California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 2002

Introduced by Assembly Members Mark Stone, Atkins, and Levine

(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Gordon)

(Principal coauthor: Senator Jackson)

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bloom, Chiu, Gonzalez, Jones-Sawyer, McCarty, O'Donnell, Rendon, Thurmond, Ting, Weber, Williams, and Wood)

(Coauthors: Senators Allen, Block, Pavley, and Wolk)

February 16, 2016

An act to amend Sections 82002, 82039, and 86300 of the Government Code, and to amend Section 30325 of the Public Resources Code, relating to the Political Reform Act of 1974.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 2002, as introduced, Mark Stone. Political Reform Act of 1974: California Coastal Commission.

Existing law establishes the California Coastal Commission in the Natural Resources Agency and designates the commission as the state coastal zone planning and management agency for all purposes.

The Political Reform Act of 1974 provides for the regulation of the lobbying industry, including defining the term “lobbyist” and regulating the conduct of lobbyists. Among its provisions, the act prohibits lobbyists from engaging in certain activities, including accepting or agreeing to accept any payment in any way contingent upon the defeat, enactment, or outcome of any proposed legislative or administrative action. Under the act, a lobbyist is, among others, an individual whose principal duties as an employee are to communicate with, among others, any agency official for the purpose of influencing legislative or administrative action. For these purposes, “administrative action” is defined as the proposal, drafting, development, consideration, amendment, enactment, or defeat by a state agency of any rule, regulation, or other action in any ratemaking or quasi-legislative proceeding and “agency official” is defined as any member, officer, employee, or consultant of any state agency who participates in any administrative action in other than a ministerial capacity.

This bill would revise the definition of “administrative action” to include, with regard to proceedings before the California Coastal Commission, specified actions, plans, and orders, and any other quasi-judicial or quasi-legislative matter requiring commission action. The bill would, however, exclude from these provisions relating to lobbyists an individual who communicates with a member of the California Coastal Commission for compensation to advocate for an outcome in relation to no more than one administrative action during a calendar year and an employee of a local government agency seeking, within the scope of his or her employment, to influence quasi-judicial decisions of the commission. The bill would also, for purposes of a quasi-judicial matter before the California Coastal Commission, limit the definition of “agency official” to a member of the commission.

Existing law makes a knowing and willful violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974 a misdemeanor and subjects offenders to criminal penalties.

This bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding those crimes.

The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act’s purposes with a 2⁄3 vote of each house and compliance with specified procedural requirements.

This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Vote: ²⁄₃. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.

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

SECTION 1.  

Section 82002 of the Government Code is
amended to read:

82002.  

(a) “Administrative action” means begin delete either end delete begin insert any end insert of the
following:

(1) The proposal, drafting, development, consideration,
amendment, enactment, or defeat by any state agency of any rule,
regulation, or other action in any ratemaking proceeding or any
quasi-legislative proceeding, which shall include any proceeding
governed by Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of
Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2.

(2) With regard only to placement agents, the decision by any
state agency to enter into a contract to invest state public retirement
system assets on behalf of a state public retirement system.

begin insert

(3) For purposes of proceedings before the California Coastal
Commission, the proposal, drafting, development, consideration,
amendment, enactment, or defeat of any rule, regulation, permit
action, federal consistency review, appeal, local coastal program,
port master plan, public works plan, long-range development plan,
categorical or other exclusion from coastal development permit
requirements, cease and desist order, restoration order, or any
other quasi-judicial or quasi-legislative matter requiring
commission action.

end insert

(b) “Ratemaking proceeding” means, for the purposes of a
proceeding before the Public Utilities Commission, any proceeding
in which it is reasonably foreseeable that a rate will be established,
including, but not limited to, general rate cases, performance-based
ratemaking, and other ratesetting mechanisms.

(c) “Quasi-legislative proceeding” means, for purposes of a
proceeding before the Public Utilities Commission, any proceeding
that involves consideration of the establishment of a policy that
will apply generally to a group or class of persons, including, but
not limited to, rulemakings and investigations that may establish
rules affecting an entire industry.

SEC. 2.  

Section 82039 of the Government Code is amended
to read:

82039.  

(a) “Lobbyist” means either of the following:

(1) Any individual who receives two thousand dollars ($2,000)
or more in economic consideration in a calendar month, other than
reimbursement for reasonable travel expenses, or whose principal
duties as an employee are, to communicate directly or through his
or her agents with any elective state official, agency official, or
legislative official for the purpose of influencing legislative or
administrative action.

(2) A placement agent, as defined in Section 82047.3.

(b) An individual is not a lobbyist by reason of activities
described in Section 86300.

(c) For the purposes of subdivision (a), a proceeding before the
Public Utilities Commission constitutes “administrative action” if
it meets any of the definitions set forth in subdivision (b) or (c) of
Section 82002. However, a communication made for the purpose
of influencing this type of Public Utilities Commission proceeding
is not within subdivision (a) if the communication is made at a
public hearing, public workshop, or other public forum that is part
of the proceeding, or if the communication is included in the
official record of the proceeding.

begin insert

(d) Notwithstanding Section 82004, for purposes of a
quasi-judicial matter before the California Coastal Commission,
as described in paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 82002,
“agency official,” as used in subdivision (a) of this section, shall
only mean a member of the California Coastal Commission.

end insert begin insert

(e) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), “lobbyist” shall not include
an individual who communicates with a member of the California
Coastal Commission for compensation to advocate for an outcome
in relation to no more than one administrative action during a
calendar year.

end insert

SEC. 3.  

Section 86300 of the Government Code is amended
to read:

86300.  

The provisions of this chapter are not applicable begin delete to: end delete begin insert to
any of the following: end insert

(a)  begin delete Any end delete begin insert An end insert elected public official acting in his begin insert or her end insert official
begin delete capacity, end delete begin insert capacity end insert or begin delete any end delete begin insert an end insert employee of the begin delete State of California end delete
begin insert state end insert acting within the scope of his begin delete employment; provided that, end delete begin insert or
her employment. However, end insert an employee of the begin delete State of California, end delete
begin insert state, end insert other than a legislative official, who attempts to influence
legislative action and who would be required to register as a
begin delete lobbyist end delete begin insert lobbyist, end insert except for the provisions of this begin delete subdivision end delete
begin insert subdivision, end insert shall not make gifts of more than ten dollars ($10) in
a calendar month to an elected state officer or legislative official.

(b)  begin delete Any end delete begin insert A end insert newspaper or other periodical of general circulation,
book publisher, radio or television begin delete station (including end delete begin insert station, end insert any
individual who owns, publishes, or is employed by any such
newspaper or periodical, begin insert or end insert radio or television begin delete station) end delete begin insert station, end insert
which in the ordinary course of business publishes news items,
editorials, or other comments, or begin delete paid advertisement, which end delete
begin insert advertisements that end insert directly or indirectly urge legislative or
administrative begin delete action end delete begin insert action, end insert if begin delete such end delete begin insert that end insert newspaper, periodical,
book publisher, radio or television begin delete station end delete begin insert station, end insert or individual,
engages in no further or other activities in connection with urging
legislative or administrative action other than to appear before a
committee of the Legislature or before a state agency in support
of or in opposition to such begin delete action; or end delete begin insert action. end insert

(c) A person when representing a bona fide church or religious
society solely for the purpose of protecting the public right to
practice the doctrines of such church.

begin insert

(d) An employee of a local government agency seeking, within
the scope of his or her employment, to influence quasi-judicial
decisions of the California Coastal Commission.

end insert

SEC. 4.  

Section 30325 of the Public Resources Code is
amended to read:

30325.  

begin insert (a) end insert begin insert   end insert Nothing in this article prohibits any person or any
interested person from testifying at a commission hearing,
workshop, or other official proceeding, or from submitting written
comments for the record on a matter before the commission.
Written comments shall be submitted by mail or delivered to a
commission office, or may be delivered to the commission at the
time and place of a scheduled hearing.

begin insert

(b) Any person who communicates with the members of the
commission regarding an administrative action of the commission,
as defined in paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 82002 of
the Government Code, and who qualifies as a lobbyist, as defined
in subdivisions (a) and (d) of Section 82039 of the Government
Code, shall comply with the requirements of Chapter 6
(commencing with Section 86100) of Title 9 of the Government
Code.

end insert

SEC. 5.  

The Legislature finds and declares that the provisions
of this act further the purposes of the Political Reform Act of 1974
within the meaning of subdivision (a) of Section 81012 of the
Government Code.

SEC. 6.  

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of
the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within
the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.