General Government

General government legislation of note that were chaptered into law included: SB 133 (Aanestad) requiring persons who market, negotiate, or sell title insurance to register with the Insurance Commissioner; SB 301 (Romero) eliminating the deadline by which communities must incorporate and cities must annex inhabited land in order to receive additional vehicle license fee funding; SB 441 (Torlakson) requiring a vendor that operates or maintains a vending machine on state property to offer food and beverages that meet accepted nutritional guidelines; SB 580 (Calderon) revising limits on pawnbroker compensation and loan setup fees; SB 607 (Wiggins) authorizing a person to manufacture wine for personal or family use in an amount not to exceed 100 or 200 gallons per household per calendar year without having to have a license; SB 685 (Yee) revising the law concerning pet trusts; SB 1007 (Machado) requiring a person or entity engaging in business as an exchange facilitator to comply with certain bonding and insurance requirements; SB 1123 (Wiggins) revising “sunshine” provisions in California pension law and creating the California Actuarial Advisory Panel; SB 1135 (Ducheny) increasing the minimum amounts an endowment care cemetery is required to have deposited in its endowment care fund; SB 1159 (Cox) prohibiting alcohol on part of the Truckee River during summer holiday periods; SB 1191 (Alquist) permitting a community service district to construct, own, improve, maintain, and operate broadband facilities and provide broadband services; SB 1225 (Harman) permitting a limited liability company to operate as a cemetery authority; SB 1245 (Negrete McLeod) enhancing the California Mexican American Veterans Memorial; SB 1329 (Harman) enacting the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act to update rules concerning charitable institutions; SB 1369 (Cedillo) and AB 334 (Levine) permitting local governments to adopt an ordinance to allow the play of remote caller bingo games; SB 1371 (Correa) prohibiting automobile insurers from capping offers and payments for paint and materials charges, and defining capping for that purpose; SB 1396 (Cox) increasing the fee, from $2 to $3, the maximum additional recording fee counties can impose on real estate documents for payment into the Real Estate Fraud Prosecution Fund; SB 1400 (Simitian) enhancing the law relative to sweepstakes by requiring additional disclosures and consumer protections; SB 1432 (Margett) enhancing the protection of consumer protection laws relative to construction acts or omissions; SB 1530 (Hollingsworth) updating the line of succession in the office of Governor and in the office of Lieutenant Governor in case of vacancy, death, disability, or other failure to take office by adding the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Insurance Commissioner, and the Chair of the Board of Equalization to the current line of succession; SB 1615 (Florez) permitting the Attorney General to designate an employee in his or her office to act as a deputy to represent the AG on boards and commissions; SB 1623 (Yee) providing enhanced oversight of rice production and distribution; SB 1681 (Battin) refining the current state surplus property disposition law; SB 1696 (Yee) providing reforms in the disclosure of information under the California Public Records Act; SB 1732 (Romero) prohibiting a majority of the members of a legislative body from using a series of communications of any kind, directly or through intermediaries, to discuss, deliberate, or take action on any item of business that is required by the Ralph M. Brown Act to be conducted in public; AB 38 (Nava) creating the California Emergency Management Agency which manages the Office of Emergency Services of the Office of Homeland Security; AB 158 (Ma) making changes and appropriating funds for the purpose of mitigating the local impacts of tribal gaming operations; AB 163 (Mendoza) permitting a local government to amend its gambling ordinance to increase the number of tables that may be operated by small card clubs; AB 346 (Beall) requiring disclosure in the marketing of new soda-like and energy drinks containing alcohol; AB 372 (Salas) making it easier to place a security freeze on a consumer credit report; AB 498 (Hernandez) prohibiting companies with business operations in Sudan from bidding on state contracts for goods and services; AB 541 (Huffman) establishing sampling and analysis protocols when determining if there is a breach of contract or seed patent infringement of genetically engineered plants; AB 642 (Wolk) permitting all cities to use the design-build method for public contracting for the construction of buildings for projects that exceed $1 million until January 1, 2016; AB 1245 (Torrico) modifying an existing provision of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act to allow beer manufacturers to give adult consumers promotional advertising items valued up to $3; AB 1251 (Tran) providing a player up to one year to claim prize money for a jackpot or grand prize won in a multistate lottery game; AB 1358 (Leno) enacting the California Complete Streets Act of 2008; AB 1479 (Mendoza) providing the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee with emergency rulemaking authority; AB 1389 (Assembly Budget Committee) implementing the 2008-09 budget statutory changes for general governmental operations; AB 1654 (Assembly Budget Committee) and AB 1741 (Assembly Budget Committee) enacting the 2008-09 budget trailer bills relative to the state lottery which implements SCA 12 (Perata) if passed by the voters; AB 1699 (Duvall) restructuring the licensing fees charged for licenses to act as a surplus lines broker; AB 1764 (Blakeslee) clarifying that agricultural commodities produced in this state for biofuels are allowable under the Williamson Act; AB 2001 (Swanson) permitting a city, county, or city and county auditor or controller to maintain a whistleblower hotline; AB 2004 (Evans) permitting a licensed winegrower to sell wine to consumers for on-premises consumption, as specified; AB 2043 (Spitzer) permitting the construction and maintenance of a crime victim’s memorial in the Capitol Historic Region; AB 2044 (Duvall) establishing a “citation and fine” program for minor violations of the Insurance Code; AB 2059 (Nunez) enhancing the consumer protections relative to the “do not call” laws; AB 2090 (Evans) permitting the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control to issue a special temporary on-sale wine license to a nonprofit corporation if a majority of its members are either licensed winegrowers, wine grape growers, or professional in the fields of enology or viticulture; AB 2149 (Berg) prohibiting a broker-dealer or investment advisor from using senior-specific certification, credential, or professional designation indicating that he or she has special training in advising or servicing senior citizens or retirees in such a way as to mislead any person; AB 2156 (Hernandez) extending the CalPERS special death benefit to a surviving spouse of a peace officer or firefighter whose death occurred in the line of duty and was in a vegetative state until death occurred; AB 2171 (Cook) permitting the construction and maintenance of a Purple Heart Memorial in the Capitol Historic Region; AB 2202 (Caballero) requiring every employer participating in PERS to provide specified information to PERS concerning the employment of retired annuitants and other employees not currently mandated into PERS coverage, such as part-time, seasonal, temporary employees; AB 2203 (De Leon) increasing the limit on the amount of foreign investments that California-based insurance companies may make, from 4% to 20% of assets, and prohibiting investments by these insurers in foreign countries designated by the Secretary of State as sponsors of terrorism; AB 2349 (Fuller) allowing the Department of Food and Agriculture, in addition to the Attorney General, to enforce animal quarantine laws; AB 2376 (Price) establishing a Small and Emerging Contractor Technical Assistance Program; AB 2423 (Bass) permitting specified boards and bureaus under the Department of Consumer Affairs, when considering the issuance of a probationary license or registration, to request an applicant with a prior criminal history to provide proof of dismissal; AB 2452 (Davis) expanding the list of satisfying documents that notaries public may rely upon as evidence of a person’s identity; AB 2484 (Caballero) prohibiting a LAFCO from approving a special district’s application to establish new or different functions or classes of services unless LAFCO determines that the district will have sufficient revenues; AB 2673 (Feuer) confirming provisions of the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 to be consistent with the provisions of the California Domestic Partnership Act of 2003; AB 2763 (Laird) requiring the Department of Food and Agriculture to develop and maintain a list of invasive animals, plants, and insects likely to enter California, and plan for appropriate responses to these possible pests; AB 2765 (Huffman) providing public input into the decision for any aerial application treatment of an urban population and to seek alternative treatment methods to aerial applications; AB 2881 (Wolk) regulating residential transfer disclosures regarding agricultural activity; AB 2919 (Garcia) imposing advertising requirements on businesses that offer to assist individuals in dealing with a governmental agency, as specified; AB 2921 (Laird) enhancing statutory provisions for the Department of Conservation to identify and respond to material breaches of Williamson Act contracts; AB 2956 (Coto) providing that a determination of whether a person is acting as an insurance agent, as opposed to an insurance broker, is based on the totality of the circumstances; AB 3013 (Levine) permitting a judgment lien to be renewed prior to the five-year expiration of the lien; AB 3020 (Salas) adding the Military Department to the list of state departments authorized to enter into contracts for public works projects pursuant to the State Contract Act; and AB 3024 (Duvall) increasing, from $5,000 to $25,000, the contract cost limit over which contractors on state public works projects must obtain a payment bond; and AB 3XXX (Assembly Budget Committee) and AB 8XXX (Assembly Budget Committee) implementing statutory language for the 2007-08 budget shortfall of various governmental programs.

Vetoed legislation of note included: SB 201 (Florez) establishing the Fresh Raw Milk Act of 2008; SB 360 (Negrete McLeod) transferring, from redevelopment agencies to county auditors, responsibility for making and reporting pass-through payments of property tax increment revenues; SB 364 (Simitian) requiring that a notice required under California’s data security breach law must contain specified information; SB 623 (Wiggins) requiring each retail dispenser used to dispense motor fuel to provide adequate notice to consumers of price differentials or discounts in accordance with regulations adopted by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Division of Measurement Standards; SB 1167 (Wiggins) requiring the Insurance Commissioner to convene a task force, as specified, to review issues arising from implementation of the automobile repair anti-steering statute; SB 1257 (Machado) limiting the information a company or retailer may require as a condition of redeeming a consumer rebate, and adding disclosure and timing requirements, as specified; SB 1282 (Margett) requiring private investigators, as a condition of license renewal, to complete 12 hours of continuing education in privacy rights, professional ethics, recent legal developments, and other subjects related to the profession; SB 1319 (Machado) providing protections for owners who lose their property; SB 1505 (Yee) extending the protections of the California Whistleblower Protection Act to former state employees, and adding reasonable attorneys fees to the relief one may recover under the Act; SB 1543 (Machado) requiring the licensing of persons who transact life settlement contracts; SB 1698 (Romero) requiring licensed contractors and subcontractors, in order to perform work on state public works projects after 1/1/11, to obtain a public works certification from the Contractors State License Board prior to performing public works projects; SB 1718 (Perata) requiring the Department of Personnel Administration to annually conduct a survey of specified public entities relative to salary, compensation, and benefits paid to their legal professionals in order to provide the state with an accurate assessment of the relevant labor market; AB 697 (Hancock) prohibiting cities or counties, on or after 10/1/08, from using Bradley-Burns sales tax rebates as an incentive to draw sales tax-generating activities away from other communities; AB 733 (Calderon) transferring responsibility for maintaining and providing information on the list of people that are excluded or ejected from various gambling establishments to the Department of Justice from the California Gambling Control Commission; AB 865 (Davis) enacting the State Agency Live Customer Service Act; AB 926 (Evans) establishing procedures in the Civil Discovery Act for a person to obtain discovery of electronically stored information; AB 983 (Ma) revising the respective responsibilities of contractors and local governmental entities regarding construction plans and specifications; AB 1021 (Berryhill) establishing the California Apple Pest and Disease Prevention Act of 2008; AB 1418 (Arambula) requiring the Commissioner of the Department of Financial Institutions to develop a Credit Union Members Investment Model; AB 1565 (Lieber) adding places of religious observance or practice to the list of properties that cannot have property insurance canceled or nonrenewed due to the commission of a crime against the property; AB 1656 (Jones) prohibiting a person, business, or agency that sells goods or services to any resident of California and accepts as payment a credit card, debit card, or other payment device, from storing, retaining, sending, or failing to limit access to payment-related data; AB 1709 (Hancock) adding the acquisition, installation, and improvement of energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements to the types of facilities that a Community Facilities District may finance or refinance; AB 1866 (Mendoza) requiring a retailer that sells a service contract to maintain the service contract information and make the contract available to the purchaser, upon request, as specified; AB 1870 (De Leon) adding a Matricula Consular as an acceptable form of identification for secondhand pawn transactions; AB 1906 (Salas) adding identity theft insurance as a class of insurance subject to being regulated by the Insurance Commissioner; AB 1910 (Coto) requiring major insurance companies to develop a policy on community development investments that expresses their goal for these investments, and to file these policy statements with the Insurance Commissioner; AB 1942 (Ruskin) increasing and conforming penalties for persons who engage in fraudulent activities relating to the Small Business Procurement and Contract Act, including small businesses, microbusinesses, and disabled veteran-owned business enterprises; AB 2123 (Lieu) establishing the California Financial Literacy Initiative for the purpose of improving financial literacy by providing resources and instruction to Californians; AB 2151 (Jones) providing local governments with greater control of the issuance and transfer of liquor licenses within their jurisdictions; AB 2308 (Karnette) allowing the State Personnel Board to waive, as a reasonable accommodation, the requirements that candidates for state civil service positions have a high school diploma; AB 2412 (Eng) increasing the maximum criminal fines for unlicensed contractors, and requiring a mandatory jail sentence for a third or subsequent conviction for unlicensed contracting; AB 2427 (Eng) restricting local government’s ability to prohibit a healing arts licensee from engaging in any act or performing any procedure that falls within the professionally recognized scope of practice of that licensee; AB 2447 (Jones) allowing a county to approve a new subdivision in a high fire risk area only if they find they meet California’s fire subdivision design standards; AB 2471 (Karnette) establishing the Digital Arts Studio Partnership and Workforce Program; AB 2567 (Leno) designating May 22 of each year as Harvey Milk Day, a day of special significance; AB 2595 (Laird) establishing procedure by which the Secretary of State, on behalf of the California State Archives, could recover governmental records belonging to the state or a local agency that are found in possession of non-governmental entities or persons; AB 2770 (La Malfa) permitting the Department of Fish and Game to charge a fee and issue an organization-based group permit for scientific purposes to a California certified small business, an aquarium, as specified, or other appropriate institutions, in the name of a principal scientific investigator or entity; AB 2825 (Carter) permitting a customer to receive copies of invoices from the distributor, dealer, or manufacturer for all crash parts installed for which the customer is charged in excess of $50; AB 2849 (Evans) creating specific civil remedies for wrongfully taking, possessing, harboring, transporting, destroying, or vandalizing bees; AB 2854 (Mendoza) requiring, upon available funding, the office of the Small Business Advocate to create a one-stop website for small business-related announcements and funding opportunities offered by state agencies; AB 2871 (Tran) establishing the California Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial and American Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission; AB 2898 (Mullin) requiring coroners or other specified individuals to make reasonable efforts to notify next of kin of specified information; AB 2939 (Hancock) permitting a city, county, or city and county to implement stricter green building guidelines than those otherwise permitted under existing law; and AB 2950 (Huffman) modifying existing prohibitions against unsolicited commercial electronic mail.