Does your town have the sensors buried into the ground at the front position of the lane?
If so, those are magnetic. I read that is is best to ride up the seam of those (not the middle) as the edge is thinner there. Light triggers are activated by a magnetic field, not by weight as many people think.
If you do a search you'll come up with a few other threads on this exact same subject. Since you are in California, the law says if a light is malfuntioning that it is allowable to go through the light after coming to a complete stop and yielding to opposing traffic. The sensor should be tuned to sense the magnetic field of your bike, if it is not, well, that counts as a malfunctioning light.
If you were ever stopped by a cop, that would be your rationale.
A few words of advice. You can't just ride up, stop, yield, then go. You have to give the light a chance to cycle for each direction of traffic. If it doesn't have a chance to cycle, then you'd be guilty of running the light. If it is cycled through all the other directions, and then your bike didn't trigger the sensor, THEN you could go.
Also, I know down there in Fremont and Milpitas there are those red light camera's. (Like over by Fry's Electronics) Malfunctioning sensor or not, do NOT run a light that has a camera. You cannot fight or dispute those tickets as it is an independant firm that handles those, not the local police.
Or as Mello mentioned you can get a green light trigger.
http://www.greenlighttrigger.com/
I don't know if those cause any problems to the bike, the manufacture (of course) claims they don't.
I know a guy that has a magnet attached to the side of his boot, (cruiser guy) and that works. He used a fishing magnet that he got at an outdoor supply store.
Other then that, I have learned to avoid the area's where I know the lights have bad sensors. If that means I go around the block, or make a right turn on a side street then a u-turn and then a right to get going again, then I do that. I hate sitting at a light and having my bike heat up.
Also, nothing wrong on a straight away with letting a car pass you and let the car trigger the sensor.
-Flash