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AB-3247 Public Advocate’s Office: appointment of the director.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 03/11/2024 09:00 PM
AB3247:v98#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  March 11, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 3247

Introduced by Assembly Member Irwin

February 16, 2024

An act to amend Section 5800 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to communications. 309.5 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to the Public Utilities Commission.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 3247, as amended, Irwin. Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006. Public Advocate’s Office: appointment of the director.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities. Existing law establishes within the commission the independent Public Advocate’s Office of the Public Utilities Commission to represent and advocate on behalf of the interests of public utility customers and subscribers within the commission’s jurisdiction. Existing law requires the director of the Public Advocate’s Office to be appointed by, and serve at the pleasure of, the Governor, subject to confirmation by the Senate.
This bill would instead require the director of the Public Advocate’s Office to be appointed for an initial 4-year term by the Speaker of the Assembly and for a consecutive 4-year term by the President pro Tempore of the Senate. Upon the expiration of those terms, the bill would require the authority to appoint the director to rotate every 4 years between the Speaker of the Assembly and the President pro Tempore of the Senate. The bill would require the director to serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority and would require a vacancy to be filled by the appointing authority for the remainder of the 4-year term.

The Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006 establishes a procedure for the Public Utilities Commission to issue state franchises for the provision of video service, defined as video programming services, cable service, or open-video system service, except any video programming provided by a commercial mobile service provider, as defined in federal law, or video programming provided as part of, and via, a service that enables users to access content, information, email, or other services offered over the public internet.

This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the provision naming that act.

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NOYES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 309.5 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:

309.5.
 (a) There is within the commission an independent Public Advocate’s Office of the Public Utilities Commission to represent and advocate on behalf of the interests of public utility customers and subscribers within the jurisdiction of the commission. The goal of the office shall be to obtain the lowest possible rate for service consistent with reliable and safe service levels. For revenue allocation and rate design matters, the office shall primarily consider the interests of residential and small commercial customers.
(b) (1) The director of the office shall be appointed by, and serve at the pleasure of, the Governor, subject to confirmation by the Senate. as follows:
(A) An initial four-year term appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly.
(B) A consecutive four-year term appointed by the President pro Tempore of the Senate.
(C) Upon the expiration of the terms described in subparagraphs (A) and (B), the authority to appoint the director shall rotate every four years between the Speaker of the Assembly and the President pro Tempore of the Senate.
(2) The director shall serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority. A vacancy shall be filled by the appointing authority for the remainder of the four-year term.

The

(3) The shall annually appear before the appropriate policy committees of the Assembly and the Senate to report on the activities of the office.
(c) The director shall develop a budget for the office that shall be subject to final approval of the Department of Finance. As authorized in the approved budget, the office shall employ personnel and resources, including attorneys and other legal support staff, at a level sufficient to ensure that customer and subscriber interests are effectively represented in all significant proceedings. The office may employ experts necessary to carry out its functions. The director may appoint a lead attorney who shall represent the office, and shall report to and serve at the pleasure of the director. The lead attorney for the office shall obtain adequate legal personnel for the work to be conducted by the office from the commission’s attorney appointed pursuant to Section 307. The commission’s attorney shall timely and appropriately fulfill all requests for legal personnel made by the lead attorney for the office, provided the office has sufficient moneys and positions in its budget for the services requested.
(d) The commission shall develop appropriate procedures to ensure that the existence of the office does not create a conflict of roles for any employee. The procedures shall include, but shall not be limited to, the development of a code of conduct and procedures for ensuring that advocates and their representatives on a particular case or proceeding are not advising decisionmakers on the same case or proceeding.
(e) The office may compel the production or disclosure of any information it deems necessary to perform its duties from any entity regulated by the commission, provided that any objections to any request for information shall be decided in writing by the assigned commissioner or by the president of the commission, if there is no assigned commissioner.
(f) There is hereby created the Public Utilities Commission Public Advocate’s Office Account in the General Fund. Moneys from the Public Utilities Commission Utilities Reimbursement Account in the General Fund shall be transferred in the annual Budget Act to the Public Utilities Commission Public Advocate’s Office Account. The funds in the Public Utilities Commission Public Advocate’s Office Account shall be a budgetary program fund administered and utilized used exclusively by the office in the performance of its duties as determined by the director. The director shall annually submit a staffing report containing a comparison of the staffing levels for each five-year period.
(g) On or before January 10 of each year, the office shall provide to the chairperson of the fiscal committee of each house of the Legislature and to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee all of the following information:
(1) The number of personnel years utilized used during the prior year by the office.
(2) The total dollars expended by the office in the prior year, the estimated total dollars expended in the current year, and the total dollars proposed for appropriation in the following budget year.
(3) Workload standards and measures for the office.
(h) The office shall meet and confer in an informal setting with a regulated entity prior to before issuing a report or pleading to the commission regarding alleged misconduct, or a violation of a law or a commission rule or order, raised by the office in a complaint. The meet and confer process shall be utilized used in good faith to reach agreement on issues raised by the office regarding any regulated entity in the complaint proceeding.

SECTION 1.Section 5800 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:
5800.

This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006.