The California Coastal Commission was created by voters in 1972 and made permanent by the Legislature when the California Coastal Act was enacted in 1976. The Coastal Commission is charged with protecting and enhancing California’s coast and ocean for all generations.
It is an independent, quasi-judicial state agency. It is quasi-judicial because it has
Similar to how the LAO serves the California Legislature, the Department of Finance – DOF or Finance for short – serves as the chief fiscal policy advisor to the Governor. Its closest federal counterpart is the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, which serves as the President’s chief fiscal policy advisor.
The DOF engages
The Legislative Analyst’s Office, LAO, is similar to the federal Congressional Budget Office. It is a nonpartisan fiscal and policy advisor and has performed this duty admirably for 75 years.
The LAO is known for its fiscal and programmatic expertise and for providing very important and nonpartisan analyses of the California state budget to
The judicial branch of California government engages in policymaking through the Judicial Council.
The Judicial Council is chaired by the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. It pursues a number of different goals, including: providing access, fairness, and diversity in our court system; ensuring independence and accountability of the judiciary; modernizing the management
The final weeks of the legislative session are the proverbial sprint to the finish line. Policy committees have finished the bulk of their work, but many bills get significant amendments that require the policy committees to hear additional bills as the session winds down. The main focus then becomes the fiscal committees and their
The California State Assembly is poised to adopt a new rule to allow proxy voting. On July 27th, the first day back from its extended recess, Assembly Majority Floor Leader Ian Calderon introduced House Resolution 100 which would adopt a rule to allow proxy voting during the COVID‑19 state of emergency.
HR-100 notes that
Since the California State Senate has authorized the use of remote voting, let’s take a look at how the process in the Senate works. Note, at this time, that the Assembly has not authorized remote voting yet.
First, remote voting is limited to only policy and fiscal committees. It is not currently authorized for
California’s judicial branch is supported by several important entities that assist the judiciary in operating efficiently. These include the Commission on Judicial Appointments and the Commission on Judicial Performance. Let’s take a look at what they do, and who make up the memberships of these Commissions.
The Commission on Judicial
The twin goals of the APA at the federal and state levels are to ensure for purposes of any proposed rulemaking that there’s notice to the public and an opportunity for the public to be heard. With that in mind, there are a few items of interest for those who participate in rulemaking activities
Urgency statutes are found in Article IV, Section 8 of the California Constitution. Bills signed into law by the Governor that contain an urgency clause become urgency statutes.
Article IV, Section 8(c)(3) of the Constitution lays out the major difference between a regular bill and an urgency bill. A regular statute goes into effect