Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, prohibits various forms of employment and housing discrimination, including various types of discrimination because of national origin, defined to include discrimination on the basis of possessing a driver's license granted pursuant to existing law that requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue an original driver's license to a person who is unable to submit satisfactory proof that the applicant's presence in the United States is authorized under federal law, as specified. Existing law empowers the Civil Rights Department to investigate and prosecute complaints alleging unlawful practices. This bill would make it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to include a statement in various employment materials that an applicant must have a driver's license unless the employer reasonably expects the duties of the position to require driving and the employer reasonably believes that satisfying that job function using an alternative form of transportation would not be comparable in travel time or cost to the employer, as specified.
The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act contains various provisions regulating the application for, the issuance of, the suspension of, and the conditions imposed upon alcoholic beverage licenses by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Existing law defines "entertainment zone" for purposes of the act as a zone created by ordinance on or after January 1, 2024, in the City and County of San Francisco, that authorizes consumption of one or more types of alcoholic beverages on public streets, sidewalks, or public rights-of-way adjacent to and during a special event permitted or licensed by the department. Existing law authorizes the City and County of San Francisco to establish an entertainment zone, subject to certain requirements, including providing specified information relating to the entertainment zone to the department and establishing a process or procedure by which persons in possession of alcoholic beverages in the entertainment zone may be readily identifiable as being 21 years of age or older. This bill would, instead, define "entertainment zone" as a zone created by a city, county, or city and county ordinance on or after January 1, 2025, that authorizes consumption of one or more types of alcoholic beverages on public streets, sidewalks, or public rights-of-way. The bill would additionally authorize any city, county, or city and county to establish an entertainment zone, subject to the above-described requirements. Before enacting an ordinance to establish or modify an entertainment zone, the bill would require a city, county, or city and county to notify local law enforcement and request feedback about specific information, including, among others, the entertainment zone's proposed boundaries and days and hours of operation. The bill would require a city, county, or city and county that establishes an entertainment zone, or its designated subordinate officer or body, to review the operation of the entertainment zone every 2 years following the adoption of the entertainment zone, as specified, and to make any reports produced during the review available to the department upon request. Existing law authorizes a licensed beer manufacturer, a licensed winegrower, and any on-sale licensee to permit consumers to leave the premises with open containers of alcoholic beverages for consumption off the premises within an entertainment zone, subject to certain conditions. Existing law specifies that a licensed beer manufacturer, a licensed winegrower, and any on-sale licensee whose privileges are restricted due to operating conditions or other statutory restrictions may be prohibited from exercising entertainment zone privileges that are contrary to their operating conditions. For this purpose, existing law requires any restrictions on the exercise of off-sale privileges to apply to the removal of alcoholic beverages from the licensed premises for consumption in the entertainment zone. This bill would, instead, prohibit any restrictions on the exercise of off-sale privileges from applying to the removal of open alcoholic beverages from the licensed premises for consumption in the entertainment zone. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 23358 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 2177 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2177 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
Existing law creates, within the Counties of Sonoma and Marin, the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District with specified duties and powers relative to the provision of a passenger and freight rail system within the territory of the district. Under existing law, the district is governed by a 12-member board of directors appointed by various local governmental entities. Existing law authorizes the board to submit to the voters of the district a measure proposing a retail transactions and use tax ordinance. This bill would also authorize those special taxes to be imposed by a qualified voter initiative if that initiative complies with certain requirements. The bill would require the board of supervisors of the Counties of Sonoma and Marin to call a special election on a tax measure proposed by the district's board of directors or a qualified voter initiative in their respective counties and would require the district to reimburse the counties upon request for the incremental cost of submitting the measure to the voters, as specified. To the extent that the bill would impose additional duties on a county elections official, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would delete a provision that limits the district, in the County of Sonoma north of the City of Healdsburg, to locating commuter stations only within incorporated areas. The bill would require the district to obtain coverage for the district and its employees under the appropriate federal and state workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, and disability and unemployment insurance laws, instead of only under laws of this state. Existing law renamed the North Coast Railroad Authority the Great Redwood Trail Agency on March 1, 2022. Existing law requires the agency to convey and transfer all of its rights, interests, privileges, and title relating to its rail right-of-way south of the county line separating the Counties of Mendocino and Sonoma to the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District. This bill would delete various obsolete references to the North Coast Railroad Authority located within provisions governing the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District. Existing law requires the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District's contracts for the purchase of supplies, equipment, and materials to be let to the lowest responsible bidder when the expenditure required exceeds $40,000. This bill would increase that threshold to $75,000 and would authorize the contract to be let to the lowest responsible bidder, or, in the district's discretion, to the responsible bidder who submitted a proposal that provides the best value to the district on the basis of the factors identified in the solicitation. The bill would require the district, to the extent practicable, to obtain a minimum of 3 quotations, either written or oral, that permit prices and terms to be compared whenever the expected expenditure required for the purchase of supplies, equipment, or materials exceeds $10,000 but does not exceed $75,000. 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 the State Department of Public Health to license, regulate, and inspect health facilities, as specified, including general acute care hospitals. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Under existing law, a general acute care hospital is required to provide certain basic services, including medical, nursing, surgical, anesthesia, laboratory, radiology, pharmacy, and dietary services. Existing law authorizes a general acute care hospital to provide various special or supplemental services if certain conditions are met. Existing regulations define a supplemental service as an organized inpatient or outpatient service that is not required to be provided by law or regulation. Existing law requires a health facility to provide 90 days of public notice of the proposed closure or elimination of a supplemental service, and 120 days of public notice of the proposed closure or elimination of an acute psychiatric hospital. This bill would change the notice period required before proposed closure or elimination of the supplemental service of inpatient psychiatric unit or a perinatal unit from 90 days to 120 days. By changing the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the health facility to provide public notice of the proposed elimination of the supplemental service of either inpatient psychiatric unit or perinatal unit, as specified. The bill would require the health facility to conduct at least one noticed public hearing within 60 days of providing public notice of the proposed elimination of the inpatient psychiatric unit or perinatal unit and would require the health facility to accept public comment. The bill would require the health facility to post the public hearing notice and the agenda along with the public notice. The bill would require the health facility holding the public hearing to meet prescribed requirements, including notifying the board of supervisors of the county in which the health facility is located when a public hearing is scheduled and inviting the board of supervisors to provide testimony on the impacts of the elimination of the services to the county and community health systems. 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 establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, and the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, as the 3 segments of public postsecondary education in the state. Existing law requires the California State University, on or before December 1 of each year, to submit a report to the Legislature on the investigations and outcomes of sexual harassment reports and formal sexual harassment complaints, and to post the annual reports on its internet website, as provided. This bill would instead require the California State University, on or before December 1 of each year, to submit a report to the Legislature that provides a summation of the activities undertaken by each campus and by the systemwide Title IX office to ensure campus programs and activities are free from sex discrimination, and would revise the content of the report, as provided. The bill would additionally require the California Community Colleges, on or before December 1, 2026, and on or before December 1 every 3 years thereafter, and request the University of California, on or before December 1, 2026, and on or before each December 1 thereafter, to submit an analogous report to the Legislature that provides a summation of the activities undertaken by each district or campus, as applicable, and by each systemwide Title IX office, to ensure campus programs and activities are free from sex discrimination, as provided. The bill would require the office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, and request the University of California, to post certain annual reports on their respective internet websites. The bill would require the California State University, and request the University of California, to present each report during a public meeting of the trustees or the regents, as applicable. This bill would require, on or before September 1, 2026, and on or before each September 1 thereafter, the governing board of each community college district to prepare and submit to the chancellor's office a report on the activities undertaken by each community college district to ensure campus programs and activities are free from sex discrimination, as provided. The bill would require each community college district to post the annual reports on its internet website and to present each report during a public meeting of the governing board of the community college district. By imposing new requirements on community college districts, 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.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care. Existing law exempts a health care service plan from the requirements of the act if the plan is operated by a city, county, city and county, public entity, political subdivision, or public joint labor management trust that satisfies certain criteria, including that the plan requires providers to be reimbursed solely on a fee-for-service basis. Existing law authorizes the Director of the Department of Managed Health Care, no later than May 1, 2021, to authorize 2 pilot programs, one in northern California and one in southern California, under which providers approved by the department may undertake risk-bearing arrangements with a voluntary employees' beneficiary association (VEBA) with enrollment of more than 100,000 lives, notwithstanding the fee-for-service requirement described above, or a trust fund that is a welfare plan and a multiemployer plan with enrollment of more than 25,000 lives, for independent periods of time beginning no earlier than January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2025, inclusive, if certain criteria are met. Existing law requires the association or trust fund and each health care provider participating in each pilot program to report to the department information regarding cost savings and clinical patient outcomes compared to a fee-for-service payment model, and requires the department to report those findings to the Legislature no later than January 1, 2027. Existing law repeals these provisions on January 1, 2028. This bill would instead authorize the director to authorize one pilot program in southern California, under which providers approved by the department may undertake risk-bearing arrangements with a VEBA, as specified above, if certain criteria are met. The bill would extend that repeal date to January 1, 2030. The bill would extend the period of time authorized for the pilot program to operate from December 31, 2025, to December 31, 2027. The bill would extend the deadline for the department to report the findings to the Legislature from January 1, 2027, to January 1, 2029.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies to provide coverage for certain services and treatments, including medical transportation services. Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services, including emergency medical transport. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law, until January 1, 2031, authorizes a local emergency medical services (EMS) agency to develop a community paramedicine or triage to alternate destination program that, among other things, provides case management services to frequent EMS users or triage paramedic assessments, respectively. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after July 1, 2025, to establish a process to reimburse for services provided by a community paramedicine program, a triage to alternate destination program, and a mobile integrated health program, as defined. The bill would require those contracts and policies to require an enrollee or insured who receives covered services from a noncontracting program to pay no more than the same cost-sharing amount that they would pay for the same covered services received from a contracting program. The bill would prohibit reimbursement rates adopted pursuant to this provision from exceeding the health care service plan's or health insurer's usual and customary charges for services rendered. Because a willful violation of these provisions by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also make services provided by these programs covered benefits under the Medi-Cal program. The bill would condition this Medi-Cal coverage on an appropriation, receipt of any necessary federal approvals, and the availability of federal financial participation. 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 allows a local authority to establish parking meter zones and fix the rate of fees for those zones by ordinance. Existing law prohibits a local authority from requiring payment of parking meter fees by a mobile device, as specified. This bill would instead authorize, until January 1, 2033, in the City and County of San Francisco, City of Long Beach, and City of Santa Monica, a local authority to require payment of parking fees by a mobile device, if it meets certain requirements, such as adopting an accessible and equitable parking cash payment plan that does not utilize parking meters or payment centers in parking payment zones to provide reasonably accessible alternative means for payment of parking fees using cash. The bill would also authorize the local authority in the City and County of San Francisco, City of Long Beach, and City of Santa Monica to operate the above-described parking zones for 5 years following the date of creation, in each of the respective entities, of the first mobile device parking payment zone, or until January 1, 2033, whichever is sooner. The bill would specify that a civil fine for parking in a zone that requires payment by mobile device and lacks a parking meter is 12 of the civil fine for failing to pay for metered parking. The bill would require a local authority to consult with specified stakeholders in the development of the plan and would require a local authority that adopts a plan and implements a mobile device parking payment zone to provide to its governing body and the Legislature a specified evaluation of the impact of all mobile device parking payment zones implemented by the local authority on equity, accessibility, and costs.
The California Building Standards Law requires a state agency that adopts or proposes adoption of a building standard to submit the building standard to the California Building Standards Commission for approval and adoption. Existing law makes the commission responsible for the publication of an updated edition of the California Building Standards Code every 3 years. Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to propose to the commission the adoption, amendment, or repeal of building standards for, among other things, the installation of recycled water systems for newly constructed single-family residential and multifamily residential buildings, as specified. This bill would require the department to review current building standards, conduct research, and develop recommendations regarding building standards for the installation of rainwater catchment systems for nonpotable uses in newly constructed residential dwellings and would authorize the department to propose related building standards to the commission for consideration, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to expend moneys from the Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund for the above-described purposes, upon appropriation by the Legislature, as specified. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2027, to provide a report to specified committees of the Legislature regarding the outcomes of its research and the recommendations developed.
Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, requires the State Water Resources Control Board to administer provisions relating to the regulation of drinking water to protect public health. Existing law requires the state board to adopt a definition of microplastics in drinking water and to adopt a standard methodology to be used in the testing of drinking water for microplastics and requirements for 4 years of testing and reporting of microplastics in drinking water, including public disclosure of those results. This bill would require the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to study the health effects of microplastics in drinking and bottled water to evaluate toxicity characteristics and levels of microplastics in water that are not anticipated to cause or contribute to adverse health effects, or to identify data gaps that would need to be addressed to establish those levels. The bill would require OEHHA to provide biennial status updates, and post a final report on its internet website. The bill would authorize the State Water Resources Control Board, after taking into consideration the findings of the report, to request that OEHHA prepare and publish a public health goal for microplastics in drinking water, as specified.
Existing law imposes various business practice restrictions on a food delivery platform, defined as an online business that acts as an intermediary between consumers and multiple food facilities to submit food orders from a consumer to a participating food facility, and to arrange for the delivery of the order from the food facility to the consumer. This bill would expand the definition of a food delivery platform to cover the completion of those deliveries and to include beverage orders, as provided. Existing law prohibits a food delivery platform from arranging for the delivery of an order from a food facility without first obtaining an agreement with the food facility expressly authorizing the food delivery platform to take orders and deliver meals prepared by the food facility. This bill would require a food delivery platform to provide to a food facility a mechanism to, among other things, remove the food facility, as specified, from the platform within 3 business days of receiving a request to be removed from the platform. The bill would require a food delivery platform to inform a food facility, before signing an agreement, of the fees charged by the food delivery platform for each service plan offered and the features included in each service plan, as applicable. Among other changes, the bill would also require a food delivery platform to inform a food facility of any change to the agreement deemed material and applicable to the food facility. Existing law prohibits a food delivery platform from charging a customer a purchase price for food or beverage that is higher than the price posted on the food delivery platform's internet website by the food facility at the time of the order. Existing law requires a food delivery platform to disclose to the customer and to the food facility a cost breakdown of each transaction, as described. Existing law requires the cost breakdown to include, among other information, the purchase price of the food and beverage and any tip or gratuity. Existing law defines "purchase price" as the price, as listed on the menu, for items contained in an online order and excludes from this definition the taxes or gratuities that make up the total amount charged to the customer of an online order. This bill would also exclude from the definition of "purchase price" fees and commissions that may make up the total amount charged to the customer of an online order. The bill would revise the above-described requirement to disclose the cost breakdown by, among other things, limiting the tip or gratuity disclosure requirement to those tips or gratuities that are payable to the delivery driver or food facility. The bill would require a food delivery platform to disclose clearly and regularly to the food facility and the customer the status of the order, as specified.
Existing federal law, known as Title IX, prohibits a person, on the basis of sex, from being excluded from participation in, being denied the benefits of, or being subject to discrimination, which includes sexual harassment, under, any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. The Donahoe Higher Education Act establishes the California Community Colleges under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the California State University under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, and the University of California under the administration of the Regents of the University of California as the 3 segments of public postsecondary education in the state. A portion of the Donahoe Higher Education Act, known as the Equity in Higher Education Act, requires, among other things, each postsecondary educational institution in the state to have a written policy on sexual harassment, including information on the complaint process and the timeline for the complaint process, as provided. This bill would require the California State Auditor, on or before September 1, 2026, and every 3 years thereafter, until January 1, 2036, to report the results of an audit of the ability of the California State University and the University of California to address and prevent sexual harassment on campus, and would require the findings of those audits to be reported to specified legislative committees, as provided. The bill would require the audits to, among other things, evaluate the systemwide policies and practices on sexual harassment and determine whether the policies and practices are consistent with federal and state law and best practices. This bill would require the California State Auditor, on or before September 1, 2028, and every 5 years thereafter, until January 1, 2044, to report the results of an audit of a sample of no less than 3 community college districts, and would require the findings of those audits to be reported to specified legislative committees, as provided. The bill would require the audits to, among other things, evaluate whether each community college district's policies and practices are adequate to detect, address, and prevent the reoccurrence of sexual harassment.
