BILL NUMBER: AB 2002 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
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 either
any 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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
SEC. 3. Section 86300 of the Government Code is amended to read:
86300. The provisions of this chapter are not applicable
to: to any of the following:
(a) Any An elected public official
acting in his or her official capacity,
capacity or any an employee
of the State of California state
acting within the scope of his employment; provided that,
or her employment. However, an employee of the
State of California, state, other than a
legislative official, who attempts to influence legislative action
and who would be required to register as a lobbyist
lobbyist, except for the provisions of this
subdivision subdivision, shall not make
gifts of more than ten dollars ($10) in a calendar month to an
elected state officer or legislative official.
(b) Any A newspaper or other
periodical of general circulation, book publisher, radio or
television station (including station,
any individual who owns, publishes, or is employed by any such
newspaper or periodical, or radio or television
station) station, which in the ordinary course
of business publishes news items, editorials, or other comments, or
paid advertisement, which advertisements that
directly or indirectly urge legislative or administrative
action action, if such
that newspaper, periodical, book publisher,
radio or television station station, 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 action; or
action.
(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.
(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.
SEC. 4. Section 30325 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
30325. (a) 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.
(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.
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.