Representing the 14th District

Ensuring Affordable Care Act (ACA) is Achieved

Concord, CA – AB1296 authored by Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla (D-Concord) was signed by Governor Brown ensuring the overall purpose of the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) is achieved so the people of California are enrolled and benefit from health programs they can afford.

This enacts the Health Care Eligibility, Enrollment, and Retention Act, to implement the ACA requirement of creating a single statewide application to be used by all entities accepting and processing applications, for enrolling consumers in health coverage. The system must be available to apply by phone, mail, online or in person for enrolling into Medi-Cal, Healthy Families and the Exchange.

Read more...

SB 14 Would Have Implemented Performance-Based Budgeting

Concord, CA - Governor Jerry Brown vetoed legislation that would have established a largely supported performance-based budget process in California. The current budget process is based on prior years spending levels and does not consider the goals or outcomes of public agencies. Senate Bill 14, by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) and co-authored by Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla (D-Concord) would have changed the budget process by bringing a performance approach to the way state departments prepare their budgets.

"I am disappointed that the Governor vetoed this important piece of legislation. Given our structural budget deficit and the ongoing challenge of raising revenues, it is imperative that we change the way we balance our budget. We simply cannot continue to do business as usual by spending money on programs that have shown no success" said Bonilla.

Read more...

(Concord, CA) - Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla (D-Concord) will team up with the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project and GenOn Energy, Inc. to present a free one-day energy workshop for K-12 Educators on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 in Concord, California.

The NEED Project includes teacher-tested educational materials, evaluation techniques and tools, recognition of student achievement and professional development for educators.  All NEED learning activities are aligned to California education standards.

Educators who participate in the workshop will receive a free NEED Science of Energy Kit to take back to their schools.  The NEED Science of Energy Kit is designed to teach the concepts of force, motion, light, sound, heat, electricity, magnetism and energy transformations through hands-on activities.  In addition, GenOn Energy and NEED reimburse school districts for the cost of a substitute teacher and for the teacher participating in the workshop.

“This is wonderful opportunity for our teachers to network and bounce ideas off each other while expanding their knowledge of the science and energy,” said Assemblywoman Bonilla, a former teacher and education advocate in Sacramento.  Bonilla will join the educators for the one-day workshop in Concord, California.

WHO: Presented by Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla, the National Energy Education Development (NEDD) and GenOn Energy.
WHAT: Energy Workshop for K-12 Educators
WHERE:  The Salvation Army Center, 3950 Clayton Road, Concord, CA  94521
WHEN: Wednesday, October 19, 2011

For more information on the NEED Project, please visit www.NEED.org.

(Concord, CA) – AB 240 provides equity for minimum wage workers that have been victims of wage violations by employers.  The bill, authored by Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla (D-Concord), ensures workers receive the same relief for minimum wage violations, regardless of whether they pursue their claims administratively or through the courts.

“Under current law, employees may pursue wage violation complaints through litigation or through an administrative process.  For complaints decided through litigation, a judge may award liquidated damages, defined in law, to a wronged worker.  However, workers seeking relief through the administrative process cannot receive liquidated damages.  AB 240 establishes equity between wage complaint processes,” said Assemblywoman Bonilla.

Read more...

(Concord, CA) – Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla (D-Concord) has been the driving force behind keeping SB14, a performance-based budgeting plan, alive in the Assembly. Bonilla worked with both the Senate and Assembly to move this bill forward.

SB14 will require the following information be included in the Governor's proposed budget:

• The mission and goals of each agency.
• The activities and programs focused on achieving those goals.
• Performance measures that reflect the desired outcomes of the agency and a targeted performance level for the following year.
• Prior-year performance data and an explanation of deviation from previous year targets.
• Proposed changes in statute, including the creation of incentives or elimination of disincentives that could improve outcomes or hold down costs.

It would implement the new performance-based budgeting requirements subject to appropriations in the budget, but requiring the Department of Finance to submit its performance based budget implementation plan to the Legislature beginning with the Governor's 2013-14 budget proposal. The use of performance based budgeting would be fully implemented for the Governor's 2018-19 budget proposal.

"As co-author of SB14, I believe this legislation can help to produce a more transparent and more efficient way of working on the budget. I have advocated for SB14 because it will help all levels of state government to enhance the delivery of services to the people of California," said Bonilla.

"The Contra Costa Council strongly supports this legislation. It embodies non-partisan reforms that apply best practices from successful businesses, local governments and other states and would greatly improve the way the state manages our money and plans for the future. We applaud the authors and co-authors for their leadership in moving this important legislation forward." - Linda Best, Contra Costa Council.

CONCORD, CA – Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla (D-Concord) stands today Senator Ted Gaines (R-Roseville), El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson,  Assemblymember Alyson Huber (D-El Dorado Hills), Assemblyman Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) and others to announce Senate Bill 391 – the “Parole Reform Act of 2011”.

“As a principal co-author of SB 391, I am proud to join Senator Gaines in introducing this significant measure today.  By strengthening the state’s parole system, I am hopeful we can prevent future heinous acts such as those committed by dangerous criminals like Phillip Garrido,” said Assemblywoman Bonilla. “Unfortunately, this bill comes after so many innocent lives have been affected and my heart goes out to all those families.  However, I assure you that as legislators, we will continue to do our part and work toward a more effective parole system to protect women and children.”

With SB 391, the Parole Board will be able to view the whole prisoner including the original crime, prior convictions and other, reliably-documented offenses when evaluating them for parole, not just their performance in a highly-structured, highly-disciplined environment that is far different from the free society where they committed their crimes.

“Although we can’t undo the mistakes of the past, we can make systemic improvements so that all Californians are safer and that victims know government is working to protect them,” said Senator Ted Gaines.  “Senate Bill 391 is for those Californians who will never become victims because society’s most dangerous criminals are kept where they should be – behind bars.”

This legislation seeks to reverse the California Supreme Court’s 2008 Lawrence decision, which requires the Parole Board to primarily look at the prisoner’s behavior while incarcerated when deciding whether to put a felon back out on the street.  Despite prisoner convictions for the most heinous of crimes Lawrence provides that “release on parole is the rule, rather than the exception.”

Seeking to draw lessons from the Jaycee Dugard case, State Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, has co-authored a bill to broaden the information the state parole board can consider when evaluating whether to release an inmate.

She will speak alongside Sen. Ted Gaines, R—Roseville, and Assemblywoman Alyson Huber, D-El Dorado Hills, in Sacramento at a Wednesday morning news conference announcing the bill, the "Parole Reform Act of 2011."

Read more...

Concord, CA - AB461, authored by Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla (D-Concord) was signed by Governor Jerry Brown today. The new law will require a liberal construction of write-in voting provisions in the event of a manual recount to ensure that a ballot is counted if the voter's intent can be determined, regardless of whether the voter has literally complied with the voting instructions.

"This new law will protect against voter disenfranchisement by ensuring that the voter's intent is counted for write-in candidates during manual recounts," said Assemblywoman Bonilla.

Existing law provides every registered voter the right to write in the name of any candidate for any public office, as specified. The current law also states that no write-in vote shall be counted unless the voting space next to the write-in line is marked or slotted as directed by the voting instructions.

Read more...

Concord, CA - On Friday, August 5, 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla's (D-Concord) bill, AB364 into law allowing the state to "freeze and seize" on behalf of one victim, or the result of one felony.

The new law will provide further protection and better access to just restitution for victims of white collar crimes of fraud and embezzlement by amending California's "Freeze and Seize Law" Penal Code 186.11. The new law will lower the "freeze and seize" procedures regarding white collar crime to prosecutions involving a single victim and a single felony.

Specifically, "freeze and seize" procedures apply to cases where the fraud and/or embezzlement exceeds $100,000.

Read more...