Existing law provides that a person who solicits or agrees to engage in or engages in any act of prostitution is guilty of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for no more than 6 months, by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment. Existing law also provides for increased minimum terms of imprisonment for a violation of that provision when a person has previously been convicted of soliciting or agreeing to engage in or engaging in any act of prostitution. Existing law defines prostitution to include any lewd act between persons for money or other consideration. This bill would authorize the court to impose a fine of not less than $500, and not more than $2,000, except as specified, on a defendant if the defendant agreed to provide, provided, or solicited another to accept money or other consideration for any lewd act. The bill would require that 75% of the moneys collected from that fine be retained by the county and used to fund shelter, counseling, and other direct services and exit programs for victims of commercial sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.
Existing law, the Gambling Control Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of various legalized gambling activities and establishments by the California Gambling Control Commission and the investigation and enforcement of those activities and establishments by the Department of Justice. Existing law prohibits a person, whether or not for gain, hire, or reward, from making a betting pool or placing a bet or wager on the result of any contest or event, including a sporting event, as specified. This bill would enact the Internet Fantasy Sports Games Consumer Protection Act, which would require a person or entity to apply for, and receive, a license from the department prior to offering an Internet fantasy sports game for play in California. The bill would require the department to issue a license to a person or entity that applies for a license if the person or entity satisfies specified requirements, including, among others, that the applicant is of good character, honesty, and integrity. The bill would also require a person to register with a "licensed operator" prior to participating in an "Internet fantasy sports game" on an "authorized Internet Web site," as those terms are defined. The bill would prohibit a licensed operator from offering an Internet fantasy sports game based on a collegiate sports or athletic event, or any other sports or athletic event in which amateur athletes participate. The bill would require a licensed operator, among other things, to ensure that a registered player is eligible to play on an authorized Internet Web site, and to implement appropriate data security standards to prevent access by a person whose age and location have not been verified. The bill would authorize the department to assess a civil penalty against a licensed operator that violates these provisions according to a specified schedule depending on the number of violations. The bill would require the department to develop an online self-exclusion form on or before July 1, 2017, and to deliver that form to each licensed operator, and would require each licensed operator to make that form available to its registered players. The bill would also require a licensed operator to, among other things, hold the funds in a registered player's account in trust for that registered player. The bill would prohibit a licensed operator from engaging in certain activities, including, among other things, from allowing a registered player to establish more than one account or user name on its authorized Internet Web site, from issuing credit to a registered player, from advertising in publications or other media that are aimed exclusively or primarily at persons under 21 years of age, and from depicting persons under 21 years of age, students, or school or college settings in its advertisements. The bill would also prohibit an officer, director, principal, employee, or contractor of a licensed operator from engaging in certain activities, including, among other things, from playing an Internet fantasy sports game offered by a licensed operator. The bill would require a licensed operator to pay an annual regulatory fee, for deposit into the Fantasy Sports Fund, which the bill would establish in the State Treasury. The bill would continuously appropriate the Fantasy Sports Fund to the department for the reasonable costs of license oversight, consumer protection, state regulation, and other purposes related to the bill. The bill would require each licensed operator to pay a one-time license fee into the General Fund in an unspecified amount. The license fee would be credited against quarterly fees equivalent to an unspecified percentage of the licensed operator's gross income that is attributable to the operation of an authorized Internet Web site in California. The bill would make proprietary information provided by a licensed operator confidential in order to protect the licensed operator and to protect the security of an authorized Internet Web site. The bill would also prohibit a city, county, or city and county from regulating, taxing, or entering into a contract with respect to, any matter governed to the bill's provisions, and would make conforming changes. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law creates the Local Agency Investment Fund, a trust fund in the custody of the Treasurer, in which local governments and other specified governmental entities may deposit, for investment, moneys that are not required for immediate needs. Existing law authorizes the Treasurer, with the advice of the Local Investment Advisory Board, to invest the moneys in the fund. Existing law requires the board to be made up of 5 members, including the Treasurer or his or her representative, 2 members appointed by the Treasurer who are experienced in the field of investment, and 2 members appointed by the Treasurer who are treasurers, finance or fiscal officers, or business managers employed by a county, city or local district, or municipal corporation of this state. Existing law establishes that the term of office of each appointed member of the board is 2 years. This bill would extend the term of each of the appointed members of the board to 3 years. The bill would also make several nonsubstantive changes. (2) Existing law creates the Pooled Money Investment Board and authorizes it to determine whether any money on deposit in the State Treasury, with specified exceptions, is not necessary for immediate use and to designate that money as "surplus money." Existing law requires transfer of this surplus money to the Surplus Money Investment Fund and requires that the moneys be invested by the Treasurer in specified eligible investment vehicles. Existing law creates the Local Agency Investment Fund, a trust fund in the custody of the Treasurer, in which local governments and other specified governmental entities may deposit, for investment, moneys that are not required for immediate needs. Existing law authorizes the Treasurer, with the advice of the Local Investment Advisory Board, to invest the moneys in the fund in specified securities that are eligible for the investment of surplus state funds. This bill would create the Intermediate and Long Term Investment Fund to receive voluntary deposit of funds by a governmental entity so that those funds may benefit from the intermediate or long-term investments authorized by this bill. The bill would, in addition, authorize investment of moneys that are deposited in the Intermediate and Long Term Investment Fund in long-term corporate and government bonds, in gold, and in convertible securities. This bill would establish the Long Term Investment Board. The board would consist of 5 members with the Treasurer as the chair. The Treasurer would select the remaining 4 members, based upon specified criteria, for 2-year terms. The board's primary purpose would be to advise and assist the Treasurer in formulating the investment and reinvestment of moneys in the fund and the acquisition, retention, management, and disposition of investments of the fund. The bill would require the board to submit quarterly and annual reports regarding the performance of the investments in the fund to the Legislature and to the Department of Finance.
The Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act defines and regulates common interest developments that are not a commercial or industrial common interest development. The act requires a common interest development to be managed by an association, requires the association to select one or 3 independent 3rd parties as an inspector or inspectors of elections, and generally requires the association's elections regarding assessments legally requiring a vote, the election and removal of directors, amendments to the governing documents, or the grant of exclusive use of common area, to be conducted by the inspector or inspectors of elections in accordance with specified rules and procedures. The act excepts from these election requirements an election of directors if the governing documents of the association provide that one member from each separate interest is a director. This bill would additionally except from those election requirements an election of directors if the election is uncontested, as defined, and would provide a procedure for an election to be declared as uncontested. The bill adds 2 additional election requirements that would ensure an announcement of an election and notification of nomination procedures is provided in a specific manner and would ensure a member who meets specified qualification requirements is not denied the right to vote or the right to be a candidate for director. The bill would authorize a cause of action alleging a violation of these and other specified election requirements to be brought in small claims court if the amount of the demand does not exceed the jurisdiction of that court.
Existing law, as of July 1, 2010, exempts the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, motor vehicle fuel from specified sales and use taxes and increases the excise tax on motor vehicle fuel, as provided. Existing law requires the State Board of Equalization, for the 2011–12 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, on or before March 1 of the fiscal year immediately preceding the applicable fiscal year, to adjust the motor vehicle fuel tax rate in a manner as to generate an amount of revenue equal to the amount of revenue loss attributable to the sales and use tax exemption on motor vehicle fuel, based on estimates made by the board. Existing law also requires, in order to maintain revenue for each year, the board to take into account actual net revenue gain or loss for the fiscal year ending prior to the rate adjustment date. Existing law requires this adjusted rate to be effective during the state's next fiscal year. This bill for the 2016–17 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter would, instead require the board on March 1 of the fiscal year immediately preceding the applicable fiscal year, as specified, to adjust the rate in a manner as to generate an amount of revenue equal to the amount of revenue loss attributable to the exemption, based on estimates made by the board that reflect the combined average of the actual fuel price over the previous 4 fiscal years and the estimated fuel price for the current fiscal year, and continuing to take into account adjustments required by existing law to maintain revenue neutrality for each year.
Existing law authorizes the State Water Resources Control Board to adopt regulations requiring measurement and reporting of water diversion and use by persons including, among others, those authorized to appropriate water under a permit, license, registration for small domestic, small irrigation, or livestock stockpond use, or a certification for livestock stockpond use. This bill would restrict the state board's authorization to adopt regulations requiring measurement and reporting of water diversion and use by persons authorized to appropriate water under a registration or certification to uses that are year-round.
Read. Amended. Adopted. (Page 5513.).
Existing law provides that the Department of Transportation has full possession and control of state highways and associated property. Existing law governs the disposal of excess property not needed for highway purposes upon terms, standards, and conditions established by the California Transportation Commission. This bill, notwithstanding any other provision of law, for purposes of adding certain rental housing units to a proposed residential development project adjacent to a maintenance facility of the department, if a portion of the department's property is immediately contiguous to the development project and is not independently developable, would encourage the department to find that portion of the property to be excess and to sell that portion of the property at fair market value to the owner of the contiguous property, at the owner's request, under certain conditions. The bill would require the determination of fair market value to be determined by an appraiser jointly agreed upon by the department and the contiguous property owner, based on the property's highest and best use. The bill would specify the obligations of the purchaser of the property with respect to the type and amount of residential rental units to be constructed on the acquired property and consistency of the construction with the general plan of the jurisdiction in which the property is located. The bill would require the purchaser of the property to agree to pay for the reconstruction of any existing buildings located on the property being acquired from the department, with the cost of construction to be deducted from the fair market value of the property being acquired. The bill would require the commission to certify compliance with all of the conditions imposed by the bill before the sale of property is finalized. The bill would require the department and the commission to complete any transaction authorized by the bill by January 1, 2020.
Existing law finds and declares that foster parents are one of the most important sources of information about the children in their care and that courts should know, at the earliest possible date, the interest of a caretaker in providing legal permanency for a child. Existing law authorizes the juvenile court to adjudge a minor who has been abused or neglected, or who meets other specified criteria, to be a dependent child of the court. Existing law requires the court to conduct various hearings regarding children who are, or who may become, dependent children. Existing law requires the probation officer or the social worker to provide notice of those hearings to certain persons, including parents, guardians, the child if he or she is 10 years of age or older, adult relatives under certain conditions, and attorneys for the parents or guardians, as specified. This bill would authorize a caregiver, if a foster child is removed from his or her care in order to reunify with his or her parent or guardian, to indicate, in writing, to the child's social worker that he or she is interested in providing and willing to provide care for the child in the future if the child is in need of foster care placement and would require the caregiver to provide contact information, as specified. The bill would also require the probation officer or social worker to provide notice of a hearing, if the probation officer or social worker determines that the child will be retained in custody, to a caregiver who indicated that he or she was interested in providing and willing to provide care for the child in the future. By imposing new duties on probation officers and social workers, the bill would create 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 Political Reform Act of 1974 prohibits mass mailings from being sent at public expense. The act defines "mass mailing" as over 200 substantially similar pieces of mail, not including form letters or other mail, that are sent in response to an unsolicited request, letter, or other inquiry. Existing regulations of the Fair Political Practices Commission add further definitional criteria for mass mailings and specify certain exceptions to the act's prohibition against mass mailings. This bill would prohibit a mass mailing that complies with the Commission's regulatory criteria from being sent within the 90 days preceding an election by or on behalf of a candidate whose name will appear on the ballot for a city, county, or special district elective office. A willful violation of the act's provisions is punishable as a misdemeanor. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandate 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 Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.
The Passenger Charter-Party Carriers' Act generally requires charges for transportation offered or afforded by a charter-party carrier of passengers to be computed and assessed on a vehicle mileage or time-of-use basis, rather than on an individual-fare basis, subject to certain exemptions. This bill would also exempt from these provisions a service operated by a transportation network company or a charter-party carrier of passengers that prearranges a ride among multiple passengers who share the ride in whole or in part, provided that the vehicle seats no more than 7 passengers, not including the driver, is operated by a participating driver, as defined, is not used to provide public transit services or carry passengers over a fixed route, is not used to provide pupil transportation services or public paratransit services, and the fare for each passenger is less than the fare that would be charged to a passenger traveling alone.
The California Constitution requires the reasonable and beneficial use of water and that the conservation of the water resources of the state is to be exercised with a view to the reasonable and beneficial use of the water in the interest of the people and for the public welfare. Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources and designated as subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and requires all other groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2022, except as specified. This bill, by January 1, 2018, would require a city or county overlying a basin designated as a high- or medium-priority basin to establish a process for the issuance of a groundwater extraction permit for the development of a groundwater extraction facility that requires an applicant for a groundwater extraction permit to demonstrate, based on substantial evidence, that extraction of groundwater from a proposed groundwater extraction facility will not contribute to or create an undesirable result, as prescribed. The bill would prohibit a groundwater extraction facility in a high- or medium-priority basin from being developed without a valid groundwater extraction permit, with certain exceptions. The bill would not require a city or county overlying a medium- or high-priority basin to have a process for the issuance of a groundwater extraction permit for the development of a groundwater extraction facility on or after January 31, 2022, or once the department has evaluated a groundwater sustainability plan for the basin the city or county overlies and determined the plan to be adequate and likely to achieve the sustainability goal for the basin, whichever comes first. By increasing the duties of cities and counties, 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.
