Existing law prohibits new residential-type gas appliances that are equipped with a pilot light from being sold in the state 24 months after an intermittent ignition device has been demonstrated and certified by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, as specified. Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board to adopt and implement motor vehicle emission standards, in-use performance standards, and motor vehicle fuel specifications for the control of air contaminants and sources of air pollution that the state board has found necessary, cost effective, and technologically feasible, as specified. Pursuant to its authority, the state board has adopted regulations, known as Advanced Clean Cars II, which reduce emissions from passenger cars, pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicles sold in California, including a requirement that 100% of new vehicle sales be zero emission by 2035. This bill, the California Energy Consumer Freedom Act, would prohibit state agencies and local governments from adopting or enforcing a rule, regulation, resolution, or ordinance that directly or indirectly results in prohibiting the use of gas appliances in residential or nonresidential buildings, and the buying, selling, or use of gasoline-powered vehicles or equipment. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
Existing law authorizes any peace officer to, without a warrant, take into temporary custody a child who is in a hospital if the release of the child to a prospective adoptive parent or a representative of a licensed adoption agency poses an immediate danger to the child's health or safety, except as specified. Existing law requires, in every independent adoption proceeding under these provisions, the prospective adoptive parent or parents to file with the court either an adoption request within 10 working days after execution of an adoption placement agreement, or a guardianship petition within 30 calendar days after the child's discharge from the hospital, whichever is earlier. This bill would instead require the prospective adoptive parent or parents in that case to file with the court either an adoption request within 7 working days after execution of an adoption placement agreement, or a guardianship petition within 30 calendar days after the child's discharge from the hospital, whichever is earlier.
Existing law establishes and provides funding for various state programs in connection with assisting the homeless, including Housing First. Existing law establishes the core components of Housing First to include, among other things, tenant screening and selection practices that promote accepting applicants regardless of their sobriety or use of substances, completion of treatment, or participation in services. This bill, the Homelessness Accountability, Recovery, and Treatment Act, would authorize a state agency to use up to 40 percent of existing noncontinuously appropriated funds allocated to a homelessness program on recovery housing that does not meet the core components of Housing First. Existing law requires the Governor to create an Interagency Council on Homeless to create partnerships among state agencies and departments, local government agencies, and specified nonprofit entities to arrive at specific strategies to end homelessness and collect, compile, and make publicly available specified financial data provided to the council from all state-funded homelessness programs. This bill would require a nonprofit that receives state or local government funding for homelessness programs to annually report to the relevant state agency or local government from which they receive funding specified standardized performance metrics. The bill would require a state agency, as defined, to develop a standardized reporting template and compile and publish an annual report summarizing the performance metrics. The bill would require a nonprofit to maintain records and documentation to support the performance metrics and make those records available for audit or review upon request by a local government or state agency. The bill would require a state agency, in collaboration with local governments, to establish procedures for certifying the accuracy of the performance metrics. To the extent that the bill would require a local government to cooperate fully with a state agency to establish those procedures, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require a state agency to provide technical assistance and resources to assist nonprofits, particularly smaller nonprofit organizations, in complying with these reporting requirements. The bill would require a state agency to adopt regulations to implement the act no later than January 1, 2027, and would require a nonprofit to begin reporting performance metrics beginning with the first full fiscal year following the adoption of regulations. This bill would define various terms for purposes of the act. 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.
Existing law, the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) , provides that, unless displaced by the particular provisions of the UCC, the principles of law and equity, including the law merchant and the law relative to capacity to contract, principal and agent, estoppel, fraud, misrepresentation, duress, coercion, mistake, bankruptcy, and other validating or invalidating cause supplement the UCC. Existing law generally regulates fund transfers, including by prescribing rules applicable to a transfer pursuant to a security procedure for the detection of error to a beneficiary not intended by the sender. This bill would similarly specify that those fund transfer provisions do not displace those principles of law and equity. Existing law requires all officers and employees of a financial institution to report known or suspected instances of financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult, as specified. Existing law imposes a civil penalty for violation of this prohibition in an amount not exceeding $1,000 or, if the failure to report is willful, a civil penalty not exceeding $5,000, as specified. This bill would increase those civil penalties to $10,000 and $50,000, respectively, and would additionally authorize an elder or dependent adult who suffers financial abuse because of the noncompliance to recover those civil penalties. This bill would also enact various provisions related to protecting a victim of abuse of an elder or dependent adult with respect to a fraudulently induced transaction, defined as an "injured consumer," including by limiting the liability of an injured consumer for a fraudulently induced transaction to the lesser of $50 or the amount of money or value of property or services obtained in the fraudulently induced transaction before the financial institution has notice that, or a reasonable basis to believe that, a fraudulently induced transaction involving the injured consumer's account has been, or may be, effected, as prescribed. This bill would also require a financial institution that, within 60 days of transmitting to a consumer certain required documentation related to the consumer's account, receives oral or written notice in which the consumer, among other things, indicates the consumer's belief that the consumer is an injured consumer, to investigate, as prescribed, the alleged reasons and determine whether the consumer is an injured consumer within 10 business days. This bill would authorize an injured consumer to bring a civil action against a noncompliant financial institution, as prescribed.
Existing law prohibits local governments from enacting or enforcing any charter provision, ordinance, or regulation requiring a person to present identification for the purpose of voting or submitting a ballot at any polling place, vote center, or other location where ballots are cast or submitted. This bill would repeal that prohibition.
Under existing law, a vote-by-mail ballot is timely cast if it is postmarked or otherwise time-stamped on or before election day and received in the mail no later than 7 days after election day. This bill would instead require a vote-by-mail ballot to be returned to the applicable elections official no later than the close of the polls on election day, except that the bill would require a vote-by-mail ballot cast by a military or overseas voter to be counted if it is postmarked on or before election day and received no later than 7 days after election day.
Existing law requires the official canvass of all ballots received in an election to commence no later than the Thursday following the election and to continue daily, except on weekends and holidays, for not less than 6 hours each day until completed. Existing law requires elections officials to prepare a certified statement of the results of the election within 30 days of the election and to send the Secretary of State a complete copy of all election results within 31 days of the election. Existing law requires the Secretary of State to prepare, certify, and file a statement of the vote no later than the 38th day after the election. This bill would reduce those deadlines to 10 days for counting all ballots and preparing the certified statement of the results of the election, and 11 days for sending the Secretary of State a complete copy of all election results. The bill would require the Secretary of State to prepare, certify, and file a statement of the vote no later than 2 days after receiving election results from all county elections officials. By increasing the duties of county elections officials, 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, 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.
Existing law requires a city or county to prepare and adopt a general plan for its jurisdiction that contains certain mandatory elements, including a housing element. Existing law requires the housing element to identify adequate sites for housing. Existing law requires the housing element to contain an assessment of housing needs and an inventory of resources and constraints relevant to the meeting of these needs. Existing law requires rezoning, as specified, when an inventory of sites does not identify adequate sites to accommodate the need for groups of specified household income levels. If the local government fails to adopt a housing element that the Department of Housing and Community Development has found to be in substantial compliance with specified law within 120 days of the statutory deadline for adoption of the housing element, existing law requires the local government to complete this rezoning no later than one year from the statutory deadline for adoption of the housing element. This bill would extend the above-described one-year deadline to one year and 6 months.
Existing law establishes a motor vehicle inspection and maintenance (smog check) program that is administered by the Department of Consumer Affairs. The smog check program requires inspection of motor vehicles upon initial registration, biennially upon renewal of registration, upon transfer of ownership, and in certain other circumstances. Existing law exempts specified vehicles from being inspected biennially upon renewal of registration, including, among others, all motor vehicles manufactured prior to the 1976 model year. Existing law also exempts from specified portions of the smog test a collector motor vehicle that is insured as a collector motor vehicle, is at least 35 model years old, complies with the exhaust emissions standards for that motor vehicle's class and model year as prescribed by the department, and that passes a functional inspection of the fuel cap and a visual inspection for liquid fuel leaks. This bill would extend the above exemption from vehicles that were manufactured prior to the 1976 model year, to any motor vehicle that is 30 or more model years old.
The California Constitution provides that the state is divided into counties, which are legal subdivisions, and requires, among other things, that the Legislature provide for an elected governing body in each county. Existing law requires the income and revenue paid into the county treasury to be at once appropriated to and kept in separate funds. This bill would require the local official in the County of Orange charged with the authority to execute decisions on the Orange County Investment Fund who is elected or appointed on or after January 1, 2026, to meet the same minimum qualifications of the Treasurer-Tax Collector of the County of Orange, and any member of the Audit Oversight Committee of the County of Orange appointed to the committee on or after January 1, 2026, to meet the same minimum qualifications of the members of the prior Treasury Oversight Committee of the County of Orange. The bill would require the County Executive Office of the County of Orange, no later than July 1, 2026, and on or before July 1 of each year thereafter, to prepare an annual statement of assets in the Orange County Investment Fund that is made available to the public and submitted to investors of the fund and the Legislature, as specified. By imposing additional duties on the county or county officers, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would make findings and declarations relating to these provisions. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Orange. 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.
Existing law prohibits a contract, or proposed contract, for the sale or lease of consumer goods or services from including a provision waiving the consumer's right to make a statement regarding the seller or lessor, or its employees or agents, or concerning the goods or services. This bill would prohibit a business from making a consumer review platform available in the state that does not allow a business to opt out of being the subject of consumer reviews or consumer testimonials on the consumer review platform. The bill would define "consumer review platform" to mean an online platform, or a portion of an online platform, that is dedicated to enabling a consumer to see or hear consumer reviews of, or consumer testimonials with respect to, particular businesses that consumers have submitted to the online platform.
Existing law provides that an action to reorganize school districts means either an action to form a new school district, as provided, or an action to transfer territory, including the transfer of all or part of an existing school district to another school district. Existing law requires an action to reorganize one or more school districts to be initiated upon the filing of a petition, signed by any of 4 specified groups, with the county superintendent of schools. Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools, within 30 days, to examine the petition and, if they find it to be sufficient and signed as required by law, to transmit the petition simultaneously to the county committee on school district organization and to the State Board of Education. Existing law requires the county committee, within 60 days, to hold one or more public hearings, as specified, and within 120 days of the first public hearing, to approve or disapprove the petition for the transfer of territory, as provided. If the county committee approves the petition, existing law requires the county commission to notify the county superintendent of schools and existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to call an election in the territory of the affected districts, except, in certain circumstances, the petition takes effect upon notification to the board of supervisors of the county without an election, as provided. Existing law requires the state board to establish minimum standards for it to apply in approving or disapproving petitions and proposals for the formation or reorganization of school districts, and authorizes the state board to approve a reorganization proposal if the state board has determined, with respect to the proposal and the resulting school districts, that specified conditions are substantially met. Existing law requires the secretary of the state board to give notice of the approval to the appropriate county superintendent of schools, and requires the county superintendent of schools, within 35 days, to call an election, as specified. This bill, separate from the reorganization provisions described above, would authorize the State Department of Education to transfer territory from one school district to another school district if (1) at least 95% of a city is contained within the boundaries of a single school district, (2) there are no school facilities located within the territory being transferred, and (3) the city council has voted by a majority vote to petition the department have all of the territory within its city boundaries to be contained within a single school district. The bill would authorize the department to approve a territory transfer agreement between the impacted school districts and the city and to establish limited and temporary financial remuneration requirements that must be paid, by either the acquiring school district or the city petitioning the department, to the school district that is relinquishing territory, as specified. The bill would require the department to develop regulations for these purposes. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on a school district relinquishing territory, 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.
