Existing law requires an operator of a store, as defined, to establish an at-store recycling program that provides to customers the opportunity to return clean plastic carryout bags to that store. Existing law imposes various requirements on at-store recycling programs, including requiring a store to maintain records describing the collection, transport, and recycling of plastic carryout bags collected by the store. Under existing law, the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (department) administers laws related to waste management. This bill would, on and after July 1, 2011, prohibit a store, as defined, from providing a single-use carryout bag to a customer unless the store charges a fee of not less than $0.25 per bag at the point of sale. The bill would exempt certain customers from paying the fee. The bill would establish the Bag Pollution Fund in the State Treasury and would require a store to remit the single-use carryout bag fees, less a specified amount, to the State Board of Equalization for deposit in that fund. The bill would prohibit a store from distributing a single-use carryout bag that is not a plastic or compostable carryout bag that meets specific requirements. The bill would require the department to administer and enforce the single-use carryout bag provisions and would require the State Board of Equalization to administer the collection of the fees imposed on those bags. The moneys in the fund would be required to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, in a specified order of priority, by the department for grants to cities and counties for programs related to single-use carryout bags and reusable bag giveaway programs, by the State Board of Equalization to reimburse its costs associated with collecting the fees, by the department for purposes of implementing the above provisions, and by the department, in consultation with specified state agencies, to develop and implement specified programs related to single-use carryout bags. The bill would expressly prohibit the expenditure of revenues from the fund for activities unrelated to the prevention or reduction of single-use bag pollution. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2014, to submit to the Legislature a report regarding the effectiveness of the above provisions and recommendations to further encourage the use of reusable bags.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, protects and safeguards the right and opportunity of all persons to seek, obtain, and hold employment without discrimination or abridgment on account of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, marital status, sex, age, or sexual orientation. This bill would include "familial status" as an additional basis upon which the right to seek, obtain, and hold employment cannot be denied. The bill would, for employment purposes, define "familial status" as having or providing care for a child, domestic partner, grandchild, grandparent, parent, parent-in-law, sibling, or spouse.
Existing law requires that a court report of adoption be filed with the original record of birth and that these records remain a part of the records of the State Registrar. Existing law provides that vital records related to adoptions, other than a newly issued birth certificate, shall be available only upon the order of the superior court of the county of residence of the adopted child or of the county granting the order of adoption. The order shall not be granted unless a verified petition setting forth facts showing the necessity of the order has been presented to the court and good and compelling cause is shown for granting the order. This bill would require, in a case of medical necessity regarding a serious health condition, as defined, of an adopted person, that the superior court, upon petition, order the State Registrar to provide a copy of the original and unredacted birth certificate of the adoptee to that adoptee, his or her parent or guardian if the adoptee is a minor, or another person who is legally authorized to make decisions regarding health care for the adoptee. The bill would also require, on and after January 1, 2010, the State Registrar to provide, upon receiving a request from an adoptee if the adoption proceedings were completed prior to that date or, with respect to a child who is the subject of adoption proceedings completed on or after January 1, 2010, upon receiving notice that those proceedings are completed, a copy of the original and unredacted birth certificate of an adoptee to that adoptee when the adoptee attains at least 25 years of age, unless a birth parent who is listed on the certificate requests, on a form provided by the State Registrar, that the State Registrar not provide that copy to the adoptee, as specified. The bill would enact different procedures in regard to the notification provided to the birth parent, depending upon whether adoption proceedings for the child were completed prior to, or on or after, January 1, 2010, as specified. The bill would also require that the birth parent of a child for whom adoption proceedings were completed on or after January 1, 2010, who initially signs the form requesting that the State Registrar not provide a copy of the birth certificate to the adoptee, be provided with a second form affording the opportunity to revoke that request, as specified. Notwithstanding these provisions, if the adoptee is 25 years of age or older and both birth parents listed on the adoptee's birth certificate are deceased, as specified, the bill would require the State Registrar to immediately provide a copy of the original and unredacted birth certificate to the adoptee upon request of the adoptee. The bill would require the State Registrar to develop and adopt the forms necessary to implement these provisions. The bill would authorize, only until January 1, 2035, the Office of Vital Records to assess a fee for providing services pursuant to the provisions described above, not to exceed the administrative costs of providing those services.
The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state, and provides various exemptions from the taxes imposed by that law. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to exempt from those taxes the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, manufacturing equipment used in the manufacturing process, as specified.
Existing law requires an employer to provide a reasonable amount of break time for lactation purposes and specifies that the break time, if possible, shall run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee. Under existing law, break time is unpaid if it does not run concurrently with the employee's authorized rest time. Existing law authorizes the Labor Commissioner to issue a citation for the violation of these provisions but exempts the violation from criminal prosecution. This bill would, instead, require an employer to provide a 20-minute paid rest period for lactation purposes during each 4-hour work period, immediately preceding or following the employee's rest period, and would specify that compliance with this requirement does not satisfy or affect an employer's separate obligation to provide a meal or rest period required by statute, an Industrial Welfare Commission order, or a collective bargaining agreement.
Existing law establishes the California State University and its various campuses under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University. Existing law requires the California State University to offer undergraduate and graduate instruction through the master's degree in the liberal arts and sciences and professional education, including teacher education. This bill would authorize the California State University to award the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. The bill would distinguish the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the doctor of philosophy degree offered at the University of California. The bill would require the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program to be designed to enable professionals to earn the degree while working full time, train nurses for advanced practice, and prepare clinical faculty to teach in postsecondary nursing programs. The bill would require initial funding to come from existing budgets, without diminishing the quality of undergraduate programs or reducing enrollment therein. The bill would require the California State University to annually report on the status of the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program, as specified.
Existing law creates the State Teachers' Retirement System to provide specified pension and health benefits for teachers, as defined, and others employed in the state's schools and community colleges. The Teachers' Retirement Board is authorized to determine compensation earnable, as defined, for persons employed on a part-time basis. This bill would state that the Legislature encourages the State Teachers' Retirement System to conduct a study that would examine the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of either creating a new program for part-time instructors or making appropriate modifications to the Defined Benefit Program to more appropriately reflect the career of a part-time instructor.
Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop, and the State Board of Education to adopt, regulations governing the use of behavioral interventions with individuals with exceptional needs receiving special education and related services. This bill would prohibit an educational provider from using physical restraint, as defined, on a pupil who is an individual with exceptional needs for the purpose of coercion, punishment, convenience, or retaliation by staff, or as an extended procedure beyond an immediate emergency, and would specify conditions under which an educational provider would be authorized to use physical restraint. The bill would also prohibit an educational provider from using chemical restraint, as defined, except as otherwise licensed to prescribe and administer medication, or mechanical restraint, as defined.
Existing law, the Mobilehome Residency Law, generally regulates the terms and conditions of tenancies in mobilehome parks. Existing law requires, if a mobilehome space within a mobilehome park is not the principal residence of the homeowner and the homeowner has not rented the mobilehome to another party, that the mobilehome space be exempt from rent control. Existing law requires that, for the purposes of these provisions, a mobilehome be deemed to be the principal residence of a homeowner, except in specified circumstances. This exemption does not apply if the homeowner is unable to rent or lease the mobilehome because the owner or management of the mobilehome park, or the rental agreement, limits or prohibits assignment or subletting. This bill would, instead, apply the above exemption from rent control to a mobilehome located on a space within a mobilehome park that is not the homeowner's principal residence without regard to whether the homeowner has rented the mobilehome to another party, except as specified. The bill would also expand and clarify the basis for determining whether a mobilehome is the homeowner's principal residence and would set forth factors that would constitute sufficient evidence that a mobilehome is not the homeowner's principal residence.
Existing law establishes the California Earthquake Authority, administered under the authority of the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law provides that the authority shall be governed by a 3-member governing board consisting of the Governor, the Treasurer, and the commissioner. The authority is authorized to transact insurance as necessary to sell policies of basic residential earthquake insurance, as specified. This bill would authorize the board to create a program, administered by the authority, to access and dispense federal stimulus dollars for purposes of retrofitting multiunit, soft-story buildings, as specified.