Sen. Darrell Steinberg

Existing law provides that the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or the Board of Parole Hearings, or both, may, for specified reasons, recommend to the court that a prisoner's sentence be recalled, and that a court may recall a prisoner's sentence. This bill would authorize a prisoner who was under 18 years of age at the time of committing an offense for which the prisoner was sentenced to life without parole to submit a petition for recall and resentencing to the sentencing court, and to the prosecuting agency, as specified. The bill would prohibit a prisoner who tortured his or her victim or whose victim was a public safety official, as defined, from filing a petition for recall and resentencing. The bill would require the petition to include a statement from the defendant that includes, among other things, his or her remorse and work towards rehabilitation. The bill would establish certain criteria, at least one of which shall be asserted in the petition, to be considered when a court decides whether to conduct a hearing on the petition for recall and resentencing and additional criteria to be considered by the court when deciding whether to grant the petition. The bill would require the court to hold a hearing if the court finds that the statements in the defendant's petition are true, as specified. The bill would apply retroactively, as specified.

The Community Redevelopment Law authorizes the establishment of redevelopment agencies in communities to address the effects of blight, as defined. Existing law dissolved redevelopment agencies and community development agencies, as of February 1, 2012, and provides for the designation of successor agencies. Existing law provides for various economic development programs that foster community sustainability and community and economic development initiatives throughout the state. This bill would authorize certain public entities of a Sustainable Communities Investment Area, as described, to form a Sustainable Communities Investment Authority (authority) to carry out the Community Redevelopment Law in a specified manner. The bill would require the authority to adopt a Sustainable Communities Investment Plan for a Sustainable Communities Investment Area and authorize the authority to include in that plan a provision for the receipt of tax increment funds provided that certain economic development and planning requirements are met. The bill would authorize the legislative body of a city or county forming an authority to dedicate any portion of its net available revenue, as defined, to the authority through its Sustainable Communities Investment Plan. The bill would require the authority to contract for an independent financial and performance audit every 5 years. The bill would establish prequalification requirements for entities that will receive more than $1,000,000 from the Sustainable Communities Investment Authority and would require the Department of Industrial Relations to monitor and enforce compliance with prevailing wage requirements for specified projects within a Sustainable Communities Investment Area. The bill would deposit moneys received by the department from developer charges related to the costs of monitoring and enforcement in the State Public Works Enforcement Fund. By depositing a new source of revenue in the State Public Works Enforcement Fund, a continuously appropriated special fund, the bill would make an appropriation.

Existing federal law provides for tax-qualified retirement plans and individual retirement accounts or individual retirement annuities by which private citizens may save money for retirement. This bill would enact the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust Act, which would create the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust to be administered by the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board, which would also be established by the bill. The bill would require eligible employers, as defined, to offer a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement so that eligible employees, as defined, could contribute a portion of their salary or wages to a retirement savings program account in the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program, as specified. The bill would require eligible employees to participate in the program, unless the employee opts out of the program, as specified. The bill would specify risk management and investment policies that the board would be subject to regarding administration of the program. The bill would require a specified percentage of the annual salary or wages of an eligible employee participating in the program to be deposited in the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust, which would be segregated into a program fund and an administrative fund, both of which would be continuously appropriated to the board for purposes of the act. The bill would limit expenditures from the administrative fund, as specified. The bill would also authorize the board to establish a Gain and Loss Reserve Account within the program fund. The bill would, contingent upon sufficient interest and funding by vendors, as specified, require the board to establish a Retirement Investments Clearinghouse on its Internet Web site and a vendor registration process through which information about employer-sponsored retirement plans, and payroll deduction individual retirement accounts and annuities offered by private sector providers is made available for consideration by eligible employers. The bill would require the opt-out form disseminated by the Employment Development Department to be used to create an option for employees to elect to opt out of the program, as specified. The bill would, commencing 6 months after the program is ready to proceed, require the Employment Development Department to assess a penalty on any eligible employer that fails to make the program available to eligible employees, as specified. The bill also would make a statement of legislative findings. The bill would provide that the state would have no liability for the payment of the benefits under the program, as specified. The bill, upon sufficient funds being made available through a nonprofit or private entity or federal funding, would require the board to conduct a market analysis to determine whether the necessary conditions for implementation can be met, as specified. The bill would require moneys made available to conduct the market analysis to be deposited in the Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program Fund which would be created in the State Treasury. The bill would provide that the operational provisions of the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust Act shall be operative only if the board determines that, based on the market analysis, the provisions will be self-sustaining, and sufficient funds are made available through a nonprofit or private entity, federal funding, or the annual Budget Act, as specified, to allow the board to implement the program until the trust has sufficient funds to be self-sustaining. The bill would require the board to ensure that an insurance, annuity, or other funding mechanism is in place at all times that protects the value of individuals' accounts and protects, indemnifies, and holds the state harmless at all times against any and all liability in connection with funding retirement benefits pursuant to these provisions. The bill would prohibit the board from implementing the program if the IRA arrangements offered fail to qualify for the favorable federal income tax treatment ordinarily accorded to IRAs under the Internal Revenue Code, or if it is determined that the program is an employee benefit plan under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. Existing law establishes the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System and vests the board with various powers and duties. This bill would authorize that board to administer funds in the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust, as specified.

The Donahoe Higher Education Act authorizes the activities of the 4 segments of the postsecondary education system in the state. These segments include the 3 public postsecondary segments: the University of California, which is administered by the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, which is administered by the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, which is administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Private and independent postsecondary educational institutions constitute the other segment. Provisions of the Donahoe Higher Education Act apply to the University of California only to the extent that the regents act, by resolution, to make them applicable. Existing law urges textbook publishers to take specified actions aimed at reducing the amounts that students pay for textbooks, including providing to faculty and departments considering textbook orders a list of all the different products the publisher sells. Existing law requires the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and requests the Regents of the University of California, to take specific actions with their respective academic senates, college and university bookstores, and faculty to promote the selection of textbooks that will result in cost savings to students. This bill would express legislative findings and declarations relating to the cost of college and university textbooks. The bill would add provisions to the Donahoe Higher Education Act to establish the California Digital Open Source Library, under the administration of the California State University, in coordination with the California Community Colleges, for the purpose of housing open source materials while providing an Internet Web-based way for students, faculty, and staff to easily find, adopt, utilize, or modify course materials for little or no cost. The bill would provide that the California State University would also act in coordination with the University of California in administering the California Digital Open Source Library if the regents act, by appropriate resolution, to authorize the university to participate in the administration of the library. The bill would require that the materials in the library bear a creative commons attribution license that allows others to use, distribute, and create derivative works based upon the digital material while still allowing the authors or creators of the material to receive credit for their efforts. The bill would provide that the provisions added to the Donahoe Higher Education Act by the bill would become operative only if funding for the purposes of this bill is provided in an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute, or through federal or private funds, or through a combination of state, federal, and private funds. The bill would become operative only if SB 1052 becomes operative on or before January 1, 2013, and establishes the California Open Education Resources Council.

(1) The Donahoe Higher Education Act authorizes the activities of the 4 segments of the postsecondary education system in the state. These segments include the 3 public postsecondary segments: the University of California, which is administered by the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, which is administered by the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, which is administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Private and independent postsecondary educational institutions constitute the other segment. Provisions of the Donahoe Higher Education Act apply to the University of California only to the extent that the regents act, by resolution, to make them applicable. Existing law urges textbook publishers to take specified actions aimed at reducing the amounts that students pay for textbooks, including providing to faculty and departments considering textbook orders a list of all the different products the publisher sells. Existing law requires the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and requests the Regents of the University of California, to take specific actions with their respective academic senates, college and university bookstores, and faculty to promote the selection of textbooks that will result in cost savings to students. This bill would express legislative findings and declarations relating to the cost of college and university textbooks. The bill would add provisions to the Donahoe Higher Education Act to establish the California Open Education Resources Council under the administration of the Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, or a successor group. The bill would specify that the council would have 9 members, including 3 faculty members from each of the public postsecondary segments, selected by the respective faculty senates of each segment. The bill would require the appointments to the council to be made no later than 90 days after the bill becomes operative. The bill would require the California Open Education Resources Council to determine a list of 50 lower division courses in the public postsecondary segments for which high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks and related materials would be developed or acquired, as specified, pursuant to the bill. The bill would also require the council to review and approve developed open source materials and to promote strategies for production, access, and use of open source textbooks to be placed on reserve at campus libraries in accordance with this section. The bill would require that the council regularly solicit and consider, from each of the statewide student associations of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, advice and guidance on open source education textbooks and related materials, as specified. The bill would require the council to establish a competitive request-for-proposal process in which faculty members, publishers, and other interested parties would apply for funds to produce, in 2013, 50 high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks and related materials, meeting specified requirements. The bill also would require the council to submit a report to the Legislature and the Governor on the progress of the implementation of these provisions by no later than 6 months after the bill becomes operative and to submit a final report by January 1, 2016. (2) Existing law requires publishers, as defined, to provide a captioned format of instructional materials, as defined, or an electronic format of those materials and a license to create a captioned format of the materials, upon request by a public postsecondary educational institution, and authorizes the public postsecondary educational institution to create a captioned format, subject to prescribed conditions, if the publisher provides a license to create the captioned format or fails to respond to a request for a captioned format. Existing law prescribes various requirements with respect to use and distribution of electronic and captioned formats of instructional materials by public postsecondary educational institutions that choose to participate in the request process. This bill would include digital open source textbooks and related materials within the definition of instructional materials for the purposes of this provision. The bill would prescribe a procedure for this request process relating to digital open source textbooks if and when the California Open Source Digital Library is established pursuant to statute. (3) These provisions would become operative only if funding for the purposes of this bill is provided in the annual Budget Act or another statute, or through federal or private funds, or through a combination of state, federal, and private funds.

Existing law makes it unlawful to permit or allow a dog to pursue any big game mammal, as defined, during the closed season, or any fully protected, rare, or endangered mammal at any time. Existing law authorizes employees of the Department of Fish and Game to capture any dog not under the reasonable control of its owner or handler, that is in violation of that provision, or that is inflicting, or immediately threatening to inflict, injury in violation of this provision. Existing law generally prohibits a person from using dogs to hunt, pursue, or molest bears,, but allows the use of one dog per hunter for the hunting of bears during open deer season, and the use of more than one dog per hunter during the open bear season except during the period when archery deer seasons or regular deer seasons are open. Under existing law, except as excluded, violations of the Fish and Game Code are misdemeanors. This bill, except as specified, would generally make it unlawful to permit or allow a dog to pursue a bear, as defined, or bobcat at any time. The bill would exempt from that prohibition the use of dogs by federal, state, or local law enforcement officers, or their agents or employees, when carrying out official duties as required by law. The bill would eliminate existing provisions allowing for the use of dogs to hunt bears, and would, instead, authorize the use of not more than 3 dogs to pursue bears or bobcats pursuant to a depredation permit issued by the department. The bill would authorize the department to authorize specified entities to use dogs to pursue bears or bobcats for the purpose of scientific research, under certain conditions. The bill would also authorize the pursuit of bears or bobcats by dogs that are guarding or protecting livestock or crops on property owned, leased, or rented by the owner of the dogs, if the dogs are maintained with, and remain in reasonable proximity to, the livestock or crops being guarded or protected. The bill would authorize the Fish and Game Commission to establish a hound tag program, imposing prescribed requirements on the licensure and use of hounds, as defined, to pursue mammals. By changing the definition of a crime, this bill would impose 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law prohibits the suspension, or recommendation for expulsion, of a pupil from school unless the school district superintendent or the school principal determines that the pupil has committed any of various specified acts. Existing law requires the school district superintendent or the school principal to immediately suspend and recommend the expulsion of a pupil who is determined to have, at school or at a school activity off school grounds, possessed, sold, or otherwise furnished a firearm, brandished a knife at another person, unlawfully sold a controlled substance, committed or attempted to commit a sexual assault or battery, as defined, or possessed an explosive. Existing law states that a school should consider implementing a supervised suspension program or an alternative to the school's off-campus suspension program that involves a progressive discipline approach using specified activities if the number of pupils suspended from school during the prior school year exceeded 30% of the school's enrollment. This bill would instead encourage a school district, commencing with the 2014–15 school year, to implement, for a minimum of 3 years, at a school where the number of pupils receiving off-campus suspensions in the prior school year exceeded 25% of its total enrollment, or exceeded 25% of a numerically significant pupil subgroup of that enrollment, as defined, either (A) an evidence-based system of schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports that employs school-level information about the behavioral and academic history of pupils to define and implement systems of support and interventions at the school, classroom, and individual levels that is aimed at improving the social, emotional, and academic success for all pupils, or (B) other schoolwide strategies that are evidence based and designed to address school climate in order to create learning environments where teachers can teach and pupils can learn and to reduce suspensions from classrooms and the school. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to invite a school that meets or exceeds this threshold percentage of suspensions to attend a regional forum organized by the Superintendent to provide assistance and training regarding the strategies described above, among other things. Commencing with the 2015–16 school year, the bill would decrease the percentage of enrollment or numerically significant pupil subgroup of enrollment that triggers an invitation to attend a regional forum each school year until that percentage is 15% for the 2018–19 school year, in accordance with a prescribed schedule. The bill would require the Superintendent annually from the 2014–15 to the 2018–19 school year, inclusive, to notify each local educational agency that contains at least one school that exceeds the specified thresholds and provide technical assistance as requested; to invite the schools that meet or exceed the specified thresholds applicable to suspensions to send a school leadership team to a regional forum, with a goal of serving no fewer than 100 schools per school year; prioritize invitations to schools with the highest rates of off-campus suspensions; and to provide the State Board of Education with the names of the schools invited to attend a regional forum and the annual rate of reduction or increase in each school's off-campus suspensions. These requirements would be contingent upon the availability of funds, as specified. The bill would authorize the State Department of Education to provide school districts with information regarding schoolwide evidence-based strategies that could be implemented.

The Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to develop an Academic Performance Index (API) that measures the performance of schools and the academic performance of pupils. Under existing law, the API consists of a variety of indicators, including graduation rates for pupils in secondary schools, and is used to measure the progress of specified schools and to rank all public schools for the purpose of the High Achieving/Improving Schools Program. Existing law requires the Superintendent to determine the accuracy of high school graduation rate data before including that data in the API, and to provide an annual report to the Legislature on graduation and dropout rates, as specified. This bill would authorize the Superintendent to develop and implement a specified program of school quality review to complement the API, if an appropriation for this purpose is made in the annual Budget Act. The bill would require the Superintendent to annually provide to local educational agencies and the public an explanation of the individual components of the API and their relative values, as specified, and would prohibit an additional element from being incorporated into the API until at least one full school year after the state board's decision to include the element into the API. The bill would also require the Superintendent to annually determine the accuracy of graduation rate data, and would delete the requirement that the Superintendent report annually to the Legislature on graduation and dropout rates. The bill would authorize the Superintendent to incorporate into the API the rates at which pupils successfully promote from one grade to the next in middle school and high school and matriculate from middle school to high school, as well as pupil preparedness for postsecondary education and career. The bill would delete the requirement that the API be used to measure the progress of specified schools and to rank all public schools for the purpose of the High Achieving/Improving Schools Program. To the extent this bill would require school districts to report additional data for purposes of inclusion in the API or other school quality review, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law provides that pupil scores from certain standards-based achievement tests and the high school exit examination be incorporated into the API, as specified. Under existing law, the results of these tests constitute at least 60% of the value of the index. This bill would instead require that these test results constitute no more than 60% of the value of the index for secondary schools, commencing with the baseline API calculation in 2016, and for each year thereafter. This bill would require the Superintendent, on or before October 1, 2013, to report to the Legislature a method for increasing emphasis on pupil mastery of standards in science and social science through the system of public school accountability or by other means and an alternative method or methods, in place of decile rank, for determining eligibility, preferences, or priorities for any statutory program that uses decile rank as a determining factor. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 52052 of the Education Code, proposed by AB 1668, to be operative only if AB 1668 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective January 1, 2013, and this bill is chaptered last. 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 establishes in the California Environmental Protection Agency the State Air Resources Board, which is responsible for control of emissions from motor vehicles and is designated the air pollution control agency for all purposes set forth in federal law. Existing law requires the state board to consist of 11 members appointed based on certain qualifications, including a requirement that one member be a board member from any district other than certain specified districts. This bill would require the state board to consist of 12 members appointed based on certain qualifications. This bill would also require that one member be from the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, the Placer County Air Pollution Control District, the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District, the Feather River Air Quality Management District, or the El Dorado County Air Pollution Control District.