October 14, 2018 - SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced the proponent of a new initiative was cleared to begin collecting petition signatures last week.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponent and to county elections officials. The Attorney General’s official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

ELIMINATES CERTAIN 2011 CRIMINAL JUSTICE MEASURES. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Requires that individuals sentenced for certain non-serious, non-violent, andnon-sexual felonies after November 3, 2020 serve their time in state prison—rather than incounty jail, as 2011 law requires. Requires that individuals released on parole for these low levelfelonies after November 3, 2020 be supervised by state parole authorities rather thancounty probation departments. After November 3, 2020, prohibits courts from suspending theconcluding portion of the prison sentence of individuals convicted of these low-level feloniesand placing such felons on mandatory supervision by county authorities. Summary ofestimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and localgovernments: Increased state criminal justice system costs of around a billion dollars annually, due to an increase in the state prison and parole populations. Net reduction in county criminal justice system costs likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually that are currently supported by realignment revenues provided by the state, due to a decline in county correctional populations. The state would have various options to offset some or all of its increased costs—including changing the amount of realignment revenue counties receive and/or county responsibilities. Such actions would offset some or all of the reductions in county costs. (18-0008)

The Secretary of State’s tracking number for this measure is 1859 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 18-0008.

The proponent of the measure, Mark Averbeck, must collect signatures of 585,407 registered voters (eight percent of the total votes cast for Governor in the November 2014 general election) in order to qualify it for the ballot. The proponent has 180 days to circulate petitions for the measure, meaning the signatures must be submitted to county elections officials no later than February 13, 2019. The proponent can be reached at (909) 478-4001 or markaverbeck@gmail.com.
Source: CA. SOS