Chris Micheli

How California Regulations Are Made  By Chris Micheli   California has over 200 State agencies, departments, boards, and commissions that make public policy through their authority to adopt regulations. A list of State agencies that have adopted regulations can be found on the website of California’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL), which is found at www.oal.ca.gov   OAL’s website also provides direct access to the California Code of Regulations (CCR), which is organized under various subject matter titles, of which there are 28 titles. These titles contain the over 60,000 state regulations that are currently in effect.   California’s Administrative Procedure Act (APA) contains required procedures for rule-making and administrative hearings conducted by all of these agencies and departments. The APA is found at Chapter 3.5, 4 and 5 commencing with Section 11340 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code.   In addition, there are r...

How California Statutes Are Made  By Chris Micheli The California Legislature, like its federal counterpart, is bicameral (meaning it has two houses) with the Assembly (which has 80 members) and the Senate (which has 40 members) and the two houses meet in biennial sessions. There are essentially two paths to lawmaking in California. The initiative is a power reserved to electors to propose statutes and amendments to the California Constitution. This requires submission of the measure to the Attorney General for title and summary, collection and certification of signatures, placement on the ballot, and ultimately passage by the statewide electorate. There are statutory initiatives and constitutional initiatives. The other path is legislative wherein the Legislature passes bills and the Governor signs them to create statutes. A piece of legislation s tarts when a group, organization or legislator suggests legislation and either a Senator or Assembly Member agrees to author the ...