Sen. Ben Hueso

Existing law authorizes county boards of supervisors to divide their respective counties into suitable road districts, to change the boundaries thereof, and to create new districts. Existing law prohibits a county board of supervisors from including in the road district any city wherein street work and improvements are done by virtue of any law relating to street work and improvements within such city. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.

Existing law requires every state agency subject to the Administrative Procedure Act to provide an initial statement of reasons for proposing the adoption, amendment, or repeal of a regulation. Existing law requires an initial statement of reasons for a regulation that is a building standard that impacts housing to include the estimated cost of compliance and the potential benefits of the regulation and the related assumptions used in determining that estimate, except as specified. This bill would instead require an initial statement of reasons for any regulation that is a building standard, regardless of whether the building standard impacts housing, to include the information specified above.

Existing law gives the Department of Transportation full possession and control of all state highways. Existing law describes the authorized routes in the state highway system and establishes a process for adoption of a highway on an authorized route by the California Transportation Commission. Existing law also authorizes the commission to relinquish certain state highway segments to local agencies. This bill would authorize the commission to relinquish to the Cities of Brawley, El Centro, and Imperial and the County of Imperial specified portions of State Highway Route 86 under certain conditions. This bill would also redesignate a specified portion of State Highway Route 86 as a part of State Highway Route 78 following relinquishment. This bill would also state the intent of the Legislature that State Highway Route 86 should remain as a future state highway along a new, specified route.

This measure would designate a specified portion of State Highway Route 94 in the County of San Diego as the Stephen Palmer, Sr., Memorial Highway. This measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering those costs, to erect those signs.

Existing law requires every insurer doing business in this state to make and file with the Insurance Commissioner annual and quarterly financial statements, as prescribed. This bill would require that those annual and quarterly financial statements filed with the commissioner by workers' compensation insurers be published on the Department of Insurance's Internet Web site.

Existing law gives the Department of Transportation full possession and control of all state highways. Existing law describes the authorized routes in the state highway system and establishes a process for adoption of a highway on an authorized route by the California Transportation Commission. Existing law also authorizes the commission to relinquish certain state highway segments to local agencies. This bill would authorize the commission to relinquish to the Cities of Brawley, El Centro, and Imperial and the County of Imperial specified portions of State Highway Route 86 under certain conditions. This bill would also redesignate a specified portion of State Highway Route 86 as a part of State Highway Route 78 following relinquishment. This bill would require the relinquishments to be done at no cost to the state, unless the commission makes a finding of need.

Existing law authorizes the Fish and Game Commission to adopt regulations pertaining to migratory birds. Existing law requires a person to procure a hunting license and a duck stamp or a state duck hunting validation to take migratory birds, as specified. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to these provisions.

Under existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, the State Department of Developmental Services is authorized to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities, including, but not limited to, autism. The services and supports to be provided to a regional center consumer are contained in an individual program plan (IPP) or individualized family services plan (IFSP) developed in accordance with prescribed requirements. This bill would require a regional center to pay any applicable copayment, coinsurance, or deductible imposed by a health insurance policy or health care service plan for a service or support required by a consumer's IPP or IFSP, as specified. This bill would prohibit a regional center from imposing on the consumer or his or her family a share of cost for, or income requirements relating to, those payments, and from seeking reimbursement for those payments. This bill would require the department to establish appropriate application and documentation forms to implement those provisions.

The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, requires every rigid plastic packaging container, as defined, sold or offered for sale in this state to generally meet one of specified criteria. This bill would require the department, by June 1, 2014, in coordination with the Ocean Protection Council and the State Water Resources Control Board, to adopt regulations to implement the bill. The department would be required, by July 1, 2014, in consultation with the council and the state water board, to adopt a list that specifies those items, or categories of items, that the department finds are the major sources of marine plastic pollution and, therefore, would be a covered item for purposes of the bill, and to revise the list, as specified. The department would be required to notify the producer of a covered item, and no later than 6 months after receiving that notification, the producer of that covered item would be required to design and submit to the department a plan to reduce the producer's proportion of the marine plastic pollution caused by that covered item for review and approval by the department. The bill would authorize one or more producers of a covered item to designate a producer responsibility organization to act as its agent to develop and implement the plan. The bill would require the plan to specify the measures to meet the marine plastic pollution reduction targets that the producer of the covered item would be required to achieve, as specified in the regulations, and would require the measures to include utilization of innovative product design, the recovery, collection, or recycling of the covered item, or a combination of those measures. The department would be required to recover the cost of reviewing and approving the marine plastic pollution reduction plan by requiring the producer to pay a fee to the department, which the department would be required to set in an amount equivalent to the department's costs of implementing the bill. The bill would establish the Marine Plastic Pollution Prevention Subaccount in the Integrated Waste Management Fund, would require the department to deposit the fees into that subaccount, and would authorize the department to expend those fees, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to cover the department's costs to implement the bill. The bill would authorize the department to impose a civil penalty administratively on a producer that is in violation of the bill. The bill would establish the Marine Plastic Pollution Penalty Subaccount in the Integrated Waste Management Fund, and would require the collected civil penalties to be deposited in the Marine Plastic Pollution Penalty Subaccount for expenditure by the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to cover the department's costs to enforce the bill. The bill would authorize a producer, in lieu of submitting a marine plastic pollution reduction plan to the department, to voluntarily elect to pay an annual alternative compliance fee to the department, which the department would be required to set in a specified amount and revise periodically. The department would be required to deposit the alternative compliance fees in the Marine Plastic Pollution Fund, which the bill would establish in the State Treasury. The department would be authorized to expend the moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, in a specified manner, for innovative product design for the covered item and for recovery, collection, and recycling programs to prevent the marine plastic pollution caused by the covered item.

The California Constitution establishes the Fish and Game Commission and provides for the delegation to the commission of powers relating to the protection and propagation of fish and game. Existing statutory law delegates to the commission the power to regulate the taking or possession of birds, mammals, fish, amphibia, and reptiles in accordance with prescribed laws. Existing law excepts from that statutory delegation the power to regulate the taking, possessing, processing, or use of fish, amphibia, kelp, or other aquatic plants for commercial purposes. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to the statutory provisions concerning the commission's delegated power.