(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA also requires, in an action or proceeding alleging noncompliance with its requirements, that the grounds for noncompliance shall have been presented by any person to the public agency during the public comment period or prior to the close of the public hearing on the project before the filing of the notice of determination. CEQA requires a person bringing an action or proceeding alleging noncompliance with its requirements to have objected to the project during the public comment period or prior to the close of the public hearing on the project before the filing of the notice of determination. This bill would require that the alleged grounds for noncompliance shall have been presented to a public agency prior to the close of the public hearing on the project if the grounds for noncompliance were not known and could not have been known with the exercise of reasonable diligence during the public comment period or if no public comment period was provided by CEQA. The bill would limit the standing of a person objecting to the project prior to the close of the public hearing on the project before the filing of notice of determination to an action or proceeding challenging a project for which no public comment period was provided by CEQA. (2) CEQA, until January 1, 2016, precludes an organization formed after the approval of a project from maintaining an action unless a member of the organization has objected to the approval of the project orally or in writing and presented the grounds of noncompliance to the public agency. Existing law, on and after January 1, 2016, precludes an organization formed after the approval of a project from maintaining an action unless a member of the organization has objected to the approval of the project orally or in writing. This bill would extend the preclusion in effect until January 1, 2016, indefinitely.
Sponsored bills
Existing law provides that the Board of Parole Hearings or its successor in interest shall be the state's parole authority. Existing law requires that a prisoner who is found to be permanently medically incapacitated, as specified, be granted medical parole, if the Board of Parole Hearings determines that the conditions under which the prisoner would be released would not reasonably pose a threat to public safety. Existing law exempts a prisoner sentenced to death, a prisoner sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, and a prisoner who is serving a sentence for which parole is prohibited by initiative statute, from medical parole eligibility. Existing law authorizes a court to resentence or recall the sentence of a prisoner if the court finds that the prisoner is terminally ill, as specified, or the prisoner is permanently medically incapacitated, as specified, and, in either case, the conditions under which the prisoner would be released or receive treatment do not pose a threat to public safety. Existing law exempts a prisoner sentenced to death or a term of life without the possibility of parole from eligibility for compassionate release pursuant to these provisions. This bill would additionally exempt from medical parole eligibility and compassionate release eligibility a prisoner who was convicted of the first degree murder of a peace officer, as provided.
The Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act governs the management and operation of common interest developments. The act sets forth the duties and responsibilities of the association and the owners of the separate interests with regard to maintenance and repair of common and exclusive use areas, as defined. Unless otherwise provided in the common interest development declaration, the association is responsible for maintaining, repairing, and replacing the common area, other than the exclusive use common area, and the owner of each separate interest is responsible for maintaining that separate interest and any exclusive use common area appurtenant to that interest. An association may impose a fine or assessment upon a separate interest owner for failure to maintain his or her property in accordance with the association rules for that development. This bill would prohibit an association from imposing a fine or assessment on separate interest owners for yard maintenance issues related to under-watered plants and lawns during any period for which the Governor has declared a state of emergency due to drought. Existing law provides for the creation and powers of cities, counties, and cities and counties. This bill would prohibit a city, county, or city and county from imposing a fine or assessment on separate interest owners for yard maintenance issues related to under-watered plants and lawns during any period for which the Governor has declared a state of emergency due to drought. This bill would find and declare that these provisions are an issue of statewide concern and not a municipal or county affair, as specified.
Existing law specifies procedures under which a person may be subject to administrative civil liability for unauthorized diversion or use of water. Existing law specifies procedures under which the State Water Resources Control Board is authorized to order a reconsideration of all or part of its decision or order. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to these provisions.
Existing law establishes the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, which is vested with all the duties, powers, responsibilities, and jurisdiction of the State Department of Public Health relating to health planning and research development. Existing law requires the office to publish certain risk-adjusted outcome reports for specified medical, surgical, or obstetric conditions or procedures, including a coronary artery bypass graft surgery. This bill would instead require the office to publish annually, on July 1 of each year, risk-adjusted outcome reports for all coronary artery bypass graft surgeries and heart valve repair and replacement surgeries performed in the state. The bill, commencing July 1, 2015, would additionally require the office to publish risk-adjusted outcome reports for all percutaneous cardiac interventions and transcatheter valve procedures performed in the state, as specified. Existing law requires the Director of the Office of Statewide Planning and Development to appoint, as specified, a 9-member clinical panel for each risk-adjusted outcome report on a medical, surgical, or obstetric condition or procedure that includes reporting data of an individual physician, including coronary artery bypass graft surgery. For the clinical panel authorized for coronary artery bypass graft surgery, existing law requires 3 members to be appointed from a list of names submitted by the California Medical Association. This bill would increase the number of individuals appointed to a clinical panel from 9 to 12, including 3 members from a list of names submitted by the California Hospital Association. The bill would instead require the office director to appoint 3 members from a list of 3 or more names submitted by the California Society of Thoracic Surgeons and would additionally require that one appointee be an interventionalist and a member of the Society of Angiography for a clinical panel authorized for coronary artery bypass surgery and heart valve repair and replacement surgery. The bill would additionally require the office director to appoint specified individuals, including, among others, 3 members from a list of names submitted by the California Chapter of the American College of Cardiology, to a clinical panel authorized for percutaneous cardiac interventions and transcatheter valve procedures. The bill would require all heart valve repair and replacement procedures, whether performed using surgical procedures or using transcatheter interventions, to be reviewed by a joint subpanel of the coronary artery bypass graft surgery and heart valve repair and replacement surgery, and percutaneous cardiac intervention clinical panels, as provided.
The Cal Grant Program establishes the Cal Grant A and B Entitlement awards, the California Community College Transfer Entitlement awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards, the Cal Grant C awards, and the Cal Grant T awards under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs for participating students attending qualifying institutions. Existing law requires the commission to certify by October 1 of each year a qualifying institution's latest 3-year cohort default rate and graduation rate as most recently reported by the United States Department of Education. Existing law provides that, for purposes of the 2012–13 academic year, and every academic year thereafter, an otherwise qualifying institution with a 3-year cohort default rate that is equal to or greater than 15.5% is ineligible for initial and renewal Cal Grant awards at the institution. Existing law provides that an otherwise qualifying institution is ineligible for an initial or renewal Cal Grant award at the institution if the institution has a graduation rate of 30% or less for students taking 150% or less of the expected time to complete degree requirements, as specified, with certain exceptions. This bill would require the commission to establish an appeal process for an otherwise qualifying institution that fails to satisfy the 3-year cohort default rate and graduation rate requirements, and would make nonsubstantive and conforming changes.
This measure would urge the Attorney General to instruct law enforcement agencies to refer to the relevant United States Attorneys' Offices in this state all firearm, ammunition, and robbery cases for their review before commencing state prosecution. The measure would urge the Attorney General to seek a reduction in the prisoner population in the state prisons of at least 20,000 inmates by shifting these inmates to federal prisons, and report the results of these efforts.
Existing law, the Ortiz-Pacheco-Poochigian-Vasconcellos Cal Grant Program (Cal Grant Program) , establishes the Cal Grant A and B Entitlement awards, the California Community College Transfer Entitlement awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards, the Cal Grant C awards, and the Cal Grant T awards under the administration of the Student Aid Commission (commission) , and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs for participating students attending qualifying institutions, as defined. Existing law requires the Student Aid Commission to certify by October 1 of each year a qualifying institution's latest 3-year cohort default rate as most recently reported by the United States Department of Education. Existing law provides that, for purposes of the 2012–13 academic year, and every academic year thereafter, an otherwise qualifying institution with a 3-year cohort default rate that is equal to or greater than 15.5% is ineligible for initial and renewal Cal Grant awards at the institution. Existing law also requires that an otherwise qualifying institution is ineligible for an initial or renewal Cal Grant award at the institution if the institution has a graduation rate of 30% or less for students taking 150% or less of the expected time to complete degree requirements, as specified, with certain exceptions. If an otherwise qualifying institution has a student body composed of at least 23 students who are receiving federal Pell grants, and a default rate that exceeds the existing statutory maximum for eligibility or a graduation rate less than the existing statutory minimum for eligibility, as prescribed, this bill would deem the institution eligible if the commission certifies that the institution satisfies specified conditions. The bill would require the commission to adopt any rules or regulations necessary to implement these provisions by March 1, 2015, and to report to the Legislature, by January 1, 2016, on its review and recommendations regarding additional criteria that would be appropriately considered in determining eligibility.
Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, when income is derived directly from real property acquired and operated by the state as a wildlife management area, as defined, to pay annually to the county in which the property is located an amount equal to the county taxes levied upon the property at the time title to the property was transferred to the state, and any assessments levied upon the property by any irrigation, drainage, or reclamation district. This bill would appropriate $19,000,000 from the General Fund to the department to make payments to counties for unpaid amounts under these provisions. The bill would also appropriate $2,000,000 annually, beginning with the 2014–15 fiscal year, from the General Fund to the department to make payments to counties under these provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.