The Early Childhood Development Act of 2020 sets forth legislative findings and declarations regarding the need for an integrated early childhood learning and care system to promote high-quality, affordable learning to comprehensively and effectively serve children and families and to address societal inequities and disproportionalities. This bill would make additional legislative findings and declarations regarding childcare supportive services. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services to report on various topics related to early childhood supports in light of the COVID-19 pandemic by October 1, 2021. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, known commonly as the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program, authorizes a public agency, by making specified findings, to authorize public agency officials and property owners to enter into voluntary contractual assessments to finance the installation of distributed generation renewable energy sources or energy or water efficiency improvements that are permanently fixed to real property. Existing law also requires the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority to develop and administer a PACE risk mitigation program for PACE financing to increase its acceptance in the marketplace and protect against the risk of default and foreclosure. This bill would require the authority, upon an appropriation by the Legislature for purposes of the bill, to develop and administer the PACE risk mitigation program to address residential PACE-related mortgage and tax delinquencies in order to avoid default or foreclosure by awarding a grant, in an amount equal to at least one annual PACE assessment but not more than 4 annual PACE assessments, to an eligible property owner, as defined. The bill would require the authority to award the grants on a first-come, first-served basis.
Existing law establishes the Office of Emergency Services within the office of the Governor and under the supervision of the Director of Emergency Services and makes the office responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or human-made disasters and emergencies. Existing law, the California Disaster Assistance Act, authorizes the office to establish a model process to assist a community in recovering from an emergency proclaimed by the Governor which may include, among other things, the role of the office to facilitate the establishment of temporary structures, including local assistance centers, showers and bathroom facilities, and temporary administrative offices. Existing law defines the term "emergency plan" for purposes of emergency services provided by local governments. Existing law requires a county, upon the next update to its emergency plan, to integrate access and functional needs into its emergency plan by addressing, at a minimum, how the access and functional needs population is served by, among other things, emergency sheltering, including ensuring that designated shelters are compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or can be made compliant through modification and that showers and bathrooms are fully accessible to all occupants. This bill would require a county, including a city and county, to ensure that local assistance centers are accessible to people with access and functional needs, provide accessible notifications about local assistance centers, and provide diverse communication services through partnerships with the county homeless and housing services. The bill would require a county, including a city and county, to designate, prearrange, and procure space, as necessary, to aid in sheltering and transporting its homeless population during local and state emergencies and emergency evacuations. Because the bill would require local governments to provide additional services, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require a county, including a city and county, to, upon the next update to its emergency plan, integrate transportation and sheltering plans that include strategies for ensuring that shelters and local assistance centers are accessible to its homeless population and that service providers trained in outreach and engagement strategies for homeless individuals are available at those locations to ensure that proper measures are employed for the safety of homeless individuals in those settings. The bill would also require a county, including a city and county, to enter into agreements with transportation agencies, as necessary, to transport its homeless population to shelters and local assistance centers in the event of a local or state emergency. Because the bill would require local governments to provide additional services, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the State Air Resources Board to adopt regulations to require the reporting and verification of statewide greenhouse gas emissions and to monitor and enforce compliance with the act. The act requires the state board to make available, and update at least annually, on its internet website the emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria pollutants, and toxic air contaminants for each facility that reports to the state board, as provided. This bill would require, beginning January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, a covered corporation to disclose to the state board and the Secretary of State specified information for the prior calendar year, including, but not limited to, the potential financial impacts of, and any risk management strategies relating to the physical and transition risks, as defined, posed to the covered corporation by climate change. The bill would require the state board to establish climate change-related disclosure guidance that, to the extent practicable would be specialized for industries within specified sectors of the economy, establish reporting standards for estimating and disclosing direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, as defined, include reporting standards for fossil fuel-related assets, establish a minimum social cost of carbon, as defined, and require a covered corporation to conduct climate scenario analyses, as provided. The bill would require a covered corporation that engages in the commercial development of fossil fuels, as defined, to include specified information in its disclosure, including, but not limited to, an estimate of the total and disaggregated amount of direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions that are attributable to combustion, flared hydrocarbons, and other specified activity. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2024, the state board, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Treasurer, to develop and adopt regulations for these purposes. The bill would define a "covered corporation" for these purposes as a publicly traded domestic or foreign corporation whose principal executive offices, according to the corporation's SEC 10-K form, are located in the state and whose annual revenues exceed $100,000,000. Existing law designates the Department of Finance as the state agency with general powers of supervision over all matters concerning the financial and business policies of the state. Existing law establishes the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission to, among other things, maintain contact with state and municipal bond issuers, underwriters, investors, and credit rating agencies to improve the market for state and local government debt issues and to assist state and local governments to prepare, market, and sell their debt issues. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2024, the Department of Finance, with guidance from the Treasurer and the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission, to develop climate change disclosure guidance, comparable to the regulations required to be adopted by the state board, for issuers of state and local debt.
Existing law establishes in state government the Natural Resources Agency, consisting of various departments, including the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Existing law provides that the department is responsible for the fire protection, fire prevention, maintenance, and enhancement of the state's forest, range, and brushland resources, contract fire protection, associated emergency services, and assistance in civil disasters and other nonfire emergencies. This bill would require the Natural Resources Agency to provide a basic level of technological support to community organizations for wildfire risk reduction and resiliency, including technology for data, geospatial mapping, and data management, as well as software and limited technical support, and would require the Natural Resources Agency to structure this wildfire technology support in the same way that technology support is provided for similar services for wildfire-program building, outreach, and planning. The bill would provide that the sum of $5,000,000 shall be appropriated from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund in the annual Budget Act each year through the 2023–24 fiscal year to the Natural Resources Agency for purposes of providing the technological support described above.
(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to establish rules for all public utilities, subject to control by the Legislature. The Public Utilities Act provides for civil penalties for any violation of the act or for or a failure to comply with any part of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission. This bill would require the commission to require any penalty imposed on a public utility, person, or corporation for a violation of the act, or for a violation of any order, decision, decree, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission, to be paid no later than 2 years from the date the penalty was imposed, as provided. (2) Existing law requires the commission to adopt inspection, maintenance, repair, and replacement standards for the distribution systems of electrical corporations in order to provide high-quality, safe, and reliable service. Existing law requires the commission to conduct a review to determine whether the standards have been met and to perform the review after every major outage. This bill would require an electrical corporation to pay a customer who lost electricity because of an outage a penalty of $250 per 24-hour period, or any part thereof, in which the customer was without electricity if the outage was caused, in whole or in part, by the failure of the utility's electric plant, as defined, or equipment that is older than its expected lifetime and was not adequately maintained or upgraded. The bill would require an electrical corporation to pay a customer who lost electricity because of a deenergization event a penalty of $250 per 24-hour period, or any part thereof, in which the customer was without electricity if the deenergization event was undertaken in substantial part because the utility either failed to undertake required vegetation management or failed to timely undertake electrical system upgrades necessary to provide resilience for reasonably foreseeable adverse weather events. The bill would require an electrical corporation to establish a memorandum account by June 1, 2023, to track expenses paid to customers, local governments, and others for claims or penalties resulting from an electrical outage, including a deenergization event, and would require the commission to establish rules to determine whether the expenses paid can be recovered from ratepayers, but would prohibit an electrical corporation from recovering the above-described $250 penalties. (3) Existing law requires an electrical corporation to file an annual reliability report with the commission that includes information on the reliability of service to end-use customers. Existing law requires the electrical corporation to conspicuously post its annual report on its internet website. This bill would require an electrical corporation to report the age and anticipated or rated operating life, whichever is less, of its electric plant to the commission and to annually update that information to reflect replacement or upgrades to its electric plant. The bill would require the commission to review the report for accuracy and adequacy. Upon the commission's acceptance of the report as being sufficient, the bill would require the electrical corporation to post the report on its internet website and require the commission to maintain a Uniform Resource Locator link to each electrical corporation's most current report on the commission's internet website. The bill would authorize a city or county to request that the electrical corporation identify any electric plant that is used to supply service within the city or county that is beyond its anticipated or rated operating life. If an electrical corporation has an unplanned outage of electrical service to 100 or more service connections within its service territory and determines that the outage resulted from a failure of the electrical corporation's electric plant, the bill would require the electrical corporation to report that failure to the commission and include that information in an annual reliability report. If an electrical corporation has an unplanned outage of electrical service to 100 or more service connections within its service territory, the bill would require the electrical corporation to (A) promptly notify consumers of the outage by telephone or text message using the contact information that the electrical corporation has in its possession and provide an estimate of how long it will take to restore electrical service to the customer, and (B) promptly notify all public safety offices, critical first responders, including police, sheriff's and fire departments, health care facilities, city offices, and operators of telecommunications infrastructure with premises within the footprint of the outage of the existence of the outage and an estimate of how long it will take to restore electrical service to the area experiencing the outage. (4) Existing law requires each electrical corporation to annually prepare and submit a wildfire mitigation plan to the commission for review and approval, as specified. Following approval, the commission is required to oversee compliance with the plans. Existing law requires a wildfire mitigation plan of an electrical corporation to include, among other things, protocols for deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public safety. As part of these protocols, an electrical corporation is required to include protocols related to mitigating the public safety impacts of deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider customers that receive medical baseline allowances. Existing law authorizes an electrical corporation to deploy backup electrical resources or provide financial assistance for backup electrical resources to a customer receiving a medical baseline allowance if the customer meets specified conditions. This bill would require an electrical corporation's wildfire mitigation plan include mitigating protocols that consider impacts on customers who rely on life-support equipment that operates on electricity or who have medical conditions that may put them at risk during a deenergization event. The bill would require that the protocols require the provision of backup generators or other suitable backup electrical resources to those customers residing in an area planned for deenergization who rely on life-support equipment that operates on electricity and the provision of reasonable accommodation for those customers residing in an area planned for deenergization who may be at risk from a medical condition during a deenergization event. Existing law requires a wildfire mitigation plan of an electrical corporation to also include appropriate and feasible procedures for notifying a customer who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines and requires these procedures to direct notification to all public safety offices, critical first responders, health care facilities, and operators of telecommunications infrastructure with premises within the footprint of potential deenergization for a given event. This bill would require that a wildfire mitigation plan include appropriate and feasible procedures for notifying a customer 48 hours in advance who may be impacted by a deenergization event, including procedures for those customers who rely on life-support equipment that operates on electricity or who have medical conditions that may put them at risk during a deenergization event. The bill would require that the procedures direct notification to all public safety offices, critical first responders, health care facilities, city offices, and operators of telecommunications infrastructure with premises within the footprint of potential deenergization for a given event. The bill would require an electrical corporation to promptly post notice of a planned deenergization event on its internet website when it determines that it will, or may, institute a deenergization event. The bill would require that an electrical corporation's customer notification procedures enable public media outlets to request notifications of a planned deenergization event along with procedures for providing the requested notification. The bill would require an electrical corporation that undertakes a deenergization event that either lasts longer than 12 hours or, if the temperature is 100 degrees or hotter, lasts 5 hours or longer, to provide a check for $250 prior to the next billing cycle to every residential customer to compensate the residential customer for anticipated expenses of traveling to, and staying at, a location with electrical service and any incidental expenses, such as spoiled food, unless the consumer elects otherwise. (5) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act, or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission, is a crime. Because certain provisions of the bill would be included in the act, a violation of which would be a crime, and certain requirements of the bill would be implemented or enforced by the commission, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and State Lands Commission to lease certain lands for specified purposes, including agricultural purposes and grazing, as specified. This bill would require that a management plan for an area to be leased pursuant to certain of those leases include detailed habitat objectives that must be achieved and maintained by the lessee and set minimum requirements for monitoring to ensure those objectives are met, or that the lease specify minimum agricultural and animal husbandry practices to ensure the protection of ecological resources, as specified. The bill would require those agencies, in issuing certain of those leases, to give preference to certain farmers and ranchers and other applicants. The bill would prohibit certain of those leases from being for a period of less than 5 years, except as specified, and from being for a period of more than 20 years. The bill would require those agencies, upon the expiration of a grazing lease, to offer a subsequent grazing lease for those lands to the lessee if the agency plans to sell another grazing lease for those lands and the lessee has substantially complied with all terms of the expiring grazing lease. The bill would also change certain references from "grazing permits" to "grazing leases." The bill would expressly authorize those agencies to lease certain of those lands for grazing to mitigate the risks of wildland fire, as specified.
Existing law requires the governing board of each school district and county board of education to adopt a local control and accountability plan and to update its respective local control and accountability plan before July 1 of each year. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district, before considering the adoption of a plan or an annual update to the plan in a public meeting, to consult with specified persons in developing the plan, present the plan or annual update to the plan to specified committees, and hold a public hearing, as specified. This bill would require a school district to present the plan or annual update to the plan to schoolsite councils, as described, and would require a majority of schoolsite councils to vote to approve the plan or annual update to the plan before it is considered for adoption by the governing board of the school district. By imposing new duties on school districts, the bill would constitute a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
The Sales and Use Tax Law, administered and enforced by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, requires the department to perform annually a systematic identification of areas of recurrent taxpayer noncompliance and to report these findings in its specified annual report to the Governor. Existing law requires the department, in order to prepare the report, to conduct an annual hearing where taxpayers are allowed to present their proposals on changes to the Sales and Use Tax Law. This bill would require the department to ensure participation in the annual hearing may be virtual or remote.
Existing law authorizes the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to provide grants to, or enter into contracts or other cooperative agreements with, specified entities for the implementation and administration of projects and programs to improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Under the authority provided pursuant to the California Emergency Services Act, the Governor, on March 22, 2019, issued a proclamation of a state of emergency directing the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to implement, without delay, fuel reduction projects identified using a methodology developed by the department to determine which communities are at greatest risk of wildfire based on best available science and socioeconomic factors and to identify projects that would reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, if completed. The proclamation of a state of emergency exempts those identified fuel reduction projects from various legal requirements, including, among others, requirements regarding public contracting for those projects, requirements for environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act for those projects, and licensure requirements for individual conducting certain activities for those projects, as provided. This bill would require the department, before December 31, 2022, and before December 31 of each year thereafter, to identify priority fuel reduction projects, as provided. The bill would exempt the identified priority fuel reduction projects from certain legal requirements in a similar manner as provided in the proclamation of a state of emergency described above.
Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for an innkeeper or common carrier of passengers to refuse to receive or entertain any guest or to refuse to receive or carry any passenger without just cause or excuse. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to deny admittance to accommodations to a blind, deaf, or disabled person and that person's specially trained guide dog, signal dog, or service dog. This bill would make it unlawful for an establishment serving the public to prohibit or otherwise restrict a peace officer from carrying a weapon on the establishment's premises that the peace officer is authorized to carry, regardless of whether the peace officer is engaged in the actual discharge of the officer's duties while carrying the weapon. The bill would make a first offense punishable as an infraction by a fine not exceeding $500, and as a misdemeanor for a 2nd or subsequent violation, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding 6 months, by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The California Child Day Care Facilities Act generally requires the State Department of Social Services to license, inspect, and regulate various types of child daycare facilities, including, among others, family daycare homes. Existing law specifies that a family daycare home is where the provider resides. A violation of the act or a willful or repeated violation of any rule or regulation promulgated under the act is a crime and enforceable with a civil penalty. This bill would authorize a person to apply to be a secondary licensee for a licensee and require a secondary licensee to meet all licensure requirements applicable to a licensee except the requirement to reside in the home in which the family daycare home is operated. The bill would specify that, if a family daycare home provider is a secondary licensee, a family daycare home is where the licensee resides. The bill would require a secondary licensee to have specified educational qualifications. The bill would make all rules and regulations related to the maintenance and operation of a family daycare home that are applicable to a licensee applicable to a secondary licensee. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
