Existing law authorizes a procedure for the payment of claims against the state. This bill would appropriate $12,992,000 from specified funds to the Department of Justice to pay for specified settlements of claims against the state. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law creates the High-Speed Rail Authority to develop and implement a high-speed rail system in the state, with specified powers and duties. Existing law, pursuant to the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, approved by the voters as Proposition 1A at the November 4, 2008, general election, provides for the issuance of $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds for high-speed rail and related purposes. Various federal laws provide funding for allocation nationally to high-speed rail and other related projects. This bill would require the California Research Bureau, by May 1, 2012, to develop an energy consumption profile that includes a forecast of the power needs of the high-speed rail system and an analysis of any recommendations for identifying a carbon-free baseline power supply for the system. The bureau's work would be done in consultation with the High-Speed Rail Authority, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Public Utilities Commission, the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, the United States Department of Energy, and the Legislative Analyst's Office. The bill would require the bureau to submit its report to the authority, the authority's independent peer review group, and specified committees of the Legislature. The bill would also make legislative findings and declarations.
Existing law authorizes a local, special, or consolidated election to be conducted as an all-mailed ballot election, so long as specified conditions are satisfied. This bill would authorize elections in San Diego County to be conducted wholly by mail until January 1, 2016, if specified conditions are satisfied. If San Diego County conducts an all-mailed ballot election, the bill would require the county, on or before December 31, 2016, to report to the Legislature and to the Secretary of State regarding the success of the election, as specified.
Existing provisions of the California Constitution provide that specified publicly owned property is exempt from ad valorem property taxation. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would provide that certain historic property located within the former Naval Training Center in the City of San Diego, leased by the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Diego to a nonprofit entity or to an organization controlled by the nonprofit entity, shall be deemed to be property owned by the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Diego and thereby be exempt from property taxation.
Existing law establishes the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, administered by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , to provide to specified entities, upon appropriation by the Legislature, grants, loans, loan guarantees, revolving loans, or other appropriate measures, for the development and deployment of innovative technologies that transform California's fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state's climate change goals. This bill would require the commission to ensure that projects or programs involving electrical work, as defined, are creating pathways into skilled, high-paying careers. The bill would require electrical work involved in a project or program to be performed by a licensed electrical contractor or a state-certified general electrician working under a licensed electrical contractor. The bill would require a project or program involving electrical work to include partnership with one or more existing electrical joint apprenticeship programs in the geographic area of the project or program.
This bill would urge the United States Patent and Trademark Office to place a satellite office in California.
(1) Existing law requires the Governor, the designated agency of the State Bar responsible for the evaluation of judicial candidates, and the Administrative Office of the Courts to annually collect demographic data relating to judicial applicants, judicial appointees or nominees, judicial candidates, and justices and judges, as specified, relative to ethnicity, race, and gender. These entities are required to release the demographic data on or before March 1 of each year. This bill would expand these provisions to include the collection and release of demographic data relative to gender identity and sexual orientation. This bill would require a departing Governor to provide the demographic data collected for the year to the incoming Governor, as specified. The bill would require the incoming Governor to release the provided demographic data, as prescribed. The bill would require any demographic data disclosed or released pursuant to these provisions to indicate the percentage of respondents who declined to respond. This bill would also make technical changes. (2) This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 12011.5 of the Government Code proposed by AB 126, that would become operative only if AB 126 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2012, and this bill is chaptered last.
Existing law provides that it is the policy of the state to afford all persons in public schools, regardless of their disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes, equal rights and opportunities in the educational institutions of the state, and that it is the purpose of existing law to prohibit acts that are contrary to that policy and to provide remedies therefor. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to develop a model handout, posted on appropriate department Internet Web sites, describing the rights and obligations set forth in these provisions and the policies addressing bias-related discrimination and harassment in schools. Existing law also requires the department to monitor adherence to these provisions and, as part of its regular monitoring and review of local educational agencies, to assess whether local educational agencies have adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination and harassment and a process for receiving and investigating complaints of discrimination and harassment, as specified. This bill would require the policy adopted by the local educational agencies to prohibit discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on actual or perceived characteristics, as specified. The bill also would require the process for receiving and investigating complaints to include complaints of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on actual or perceived characteristics, as specified, and to include a requirement that school personnel who witness such acts take immediate steps to intervene when safe to do so, a timeline to investigate and resolve complaints, and an appeal process, as specified. The bill would make other conforming changes. Because this bill would require local educational agencies to perform additional duties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to post, and annually update, on his or her Internet Web site, and to provide to each school district, a list of statewide resources, including community-based organizations, that provide support to youth who have been subjected to school-based discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or bullying, and their families. The bill would make its provisions operative on July 1, 2012. 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.
(1) Existing law contains various provisions that define sex as including gender and define gender as including a person's gender identity and gender-related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth. This bill would make technical changes to those provisions by refining the definition of gender to also mean a person's gender identity and gender expression and would define gender expression as meaning a person's gender-related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth. The bill would also replace cross-references to definitions of gender with the referenced definitions refined in the same manner as specified above. (2) Existing law contains various provisions that require equal rights and opportunities in various aspects, including education, housing, and employment, regardless of gender and prohibits discrimination based on specified characteristics, including sex and gender. Existing law also includes various statements of legislative intent and the policies of the state regarding the equal treatment and equal rights of people regardless of certain enumerated characteristics, including sex and gender. Existing law authorizes the Fair Employment and Housing Commission and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing to perform certain functions to eliminate discrimination in employment and housing on the basis of sex. Existing law requires the county counsel to determine whether certain documents contain an unlawful restrictive covenant based on sex and other characteristics. In these provisions, sex and gender are defined in the same manner described above. This bill would make technical changes to those provisions by including gender, gender identity, and gender expression among the enumerated characteristics. The bill would make related conforming changes. (3) Existing law prohibits public schools, including charter schools, from discriminating on the basis of specified characteristics, including gender, and specifies various statements of legislative intent and the policies of the state in that regard. Existing law also prohibits discrimination based on specified characteristics by any postsecondary educational institution that receives, or benefits from, state financial assistance. This bill would additionally include gender identity and gender expression among those characteristics. (4) Existing law requires an employer to allow an employee to appear or dress consistently with the employee's gender identity. This bill would additionally require an employer to allow an employee to appear or dress consistently with the employee's gender expression. (5) Existing law requires a county recorder who provides a copy of a declaration, governing document, or deed to any person to place a cover page or stamp on the first page of the previously recorded document stating that if the document contains any restriction based on certain characteristics, including sex, that the restriction violates state and federal fair housing laws and is void, and may be removed. This bill would require the specified language in the cover page or stamp to include the characteristics of gender, gender identity, and gender expression. By requiring the county recorder to change the cover page or stamp, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (6) Existing law prohibits certain property insurance policies from being canceled or refused renewal, and prohibits any premium from being excessive or unfairly discriminatory, solely on the basis that one or more claims has been made against the policy during the preceding 60 months for a loss that is the result of a hate crime committed against the person or property of the insured. That provision defines "hate crime" as specified acts done to a person because of any enumerated characteristics of that person, including gender. This bill would additionally include gender expression and gender identity among those characteristics. (7) Existing law requires the Healthy Families Program to be administered without regard to gender, race, creed, color, sexual orientation, health status, disability, or occupation. This bill would additionally require that program to be administered without regard to gender, gender identity, or gender expression. (8) Existing law prohibits a personal relationship or personal connection from being deemed to exist between an employee who is injured or killed by a 3rd party in the course of the employee's employment and that 3rd party based only on a determination that the 3rd party injured or killed the employee solely because of the 3rd party's perception of the employee's race, religious creed, color, national origin, age, gender, disability, sex, or sexual orientation, for purposes of determining whether to grant or deny a workers' compensation claim. This bill would include among those characteristics gender, gender identity, and gender expression. (9) Existing law requires the parole authority upon the release of any person who has been imprisoned for any felony offense committed against someone due to the victim's actual or perceived gender, among other characteristics, to order the defendant to refrain from further acts of violence, threats, stalking, or harassment of the victim as a condition of parole, as specified. Existing law also requires the court in any case when a person is convicted of an offense against someone due to the victim's actual or perceived gender, among other characteristics, to make an order protecting the victim, or known immediate family or domestic partner of the victim. This bill would additionally require the parole authority and the court to make those orders when the offense was due to a victim's actual or perceived gender identity or gender expression. (10) This bill would incorporate changes made by AB 440 and SB 559 that would become operative if AB 440, SB 559, or both bills are enacted and this bill is enacted after AB 440, SB 559, or both bills. (11) 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 authorizes various agencies to acquire land for purposes related to conservation. Existing law provides for a conservation easement to retain land predominantly in its natural, scenic, historical, agricultural, forested, or open-space condition. Existing law establishes procedures for the independent appraisal review of land to be acquired for conservation and establishes a conservation easement registry. Existing law prohibits, with a specified exception, the sale of conservation lands to another owner or the transfer of possession and control of conservation lands to another agency, unless specified actions occur. The California Constitution permits private property to be taken or damaged for public use only when just compensation is paid. The Eminent Domain Law prescribes how that constitutionally authorized power may be exercised and permits that exercise only for a public use. Existing law prohibits a public entity from commencing an eminent domain proceeding until its governing body has adopted a resolution of necessity that meets specified requirements. This bill would revise the Eminent Domain Law to establish requirements for acquisition of property subject to a conservation easement. The bill would require the person seeking to acquire the property to give the holder of the conservation easement a notice containing specified information and an opportunity to comment on the acquisition. The bill would require the holder of the conservation easement to provide notice, under certain circumstances and as specified, of the proposed acquisition to each public entity that helped fund the purchase of the conservation easement or that imposed conditions on approval or permitting of a project that were satisfied, in whole or in part, by the conservation easement, and other information, as specified. The bill would require a person seeking to acquire the property subject to the conservation easement to respond to any comments in writing and provide by first-class mail the response to each easement holder or public entity that filed comments. The bill would require the notice of the hearing on the resolution of necessity to be sent to any holder of the conservation easement and public entity, as specified, and to contain information regarding the effect of failing to file a written request to appear and be heard. The bill would require that a resolution of necessity to acquire property subject to the conservation easement refer to specific authority for the acquisition of the property. The bill would specify that the holder of the conservation easement is entitled to compensation under the Eminent Domain Law, as specified. The bill would make a related statement of legislative intent. To the extent that this bill would impose new duties on a local governmental entity, this bill would create 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.
