(1) Existing law establishes various public agency retirement systems, including the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) , the State Teachers' Retirement System (STRS) , the Judges' Retirement System II, and various county retirement systems pursuant to the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937, among others, and these systems provide defined pension benefits to public employees based on age, service credit, and amount of final compensation. The California Constitution permits a city or county to adopt a charter for purposes of its governance that supersedes general laws of the state in regard to specified subjects, including compensation of city or county employees. The California Constitution also establishes the University of California as a public trust with full powers of organization and government, subject only to specified limitations. Charter cities and the University of California may establish pension plans under their respective independent constitutional authority. These pension systems are funded by employee and employer contributions and investment returns. Existing law provides that public employee pension benefits are a form of deferred compensation, the right to which vests in the employee on contractual principles and is protected from impairment by the California Constitution and the United States Constitution. This measure would require each public retirement system, as defined in statute, to provide one or more hybrid pension plans meeting the requirements of this measure to each public employer that provides its employees a defined benefit pension plan administered by the public retirement system. The measure would require that a hybrid pension plan consist of a defined benefit component and a defined contribution or alternative plan design component, as specified. The measure would require, among other things, that a hybrid pension plan be designed with a goal of providing annually during retirement, based on a full career in public service, as defined, replacement income of 75% of a public employee's final compensation. The measure would require the Director of Finance, on or before January 1, 2013, to establish initial criteria and requirements for one or more hybrid pension plans, as specified. The measure would require, on and after July 1, 2013, each public retirement system to administer, and make available to each public employer that provides a defined benefit pension plan, one or more hybrid pension plans, except as specified, for public employees hired in each member classification in the public retirement system. The measure would require, for public employees hired on and after January 1, 2013, that retirement benefits be limited as provided, with regard to a defined benefit that is calculated with reference to final compensation, as specified, that final compensation be calculated using at least a consecutive 36-month period of service. The measure would establish various other limitations on the retirement benefits offered by public employers to public employees, regardless of the date the employees are hired, to the fullest extent permissible under the United States Constitution. In this regard, the measure would require that any change to a formula or benefit resulting in an increase in a member's pension benefits shall apply only to service performed on and after the operative date of the change and would require that employers and employees make required payments to fund the normal cost of benefits, as specified. The measure would require public employees to contribute at least 12 of the normal costs of any defined benefit plan and would prohibit an employer from paying an employee's required contributions, except as specified. The measure would also prohibit retirement systems from granting any nonqualified service credit, as specified. The measure additionally would require that a public employee, who is convicted of any felony arising from his or her official duties, forfeit retirement benefits based on certain statutes. The measure would limit the amount of service that a retired public employee may perform for public employers. The measure would provide that neither its provisions nor any related statutory provisions apply to, or otherwise restrict, death, survivor, and disability benefits, except as specified. The measure would provide that labor contracts that are in effect on November 7, 2012, and that are in conflict with the measure's provisions remain in effect until the expiration of the contract, at which time the requirements of the measure would apply. The measure would specify that terms used in those provisions are to be defined in a specified statute and would permit the Legislature to amend specified statutes referenced in the measure's provisions by a 23 vote of the membership of each house by a statute that is consistent with and furthers its purposes. The measure would provide that the activities, programs, and levels of service associated with its provisions are not state-mandated local programs requiring a subvention of funds. (2) The California Constitution prohibits the Legislature from changing the composition of the retirement board of a public pension or retirement system that included elected employee members as of a specified date, including the number, terms, and method of selection and removal of members, unless the change is ratified by a majority vote of the electors of the jurisdiction in which the participants of the system are, or were, prior to retirement, employed. This measure would require the composition of the retirement board of a public pension or retirement system to be modified, in the manner provided for in a specified statute, and would exempt that modification from ratification by the electors. (3) The measure would require the state to defend the constitutionality of its provisions.
Sponsored bills
Existing provisions of the California Constitution define the initiative as the power of the electors to propose statutes and amendments to the Constitution and to adopt or reject them. Existing provisions of the California Constitution specify the procedure for proposing and collecting signatures on an initiative measure and for submitting the measure to the electorate. This measure would revise the procedure for proposing an initiative measure. This measure would require the text of the proposed initiative measure to be submitted to the Attorney General. This measure would require the Attorney General to prepare a circulating title and summary of the chief purpose and points of the proposed measure, and provide a copy thereof to the Secretary of State. This measure would require the Secretary of State to immediately notify the proponents of the initiative measure of the date upon which the Secretary of State received a copy of the circulating title and summary. This measure would allow the proponents 2 years from the date the Secretary of State received a copy of the circulating title and summary to present to the Secretary of State a petition that sets forth the text of the proposed measure and is signed by the required number of electors.
Existing law, as amended by Proposition 21 as approved by the voters at the March 7, 2000, statewide primary election, provides that any person who actively participates in any criminal street gang with knowledge that its members engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity, and who willfully promotes, furthers, or assists in any felonious criminal conduct by members of that gang, shall be punished, as specified. Existing law defines "a pattern of criminal gang activity" as the commission of, attempted commission of, conspiracy to commit, or solicitation of, sustained juvenile petition for, or conviction of, 2 or more listed offenses. Proposition 21 may be amended by a statute passed by a 23 vote of the membership of each house of the Legislature. This bill would add pimping, pandering, and human trafficking as offenses that may be used to establish a pattern of criminal activity for those purposes. Because this bill would amend Proposition 21 it therefore requires a 23 vote. Because this bill would change the definition of a crime, it would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also correct cross-references and make conforming changes. 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, under the Business and Professions Code, provides for the regulation and licensure of various professionals. Existing law provides that the term "licentiate," as used in the Business and Professions Code, refers to any person authorized by a license, certificate, registration, or other means to engage in a business or profession regulated by that code and as specified. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that provision.
(1) Existing law authorizes the governing board of a high school district, the governing board of a joint powers regional occupational center or program, or the county superintendent of schools that conducts any county-operated regional occupational center or program, to establish and maintain, in connection with a high school or regional occupational center or program under its or his or her jurisdiction, cooperative career technical education programs or community classrooms as part of a career technical education course in accordance with prescribed rules and regulations. This bill would state findings and declarations of the Legislature regarding the need for career technical education programs, and would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education to consider ways to expand career technical education programs in middle and high schools in the state. (2) Existing law requires the governing board of each school district participating in a career technical education program to appoint a career technical education advisory committee to develop recommendations on the program and to provide liaison between the district and potential employers. The committee is required to consist of specified representatives. This bill would require that the committee include members of labor and trade organizations and additional representatives, from various career technical education industry sectors, recommended by local industry organizations, except as specified. By requiring the governing board of a school district to work with industry organizations to reconstitute the membership of that committee in order to continue participating in a career technical education program, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (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 requires the Legislature to encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural improvement. Under existing law, the Legislature finds and declares that improved science education in elementary and secondary schools contributes to improvements in pupil performance. Existing law provides for the establishment by the University of California, upon approval by the regents, of the California Science Project for purposes of providing science education to public elementary, secondary, and postsecondary school personnel located in rural, urban, and suburban areas throughout the state. This bill would make specified findings and declarations and would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education to consider ways to increase the number of pupils who go to college and graduate with degrees in the various scientific and engineering fields. The bill would require the Superintendent and the state board to direct the appropriate entity to revise the science teaching frameworks and standards, as specified, and to incorporate in the science curriculum applied mathematics, reading comprehension, expository writing, analytical, intellectual, and creative skills, and engineering elements.
Existing law generally provides for the release of inmates from prison on parole. Existing law requires, in the case of any inmate sentenced pursuant to any provision of law other than specified provisions of law providing for determinate sentences, that a panel of 2 or more commissioners or deputy commissioners of the Board of Parole Hearings meet with an inmate one year prior to the inmate's minimum eligible parole release date to set a parole release date. Existing law requires the panel, or the board if sitting en banc, to set a release date at the meeting unless it determines that the gravity of the current convicted offense or offenses, or that the timing and gravity of current or past convicted offense or offenses, is such that consideration of the public safety requires a more lengthy period of incarceration, and that a parole date cannot be fixed at the meeting. This bill would instead require the panel or board to deny parole for this class of inmate unless the inmate proves that the gravity of the current convicted offense or offenses, or that the timing and gravity of current or past convicted offense or offenses, is such that consideration of the public safety does not require a more lengthy period of incarceration, and that a parole date can be fixed at the meeting. The bill would also make a related technical, nonsubstantive change. The bill would authorize the board to base its decision to deny parole solely upon the circumstances of the current convicted offense or offenses or the inmate's past criminal history, and would require the board to give greater weight and consideration to those factors than those of institutional behavior or psychiatric evaluations in determining whether the inmate has proven that he or she does not pose an unreasonable risk of danger to society if released from prison. The bill would provide that the facts of the commitment offense or offenses alone may support the ultimate conclusion that the inmate has not proven that he or she does not pose an unreasonable risk to public safety if released on parole. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law prohibits a pupil from receiving a diploma of graduation from high school unless he or she completes specified course requirements while enrolled in grades 9 to 12, inclusive. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes in this provision.
Existing law prohibits a city, county, or city and county that levies a business license tax, as specified, from including the amount of gross receipts or the cost of the business license tax on the business license tax receipt. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to this provision.
Existing law requires an employer to provide an employee with one meal period during a work period of more than 5 hours and 2 meal periods during a work period of 10 hours, as prescribed. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.