Bill Text: CA AB1459 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Chaptered


Bill Title: State Capitol: mural honoring Native Americans.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2023-10-10 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 690, Statutes of 2023. [AB1459 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB1459-Chaptered.html

Assembly Bill No. 1459
CHAPTER 690

An act to amend Section 9105.5 of the Government Code, relating to the State Capitol.

[ Approved by Governor  October 10, 2023. Filed with Secretary of State  October 10, 2023. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1459, Ramos. State Capitol: mural honoring Native Americans.
Existing law, known as the State Capitol Building Annex Act of 2016, authorizes the Joint Rules Committee to pursue the construction of a State Capitol Building Annex or the restoration, rehabilitation, renovation, or reconstruction of the existing State Capitol Building Annex. Existing law requires any construction, restoration, rehabilitation, renovation, or reconstruction work undertaken pursuant to the act to incorporate specified elements.
This bill would require any construction, restoration, rehabilitation, renovation, or reconstruction work undertaken pursuant to the act to also incorporate a mural honoring Native Americans in California in one of the main hearing rooms in the newly constructed State Capitol Building Annex or the restored, rehabilitated, renovated, or reconstructed State Capitol Building Annex. The bill would require the mural to be designed in consultation with the Native American Heritage Commission.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 9105.5 of the Government Code is amended to read:

9105.5.
 (a) Any work of construction, restoration, rehabilitation, renovation, or reconstruction undertaken pursuant to Article 5.2 (commencing with Section 9112) shall do all of the following:
(1) Incorporate elements complementary to the historic State Capitol, elements to make the newly constructed state capitol building annex or the restored, rehabilitated, renovated, or reconstructed State Capitol Building Annex efficient and sustainable, and historic elements from the existing State Capitol Building Annex described in Section 9105.
(2) Integrate within its design elements that educate and impress upon visitors the rich heritage of symbolism that earlier generations of Californians made a vital part of the palette of the historic State Capitol design so as to convey the meaning of California’s self-governance and the state’s unique and ever-distinctive heritage.
(3) Incorporate symbolic treasures, as is befitting the heritage of symbols left by California’s founders for current and future generations to enjoy and explore, so as to ensure that the legislative and executive branch working spaces in the newly constructed state capitol building annex or the restored, rehabilitated, renovated, or reconstructed State Capitol Building Annex are no longer barren and devoid of the enriching presence of those symbols of self-governance.
(4) Incorporate a mural honoring Native Americans in California in one of the main hearing rooms in the newly constructed state capitol building annex or the restored, rehabilitated, renovated, or reconstructed State Capitol Building Annex. The mural shall be designed in consultation with the Native American Heritage Commission to ensure that it contains accurate depictions of Native Americans in California.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that any newly constructed state capitol building annex or the restored, rehabilitated, renovated, or reconstructed State Capitol Building Annex be designed to welcome all visitors to a safe, healthful, accessible, and working State Capitol, including historic chambers supported by needed caucusing spaces, offices for the Chief Clerk of the Assembly, the Secretary of the Senate, and the Legislative Counsel, hearing spaces to facilitate the convenient conduct of hearings during sessions, and space for the Sergeants at Arms, so that all Californians may effectively engage with their elected representatives and their state government in meaningful, participatory, and deliberative democracy.

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