(1) Existing law, the California Cultural and Historical Endowment Act, establishes the California Cultural and Historical Endowment in the Natural Resources Agency. Among other things, the act authorizes the endowment to create a competitive grant program to support small capital projects in museums, as specified. The act also authorizes the endowment to adopt regulations as necessary or convenient for carrying out the purposes of the act, including, but not limited to, establishing grant application criteria and procedures.
This bill would additionally include exhibits, educational programs, outreach programs, public programs, curriculum, marketing, and collections care as purposes for which the endowment is authorized to create a competitive grant program. The bill would exempt the development and adoption of program
guidelines and selection criteria for purposes of the competitive grant program from the Administrative Procedure Act, but would require the endowment to hold at least one public hearing before adopting program guidelines and selection criteria.
(2) Existing law requires the operator of any idle well to either (A) no later than January 1 of each year, for each idle well that was an idle well at any time in the last calendar year, file with the State Oil and Gas Supervisor an annual fee or (B) file a plan with the supervisor to provide for the management and elimination of all long-term idle wells.
This bill would make no later than May 1 of each year the deadline for the filing of that annual fee.
(3) The federal Safe Drinking Water Act regulates certain wells as Class II wells, as defined. Under existing federal law, the authority to
regulate Class II wells in California is delegated to the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources in the Department of Conservation. Under existing law, the division implements the Underground Injection Control Program pursuant to this federal delegation. The federal act prohibits certain well activities that affect underground sources of drinking water, unless those sources are located in an exempted aquifer. Existing federal law authorizes a state delegated with the responsibility of regulating Class II wells to propose that an aquifer or a portion of an aquifer be an exempted aquifer and authorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency to approve the proposal if the aquifer or a portion of the aquifer meets certain criteria.
Existing law requires the Department of Conservation and the State Water Resources Control Board, by January 30, 2016, and every 6 months thereafter, until March 1, 2019, to provide to the fiscal and relevant policy
committees of the Legislature certain reports regarding the implementation of the Underground Injection Control Program.
This bill would instead require the Department of Conservation, in consultation with the State Water Resources Control Board, by July 30, 2019, and annually thereafter, until October 1, 2024, to provide to the fiscal and relevant policy committees of the Legislature similar reports regarding the implementation of the Underground Injection Control Program.
(4) Existing law authorizes the Department of Finance to delegate to the Department of Parks and Recreation the right to exercise the same authority granted to the Division of the State Architect and the Real Estate Services Division in the Department of General Services, to plan, design, construct, and administer contracts and professional services for legislatively approved capital outlay projects and
authorizes the department to revoke, in whole or in part, this right at any time. Existing law repeals these provisions on January 1, 2019.
This bill would extend the operation of these provisions indefinitely.
(5) Existing law establishes the Parks Project Revolving Fund in the State Treasury, and requires, upon the approval of the Department of Finance, except as provided, the transfer to, or deposit in, the fund of all money appropriated, contributed, or made available from any source, including sources other than state appropriations, for expenditure on work within the powers and duties of the Department of Parks and Recreation with respect to the construction, alteration, repair, and improvement of state park facilities, as specified.
Existing law makes money transferred from state sources for major construction available to the Department of Parks and
Recreation without regard to fiscal years and irrespective of specified limitations for encumbrance.
Existing law makes these provisions inoperative on a date that is 3 years after the date the Department of Parks and Recreation’s authority to plan, construct, and administer contracts and professional services for capital outlay projects is repealed, and is repealed on the following January 1.
This bill would extend the operation of the fund indefinitely. By extending operation of a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation.
(6) Existing law generally requires that a concession contract within state parks for a period of more than 2 years be awarded to the best responsible bidder.
This bill would instead generally require that a concession contract within state parks for a period of more
than 3 years be awarded to the best responsible bidder.
(7) Existing law authorizes the Director of Parks and Recreation to award a concession contract authorizing occupancy of any portion of the state park system for a period of more than 2 years to the best responsible person or entity submitting a proposal, as defined, for a concession contract if the director determines that it is in the best interest of the state, subject to certain requirements and procedures.
This bill would instead authorize the director to award those concession contracts for a period of more than 3 years.
(8) Existing law vests with the State Lands Commission control over specified lands in the state, including certain tidelands and submerged lands, and prescribes the functions and duties of the commission with regard to the protection, preservation,
enhancement, and maintenance of those lands. Existing law requires the commission, whenever it enters into any agreement for the compromise or settlement of claims, pursuant to the authority granted to it by law, to submit the agreement to the Governor and, if the agreement is approved by the Governor, specifies that it shall be binding upon the state and any other party to the agreement.
This bill would revise the above provision to specify that it applies to any agreement for the compromise or settlement of title or boundary claims.
(9) Existing law requires the State Lands Commission, whenever a person becomes entitled to a patent, upon the surrender of the full-paid certificate of purchase or the submission of an affidavit by a person having an interest in the land that the certificate of purchase is lost, destroyed, or beyond the control of the owner or owners of the land, to prepare a patent for
the land. Existing law further requires that such a patent be signed by the Governor, attested by the Secretary of State, sealed with the Great Seal of the State of California, and countersigned by the commission.
This bill would also require that a deed be signed by the Governor, attested by the Secretary of State, sealed with the Great Seal of the State of California, and countersigned by the commission.
(10) The California Coastal Act of 1976 requires a land use plan of a proposed local coastal program to be submitted to the California Coastal Commission for certification. The act requires a local government to submit to the commission the zoning ordinances, zoning district maps, and, where necessary, other implementing actions that are required under the act. The act establishes various time deadlines for the commission to act in regard to the submitted land use plan, zoning ordinances, zoning
district maps, and other implementing actions.
This bill would specify that those deadlines are expressed in working days.
(11) Existing law creates the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy in the Natural Resources Agency and, among other things, authorizes the conservancy to acquire and hold specified lands in the Coachella Valley and the surrounding mountains for certain open-space, wildlife protection, and recreational uses. Existing law provides that the governing board of the conservancy consists of 23 voting members, as specified.
This bill would reduce to 20 the membership of the governing board of the conservancy, as provided.
(12) Existing law, the Marine Invasive Species Act, requires the State Lands Commission to implement and administer laws regulating the
uptake or discharge of ballast water from vessels that impact marine species in the state’s waterways. The act, among other things, requires the master, owner, operator, or person in charge of a vessel carrying, or capable of carrying, ballast water, that operates in the waters of the state to take various actions to minimize the uptake and release of nonindigenous species, including, among other things, to clean the ballast tanks regularly in mid-ocean waters, or under controlled arrangements in port or in drydock, to remove fouling organisms and sediments, as specified.
This bill would revise that requirement to require the removal of sediments and biofouling organisms, would make related changes, and would make nonsubstantive changes in certain provisions of the act.
(13) Existing law grants all right, title, and interest of the state in and to all tidelands and submerged lands within a specified
area in trust to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for the purposes of the construction, maintenance, and operation on the tidelands and submerged lands of a plant for the production of fresh water employing a nuclear powered sea water desalting process or a plant for the production of electric energy using nuclear means, or both, and any other facilities, equipment, or plants necessary or desirable in connection with the production and delivery of fresh water, electricity, and any byproducts incident to the production and delivery of fresh water and electricity. Existing law imposes on the grant certain conditions and reservations, including, among other things, the conditions that the district is prohibited from granting, conveying, or alienating the lands to any individual, firm, or corporation for any purpose, but is allowed to grant easements, licenses, and leases for any of the purposes of the grant, as specified. Existing law reserves, among others, the rights of navigation and
fishing in the waters surrounding the facilities to be constructed in the people and, in the state, all deposits of minerals in the lands granted.
Existing law authorizes the district to reclaim, fill, and raise portions of the tidelands and submerged lands to levels that may be necessary or convenient to create an island and a causeway to connect the island with the mainland, as specified. Existing law grants to the district an easement across certain state beach lands for the construction of the causeway and terminates the easement unless a payment is made to the Department of Parks and Recreation, as specified.
Existing law directs the State Lands Commission, upon completion of the reclamation, filling and raising of the lands to create the island, and upon completion of the causeway, or when any extensions or additions are constructed, to execute and record appropriate instruments describing the lands comprising the
island and causeway, as specified. Upon the recording of those instruments, existing law frees those lands from public use and trust for commerce, navigation, and fisheries and existing law sets forth findings that the freeing of those lands is promotive of the public interest and in aid of the construction, maintenance, and operation of the plant described above.
This bill would repeal these provisions.
(14) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute due to the unique circumstances involving a grant of tidelands and submerged lands to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.