Existing law establishes the State Water Resources Control Board (state board) and the California regional water quality control boards (regional boards) as the principal state agencies with authority over matters relating to water quality. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health (department) to adopt uniform water recycling criteria for indirect potable water reuse for groundwater recharge, as defined, by December 31, 2013. Existing law requires the department to develop and adopt uniform water recycling criteria for surface water augmentation, as defined, by December 31, 2016, if a specified expert panel convened by the department finds that the criteria would adequately protect public health. Existing law requires the department to investigate the feasibility of developing uniform water recycling criteria for direct potable reuse, as defined, and to provide a final report on that investigation to the Legislature by December 31, 2016. Existing law requires the department, in consultation with the state board, to report to the Legislature from 2011 to 2016, inclusive, as part of the annual budget process, on the progress towards developing and adopting the water recycling criteria for surface water augmentation and its investigation of the feasibility of developing water recycling criteria for direct potable reuse. Existing law requires the state board to enter into an agreement with the department to assist in implementing the water recycling criteria provisions. This bill would enact the Water Recycling Act of 2012 to revise and consolidate those and other provisions relating to recycled water, and make other conforming changes to existing law. The act would establish a statewide goal to recycle a total of 1.5 million acre-feet of water per year by 2020 and 2.5 million acre-feet of water per year by 2030. The act would require the state board and regional boards, the department, the Public Utilities Commission, the Department of Water Resources, and other state agencies to exercise the authority and discretion granted to them by the Legislature to encourage the use of recycled water and meet the goals of the act. The act would require the department, on or before December 31, 2013, to adopt drinking water criteria for groundwater recharge projects utilizing recycled water. The bill would require the department, on or before December 31, 2016, to develop and adopt drinking water criteria for the use of advanced treated purified water for raw water augmentation projects not subject to the drinking water criteria for groundwater recharge projects utilizing recycled water. The act would subject those criteria to review by an expert panel convened and administered by the department to advise the department on public health issues and scientific and technical matters. The act would prescribe the types and contents of permits for recycled water to be issued by the state board or a regional board, as appropriate. Because certain reports submitted as part of the permit application process would be submitted under penalty of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. The act would establish the Water Recycling Research Fund and require that certain civil penalties be deposited into the fund, to be expended by the state board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to conduct or fund research necessary to support the continued and safe use of recycled water in the state. The bill would also authorize the department to issue permits in accordance with prescribed procedures for raw water augmentation projects to specified entities and would prohibit the operation of a raw water augmentation project without a permit, as prescribed. The bill would subject permittees to filing and permit fees established by the department. Revenues from those fees would be required to be deposited in the Augmentation Permit Fund, which the bill would create. The money in the fund would be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, solely for the purposes of the permit program. This bill would permit the department to suspend or revoke a permit after a hearing, as prescribed, would authorize the director of the department to issue certain orders when a person has violated or is violating the provisions of the permit program, and would permit specified judicial review. This bill would permit a duly authorized representative of the department, in order to carry out the purposes of the program, to do prescribed inspections, and would make it a misdemeanor for any person to prevent, interfere with, or attempt to impede in any way the representative. 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.
Under existing law, when a person consults a mediator or mediation service for the purpose of retaining mediation services, or when parties agree to conduct and participate in a mediation for the purpose of compromising, settling, or resolving a civil dispute, anything said in the course of the consultation for mediation services or in the course of the mediation is not admissible in evidence nor subject to discovery in any other action or proceeding. This bill would require the California Law Revision Commission to study and report to the Legislature, as specified, concerning the relationship under current law between mediation confidentiality and attorney malpractice and misconduct, as well as the availability and propriety of contractual waivers.
This measure would proclaim January 13, 2011, as Korean-American Day.
This measure would designate May 2012 as Water Awareness Month, and would urge the citizens of California, homeowners, businesses, farms, ranches, and governmental and nongovernmental entities to learn effective ways to conserve and reuse water.
Existing law imposes an annual assessment of 1% on the gross sales of all deciduous pome and stone fruit trees, nut trees, olive trees, and grapevines, including seeds, seedlings, rootstocks, and topstock, including ornamental varieties of apple, apricot, crabapple, cherry, nectarine, peach, pear, and plum, produced and sold within the state or produced within and shipped from the state by any licensed nursery dealer. Existing law provides that the Secretary of Food and Agriculture may exempt from the assessment certain species of pome and stone fruit, nut trees, olive trees, grapevines, or ornamental varieties of apple, apricot, crabapple, cherry, nectarine, olive, peach, pear, and plum if it can be demonstrated that no benefit is derived by these species from specified programs established by existing law concerning pome and stone fruit trees, nut trees, olive trees, and grapevines, as provided. This bill would remove species of olive trees from the plants that the secretary may exempt from the assessment and instead allow the secretary to exempt certain varieties of olive trees from the assessment. The bill would also make a clarifying change.
Under existing law, residents of long-term health care facilities have certain rights, including the right to be readmitted to a facility following a hospital stay, as specified, and the right, if denied readmission by the facility, to appeal this decision. Existing law establishes the State Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account within the Special Deposit Fund, available upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the protection of health or property of residents of long-term health care facilities. This bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to conduct the appeal hearings. This bill would require that the State Department of Public Health be bound by a decision rendered by the State Department of Health Care Services. If readmission is ordered on appeal and the facility refuses to readmit the resident, the bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to refer the matter to the State Department of Public Health, and require the State Department of Public Health to assess a specified civil penalty against the facility each day, until the resident is readmitted or a maximum penalty amount is reached. This bill would increase these penalty amounts if the facility has previously refused after being ordered on appeal to readmit a resident. The bill would require that these penalties be deposited into the State Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account. The bill would authorize the State Department of Health Care Services and the State Department of Public Health to request that the Attorney General seek injunctive relief and damages pursuant to specified provisions of law. The bill would authorize the departments to implement these provisions by means of letters, provider bulletins, or other similar instructions.
Existing law authorizes a local public entity, as defined, to file a petition and exercise powers pursuant to applicable federal bankruptcy law, subject to specified procedures, including participation in a neutral evaluation process with interested parties, as defined, or upon a declaration of fiscal emergency, as specified. Existing law prohibits the neutral evaluation established by this process from exceeding more than 60 days following the date the neutral evaluator is selected, unless the local public entity or a majority of participating interested parties elect to extend the process for up to 30 additional days. This bill would revise and recast the bankruptcy procedures that apply to the neutral evaluation process. The bill would authorize the neutral evaluator to toll the limitation period for the neutral evaluation process based upon a finding that the local public entity or any interested parties' conduct in presenting information required under this process prevented the parties from effectively proceeding in the neutral evaluation process. The bill would authorize the neutral evaluator to request and control the process of an independent investigation, as specified. The bill would provide that the neutral evaluation process shall end upon a specified circumstance.
Read. Adopted. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 3751.)
The Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability Act requires the governing board of each school district maintaining an elementary or secondary school to develop and cause to be implemented for each school in the district a school accountability report card that includes assessments of various school conditions. This bill would encourage a school to include in the school accountability report card the number of visual and performing arts classes offered in the school district and at the schoolsite, the amount of time devoted to visual and performing arts instruction, the number of pupils enrolled in visual and performing arts classes, and the number of full-time equivalent teaching positions in the visual and performing arts.
Under existing law it is a misdemeanor to knowingly possess a firearm within any sterile area of an airport or a passenger vessel terminal. Existing law also generally prohibits the carrying of concealed firearms without a permit. Existing law authorizes a peace officer to make a warrantless arrest of a person for a violation of the provisions of law prohibiting the carrying of a concealed firearm when the violation occurs within an airport in an area to which access is controlled by the inspection of persons and property. This bill would require a peace officer to arrest a person for violating the provisions of law prohibiting the carrying of concealed firearms when the offense occurs within an airport, as defined, in an area to which access is controlled by the inspection of persons and property, and the person does not have a valid concealed weapons permit. The bill would also require the peace officer to confiscate the firearm. The bill would establish a rebuttable presumption that the area to which access is controlled by the inspection of persons and property begins wherever signs have been posted notifying airport users that the possession of restricted items is prohibited.
Read. Adopted. (Ayes 36. Noes 0. Page 3736.)
Read. Adopted. (Ayes 71. Noes 0. Page 5141.).
