State Department of Social Services. Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Education, requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer child care and development programs that offer a full range of services for eligible children from infancy to 13 years of age, including, among others, resource and referral programs, alternative payment programs, and family child care home education networks. This bill would authorize family child care providers, as defined, to form, join, and participate in the activities of provider organizations, as defined, and to seek the certification of a provider organization to act as the exclusive representative for family child care providers on matters related to child care subsidy programs pursuant to a petition and election process overseen by the Public Employment Relations Board or a neutral 3rd party designated by the board. The bill would also establish a Family Child Care Parent Advisory Committee, consisting of 11 members, to advise, and make recommendations to, the Governor and any certified provider organization on certain issues, and would provide for the reimbursement of members of the committee for related travel expenses. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services and the State Department of Education, with the assistance of specified state departments and agencies, and their contractors and subcontractors, to make specified information regarding family child care providers available to provider organizations, and would require the provider organization requesting the information to bear the costs of collecting the information. The bill would establish the scope of representation of the certified provider organization, and would require the Governor, through the Department of Human Resources, in consultation with the Superintendent of Public Instruction and other entities, to meet and confer in good faith with the certified provider organization on all matters within that scope of representation. The bill would require the parties to jointly prepare a memorandum of understanding if agreement is reached, which would be binding on all state departments and agencies, and their contractors and subcontractors, that are involved in the administration of child care subsidy programs. The bill would authorize the parties, if, after a reasonable period of time they fail to reach agreement, to agree to submit unresolved issues to the California State Mediation and Conciliation Service for mediation or binding arbitration, and would authorize either party to declare that an impasse has been reached and request the Public Employment Relations Board to appoint a mediator or arbitrator from the service to perform mediation or binding arbitration. The bill would authorize a certified provider organization to enter into an agreement with the state regarding deduction of membership dues and fair share fees from subsidy payments made to providers, and would prohibit provider organizations and the state, as defined, from calling strikes and from interfering with, intimidating, restraining, coercing, or discriminating against a family child care provider for joining or refusing to join a provider organization. The bill would require the State Department of Education to require all resource and referral agencies to provide, without charge, workshops to family child care providers that include, among other things, training on child development and literacy, and to provide copies of curricula, frameworks, and introductory materials related to childhood education endorsed or published by the State Department of Education. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to consult with a stakeholder group, as specified, regarding ways to ensure the most effective implementation of safety standards for family child care homes.

(1) Existing law permits minors who are detained in juvenile hall for habitual disobedience, truancy, or curfew violation to be held in the same facility as minors who are detained for violating any law or ordinance defining a crime, if they do not come or remain in contact with each other. Existing law also permits the detention of minors in jails and other secure facilities for the confinement of adults if the minors do not come or remain in contact with confined adults and other specified conditions are met. Existing law authorizes the involuntary detention for a period of 72 hours for evaluation of persons, including minors, who are dangerous to self or others, or gravely disabled, as defined. This bill, commencing January 1, 2016, would generally prohibit a minor or ward who is detained in, or sentenced to, any juvenile facility or other secure state or local facility from being subject to solitary confinement, as defined, unless the minor or ward poses an immediate and substantial risk of harm to others or to the security of the facility, and all other less-restrictive options have been exhausted. The bill would permit the minor or ward to be held in solitary confinement only in accordance with specified guidelines, including that the minor or ward be held in solitary confinement for only the minimum time required to address the safety risk and for a period that does not compromise the mental and physical health of the minor or ward. The bill would prohibit a minor or ward from being placed in solitary confinement for more than 24 hours in a one-week period without obtaining specified written approval. The bill would require each local and state juvenile facility to document the usage of solitary confinement, as prescribed. By increasing the duties of local juvenile facilities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law establishes a juvenile justice commission in each county, but authorizes the boards of supervisors of 2 or more adjacent counties to agree to establish a regional juvenile justice commission in lieu of a county juvenile justice commission. Existing law specifies the membership of these commissions, including that 2 or more members shall be persons who are 14 to 21 years of age, inclusive, and that a regional juvenile justice commission shall consist of not less than 8 citizens. Existing law requires a juvenile justice commission to annually inspect any jail or lockup that, in the preceding calendar year, was used for confinement for more than 24 hours of any minor, and to report the results of the inspection, together with its recommendations based thereon, in writing, to the juvenile court and the Board of State and Community Corrections. Existing law authorizes a commission to recommend to any person charged with the administration of the Juvenile Court Law those changes as it has concluded, after investigation, will be beneficial, and to publicize its recommendations. This bill, commencing January 1, 2016, would require that 2 or more members of these commissions be parents or guardians of previously or currently incarcerated youth, and one member be a licensed social worker, licensed psychiatrist, or licensed psychologist with expertise in adolescent development, if there are available persons who meet those requirements, as specified. The bill also would increase from 8 to 10 the minimum number of members of a regional juvenile justice commission. The bill would authorize a juvenile justice commission to annually inspect any facility within the county other than a jail or lockup that, in the preceding calendar year, was used for confinement for more than 24 hours of any minor. The bill would authorize a juvenile justice commission to review the records of the jail, lockup, or other facility as to the use of solitary confinement, and to additionally report the results of the inspection, together with its recommendations based thereon, in writing, to the county board of supervisors. The bill would authorize the commission to present its report at an annual hearing on the condition of juvenile justice corrections as part of a regularly scheduled public meeting of the county board of supervisors, and to publish the report on the county government's Internet Web site. The bill would also authorize a commission to publicize its recommendations made to any person charged with administration of the Juvenile Court Law on the county government's Internet Web site. (3) 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.

The California Constitution prohibits a person from being deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or from being denied equal protection of the laws. The United States Constitution prohibits a state from denying to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Existing law establishes various advisory boards and commissions in state government with specified duties and responsibilities. The federal My Brother's Keeper Initiative, launched by the President in February 2014, required the establishment of the My Brother's Keeper Task Force, an interagency effort to improve the expected educational and life outcomes for and address the persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color in the United States. This bill would create the Interagency Task Force on the Status of Boys and Men of Color, a multiagency advisory body that would serve as a support mechanism for department agency and systems leaders by taking coordinated action in meeting the myriad challenges facing boys and men of color in California, and assisting the respective departments and agencies in more successfully improving life outcomes for this population. The membership of the task force would include members of the Legislature, as well as representatives of specified agencies, departments, and private entities. The bill would set forth the initial and ongoing responsibilities of the task force, including, among others, an assessment of state program alignment with the objectives of the My Brother's Keeper program and the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color in California, and the development of strategies to enhance positive outcomes and eliminate or mitigate negative outcomes for boys and men of color in the state. This bill would establish the Boys and Men of Color Task Force Fund, to carry out the bill's requirements in support of the task force, upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would authorize the task force to accept federal funds, gifts, donations, grants, or bequests for all or any of its purposes. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law requires cities and counties to develop and update a general plan, which consists of various elements, including a land use element, a circulation element, a housing element, a conservation element, a noise element, and a safety element. This bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to collaborate with an electrical or gas corporation, local publicly owned electric utility, or rural electric cooperative to designate an energy management area, as specified. The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to propose one or more energy management plans, developed jointly with an electrical corporation, gas corporation, local publicly owned electric utility, or rural electric cooperative, serving an energy management area, in order to reduce air emissions and to promote economic development, the addition of new business, and the retention of existing businesses in that energy management area. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to encourage electrical or gas corporations to participate jointly with local agencies in developing, implementing, and administering viable energy management plans for energy management areas, and would prohibit the commission from limiting the role of the electrical or gas corporation that was cooperatively developed in the energy management plan. The bill would require the city, county, or city and county to report the progress of any plan implementation in its biennial report to the Department of Housing and Community Development, as provided. Under the Bergeson-Peace Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Act, the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank is established within state government for the purpose of funding specified types of infrastructure development projects. This bill would make a project to promote economic development in energy management areas developed pursuant to an energy management plan in accordance with the bill eligible for funding through the bank. The bill would require the bank to consider acts it may take, at its discretion, that facilitate the financing of that project.