Sen. Nancy Skinner

This measure would recognize the month of November 2011 as Native American Heritage Month, would encourage Californians to participate in appropriate observances that celebrate and commemorate Native Americans, and would applaud and encourage the observance of California Indian nations for their outstanding contributions to this state.

Existing law provides for the regulation and licensing of pilots and inland pilots for the Bays of Monterey, San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun by the Board of Pilot Commissioners (board) . Under existing law, any person who does not hold a license as a pilot or as an inland pilot and who pilots any vessel into or out of any harbor or port of the Bays of Monterey, San Francisco, San Pablo, or Suisun, or who acts as a pilot for ship movements or special operations upon the waters of any of those bays is guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law requires the board to adopt a continuing education program for pilots and inland pilots funded from fees from the surcharge for each movement of a vessel using pilot services. Existing law requires the board to adopt training standards and a training program for pilot trainees. This bill would delete all references to inland pilots from these provisions. Existing law requires the executive director of the board to assign a commission investigator, if suspected equipment safety standard violations are reported to the board, to personally inspect the equipment for its compliance with the relevant safety standards. Existing law requires the commission investigator to report preliminary conclusions to the executive director. Existing law also requires the commission investigator to submit a report, that is required to remain confidential, to an incident review committee and the committee is required to report its findings, if any, to the board. This bill would recast these provisions to instead require the executive director to perform investigations, make findings and recommendations, and report to the board regarding suspected equipment safety standard violations. The bill would require an examination fee to be charged in an amount established by the board to each applicant to the pilot trainee training program who participates in any written or simulator examinations established by the board for the purposes of determining admission to the pilot trainee training program. The bill would require that the fee be charged only to those who actually participate in an examination and not exceed the administrative costs to the board of preparing and administering the examination. The bill would require that the moneys charged and collected from the applicant be paid to the board and deposited into the Board of Pilot Commissioners' Special Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, and be used only to fund the pilot trainee training program in the manner established by the board. By increasing the amount of revenue deposited into a continuously appropriated fund and by authorizing the expenditure of money in that fund for a new purpose, the bill would make an appropriation. Existing law requires the Governor to appoint one assistant director to serve at the pleasure of the Governor. Existing law requires the assistant director to have the duties as assigned by the executive director who is appointed by the Board of Pilot Commissioners. This bill would require that the Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing appoint one assistant director to serve in a career executive assignment at the pleasure of the secretary.

Existing law imposes a sales tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, and a use tax on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state, measured by sales price. That law requires every retailer engaged in business in this state, as defined, and making sales of tangible personal property for storage, use, or other consumption in this state to collect the tax from the purchaser. Existing law defines a "retailer engaged in business in this state" to include a retailer that has substantial nexus with this state and a retailer upon whom federal law permits the state to impose a use tax collection duty; a retailer entering into an agreement or agreements under which a person or persons in this state, for a commission or other consideration, directly or indirectly refer potential purchasers of tangible personal property to the retailer, whether by an Internet-based link or an Internet Web site, or otherwise, provided that 2 specified conditions are met, including the condition that the retailer, within the preceding 12 months, has total cumulative sales of tangible personal property to purchasers in this state in excess of $500,000; and a retailer that is a member of a commonly controlled group, as defined under the Corporation Tax Law, and a member of a combined reporting group, as defined, that includes another member of the retailer's commonly controlled group that, pursuant to an agreement with or in cooperation with the retailer, performs services in this state in connection with tangible personal property to be sold by the retailer. This bill would revise the definition of a "retailer engaged in business in this state" to temporarily eliminate the above-mentioned inclusions in that definition, and would condition the commencement of the operation of these inclusions upon the enactment of a certain federal law and the state's election to implement that law. This bill, for purposes of one of those inclusions, would revise the cumulative sales condition to increase the amount of total cumulative sales of tangible personal property to purchasers in this state to an amount in excess of $1,000,000. This bill would provide that certain provisions of this bill are severable. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This measure would designate the month of September of every year as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month throughout the State of California, and would encourage and promote efforts to educate the people and the health care practitioners of the state regarding ovarian cancer and its early detection and prevention, the risk factors involved in its development, and the early warning symptoms and signs.

This measure would proclaim May 2 through May 9, 2011, as Cinco de Mayo Week, and would urge all Californians to join in celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

Existing law provides that an injury of an employee arising out of and in the course of employment is generally compensable through the workers' compensation system. Existing law provides that, in the case of certain public employees, the term "injury" includes heart trouble, hernia, pneumonia, human immunodeficiency virus, lower back impairment, and other injuries and diseases. This bill would provide, with respect to hospital employees who provide direct patient care in an acute care hospital, as defined, that the term "injury" includes a bloodborne infectious disease, as defined, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that develops or manifests itself during the period of the person's employment with the hospital. This bill would further create a disputable presumption that the above injury arises out of and in the course of the person's employment if it develops or manifests as specified.

This measure would proclaim October 22 to October 30, 2011, as including Red Ribbon Week, and would encourage all Californians to help build drug-free communities and participate in drug prevention activities.

The Planning and Zoning Law requires specified regional transportation planning agencies to prepare and adopt a regional transportation plan directed at achieving a coordinated and balanced regional transportation system, and requires the regional transportation plan to include, among other things, a sustainable communities strategy, for the purpose of using local planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This bill would state the findings and declarations of the Legislature with respect to parking requirements and infill and transit-oriented development, and would state the intent of the Legislature to reduce unnecessary government regulation and to reduce the cost of development by eliminating excessive minimum parking requirements for infill and transit-oriented development. This bill would also express a legislative finding and declaration that its provisions shall apply to all cities, including charter cities. This bill would also prohibit a city or county from requiring a minimum parking standard greater than one parking space per 1,000 square feet of nonresidential improvements and one parking space per unit of residential improvements for any new development project in transit intensive areas, as defined. This bill would provide that its provisions would not apply if certain requirements are met.

This measure would request that the Department of Parks and Recreation rename the Eastshore State Park as the McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, and determine the cost of appropriate signage showing this designation, consistent with specified requirements, and, upon the receipt of donations from nonstate sources sufficient to cover the cost of that signage, to erect those signs at the park.

This measure would proclaim the month of March of every year as Read Across California Month and request that public and private stakeholders work together to raise awareness of the importance of reading to young children and the importance of independent reading among our pupils and citizens of California by encouraging everyone to read for 30 minutes for 30 days during the month of March of every year, in conjunction with the Read Across America campaign held annually on March 2.