Sign or Veto: The Governor Must Decide

In the last three weeks of the 1999 California legislative session, lawmakers shoveled through nearly 900 bills on subjects ranging from sweeping HMO reform to bunk bed safety. This end-of-session avalanche is known both for its overwhelming workload and for attempts by legislators, amid the confusion, to sneak through special interest bills.

The bulk of the bills--more than 700 at last count--are on the desk of Gov. Gray Davis, who must decide before Oct. 10 whether to sign them, veto them or let them automatically become law without his signature.

By Friday, Davis had signed 225 bills and vetoed 10.

In some cases, such as the notorious “big box” measure (AB 84) aimed at blocking Wal-Mart and Costco from expanding their discount grocery business in California, the bills sailed through the session with almost no public scrutiny or debate. Often they were attached as last-minute amendments to an unrelated bill.

On Wednesday, Davis vetoed the “big box” bill, calling it the “worst kind of end-of-session maneuvering by special interests.”

California Common Cause, a self-styled citizens watchdog group, has urged Davis to veto an additional 11 bills it claimed were rushed through the Legislature “with virtually no public notice, no public hearing and no public input.”

Below is a selection of bills, arranged by subject, awaiting the governor’s decision. The bills are listed by Assembly (AB), Senate (SB), number and last name of author.

CONSUMERS

AB 285 Corbett. Requires any in-state or out-of-state business engaged in providing telephone medical advice services to a patient in California to be registered with the Department of Consumer Affairs.

AB 531 Soto. Requires all service stations to provide air and water at no cost to customers who purchase motor vehicle fuel.

AB 1520 Leach. Enacts the Bunk Bed Safety Act to prohibit the manufacture or sale of a bunk bed that is unsafe for children.

SB 1065 Bowen. Requires state and local government agencies to make public records available in an electronic format. Allows them to charge only for the cost of duplication.

SB 1131 Burton. Appropriates $2.4 million to finance a comprehensive investigation by Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer into the pricing practices of gasoline companies and whether proposed mergers violate anti-competition laws.

WORKERS

AB 633 Steinberg. Tightens laws relating to registration of garment contractors and manufacturers, the liability of such entities for violations of labor laws, and the collection of unpaid wages of workers.

AB 1127 Steinberg. Increases civil and criminal penalties for willful, serious and repeat violations of occupational safety and health standards. Provides that willful violation of such standards leading to death or permanent or prolonged injury of an employee may be prosecuted as a misdemeanor or a felony.

SB 1016 Bowen. Requires that employers must notify workers when, as a matter of policy, they routinely monitor their computer e-mail and Web site searches or scrutinize their word files.

DRIVERS/VEHICLES

AB 15 Gallegos. Requires public and private school buses to be equipped with passenger restraint systems.

AB 55 Reyes. Expands registration requirements to include all farm labor vehicles used for passenger transportation and requires the state labor commissioner to provide a quarterly listing of such vehicles to the Highway Patrol.

AB 512 Maddox. Writes into law an existing Department of Motor Vehicles procedure that gives certain process servers and others access to confidential address records.

AB 745 Washington. Caps the penalty at $100 for failure to appear in court, comply with a court order or pay fines when charged with certain vehicle registration and equipment violations.

AB 1041 Strickland. Allows sale of special Ronald Reagan license plates. Proceeds would be donated to the Reagan Presidential Library.

AB 1165 Florez. Requires all farm labor vehicles to have certified safety restraints for the driver and all passengers.

AB 1573 Strom-Martin. Creates specified exemptions to the requirement that a school bus display a flashing red signal light when stopped to load and unload students.

SB 171 Escutia. Establishes an experimental flat rate car insurance program for low-income motorists who have good driving records. Under the pilot program, the policy would sell for $450 in Los Angeles County and $410 in San Francisco. Male drivers 19-24 would pay a 25% surcharge.

SB 1237 Escutia. Subject to restrictions, allows insured victims to sue the at-fault’s insurance company for bad faith when they think they have not been offered a fair or timely settlement.

SB 1026 Perata. Allows for online statewide registration of bicycles to make it easier for police to recover stolen bikes.

DOMESTIC RELATIONS

AB 26 Migden. Provides that a domestic partnership shall be established between two adults of the same sex--or if both people are over 62 and meet eligibility criteria, opposite sexes--who have a common residence and meet other specified criteria. Provides for the registration of domestic partnerships with the secretary of state.

AB 1001 Villaraigosa. Amends the California Fair Employment and Housing Act to include protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Moves the provisions prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation from the Labor Code to the Fair Employment Housing Act.

AB 889 Jackson. Requires development and distribution of a marriage fact sheet containing specified information regarding marital rights and obligations. A copy would be provided when a marriage license is issued.

SB 75. Murray. Implements the Domestic Partnership Act of 1999, which recognizes domestic partnerships and establishes a way of registering domestic partners.

EDUCATION

AB 38 Washington. Authorizes the governing board of every school district that maintains kindergarten or any of grades one through 12, inclusive, to develop a plan for the establishment of a comprehensive education counseling and guidance program.

AB 56 Mazzoni. Requires the superintendent of public instruction, in consultation with the State Board of Education, to convene a working group to select a contractor to evaluate the effects of Proposition 227 on student education. Proposition 227 abolished most bilingual education programs in California.

AB 137 Firebaugh. Establishes a pilot program to evaluate whether school sites are free of hazardous materials.

AB 144 Migden. Requires that the Standardized Testing and Reporting program (STAR) scores of limited English-proficient students enrolled in a district for 12 months or less be excluded from the class, school and district results of the STAR program.

AB 300 Corbett. Requires the Department of General Services to conduct an inventory of school buildings constructed using concrete tilt-up methods or built before 1976 with non-wood frames. Purpose is to identify which schools are particularly vulnerable during earthquakes.

AB 537 Kuehl. Establishes the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, which extends anti-discrimination protections to gay and lesbian high school students.

AB 558 Jackson. Requires the state Department of Education, from existing resources, to provide a sample curriculum on domestic violence prevention to school districts and county offices of education.

AB 851 Torlakson. Adds instruction in the prevention of sexually transmitted infection to instruction on HIV/AIDS for all students in grades seven through 12.

AB 1136 Strom-Martin. Requires any new or modernized school funded by the state after Jan. 1, 2000, to include a telephone connection in each classroom or equivalent wireless technology.

AB 1328 Cardenas. Requires that members of the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District be elected from seven single-member trustee areas.

SB 3 Rainey. Enacts the California Reading and Literacy Improvement and Public Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act of 2000 to provide $350 million in general obligation bonds for public library construction and renovation. Would be submitted to voters in the March 7, 2000, general election.

HEALTH

AB 12 Davis. Requires a health care service plan and certain disability insurers to provide or authorize a second opinion by a qualified health care professional, if requested by an enrollee, an insured or a participating or contracting health professional.

AB 34 Steinberg. Requires the selection of up to three counties or portions of counties for demonstration grants for comprehensive services to certain adults who are severely mentally ill.

AB 39 Hertzberg. Requires every group health care service plan contract and every individual health care service plan contract after Jan. 1 (except for a specialized health care service plan contract) to provide coverage for a variety of federal Food and Drug Administration-approved prescription contraceptive methods.

AB 55 Migden. Requires every health care service plan contract that is issued, amended, renewed or delivered on or after Jan. 1, 2000 to provide an enrollee, effective Jan. 1, 2001, with the opportunity to seek an independent medical review whenever health care services have been denied, modified or delayed, if the decision was based on a finding that the proposed services are not medically necessary.

AB 58 Davis. Makes it a misdemeanor for any person to make a decision regarding medical necessity or appropriateness that modifies, delays or denies any health care service provided by a physician and surgeon without a valid certificate to practice medicine, except as specified.

AB 63 Ducheny. Creates the state Office of Binational Border Health to facilitate cooperation between California and Mexico health officials and professionals to reduce the risk of disease in the California border region.

AB 78 Gallegos. Establishes a new Department of Managed Care and transfers the regulation of health care service plans from the Department of Corporations to the new department.

AB 88 Thomson. Requires a health care service plan contract or disability insurance policy to provide coverage for severe mental illnesses and for serious emotional disturbances of a child.

AB 100 Thomson. Creates a Tobacco Settlement Fund in the state treasury, beginning July 1, 2000, for the state’s share of all funds received from the tobacco litigation master settlement agreement of 1998. Earmarks expenditure of these funds for expansion of health care services.

AB 103 Migden. Requires the Department of Health Services to implement a uniform, statewide system to report cases of HIV using a unique code.

AB 136 Mazzoni. Exempts from criminal prosecution public entities and their agents and employees who distribute hypodermic needles or syringes to participants in clean needle or syringe exchange projects authorized by the public entity.

AB 351 Steinberg. Requires the attorney general to approve in advance any merger, acquisition or change in control of a health care service plan to ensure that the transaction will not lessen competition or create a monopoly in California.

AB 394 Kuehl. Requires the Department of Health Services to adopt regulations that establish licensed nurse-to-patient ratios for hospitals and limits the nursing-related duties performed by unlicensed assistants.

AB 539 Papan. Makes it easier for firefighters and police officers to receive workers’ compensation in cases of disabling cancers.

AB 689 Gallegos. Appropriates $15 million for support of the Breast Cancer Early Detection Program.

AB 892 Alquist. Requires health plans to provide hospice care that is at least equivalent to that provided by the federal Medicare program.

AB 1545 Correa. Permits licensed nurse practitioners and physician assistants to prescribe and dispense prescription drugs or devices under specified conditions.

AB 1557 Migden. Requires any person performing venipuncture (puncture of a vein) and skin puncture for the purpose of withdrawing blood in clinical laboratories or public health departments to be a “certified phlebotomy technician.”

AB 1595 Migden. Requires each manufacturer or importer of cigars to place one of three specified health warning labels on each retail package of cigars packaged for sale after Sept. 1, 2000.

SB 5 Rainey. Prohibits the denial of health coverage to a person solely because of a family history of breast cancer, or to someone who has had diagnostic procedures for breast disease but has not developed or been diagnosed with breast cancer.

SB 41 Speier. Enacts the Women’s Contraception Equity Act by requiring disability (health) insurers that provide prescription drug benefits to cover a variety of prescription contraceptive methods.

SB 59 Perata. Requires health plans and health insurers to adopt and follow specified policies and procedures when determining whether to authorize or deny treatment and requires adoption of a standard Medi-Cal notice form.

SB 64 Solis. Requires every health care service plan and disability (health) insurer to provide coverage for the management and treatment of diabetes mellitus, including equipment, supplies, medications, outpatient self-management education and medical nutrition therapy as medically necessary or medically appropriate.

SB 19 Figueroa. Makes rules regarding disclosure of medical information apply to any contractor with providers of health care, as specified. Prohibits a health care service from conditioning health care services on the enrollee’s waiving medical information confidentiality protections. Says no health care plan or its contractors can use any medical information for any commercial purpose.

ENVIRONMENT/LAND USE

AB 64 Ducheny. Establishes the California Public Beach Restoration Program for public beach enhancement purposes.

AB 1357 Wesson. Requires Department of Parks and Recreation to undertake by Nov. 1, 2000, a feasibility study on expanding the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area to include all or a substantial portion of the Baldwin Hills area of Los Angeles County.

AB 1584 Machado. Places before the voters on the March 7, 2000, ballot a $1.97-billion general obligation bond issue to finance a variety of programs for safe drinking water, clean water, water conservation and flood protection.

AB 1620 Torlakson. Gives authority to counties to conduct investigations into accidents involving the release or potential release of hazardous materials.

AB 1553 Calderon. Creates exemptions from local planning and land use laws for about 1,000 acres of old orange groves in an area known as “the doughnut hole” surrounded by Redlands, and gives planning oversight to San Bernardino County.

SB 989 Sher. Proposes the phaseout of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) in gasoline at the earliest possible date but does not set a deadline.

SB 1001 Burton. Requires the state Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, starting in April 2000, to submit quarterly reports on the amount of MTBE use in gasoline by each refinery in the state.

CRIME

AB 59 Cedillo. Sets forth procedures under which an elder or dependent adult in immediate and present danger of abuse may seek protective orders.

AB 208 Knox. Provides that the penalty for a defendant who is found guilty of first-degree murder is life imprisonment without possibility of parole if the victim was killed because of his or her disability, gender or sexual orientation or because of the defendant’s perception of these characteristics of the victim.

AB 313 Zettel. Adds deaf and developmentally disabled people as qualifying victims to the one-year enhancement statute for serious crimes committed against the elderly, children and certain disabled people.

AB 527 Baugh. Allows a person who is the subject of a grand jury investigation to have an attorney present during his or her testimony and to present evidence of innocence.

AB 1193 Leonard. Requires an out-of-state resident convicted of specified sex offenses to register with local law enforcement while attending school or working in California, listing all addresses where the offender may be located.

AB 1391 Hertzberg. Enacts the Hertzberg-Polanco Crime Laboratories Construction Bond Act of 1999, which, subject to voter approval, authorizes the issuance of $220 million in general obligation bonds for the construction and renovation of new or existing state and local forensic labs.

SB 6 Rainey. Authorizes an increase in the age at which local police and sheriff’s departments would be required to broadcast a missing persons bulletin in its jurisdiction, without delay, from under age 12 to under age 16.

SB 161 Monteith. Specifies that funds appropriated in the budget for local assistance payments to counties for the cost of homicide trials shall be available to pay 100% of the costs for the trial of accused Yosemite serial killer Cary Stayner.

SB 1065 Bowen. Gives prisoners a credit on time served for participation in drug treatment. Must complete the program and be certified clean before receiving the credit.

AB 1574 Corbett. Expands the scope of first-degree murder to include murder committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, torture but not requiring intent or premeditation to kill.

LOS ANGELES SECESSION

AB 1630 Lowenthal. Earmarks $320,000 from the state general fund for the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission to study whether it is feasible for the Harbor area to secede from Los Angeles and create its own city.

Information on the Internet

For more details on these and other bills, consult the following Web sites. The Senate and Assembly Web sites also list the full names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses for the 80 Assembly members and 40 senators.

Governor’s office: https://www.ca.gov/s/governor (bills signed and vetoed are listed under press releases)

Official California Legislative Information: https://www.leginfo.ca.gov (access details by using bill number)

California Assembly: https://www.assembly.ca.gov

California Senate: https://sen.ca.gov

Whom to Contact

To reach the governor’s Constituent Affairs Office in Sacramento, telephone (916) 445-2841 or fax (916) 445-4633. Governor’s field offices in other cities include:

Los Angeles: (213) 897-0322;

San Francisco: (415) 703-2218;

Riverside: (909) 680-6860;

Irvine: (949) 553-3566;

San Diego: (619) 525-4641;

Fresno: (559) 445-5295.

Or write: Gov. Gray Davis, California State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814. For phone numbers of state Assembly and Senate members, call: (916) 657-9900.