(a) (1) The commission shall, by rule or order, adopt criteria for verifying and determining the eligibility of women, minority, and LGBT business enterprises for procurement contracts.
(2) The commission shall adopt the Department of General Services’ disabled veteran business enterprise certification eligibility requirements for verifying and determining the eligibility of disabled veteran business enterprises for procurement contracts, and shall not deem eligible those disabled veteran business enterprises that are not certified by the Department of General Services.
(3) In initially adopting criteria for verifying and determining the eligibility of LGBT business enterprises for procurement contracts pursuant to paragraph (1), the commission shall adopt the LGBT status qualifiers created by the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. The commission may update these LGBT status qualifiers as appropriate.
(b) The commission shall add all of the following questions to the verification form described in General Order 156:
(1) Questions about the location of the business enterprise’s headquarters.
(2) Questions about the business enterprise’s operating locations in California.
(3) Questions about the percentage of the business enterprise’s employees that reside in California.
(c) The commission shall develop, and require every electrical corporation, gas corporation, water corporation, wireless telecommunications service provider, electric service provider, and telephone corporation with gross annual California revenues exceeding twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) and their commission-regulated subsidiaries and affiliates to implement, an outreach program to inform and recruit women, minority, disabled veteran, and LGBT business enterprises to apply for procurement contracts under this article.
(Amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 784, Sec. 5. (SB 1177) Effective January 1, 2025.)