Existing law, the Physical Therapy Practice Act, establishes the Physical Therapy Board of California within the Department of Consumer Affairs for the licensure, approval, and regulation of physical therapists and physical therapist assistants. Existing law prescribes specified fees for licenses issued by the board. Existing law authorizes the board to decrease or increase the fee amounts, and establishes specified maximum amounts of license fees. Existing law repeals the board and its authority to employ an executive officer on January 1, 2027. This bill would extend the board's authority to enforce and administer the act and to appoint an executive officer until January 1, 2031. The bill would increase specified fees for licenses issued by the board and would increase the maximum amount to which the board may increase the fees, as specified. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes to those fee provisions. Existing law authorizes a person whose license has been revoked or suspended, or who has been placed on probation, to petition the board for reinstatement or modification of a penalty after a specified period of time has elapsed. Existing law prohibits the board from considering a petition while the petitioner is under sentence for any criminal offense, including any period of court-imposed probation or parole, or while there is an accusation or petition to revoke probation pending against the petitioner. This bill would further prohibit the board from considering a petition if the applicant is required to register as a sex offender, as specified. The bill would except from this prohibition an applicant whose requirement to register as a sex offender is based solely on a misdemeanor conviction. The bill would also prohibit the board from considering a petition if the conduct underlying the petitioner's conviction involved certain sexual misconduct.
Existing law authorizes the Secretary of State to appoint and commission notaries public. Existing law requires a notary public who holds a California notary public commission, when applying for reappointment, to have completed a 3-hour refresher course of study prior to reappointment. This bill would also require the applicant to have satisfactorily completed a written examination prescribed by the Secretary of State, as specified. Existing law establishes the duties of a notary public, which include taking the acknowledgment or proof of specified legal documents, taking depositions and affidavits, administering oaths, and certifying copies of powers of attorney. Existing law requires a notary, in performing these duties, to give a certificate of proof or acknowledgment, endorsed or attached to the instrument, signed by the notary in their own handwriting. This bill would authorize a notary to instead sign with their electronic signature when performing these duties. The bill would require the electronic signature to include an image of the notary public's handwritten signature and would allow that electronic signature to be kept on a storage device or online media that is accessed by the notary public with a secure means of multifactor authentication and protection, as prescribed. Existing law requires the Secretary of State to issue a permit with a sequential identification number to each manufacturer or vendor authorized to issue notary seals, and authorizes the Secretary of State to establish a fee for issuing the permit. This bill would instead require the fee to be $100. Existing law, the Online Notarization Act, establishes a framework for authorizing and regulating online notarizations that become operative after the Secretary of State completes a technology project necessary to implement those provisions no later than January 1, 2030, unless further delayed, as specified. After completion of the technology project, the Online Notarization Act authorizes an applicant for a commission as a notary public to apply for registration with the Secretary of State to perform online notarizations and establishes requirements for application and qualification and for performing online notarizations. The act requires a notary public to record each online notarial act performed by the notary public in one tangible sequential journal and one or more secure electronic journals. The act authorizes a person or entity to apply for registration with the Secretary of State to be an online notarization platform or depository, and establishes requirements for application and for conducting business as an online notarization platform or depository. The Online Notarization Act requires an applicant for registration to perform online notarizations to have satisfactorily completed a specified 2-hour course of study approved by the Secretary of State concerning the functions and duties of a notary public authorized to perform online notarizations. This bill would require the Secretary of State to review the course of study proposed by any vendor to be offered pursuant to those provisions. The Online Notarization Act requires a notary public's electronic signature to include an image of the notary public's handwritten signature. This bill would require the signature to match the notary public's handwritten signature on their official oath, as specified. The Online Notarization Act limits the fee amounts that a notary public may charge for taking the acknowledgment of a deed or other instrument and for administering an oath or affirmation to one person and executing the jurat, as specified. This bill would prohibit a notary public from charging a fee for these services unless the online notarial act is completed. The bill would authorize a notary public to charge a technology fee for a terminated online notarial act session if the termination is due to one of specified reasons, and would limit that fee to the actual and reasonable cost incurred by the notary public for the use of the online notarization platform. The Online Notarization Act requires a person or entity to apply for registration with the Secretary of State to be an online notarization platform or depository on an application for registration that includes specified information. The act authorizes the Secretary of State to charge a fee for an application for registration. This bill would require the person or entity to apply annually thereafter for renewal of registration during the applicable time period, as specified. The bill would authorize an online notarization platform or depository, if there has been no change in the information in the last filed application for registration, to advise the Secretary of State that no changes in the required information have occurred during the applicable filing period. The bill would require an online notarization platform or depository to file an updated application for registration whenever any of the information required in the application is changed, and would require the Secretary of State to charge a fee of $50 to file an updated application. The bill would require the Secretary of State to charge a fee of $5,000 for an initial application for registration and a $1,000 fee for a renewal of registration. The Online Notarization Act requires an online notarization platform or depository, if certain events occur, to notify each notary public that used the online notarization platform or depository at least 30 days before the event, including if the online notarization platform ceases to provide an online notarization system or depository for use within California. This bill would require the online notarization platform or depository to also notify the Secretary of State at least 30 days before those events by submitting the notice electronically through the Secretary of State's web portal. The bill would require the Secretary of State to post information on its internet website demonstrating that a notarization platform or depository is registered with the Secretary of State to perform online notarization, as specified. The bill would make other technical, conforming, and nonsubstantive changes to the provisions regulating notaries public.
Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which is administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, regulates the application for, and issuance and suspension of, alcoholic beverage licenses. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act prohibits a licensee from giving a premium, gift, or free goods in connection with the sale and distribution of any alcoholic beverage, except as provided. This bill would authorize a licensed winegrower, licensed beer manufacturer, licensed distilled spirits manufacturer, licensed craft distiller, licensed brandy manufacturer, licensed rectifier, or licensed wine rectifier to furnish tastes of alcoholic beverages as part of a bona fide market research study undertaken by or for the licensee for the sole purpose of measuring consumer perceptions with respect to the sensory characteristics of the alcoholic beverages. The bill would authorize the taste testing to be conducted in the state, subject to specified conditions, including, among other things, prohibiting a taste testing participant from being provided more taste samples than is reasonably necessary to formulate an opinion related to the sensory characteristics of an alcoholic beverage. This bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2032.
The Outdoor Advertising Act regulates placement of advertising displays adjacent to and within specified distances of highways that are part of the national system of interstate and defense highways and federal-aid highways. The act prohibits a person, as defined, from placing an advertising display within the areas affected by the act without a permit. The act prohibits the Department of Transportation from denying or delaying the acceptance of a permit application for a new advertising display along a portion of a new alignment of an interstate or primary highway on the basis that the highway project has not been accepted as complete if the section of highway is open to the use of the public for vehicular travel within 1,000 feet of the location specified in the permit application. This bill would also prohibit the department from denying or delaying the review, processing, or determination of a permit application described above. The act prohibits, except as provided, placing or maintaining an advertising display on property adjacent to a portion of a freeway that has a specified coverage area of landscaping or trees at the same or elevated grade of the main-traveled way, as provided. The act authorizes removal of an advertising display that violates that prohibition, as provided. This bill would instead authorize the removal with payment of compensation, or relocation without payment of compensation, of an advertising display that violates that prohibition, as specified. The act does not prohibit a local governmental entity from entering into an agreement to relocate an advertising display for any purpose. The act requires the department to issue a permit without any additional consideration for a display that is being placed pursuant to a relocation agreement with another governmental entity, as provided. This bill would instead not prohibit any governmental entity from entering into a relocation agreement and would require the department to issue a permit, without any additional consideration and without requiring a local entity or state agency to pay compensation, for a display that is being placed pursuant to a relocation agreement with another governmental entity, as specified.
The Housing Authorities Law establishes a housing authority within each county and city and authorizes the authority to, among other things, prepare, carry out, acquire, lease, and operate housing projects and housing developments for persons of low income, as provided. This bill would, unless required by federal law, and except as specified, prohibit a housing authority or other covered housing provider, as defined, from establishing or implementing any rules, policies, or procedures that impose term limits or work requirements, as defined, as a condition of eligibility for any covered housing or that impact the amount of the rent subsidy or assistance provided to covered housing tenants. The bill would, however, permit a covered housing provider to establish or implement a voluntary employment or job training program if specified conditions apply. The bill would provide that its provisions do not limit or alter the operation of specified federal housing programs and requirements.
Existing law establishes a statewide compromise of arrears program pursuant to which the Department of Child Support Services may accept offers in compromise of child support arrears and interest accrued thereon owed to the state for reimbursement of aid paid pursuant to the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids Act. Existing law provides that if an obligor owes current child support, the offer in compromise shall require the obligor to be in compliance with the current support order for a set period of time before any arrears and interest accrued thereon may be compromised. Existing law grants the administrator of a local child support agency the authority to compromise an amount of child support arrears of up to $5,000. Existing law makes a determination that it would not be in the best interest of the state to accept or rescind an offer in compromise in satisfaction of child support arrears final and not subject to specified complaint resolution processes or subject to judicial review. This bill would instead provide that the offer in compromise may require the obligor to be in compliance with the current support order for a set period of time before any arrears and interest accrued thereon may be compromised. This bill would increase the existing authority to compromise an amount of child support arrears to $10,000. The bill would delete the above-described provision related to final determinations. The bill would, beginning July 1, 2027, require the department, in consultation with stakeholders, to promulgate regulations to implement uniform forms, standards, procedures, and notice and reporting requirements to ensure the uniform operation of the compromise of arrears program, as specified. Among other things, the bill would prohibit the uniform application from requiring the applicant to make an offer of repayment and would require the application to notify the applicant of their right to use a complaint resolution and state hearing process, as specified. The bill would require each local child support agency to include information about the compromise of arrears program on its internet website, as specified, and require the department to include in its regulations timeframes for program notices and procedures that ensure that the total time in between when an applicant submits an application and receives a final determination is no more than 180 days. The bill would require uniform eligibility and repayment standards and would require the establishment of reporting requirements to allow the department to evaluate the uniformity and effective of the program. By increasing the duties of local child support agencies, 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 establishes the Department of Consumer Affairs under the direction of the Director of Consumer Affairs and sets forth its powers and duties relating to the administration of the various boards under its jurisdiction that license and regulate various professions and vocations. Existing law requires those boards to expedite, and authorizes them to assist, the initial licensure process for an applicant who supplies satisfactory evidence to the board that the applicant has served as an active duty member of the Armed Forces of the United States and was honorably discharged. This bill would extend that requirement and authorization to also include members who were discharged or received a discharge solely as a result of a specified executive order. The bill would extend the requirement and authorization for the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Board, commencing June 1, 2027. The bill would make additional conforming changes. Existing law requires the department, subject to an appropriation by the Legislature, to establish the Veteran's Military Discharge Upgrade Grant Program to help fund service providers who, for free or at low cost, will educate veterans about discharge upgrades and assist veterans in filing discharge upgrade applications, as specified. Existing law authorizes the department to prioritize veteran recipients of the services, such as prioritizing those who are able to demonstrate their less than honorable characterization of service was connected to a mental health condition, traumatic brain injury, sexual assault or harassment, or sexual orientation. This bill would instead require the program to help fund service providers who will educate veterans on the above-described services at no cost. The bill would additionally require the department to prioritize veteran recipients, regardless of discharge status, who are able to demonstrate that their less than honorable characterization of service was connected to a behavioral health condition, traumatic brain injury, sexual assault or harassment, or sexual orientation or who are able to demonstrate their characterization of service was connected to gender identity. This bill would additionally require the department, subject to an appropriation by the Legislature, to establish the Veteran's Housing and Supportive Services Grant Program to help fund service providers who, for at no cost, will provide housing supports for veterans. The bill would require the department to develop criteria, procedures, and accountability measures as may be necessary to implement the grant program, and to prioritize veteran recipients, regardless of discharge status, who are able to demonstrate their less than honorable characterization of service was connected to a behavioral health condition, traumatic brain injury, sexual assault or harassment, or sexual orientation or who are able to demonstrate their characterization of service was connected to gender identity.
Existing law prohibits a city, county, city and county, or public agency from approving or signing a deed, instrument, or other document related to a conveyance of land or issuing a permit for the building or reuse of existing buildings by any private corporation, contractor, or vendor to house or detain noncitizens for purposes of civil immigration proceedings, unless the city, county, city and county, or public agency has given notice to the public of the proposed conveyance or permitting action at least 180 days before execution of the conveyance or permit and solicited and heard public comments on the proposed conveyance or permit action in at least 2 separate meetings open to the public. This bill would revise and recast those provisions to prohibit a city, county, city and county, or public agency from approving or executing, among other documents, any document signifying the public entity's approval for the building or reuse of existing buildings by any private corporation, contractor, or vendor to house or detain a person for purposes of civil immigration custody before the public entity has given notice to the public of the proposed action 180 days before execution or approval of the proposed action, promptly provided access to any documents related to the proposed action, as provided, and solicited and heard public comments on the proposed action in at least 2 separate meetings open to the public. The bill would prescribe the contents, the posting and publication, and the broadcast of the public notice. The bill would also prescribe the conduct of the meetings. The bill would make these provisions apply to a charter city and independently to a public entity. 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 establishes a minimum wage for all industries and imposes criminal penalties for violation of these wage provisions. Existing law authorizes the Labor Commissioner to collect due and unpaid wages or benefits on behalf of workers. Under existing law, the commissioner acts as trustee and deposits collected wages and benefits into the Industrial Relations Unpaid Wage Fund, which is continuously appropriated for the purpose of remitting the collected wages or benefits. This bill would require the minimum hourly wage for an approved agricultural employee and corresponding employee, as defined, to be $19.75 per hour. Commencing January 1, 2027, and each January thereafter, the bill would require the above-described minimum hourly wage to be adjusted by an amount equal to the cost-of-living adjustment for social security benefits, as specified. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. By increasing the revenue to the Industrial Relations Unpaid Wage Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, and expanding the purposes for which moneys in that fund may be used, the bill would make an appropriation. 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.
(1) Existing law establishes a registration fee and a renewal fee for vessels, and imposes an additional fee, known as the invasive mussel infestation prevention fee, on a vessel required to pay the registration fee or renewal fee, as provided. Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a vessel an invasive mussel infestation prevention sticker to the vessel owner upon payment of the invasive mussel infestation prevention fee. Existing law authorizes a vessel operator to be issued a citation for operating a vessel or a recreational vessel in nonmarine waters without a valid state-issued invasive mussel infestation prevention sticker. This bill would exempt from that provision relating to citations a person who operates a vessel or recreational vessel on the waters of Lake Tahoe or Topaz Lake if the vessel is registered in the State of Nevada, the State of Nevada has a program in effect for the management of aquatic invasive species, and the vessel displays a current aquatic invasive species decal issued by the State of Nevada. (2) The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act requires the Department of Water Resources to categorize each groundwater basin as high-, medium-, low-, or very low priority, as specified. Existing law requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the department to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans. The act requires that, any time the department updates certain water basin boundaries pursuant to a specified provision, the department reassess the prioritization of basins, as prescribed. This bill would instead require the department, any time the department updates those boundaries, to reassess the prioritization of groundwater basins for which boundary changes have been made, and would require the department on or before January 1, 2035, and not less than every 10 years thereafter, to review, and determine, whether a reprioritization of all groundwater basins is warranted. (3) This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes. (4) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for Lake Tahoe and Topaz Lake.
Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to administer the state prison system under the direction of the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Existing California constitutional provisions grant the department the authority to award credits earned for good behavior and approved rehabilitative or educational achievements in order to enhance public safety, improve rehabilitation, and avoid the release of prisoners by federal court order. This bill, the Second Chance Sports Act, would, until January 1, 2036, require the department to formalize, in consultation with specified individuals and organizations, a policy on organized sports programming. The bill would authorize the department to solicit and accept proposals and negotiate and enter into agreements with specified entities for the purposes of expanding access to sports programming as described above. The bill would establish the Second Chance Sports Fund within the State Treasury. The bill would require the department to seek advisement from the Legislature on the priorities for utilizing the moneys in the fund. The bill would make funds available, upon appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act, for the above-described purposes. The bill would require the Controller, on or before January 1, 2029, and annually thereafter, to provide a report to the Legislature on the amounts deposited into the fund. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
(1) The California Coastal Act of 1976, among other things, establishes the California Coastal Commission and provides for the planning and regulation of development in the coastal zone, as defined. The act generally requires each local government, as specified, to prepare a local coastal program for certification by the commission, however, the act authorizes any local government to request the commission to prepare the local coastal program for the local government, as provided. The act generally prohibits, after certification of a local coastal program and all implementing actions within the affected area, the commission from exercising its coastal development permit review authority over any new development within the area to which the certified local coastal program, or any portion thereof, applies. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2029, the City of Santa Monica to submit to the commission a proposed, complete local coastal program for the city's portion of the coastal zone. By creating a new duty for the City of Santa Monica, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the commission to act within 6 months of receipt of the proposed, complete local coastal program, unless an extension is requested by the city. The bill would also require the commission, within 45 days of receipt of the proposed, complete local coastal program, to provide the city, in writing, a list of identified issues, if any, that require further refinement through suggested modifications for the local coastal program, as provided, and would require the city and the commission to coordinate expeditiously and in good faith to reach agreement on any suggested modifications within 6 months of receipt of the submitted complete proposal. If the commission fails to act on the city's complete, proposed local coastal program within 6 months of receipt of a submitted complete proposal, as provided, the bill would require the commission to provide quarterly, written updates to the Legislature describing, among other things, the reason for the delay. (2) Existing law prohibits an application by a local government to convert an existing motorized vehicle lane into a dedicated bicycle lane, dedicated transit lane, or a pedestrian walkway from being required to include a traffic study for the processing of either a coastal development permit or an amendment to a local coastal program. Existing law requires, if a proposal to convert an existing motorized vehicle travel lane into a dedicated bicycle lane, dedicated transit lane, or a pedestrian walkway within the developed portion of an existing road right-of-way requires an amendment to a local coastal program, that the amendment be processed in accordance with the procedures applicable to de minimus local coastal program amendments if the executive director of the commission makes specified determinations. This bill would require, if a proposal to convert part or all of a developed portion of an existing road right-of-way into a bicycle right-of-way, transit right-of-way, pedestrian walkway, or combination thereof requires an amendment to a local coastal program, that the amendment be processed in accordance with the procedures applicable to de minimus local coastal program amendments if the executive director determines that, on balance, the project will provide commensurate or enhanced public access to the coast. For an application for a coastal development permit to convert part or all of the developed portion of an existing road right-of-way that is not a state highway into a bicycle right-of-way, transit right-of-way, pedestrian walkway, or combination thereof, the bill would require the permit requirement be waived if the executive director determines that, on balance, the project will provide commensurate or enhanced public access to the coast. The bill would, until December 31, 2032, require, on or before January 31 of each year, the commission to post on its internet website and transmit to the Legislature a report that includes, among other things, the total number of applications received for a coastal development permit to convert part or all of the developed portion of an existing road right-of-way that is not a state highway into a bicycle right-of-way, transit right-of-way, pedestrian walkway, or combination thereof, as provided. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City of Santa Monica. 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.
