(1) Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to convene an independent technical panel to provide information to the department and the Legislature on new demand management measures, technologies, and approaches. "Demand management measures" means those water conservation measures, programs, and incentives that prevent the waste of water and promote the reasonable and efficient use and reuse of available supplies. Existing law requires urban water suppliers to prepare and adopt urban water management plans with specified components. This bill would require a retail urban water supplier, as defined, to develop and implement an urban water conservation plan, including prescribed components, or achieve high-efficiency water use, as defined. The bill would impose various requirements for the contents of these plans, and would require a retail urban water supplier to update its water conservation plan on a specified schedule. The retail urban water supplier or other specified entities acting on behalf of the retail urban water supplier, would be required to submit reports for purposes of determining progress towards achieving a prescribed water conservation goal. The bill would require specified competitive grant and loan programs to provide financial incentives to retail urban water suppliers to support water use efficiency and local water resources management measures. The bill also would require the board and the department, not later than April 1, 2010, to convene a task force to develop best management practices for commercial, industrial, and institutional water uses for the purpose of achieving a specified reduction in water use by 2020. (2) The Agricultural Water Management Planning Act, until January 1, 1993, and thereafter only as specified, requires certain agricultural water suppliers to prepare and adopt water management plans. This bill would substantially revise the act to require an agricultural water supplier, as defined, to prepare and adopt an agricultural water management plan with specified components on or before December 31, 2012, and update that plan every 5 years, as specified. An entity, as defined, that becomes an agricultural water supplier after December 31, 2012, would be required to prepare and adopt an agricultural water management plan within 2 years after becoming an agricultural water supplier. The bill would require an agricultural water supplier to submit copies of the plan, or provide a specified written notice, to the department and other specified entities. The bill would provide that an agricultural water supplier is ineligible to receive specified state funds if the supplier does not prepare, adopt, and submit the plan in accordance with the requirements established by the bill.
Sponsored bills
Under existing law, businesses are required to obtain various licenses from regulatory agencies. Existing law also requires state agencies to take specified actions, including, but not limited to, designating a small business liaison to assist small businesses to comply with statutory and regulatory requirements. This bill would create the Business Master License Center, which would have prescribed duties, including, but not limited to, developing and administering a computerized one-stop master license system capable of storing, retrieving, and exchanging license information, as well as issuing and renewing master licenses, as specified. The bill would permit the Governor to appoint a 3rd-party facilitator from the business community, to provide oversight over the creation of the center and the development of its master license system. This bill would charge license applicants, in addition to any other fees or deposits required to obtain a particular license, a master license administrative fee in specified amounts, to be deposited into the Business Master License Fund, which this bill would create. This bill would require that the moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be used only to administer the Business Master License Center.
The State Assistance for Fire Equipment Act authorizes the Secretary of Emergency Management to acquire specified firefighting apparatus and equipment for resale to a local agency, as defined, that provides fire suppression services or a fire company. Existing law also establishes the State Assistance for Fire Equipment Account, a continuously appropriated fund, for purposes of the act. Existing law requires the secretary to consult with a specified committee before adopting regulations implementing the act. This bill would annually appropriate $45,600,000 of revenue received by the state from the accessing of oil and gas reserves located beneath state coastal waters, generally known as the "T-Ridge Project," for firefighting purposes, including, but not limited to, the purchase of firefighting and rescue vehicles and equipment, vegetation management and defensible space projects, and specified training courses and materials, thereby making an appropriation. This bill would also require the secretary to consult with additional specified individuals involved in firefighting before adopting certain regulations.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. This bill would repeal obsolete provisions of law, and would make other technical, nonsubstantive changes, relating to electrical restructuring.
Existing law establishes in each community, as defined, a public body, corporate and politic, known as the community development commission, in order that a community have the option of operating and governing its redevelopment agency or redevelopment agency and housing authority, under a single operating entity and board. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to the definition of the term "community" for purposes of these provisions.
Existing law, the Nursing Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of registered nurses by the Board of Registered Nursing and makes a violation of the act a crime. Existing law requires a licensee renewing his or her license to submit proof to the board that during a specified time the licensee has been informed of developments in the registered nursing field either by pursuing a continuing education course offered by a provider approved by the board or by other means deemed equivalent by the board. Existing law requires the board to establish, by regulation, standards for continuing education. Existing law requires these standards to make a variety of alternative forms of continuing education available to licensees. Existing law requires the content of all courses of continuing education to be relevant to the practice of nursing. This bill would provide that continuing education courses, as specified, that advance or promote labor organizing on behalf of a union, or that advance or promote statutory or regulatory changes, political candidates, political advocacy, or political strategy shall not be considered content relevant to the practice of nursing and shall not be acceptable for meeting requirements for licensure renewal. The bill would also prohibit an approved provider from representing that such a continuing education course is acceptable for meeting requirements for licensure renewal and would require the board, subject to specified procedural requirements, to withdraw its approval of a provider that violates that requirement for no less than 5 years, as specified. Because a violation of these requirements by a provider would constitute a crime, 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Public Employees' Retirement Law (PERL) provides a defined benefit to members of the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) based on age at retirement, service credit, and final compensation, as those terms are defined. The management and control of PERL is vested in the board of administration of PERL, including the calculation of the contribution rates for specified state employees and state employers. Existing law provides that a statute that imposes a requirement that a state agency submit a periodic report to the Legislature is inoperative on a date 4 years after the date the first report is due. This bill would require the board of administration of PERL, notwithstanding that requirement, to submit a report to the Legislature, the Governor, and the Treasurer describing the investment return assumptions, discount rates, and amortization periods utilized by the board in the calculations of the contribution rates and to include recalculations of those rates based on specified adjustments of the investment return assumptions, amortization periods, and discount rates utilized by the board any time it calculates the contribution rates. This bill would require the Treasurer, within 30 days following receipt of the report, to provide each house of the Legislature, at a publicly noticed floor session, with an explanation of the role played by the investment return assumption and amortization period in the calculation of the contribution rates and the consequences for future state budgets if the investment return assumptions are not realized, to report whether the board's amortization period exceeds the estimated average remaining service periods of employees covered by the contributions, and to express his or her opinion of the reasonableness of the board's calculation of the contribution rates. This bill would, notwithstanding the 4-year reporting limitations, also require the board, at any time it forecasts contribution rates, to submit a report to the Legislature with a revised calculation of the forecasted contribution rates utilizing a specified investment rate assumption. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would call upon the State Air Resources Board, prior to any regulatory action being taken consistent with the scoping plan for the implementation of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, to perform an economic analysis that will give the State of California a more complete and accurate picture of the costs and benefits of the act's implementation. The measure would also call upon the Governor to use the authority granted by the act to adjust any applicable deadlines for regulations.
The Natural Community Conservation Planning Act authorizes the Department of Fish and Game to enter into agreements with any person or public entity for the purpose of preparing a natural community conservation plan, to provide comprehensive management and conservation of multiple wildlife species. The act requires each natural community conservation plan to include an implementation agreement governing specified matters. The act requires that the implementation of a plan, to the extent practicable, use the services of either the California Conservation Corps or local community conservation corps. This bill would authorize the use of both state and local community conservation corps.
Existing law authorizes personal service upon a party in a civil action, if no specific provision is made, by leaving the notice or other papers at the party's residence, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. with a person of not less than 18 years of age. This bill would, until January 1, 2014, instead require the first attempt to personally serve a summons or complaint initiating an action to be made between the hours of 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.