BILL NUMBER: AB 2758 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 1, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 27, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 12, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bradford
FEBRUARY 19, 2010
An act to amend the heading of Article 5 (commencing with Section
8281) of Chapter 7 of Division 4 of, and to amend Sections 8281,
8283, 8284, 8285, and 8286 of, the Public
Utilities Code, relating to Public Utilities Commission regulated
corporations.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2758, as amended, Bradford. Public utilities and cable
television Utilities Commission: regulated
corporations: procurement.
(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has
regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical,
gas, water, and telephone corporations , and cable
television corporations, as provided . Existing law directs
the commission to require every electrical, gas, water, and
telephone corporation with annual gross revenues exceeding
$25,000,000, and their regulated subsidiaries and affiliates, to
implement a program developed by the commission to encourage,
recruit, and utilize minority-, women-, and disabled veteran-owned
business enterprises, as defined, in the procurement of contracts
from those corporations or from their regulated subsidiaries and
affiliates, and to require the reporting of certain information. The
commission, by rulemaking, adopted General Order 156, applicable to
certain electrical, gas, and telephone corporations, to effectuate
these requirements.
This bill would make cable television corporations with
annual gross revenues exceeding $25,000,000 subject to these
requirements. The bill would also require the corporations
subject to these requirements to provide information to the
commission about which procurements are made with women, minority,
and disabled veteran business enterprises with at least a majority of
the enterprise's workforce in California.
Under existing law, a violation of any provision of the Public
Utilities Act or any rules or orders of the commission is a crime. In
addition, any person or corporation who falsely represents a
business as a woman, minority, or disabled veteran business
enterprise for the purposes of the programs discussed above is
subject to criminal penalties.
Because a violation of the requirements of the bill would be a
crime under those provisions, this bill would impose a state-mandated
local program.
(2) 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: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The heading of Article 5 (commencing with Section 8281)
of Chapter 7 of Division 4 of the Public Utilities Code is amended
to read:
Article 5. Women, Minority, and Disabled Veteran Business
Enterprises
SEC. 2. Section 8281 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
8281. (a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the
essence of the American economic system of private enterprise is
free, open, and transparent competition. Only through free, open, and
transparent competition can free markets, reasonable and just
prices, free entry into business, and opportunities for the
expression and growth of personal initiative and individual judgment
be assured. The preservation and expansion of that competition is
basic to the economic well-being of this state and that well-being
cannot be realized unless the actual and potential capacity of women,
minority, and disabled veteran business enterprises is encouraged
and developed. Therefore, it is the declared policy of the state to
aid the interests of women, minority, and disabled veteran business
enterprises in order to preserve reasonable and just prices and a
free competitive enterprise, to ensure that a fair proportion of the
total purchases and contracts or subcontracts for commodities,
supplies, technology, property, and services for regulated public
utilities, including, but not limited to, renewable energy, wireless
telecommunications, broadband, smart grid, and rail projects, are
awarded to women, minority, and disabled veteran business
enterprises, and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of
the state.
(b) (1) The Legislature finds all of the following:
(A) The opportunity for full participation in our free enterprise
system by women, minority, and disabled veteran business enterprises
is essential if this state is to attain social and economic equality
for those businesses and improve the functioning of the state
economy.
(B) Public agencies and some regulated utilities which have
established short- and long-range women, minority, and disabled
veteran business enterprise goals are awarding 30 percent or more of
their contracts to these business enterprises.
(C) Women, minority, and disabled veteran business enterprises
have traditionally received less than a proportionate share of
regulated public utility procurement contracts, especially in
renewable energy, wireless telecommunications, broadband, smart grid,
and rail projects.
(D) It is in the state's interest to expeditiously improve the
economically disadvantaged position of women, minority, and disabled
veteran business enterprises.
(E) The position of these businesses can be substantially improved
by providing long-range substantial goals for procurement by
regulated public utilities of technology, equipment, supplies,
services, materials, and construction work, especially in renewable
energy, wireless telecommunications, broadband, smart grid, and rail
projects, from women, minority, and disabled veteran businesses.
(F) That procurement also benefits the regulated public utilities
and consumers of the state by encouraging the expansion of the number
of suppliers for procurements, thereby encouraging competition among
the suppliers and promoting economic efficiency in the process.
(G) That the long-term economic viability of this state depends
substantially upon the ability of renewable energy, wireless
telecommunications, broadband, smart grid, and rail projects to
incorporate women, minority, and disabled veteran businesses into
those projects.
(2) It is the purpose of this article to do all of the following:
(A) Encourage greater economic opportunity for women, minority,
and disabled veteran business enterprises.
(B) Promote competition among regulated public utility suppliers
in order to enhance economic efficiency in the procurement of
electrical, gas, water, cable television, and
telephone corporation contracts and contracts of their
commission-regulated subsidiaries and affiliates.
(C) Clarify and expand the program for the procurement by
regulated public utilities of technology, equipment, supplies,
services, materials, and construction work from women, minority, and
disabled veteran business enterprises.
SEC. 3. Section 8283 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
8283. (a) The commission shall require each electrical, gas,
water, cable television, and telephone corporation
with gross annual revenues exceeding twenty-five million dollars
($25,000,000) and their commission-regulated subsidiaries and
affiliates, to submit annually, a detailed and verifiable plan for
increasing procurement from women, minority, and disabled veteran
business enterprises in all categories, including, but not limited
to, renewable energy, wireless telecommunications, broadband, smart
grid, and rail projects.
(b) These annual plans shall include short- and long-term goals
and timetables, but not quotas, and shall include methods for
encouraging both prime contractors and grantees to engage women,
minority, and disabled veteran business enterprises in subcontracts
in all categories which provide subcontracting opportunities,
including, but not limited to, renewable energy, wireless
telecommunications, broadband, smart grid, and rail projects.
(c) The commission shall establish guidelines for all electrical,
gas, water, cable television, and telephone
corporations with gross annual revenues exceeding twenty-five million
dollars ($25,000,000) and their commission-regulated subsidiaries
and affiliates, to be utilized in establishing programs pursuant to
this article.
(d) Every electrical, gas, water, cable television,
and telephone corporation with gross annual revenues
exceeding twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) shall furnish an
annual report to the commission regarding the implementation of
programs established pursuant to this article in a form that the
commission shall require, and at the time that the commission shall
annually designate. These corporations shall also provide information
to the commission about which procurements are made with women,
minority, and disabled veteran business enterprises with at least a
majority of the enterprise's workforce in California.
(e) The commission shall provide a report to the Legislature on
September 1 of each year, on the progress of activities undertaken by
each electrical, gas, water, cable television,
and telephone corporation with gross annual revenues exceeding
twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) pursuant to this article in
the implementation of women, minority, and disabled veterans
business enterprise development programs. The report shall include
information about which procurements are made with women, minority,
and disabled veteran business enterprises with at least a majority of
the enterprise's workforce in California. The commission shall
recommend a program for carrying out the policy declared in this
article, together with recommendations for legislation that it deems
necessary or desirable to further that policy.
(f) The Legislature declares that each electrical, gas, water,
cable television, and telephone corporation that
is not required to submit a plan pursuant to subdivision (a) is
encouraged to voluntarily adopt a plan for increasing women,
minority, and disabled veteran business enterprise procurement in all
categories.
SEC. 4. Section 8284 of the Public Utilities
Code is amended to read:
8284. (a) The commission shall, by rule or order, adopt criteria
for verifying and determining the eligibility of women, minority, and
disabled veteran business enterprises for procurement contracts.
(b) The commission shall develop, and require every electrical,
gas, water, cable television, and telephone corporation with gross
annual revenues exceeding twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000)
and their commission-regulated subsidiaries and affiliates to
implement, an outreach program to inform and recruit women, minority,
and disabled veteran business enterprises to apply for procurement
contracts under this article.
SEC. 5. Section 8285 of the Public Utilities
Code is amended to read:
8285. Any person or corporation, through its directors, officers,
or agents, which falsely represents a business as a women, minority,
or disabled veteran business enterprise in the procurement of, or
attempt to procure, contracts from an electrical, gas, water, cable
television, or telephone corporation with gross annual revenues
exceeding twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000), or a
commission-regulated subsidiary or affiliate subject to this article,
shall be punished by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars
($5,000), by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year
or in the state prison, or by both that fine and imprisonment. In
the case of a corporation, the fine or imprisonment, or both, shall
be imposed on every director, officer, or agent responsible for the
false statements.
SEC. 6. SEC. 4. Section 8286 of the
Public Utilities Code is amended to read:
8286. In order to facilitate the participation of women-owned
businesses, minority-owned businesses, disabled veteran-owned
businesses, and small businesses in contract procurement, any
corporation subject to this article may consider the following
measures to include those businesses in all phases of their
contracting:
(a) Timely or progressive payments to those businesses.
(b) An amendment of the performance bond requirements so that bond
requirements of electrical, gas, cable television,
and telephone corporations do not prohibitively burden
those businesses from procuring the corporation's business.
(c) The provision of assistance to those businesses by securing
contract payments to those businesses with letters of credit,
negotiable securities, or other financing arrangements or measures.
SEC. 7. SEC. 5. 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.