San Mateo County CA: Senator Hill Has Served You - Part 1 of 2

Senator Jerry Hill’s Bills to Protect Consumers, Improve Oversight of Utilities, and Reopen Martins Beach Signed by Governor 16 of 18 Hill Bills Signed by Governor

Part 1 of 2 Parts

SACRAMENTO – Today marked the end of the bill signing period for the 2014 Legislative Session with the Governor taking action on hundreds of bills prior to his midnight deadline. Senator Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo/Santa Clara counties, had 16 of his 18 bills signed by the Governor including:

SB 434 – CPUC Commissioner Board Conflicts – Prohibits current and future members of the CPUC from sitting on governing boards of entities they create as commissioners. Also tightens a conflict-of-interest provision to rein in CPUC president Michael Peevey. Since he was appointed in 2002, Peevey has been involved in the creation of seven foundations and for-profit ventures funded with $160 million of ratepayer money, and he serves on the boards of some of those entities. These foundations are not subject to the close scrutiny that legislative committees give third-party entities that receive taxpayer money, nor do they undergo merit reviews to ensure ratepayers money is well spent.

SB 445 – Underground Storage Tank Cleanup – Protects soil and groundwater from petroleum contamination by making several reforms to the state’s underground storage tank cleanup fund such as requiring single-wall gas station tanks to be replaced within 10 years. Also allows money from the fund to be used for surface and groundwater contamination cleanup and provide the State Water Board with more authority to crack down on fraud from claimants and consultants.

SB 611 – Limousine Safety Inspections – Spurred by a tragic limousine fire that killed five women last year on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, this bill expands safety protections to limousines that seat 10 or fewer people. Specifically, the bill requires that modified limousines with a seating capacity of fewer than 10 passengers be equipped with two readily accessible and fully charged fire extinguishers and be inspected by the California Highway Patrol every 13 months.

SB 636 – Due Process in CPUC Penalty Proceedings – Preserves due process in CPUC penalty proceedings by allowing commission staff to serve in an advocacy role or in an advisory role, but not both concurrently. Last year, the commission’s general counsel dismissed all the attorneys prosecuting PG&E. The attorneys felt it illegal and unethical to advocate that PG&E should not be penalized. Since the general counsel advises the commissioners, it would be unethical for the general counsel to also direct the prosecution. While an ethical separation of roles is already the general practice at the CPUC, agency guidelines allow this practice to be waived whenever convenient.

SB 699 – Electric Grid Security – Requires the CPUC to adopt rules compelling utilities to protect the state’s electric power grid from vandalism and attack. The legislation was unanimously approved by the Senate just two days after the second of two serious security breaches in as many years at Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s Metcalf power substation near San Jose. The security breach occurred despite PG&E’s security improvements to the substation as a part of its three-year, $100 million program to increase security system wide. The improvements were prompted by an attack on April 16, 2013, in which snipers knocked out 17 giant transformers at the Metcalf facility and slipped into an underground vault to cut telephone cables. The former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has called the attack “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred” in the United States.

SB 900 – CPUC Safety in Ratemaking – Requires the CPUC to consider the safety performance of natural gas and electricity companies when setting customer rates and developing regulations. For at least three years, the PUC has recognized the need to scope safety into its proceedings, but the development of effective procedures for doing so has been slow. Because the commission has only recently begun to incorporate risk management tools in its policymaking, it has yet to embed safety considerations in the process. SB 900 would ensure such efforts continue and are completed.

SB 915 – Mills High School Advanced Placement Testing – Clarifies rules for conducting advanced placement tests for college admission and placement and ensures that investigations and retesting occur in a timely fashion if exams are called into question. It was sponsored by parents and students from Mills High School who submitted the bill idea in the Senator’s annual “Oughta Be a Law …” contest after the test scores of 286 Mills students on 641 advanced placement exams were invalidated in July 2013. The testing process had been challenged and the agency overseeing the exams deemed that “testing irregularities” occurred, even though an investigation turned up no evidence of cheating or other impropriety.

SB 968 – Martins Beach Access – Requires the State Lands Commission to enter into negotiations with Silicon Valley billionaire and Martins Beach property owner Vinod Khosla for one year, to acquire a right-of-way or easement for the creation of a public access route to and along the shoreline, including the sandy beach, at Martins Beach. If the commission is unable to reach an agreement to acquire a right-of-way or easement or Khosla does not voluntarily provide public access by January 1, 2016, the commission may acquire a right-of-way or easement, pursuant to Public Resources Code Section 6210.9 (eminent domain), for the creation of a public access route to and along the shoreline.

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News Release - Office of Senator Jerry Hill – September 30, 2014

CONTACT: Nate Solov, 916-768-1378 cell; Leslie Guevarra, 415-298-3404 cell

Nate Solov

Office of Senator Jerry Hill

916-651-4013

www.senate.ca.gov/hill

o.o.o.o.

Robert Riechel

http://patch.com/users/robert-riechel

Photo Credit: San Bruno Patch Archives

Source Credit: California State Senator Jerry Hill

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http://sanbruno.ca.gov/comdev_election.html