Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Decisions of the PUC adopted the California Solar Initiative. Existing law requires the PUC, in implementing the California Solar Initiative, to ensure that the total cost over the duration of the program does not exceed $3,350,800,000, and imposes monetary limits on programs funded by charges collected from customers of the state's 3 largest electrical corporations and on programs adopted, implemented, and financed by charges collected by local publicly owned electrical utilities. This bill would increase the cost limit to $3,550,800,000, and make a corresponding increase in a monetary limit imposed on programs funded by charges collected from customers of the state's 3 largest electrical corporations. The bill would require the commission, before collecting additional ratepayer funds to fund certain program shortfalls, to first allocate interest accumulated from customer collections and, for the remainder of the shortfall, to increase collections from customers of the state's 3 largest electrical corporations for specified programs. The bill, except as specified, would set the discount rate for interest at 4%. The bill would require the commission, within 90 days of the enactment of the bill, to establish and impose project cost caps for residential and nonresidential projects under the California Solar Initiative, based on national and state installed cost data. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Sponsored bills
This measure would recognize the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks as a day of solemn commemoration.
Existing law provides for various services and programs to assist victims of crime, including grants to proposed and existing child sexual exploitation and child abuse victim counseling centers and prevention programs, and the establishment of a resource center to operate a statewide, toll-free information service consisting of legal information for crime victims and providers of services to crime victims. This bill would authorize the Cities of San Diego and Anaheim, and the Counties of Alameda and Sonoma, until January 1, 2014, to establish a multiagency, multidisciplinary family justice center to assist victims of domestic violence, officer-involved domestic violence, sexual assault, elder or dependent adult abuse, stalking, cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and human trafficking, to ensure that victims of abuse are able to access all needed services in one location and to enhance victim safety, increase offender accountability, and improve access to services for victims of crime, as provided. The bill would permit the family justice centers to be staffed by law enforcement, medical, social service, and child welfare personnel, among others. This bill would require each family justice center to consult with community-based crime victim agencies, survivors of violence and abuse, and their advocates in the operation of the family justice center and to develop a procedure for input, feedback, and evaluation of the family justice center. The bill would prohibit victims of crime from being denied services at a family justice center on the grounds of criminal history and would prohibit a criminal history search from being conducted without the victim's written consent, unless the criminal history search is pursuant to an active criminal investigation. The bill would require each family justice center to develop policies and procedures to ensure coordinated services are provided and to enhance the safety of victims and professionals at the family justice centers, as specified. The bill would require each family justice center to maintain an informed consent policy and to be in compliance with all state and federal laws protecting the confidentiality of the types of information and documents that may be in a victim's file. The bill would require the National Family Justice Center Alliance, with private funds, to contract with an independent organization to conduct an evaluation and prepare a report on the family justice centers, as specified. The bill would require the independent organization to submit the report to the Office of Privacy Protection and the National Family Justice Center Alliance for review and comment, and then submit the report to the Assembly Committee on Judiciary, the Senate Committee on Judiciary, the Assembly Committee on Public Safety, and the Senate Committee on Public Safety, no later than January 1, 2013. This bill would allow the National Family Justice Center Alliance to submit recommendations for statewide legislation, best practices, and model policies and procedures in its comments to the independent evaluation organization. The bill would require each family justice center to maintain a formal training program with mandatory training for all staff members, volunteers, and agency professionals, as specified.
Existing law prohibits a state agency from entering into a contract for the acquisition of goods or services in the amount of $100,000 or more with a contractor who, in the provision of benefits, discriminates between employees with spouses and employees with domestic partners, or discriminates between the domestic partners and spouses of those employees. This bill would also prohibit a state agency from entering into a contract in the amount of $100,000 or more with a contractor who discriminates between employees with spouses or domestic partners of a different sex and employees with spouses or domestic partners of the same sex, or discriminates between same-sex and different-sex domestic partners of employees or between same-sex and different-sex spouses of employees.
Existing provisions of the Political Reform Act of 1974 require specified candidates for elective office, elected and appointed state officers, and public officers and employees to file statements of economic interests with specified entities according to the employing agency or office of the officer, employee, or candidate. This bill would direct persons appointed to a state board, commission, or similar multimember body of the state, other than those specified in the existing provisions described above, to file their statements of economic interests with the respective board, commission, or body. The bill would require the original statements of economic interests to be handled as set forth in the Conflict of Interest Code of the respective board, commission, or body and, if the board, commission, or body is not required to send the original to the Fair Political Practices Commission pursuant to its Conflict of Interest Code, the bill would require the board, commission, or body to forward a copy to the Fair Political Practices Commission. Existing provisions of the Political Reform Act of 1974, with respect to statewide elected officers, candidates for statewide elective office, Members of the Legislature, the State Board of Equalization, and candidates for the Legislature or the State Board of Equalization, require copies of the statements of economic interests be sent, among other places, to the Secretary of State and certain local elections officials, as specified. This bill would eliminate the requirement that copies of the above-described statements of economic interests be sent to the Secretary of State and the specified local elections officials. Because a violation of the act is a misdemeanor, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. 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.
Existing law requires the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board to ensure that all claims that have been approved by the board and for which there exists no legally available appropriation are submitted for legislative approval at least twice each calendar year. This bill would appropriate $557,729.29 from various funds to the Executive Officer of the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board to pay certain claims accepted by the board. This bill would require the Controller, upon the request of the board, in a form prescribed by the Controller, to transfer surcharges and fees from the Budget Act items of appropriation identified in this bill to Item 1870-001-0001 of Section 2.00 of the Budget Act of 2011. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government Reorganization Act of 2000, sets forth the procedures for incorporations and changes of organizations of cities, including procedures for disincorporation. This bill would provide that every city with a population of less than 150 people as of January 1, 2010, would be disincorporated into that city's respective county as of 91 days after the effective date of the bill, unless a county board of supervisors determines, by majority vote within the 90-day period following enactment of these provisions, that continuing such a city within that county's boundaries would serve a public purpose if the board of supervisors determines that the city is in an isolated rural location that makes it impractical for the residents of the community to organize in another form of local governance. The bill would also require the local agency formation commission within the county to oversee the terms and conditions of the disincorporation of the city, as specified. The bill would become operative only if AB 781 of the 2011–12 Regular Session is enacted.
This measure would resolve that the month of April be designated as Sexual Assault Awareness Month, would recognize April 27, 2011, as Denim Day California, and would encourage everyone to wear jeans on that day to help communicate the message that there is no excuse for, and never an invitation to, rape or sexual assault.
Existing law establishes various crimes against the person, such as assault and battery, and provides that any person who willfully inflicts upon a person who is his or her spouse, former spouse, cohabitant, former cohabitant, or the mother or father of his or her child, corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition, is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years, or by incarceration in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by a fine, or by both imprisonment and a fine, as specified. Existing law defines "traumatic condition" for these purposes to mean a condition of the body, such as a wound or external or internal injury, whether of a minor or serious nature, caused by a physical force. This bill, the Diana Gonzalez Strangulation Prevention Act of 2011, would specify that "traumatic condition" includes injury as a result of strangulation or suffocation and defines the terms "strangulation" and "suffocation" for those purposes.
Existing law establishes the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners' Fund for use by the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners for all necessary and proper expenses carried out by the board. Existing law authorizes a procedure for the payment of claims against the state. This bill would appropriate $600,000 from the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners' Fund to the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners to pay for a specified settlement. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.