Bill Text: CA AB1023 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Public Utilities Commission: proceedings: ex parte communications.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Vetoed) 2016-01-19 - Consideration of Governor's veto stricken from file. [AB1023 Detail]

Download: California-2015-AB1023-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 1023	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Rendon

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2015

   An act to add Section 1701.6 to the Public Utilities Code,
relating to the Public Utilities Commission.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1023, as introduced, Rendon. Public Utilities Commission:
proceedings: ex parte communications.
   The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities
Commission, with jurisdiction over all public utilities and
authorizes the commission to establish rules for all public
utilities, subject to control by the Legislature, and to establish
its own procedures, subject to statutory limitations or directions
and constitutional requirements of due process. The Public Utilities
Act requires the commission to determine whether a proceeding
requires a hearing and, if so, to determine whether the matter
requires a quasi-legislative, an adjudication, or a ratesetting
hearing. For these purposes, quasi-legislative cases are cases that
establish policy rulemakings and investigations which may establish
rules affecting an entire industry, adjudication cases are
enforcement cases and complaints except those challenging the
reasonableness of any rates or charges, and ratesetting cases are
cases in which rates are established for a specific company,
including general rate cases, performance-based ratemaking, and other
ratesetting mechanisms. Existing law requires the commission, upon
initiating a hearing, to assign one or more commissioners to oversee
the case and an administrative law judge, where appropriate. The act
regulates communications in hearings before the commission and
defines "ex parte communication" to mean any oral or written
communication between a decisionmaker and a person with an interest
in a matter before the commission concerning substantive, but not
procedural, issues that does not occur in a public hearing, workshop,
or other public proceeding, or on the official record of the
proceeding on the matter. Existing law requires the commission, by
regulation, to adopt and publish a definition of the terms
"decisionmaker" and "persons" for those purposes, along with any
requirements for written reporting of ex parte communications and
appropriate sanctions for noncompliance with any rule proscribing ex
parte communications.
   This bill would require the commission to establish and maintain a
weekly communications log summarizing all oral or written ex parte
communications, as specified, and to make each log available to the
public on the commission's Internet Web site.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 1701.6 is added to the Public Utilities Code,
to read:
   1701.6.  The commission shall establish and maintain a weekly
communications log summarizing all oral or written ex parte
communications, as defined in Section 1701.1, made in that week. The
communications log shall include a summary of all oral and written
communications that meet the definition of an ex parte communication
that occur between a person with an interest in a matter before the
commission and a commissioner, advisor to a commissioner appointed
pursuant to Section 309.1, the executive director of the commission,
a deputy executive director, a division director, or an
administrative law judge. Each communication log shall include the
date of each communication, the persons involved in the
communication, and, to the extent known, any proceedings that were
the subject of each communication. Each log shall be made available
to the public on the commission's Internet Web site.