BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 1049 Page 1 Date of Hearing: August 10, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Lorena Gonzalez, Chair SB 1049 (Hill) - As Amended August 3, 2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Utilities and Commerce |Vote:|12 - 1 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No SUMMARY: This bill authorizes the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to establish procedures and processes to implement an independent close call reporting program to facilitate the identification of accident precursors. The program would be established to receive voluntary close call reports by people with information involving electrical or gas corporations. This information would be used to help protect public, employee, or contractor safety. Additionally, this bill: 1)Prohibits the PUC from using the report in an enforcement action, except for an accident or criminal offense. SB 1049 Page 2 2)Authorizes the PUC to contract with a third party to administer the program. 3)Prohibits an employee, or employee of a contractor from being subject to demotion, discharge or any form of retaliation or discrimination for participating in the close call reporting program. 4)Requires the PUC to implement a confidential, nonpunitive, and independent close call reporting pilot program, by July 1, 2017, through a proceeding. The pilot program must be consistent with the requirements of the bill. 5)Sunsets the provisions of this bill on January 1, 2022. FISCAL EFFECT: Increased one-time costs of $500,000 to establish program and ongoing costs of $3.5 million (Public Utilities Account) to contract with a third party to administer the program until January 1, 2022. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author, in order to encourage the reporting of near misses by utility employees and foster a culture of communications between utility employees and management, the PUC needs to implement a confidential close call reporting system to protect the confidentiality of reporting employees and disseminate safety lessons SB 1049 Page 3 industry-wide. 2)Similar Reporting Programs. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Fderal Railroad Administration (FRA) use a third party to administer an employee reporting program. The reports to the third party are not confidential, but after follow-up by third party analysts the reports are de-identified before evaluation (in the FAA program) or forwarding to a peer review team of labor, management, and regulatory staff (FRA program). Both the FAA and FRA use the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to administer their programs. Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916) 319-2081