BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 543
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GOVERNOR'S VETO
AB 543 (Campos)
As Amended June 24, 2014
2/3 vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |52-24|(May 31, 2013) |SENATE: |31-3 |(August 21, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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|ASSEMBLY: |56-23|(August 25, | | | |
| | |2014) | | | |
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Original Committee Reference: NAT. RES.
SUMMARY : Requires the California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA) guidelines to be amended to establish criteria for a
lead agency regarding translating and posting specified
CEQA notices in non-English languages.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this
bill, and instead:
1)Require the Office of Planning and Research (OPR), on or
before July 1, 2016, to prepare, develop and transmit to
the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency recommended
amendments to the CEQA guidelines to establish criteria
for a lead agency to assess the need for translating
specified CEQA notices into non-English languages and
requirements for posting these notices in non-English
languages.
2)Requires the Secretary to certify and adopt those
amendments on or before January 1, 2017.
EXISTING LAW establishes CEQA, which:
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1)Requires a lead agency to:
a) Prepare and certify the completion of an
environmental impact report (EIR) for a proposed
project that it finds would have a significant effect
on the environment, or if it finds otherwise, adopt a
negative declaration or mitigated negative
declaration.
b) Prepare and file, with either the OPR or the county
clerk having jurisdiction over the project, the
following notices:
i) A notice of intent (NOI) when the lead agency
decides to adopt a negative declaration or a
mitigated negative declaration;
ii) A notice of determination (NOD) when the lead
agency decides to carry out or approve a project for
which it has adopted a negative declaration or
mitigated negative declaration, or certified an EIR;
iii) A notice of preparation (NOP) when the lead
agency decides to prepare a negative declaration, a
mitigated negative declaration, or an EIR for the
project; and
iv) A notice of completion (NOC) when the draft EIR
is complete.
c) Call and provide notice of at least one scoping
meeting for projects that may affect highways or other
facilities under the Department of Transportation's
(Caltrans) jurisdiction if Caltrans requests such a
meeting, or for projects of statewide, regional, or
area wide significance.
2)Authorizes a lead agency to file a notice of exemption
(NOE) when it approves or determines to carry out a
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project that qualifies for a statutory or categorical
exemption from CEQA.
3)Requires OPR to prepare and develop guidelines for the
implementation of CEQA and the Secretary to certify and
adopt those guidelines.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill:
1)Required a lead agency to translate specified CEQA
notices, as well as summaries of a negative declaration,
mitigated negative declaration, or EIR, when a group of
non-English-speaking people comprises at least 25% of the
population within a lead agency's jurisdiction.
2)Defined "group of non-English-speaking people" to mean
members of a group who either do not speak English or who
are unable to effectively communicate in English because
it is not their native language.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, one-time costs in the low to mid-hundreds of
thousands of dollars from the General Fund to OPR to
develop recommended regulations, and cost pressures at
least in the hundreds of thousands of dollars from General
and special funds to various state agencies acting as the
lead agency under CEQA for translation costs.
COMMENTS : CEQA requires state and local agencies to
undergo an environmental review process before carrying out
or approving a proposed project. This allows stakeholders
such as a private developer, a public agency, and a local
community to consider the significant environmental effects
of the proposed project and adopt measures that would
minimize or mitigate them.
With the increasing diversity of California's communities,
multi-stakeholder engagement is critical to ensuring that
CEQA's environmental goals are achieved in an equitable
manner. The author argues that a project may have
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significant consequences on immigrant and low-income
communities who either live at or close to the project
site. But because of their limited ability to communicate
in English, they cannot participate in the CEQA process as
meaningfully as native English speakers would. Translating
important CEQA notices to the community's language would
thus be an important step in rectifying this concern.
The state's diverse population has given rise to statutory
requirements for translating important consumer and
government services documents to popular foreign languages
like Spanish and Mandarin. One example in the Civil Code
is the foreign translation of consumer contracts if
negotiations between a business representative and a
consumer are conducted primarily in Spanish, Chinese,
Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean. The business
representative must provide the consumer a copy of the
negotiated contract in the foreign language spoken by the
consumer during negotiations.
Another example is the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services
Act, which applies to state and local agencies.
Dymally-Alatorre requires state agencies to translate
informational documents about government services when 5%
or more of the people served by its local office or
facility either do not speak English or cannot effectively
communicate in English because it is not their native
language.
GOVERNOR'S VETO MESSAGE :
This bill would require the Office of Planning and
Research to prepare and develop recommended
amendments to the CEQA Guidelines that would
establish criteria for a lead agency to assess the
need for translating certain notices into
non-English languages.
Translating public notices and other important
information is often good practice. In fact,
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Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
Government Code Section 11135 require lead
agencies to do just that. The High Speed Rail
Project and the Bay Delta Conservation Plan are
examples of projects where the lead agency
determined that translation of environmental
review documents was merited.
Existing federal and state laws already provide
guidance to lead agencies regarding the
circumstances which give rise to the need for
translating public documents.
Analysis Prepared by : Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. /
(916) 319-2092
FN: 0005632