Asm. Buffy Wicks

Existing law regulates the terms and conditions of residential tenancies. Existing law creates various programs for the creation of housing. Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop specifications for the structure, functions, and organization of a housing and community development information system for this state, as specified. This bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to enter into a contract with a contractor to create and administer a rental registry online portal, which would be designed to receive specified information from landlords that both (1) own or operate 5 or more rental dwelling units regarding their residential tenancies and to disseminate this information to the general public and (2) accept rental assistance payments from federal or state funds, or both, provided in response to a federal or state proclamation of a state of emergency related to COVID-19, as specified. The bill would require that the rental registry online portal, and the form necessary to support it, be completed by January 1, 2022, and would require a landlord to submit a rental registry form for each property on or before April 1, 2022. The bill would require landlords, under penalty of perjury, to provide a variety of information regarding the location of rental property, its ownership, and its occupancy, among other things. The bill would require a landlord that completes a rental registry form to receive an Annual Statement of Registration certificate within a reasonable time after completing registration. The bill would also require that the rental registry online portal allow parties other than landlords to submit information, subject to verification by the department before becoming publicly available. The bill would prohibit a landlord from issuing various notices to increase the rent or terminate a tenancy unless the landlord has submitted a form on the rental registry online portal, as specified. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, 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.

Existing law requires the Governor to create the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council and requires the council to, among other things, identify and seek funding opportunities for state entities that have programs to end homelessness. The Personal Income Tax Law allows various deductions in computing the income that is subject to the taxes imposed by that law, including, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, a deduction for a limited amount of interest paid on acquisition indebtedness, as defined, with respect to a qualified residence of the taxpayer. Existing law specifies for these purposes that a qualified residence includes the taxpayer's principal residence and one other residence selected by the taxpayer, as provided. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, would disallow the deduction of acquisition indebtedness with respect to a qualified residence of a taxpayer other than the principal residence. This bill would require the Franchise Tax Board, in consultation with the Department of Finance, to estimate the amount of additional revenue resulting from the above-described modifications made with respect to the calculation of taxable income under the Personal Income Tax Law by this bill and to notify the Controller of that amount, as provided. The bill would require the Controller, upon receipt of these notifications, to transfer an amount equal to the amount determined by the Franchise Tax Board from the General Fund to the Housing and Homeless Response Fund, which the bill would establish. Upon appropriation, the bill would require that moneys in the fund be used to finance immediate and long-term solutions to homelessness informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law requires an act or omission that is punishable in different ways by different laws to be punished under the law that provides for the longest possible term of imprisonment. This bill, instead, would authorize an act or omission that is punishable in different ways by different laws to be punished under either of those provisions.

Existing law, the Gender Tax Repeal Act of 1995 (the act) , prohibits a business establishment from discriminating against a person because of the person's gender with respect to the price charged for services of similar or like kind and specifies that this prohibition does not apply to price differences based specifically upon the amount of time, difficulty, or cost of providing the services. 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, abridgment, or harassment on account of various personal characteristics. Under existing law, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing is responsible for receiving, investigating, conciliating, mediating, and prosecuting complaints alleging violations of specified civil rights. This bill would prohibit a business establishment from discriminating against a person because of a person's gender with respect to the price charged for any 2 consumer products from the same manufacturer that are substantially similar if those products are priced differently based on the gender of the individuals for whose use the products are intended or marketed, as specified. The bill would make the department responsible for receiving, investigating, conciliating, mediating, and prosecuting complaints alleging violations of these provisions.

Existing law establishes various environmental and economic policies. This bill would enact the California COVID-19 Recovery Deal. The bill would make a series of legislative findings and declarations pertaining to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and various economic, environmental, and social conditions in the state. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that the state adopt a policy framework with principles and goals committed to accomplish specified economic, environmental, and social objectives and priorities as part of the state's COVID-19 recovery spending. The bill would state that the Legislature establishes various spending rules for the COVID-19 recovery, including adopting spending measures that prohibit businesses, organizations, or agencies from accepting public funds for any long-term projects that prolong the emission of greenhouses gases or lead to the expansion of fossil fuel projects and ensuring that recovery spending includes specific measures for California populations and communities most negatively impacted by COVID-19.

(1) For purposes of state apportionments to public schools, if the average daily attendance of a school district, county office of education, or charter school during a fiscal year has been materially decreased during a fiscal year because of a specified event, including an epidemic, existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to estimate the average daily attendance in a manner that credits to the school district, county office of education, or charter school the total average daily attendance that would have been credited had the emergency not occurred. This bill would revise the above-described triggering event to be an epidemic, pandemic, or outbreak of infectious disease, and would provide that the various specified triggering events apply to decreases in average daily attendance due to illness, quarantine, social isolation, and social distancing, absences taken as preemptive measures, independent study and distance learning requests, and pupils who are absent due to quarantine, but cannot provide the appropriate documentation. Existing law requires each school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining any kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide for each needy pupil, as defined, one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each schoolday, and authorizes them to use funds made available through any federal or state program the purpose of which includes the provision of meals to a pupil. The Charter Schools Act of 1992 requires a charter school to provide each needy pupil with one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each schoolday, except as provided. This bill would require each school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining any kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to continue to provide each needy pupil with one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each day that, had it not been declared a state of emergency or a major disaster, would have been considered a schoolday, except for family daycare homes that are required to be reimbursed for 75% of the meals served. The bill would require a charter school also to continue to provide each needy pupil with one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each day that, had it not been declared a state of emergency or a major disaster, would have been considered a schoolday. The bill would require meals to be distributed, with an option to deliver to the home of each needy pupil, in a manner that complies with local, state, and federal agency guidelines regarding the declared state of emergency or major disaster. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law establishes a procedure, known as an unlawful detainer action, that a landlord must follow in order to evict a tenant. A tenant is subject to an unlawful detainer action if the tenant continues to possess the property without permission of the landlord in specified circumstances, including when the tenant has violated the lease or rental agreement by defaulting on rent. A landlord commences an unlawful detainer action by filing and serving the defendant with a complaint. The California Emergency Services Act authorizes the Governor to declare a state of emergency, and local officials and local governments to declare a local emergency, when specified conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist, and authorizes the Governor or the appropriate local government to exercise certain powers in response to that emergency. This bill would, during a state-declared state of emergency, establish a moratorium of the collection of rent from a tenant that is a small business and a moratorium on the filing of an unlawful detainer action due to a default in the payment of rent against a small business, as defined. (3) Under the Small Business Financial Assistance Act of 2013, the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, administers specific programs relating to small business, either administered directly by the bank or under contract with small business financial development corporations. This bill would require the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, during a state-declared public health state of emergency or a prolonged medical emergency or natural disaster, to provide zero-interest rate loans directly to small businesses and nonprofit organizations affected by the emergency or disaster, as specified, from the California Small Business Expansion Fund, a continuously appropriated fund. The bill would require the bank to establish an application process and a selection criteria for the loans awarded pursuant to these provisions. (4) Under existing law, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, an employee who, on or after July 1, 2015, works in California for the same employer for 30 or more days within a year from the commencement of employment is entitled to paid sick days, as specified. Existing law requires an employee to accrue paid sick days at the rate of not less than one hour per every 30 hours worked subject to specified use and accrual limitations. This bill, in the event of a state-declared public health state of emergency, including the COVID-19 pandemic, would provide each employee with paid sick days for immediate use, regardless of how long the employee has been employed. The bill would provide a full-time salaried employee paid sick days in an amount sufficient to provide the employee with 14 continuous days away from work, and would provide a part-time or hourly employee with paid sick days in an amount equal to the number of hours that the employee was scheduled to work, or, if not scheduled to work, regularly works in a 14-day period, as specified. The bill would authorize an employee to use those paid sick days to care for a family member affected by the public health crisis, to care for a child because of a school closing related to the public health crisis, or because the employee has been affected by the public health crisis. This bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require the Department of Industrial Relations to establish a program to provide paid sick days for family care and medical leave due to a public health crisis to independent contractors and day laborers. The bill would require the program to provide paid sick days in an amount equal to the number of hours that the independent contractor or day laborer was scheduled to work or, if not scheduled, regularly works in a 14-day period, as specified. The bill would require the department to establish an application process for independent contractors and day laborers to apply for the paid sick days provided under these provisions. (5) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, gas corporations, and water corporations. Existing law prohibits an electrical, gas, or water corporation from terminating residential service (A) during the pendency of an investigation by the utility of a customer or subscriber dispute or complaint, (B) when a customer has been granted an extension of the period for payment of a bill, or (C) on the certification of a licensed physician and surgeon that to do so will be life threatening to the customer and the customer is financially unable to pay for service within the normal payment period and is willing to enter into an amortization agreement with the utility with respect to all charges that the customer is unable to pay prior to delinquency. Existing law requires that a customer that meets the requirements of (C) , upon request, be permitted to amortize, over a period not to exceed 12 months, the unpaid balance of any bill asserted to be beyond the means of the customer to pay within the normal period for payment. Existing law requires that a residential customer who has, before termination of service, made a request for extension of the payment period of a bill asserted to be beyond the means of the customer to pay in full within the normal period for payment, be given an opportunity for review of the request by a review manager of the utility and that the review include consideration of whether the customer will be permitted to amortize any unpaid balance of the delinquent account over a reasonable period of time, not to exceed 12 months. Existing law prohibits termination of the service of any customer complying with an amortization agreement, if the customer also keeps the account current as charges accrue in each subsequent billing period. Existing law authorizes the furnishing of utility services by publicly owned entities that are subject to control by their governing bodies, including municipal corporations, municipal utility districts, and public utility districts. Existing law places restrictions upon a municipal corporation, municipal utility district, or public utility district that provides light, water, power, or heat from terminating service identical to those above-described restrictions that are applicable to electrical, gas, and water corporations. This bill would prohibit an electrical corporation, gas corporation, water corporation, municipal corporation, municipal utility district, or public utility district from terminating residential or small commercial electrical, gas, or water service for nonpayment for the first 3 billing cycles following a state of emergency or major disaster, as defined, for a customer that may have been affected by the emergency or major disaster, except in compliance with the bill's requirements. The bill would require those utilities, following a state of emergency or major disaster, to include a notice in the first 3 billing statements made to those residential and small commercial customers that may have been affected by the state of emergency or major disaster, informing those customers that if, as a result of conditions associated with the state of emergency or major disaster, the customer suffered financially and is unable to pay for service in full within the normal period for payment, the customer may apply for an amortization agreement or other extension, to pay the unpaid balance within a reasonable period of time, not to exceed 12 months. The bill would require the utility to grant an extension or amortization request if the residential or small commercial customer represents to the utility that the customer suffered financially as a result of the conditions associated with the state of emergency or major disaster and that as a result the customer is unable to pay for service in full within the normal period for payment. The bill would prohibit the utility from terminating the service of any customer complying with an amortization agreement or other extension, if the customer also keeps the account current as charges accrue in each subsequent filling period following the first 3 billing statements made following the state of emergency or major disaster. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because certain provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of an order or decision of the commission implementing its requirements with respect to an electrical, gas, or water corporation would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. By placing additional requirements upon municipal corporations, municipal utility districts, and public utility districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (6) The Irrigation District Law authorizes the formation of irrigation districts and authorizes those districts to provide various utility services, including providing water service and the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity for use inside or outside the boundaries of the district. Existing law authorizes an irrigation district to refuse service to any land if outstanding charges for services already rendered to that land have not been paid within a reasonable time. Existing law authorizes the formation of municipal water districts, county water districts, and California water districts and authorizes those districts to adopt ordinances fixing the charges for the furnishing of commodities or services, to enforce district rules or regulations pertaining to the sale or distribution of water, and to petition the superior court for the issuance of an order stopping or disconnecting a service if the charges for that service are unpaid at the time specified in an ordinance, rule, or regulation. This bill would prohibit an irrigation district from terminating residential or small commercial electrical or water service, and would prohibit a municipal water district, county water district, or California water district from terminating residential or small commercial water service for nonpayment for the first 3 billing cycles following a state of emergency or major disaster for a customer that may have been affected by the emergency or major disaster, except in compliance with the bill's requirements, which are identical to the obligations and restrictions that the bill places upon an electrical corporation, gas corporation, water corporation, municipal corporation, municipal utility district, and public utility district. (7) This bill would declare that its provisions are severable. (8) 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Existing law, the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, makes unlawful specified unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices undertaken by any person in a transaction intended to result or which results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer. This bill would provide that, for purposes of specified unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices that a person who provides data, information, and content to a business is a customer in a transaction. This bill would make it an unfair or deceptive practice for an online platform operator to fail to act in accordance with its community guidelines, terms and conditions, content management policies, content management features, or other promises that are presented to users of the online platform, as defined. The bill would also make it an unfair or deceptive practice for an online platform operator to use design, code, or artificial intelligence to modify or manipulate a user interface with the purpose or substantial effect of, among other things, cultivating compulsive usage, as defined, or obscuring, subverting, or impairing user autonomy, decisionmaking, or choice to obtain user data. The bill would require an online platform to provide a public reporting tool to flag instance of banned designs. The bill would require that public reporting tool to contain publically viewable reports. The bill would authorize the Attorney General, at their discretion, to release guidance for compliance.

(1) Existing law creates the Metropolitan Transportation Commission as a local area planning agency for the 9-county San Francisco Bay area with comprehensive regional transportation planning and other related responsibilities. Existing law creates various transit districts located in the San Francisco Bay area, with specified powers and duties relative to providing public transit services. Existing law establishes the Transportation Agency consisting of various state agencies under the supervision of an executive officer known as the Secretary of Transportation, who is required to develop and report to the Governor on legislative, budgetary, and administrative programs to accomplish comprehensive, long-range, and coordinated planning and policy formulation in the matters of public interest related to the agency. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent legislation that would create a transportation network manager for the 9-county San Francisco Bay area to, among other things, integrate all aspects of public transit within the 9-county San Francisco Bay area and provide leadership and accountability in planning, coordinating, and financing the transportation network. The bill would establish a 19-member Bay Area Seamless Transit Task Force to recommend to the Legislature the structure, governance, and funding of the transportation network manager and the organizational structure, governance, and funding for San Francisco Bay area transportation agencies, and other reforms to the San Francisco Bay area's local, regional, and state public agencies, that should be enacted in future legislation to maximize the effectiveness of the public transit system in the San Francisco Bay area. The bill would require the Secretary of Transportation to convene the task force by April 1, 2021. The bill would require the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to provide staffing to the task force to aid it in the performance of its duties, and would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to advise the task force in the performance of its duties. The bill would require the task force to submit a report to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2023, of its findings and recommendations and a summary of its activities. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2027. (2) Existing law requires the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, in coordination with a specified regional transit coordinating council, to adopt rules and regulations to promote the coordination of fares and schedules for all public transit systems within its jurisdiction. This bill would require the commission, in consultation with transit agencies, on or before January 1, 2022, (A) to create standardized discount categories and eligibility requirements for fare discount programs for seniors, students, youth, and other rider categories, and (B) to create a multimodal, multiagency pilot program to implement an accumulator pass that may be used with one regional rail agency and at least one transit agency. The bill would require the regional rail agency and the transit agency or agencies selected to participate in the pilot program to offer the accumulator pass to the public on or before July 1, 2022. The bill would require the commission to prepare a plan, on or before July 1, 2023, to deploy the Clipper card payment system on passenger trains operated on the Capitol Corridor and on passenger trains operated by the Altamont Corridor Express. The bill would require the commission, in the next upgrade to the Clipper card payment system, to enable customers to pay for paratransit, parking at transit stations, and employer and educational institution transit discount programs. The bill would require the commission on or before January 1, 2022, to submit a copy of a specified transit fare study undertaken by the commission to certain committees of the Legislature and the Bay Area Seamless Transit Task Force. The bill would require the commission to submit a report on or before January 1, 2023, to those entities on the progress of implementing the recommendations of that study. (3) Existing law authorizes the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to improve service coordination and effectiveness in specified transit corridors by recommending improvements in those corridors, including the reduction of duplicative service and institution of coordinated service across public transit system boundaries. This bill would require the commission, in consultation with transit agencies, on or before July 1, 2023, to develop a comprehensive, standardized regional transit mapping and wayfinding system and to develop an implementation and maintenance strategy and funding plan for deployment of the system. The bill would require a transit operator in the San Francisco Bay area to use open data standards to make available all routes, schedules, and fares in a specified data format and to track actual transmission of real-time information by transit vehicles and report that information to the commission to ensure that schedule predictions are available. The bill would require the commission to coordinate these activities and to develop an implementation and funding plan for deployment of these capabilities. (4) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The act requires the state board to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. Existing law requires designated regional transportation planning agencies to prepare and adopt a regional transportation plan. Certain of these agencies are also designated under federal law as metropolitan planning organizations. Existing law requires a regional transportation plan to include specified elements, and, if the transportation planning agency is also a metropolitan planning organization, to also include a sustainable communities strategy or alternative planning strategy, which is designed to achieve certain targets for 2020 and 2035 established by the state board for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and light trucks in the region. This bill would require the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to develop and adopt targets for reducing vehicle miles traveled per capita and for increasing the travel mode share of public transit and active modes of transportation in the San Francisco Bay area that are consistent with, or exceed, state climate goals and other goals and standards for improving air quality in the region. The bill would require the commission to develop a comprehensive set of performance indicators for those targets, and would require the commission to annually report to the Transportation Agency and the state board on the progress the region is making towards meeting those targets. The bill would require the commission to establish a capital project development review process on or before January 1, 2023, and, as part of the process to, among other things, specify the project deliverables that will be evaluated to determine if a project is eligible to be included in the regional transportation plan or to receive an allocation of state or regional funds. (5) Existing law authorizes a regional transportation agency or the Department of Transportation to apply to the California Transportation Commission to develop and operate high-occupancy toll lanes or other toll facilities. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2022, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, in partnership with the Department of Transportation and the operators of managed lanes in the San Francisco Bay area, to take specified steps to ensure the regional managed lanes network supports seamless operation of high-capacity transit. (6) By imposing new duties on local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (7) 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 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, the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, independent institutions of higher education, and private postsecondary educational institutions as the segments of postsecondary education in this state. This bill would establish the California Ban on Scholarship Displacement Act of 2020, which would prohibit each public and private institution of higher education that receives, or benefits from, state-funded financial assistance or enrolls students who receive state-funded student financial assistance from reducing a student's institution-based financial aid award below the student's financial need, as specified. The bill would make its provisions severable, as specified.

Existing law grants consumers certain rights in regard to businesses, as defined, that collect personal information about them, including the right to know what information is collected and the right to opt-out of the sale of that information. Existing law prohibits a business from selling personal information of consumers that the business knows are 16 years of age or younger unless that sale is affirmatively authorized. This bill would enact the Kids Internet Design and Safety Act for purposes of keeping children safe and protecting their interests on the internet. The bill would prohibit an operator of a platform directed to children, as defined, from incorporating certain features on any of its platforms, including, but not limited to, an auto-play setting that, without input from a covered user, as defined, commences additional video content directly following the video content initially selected by the user. The bill would prohibit an operator of a platform directed to children, or a platform for which the operator has constructive knowledge that covered users use the platform, from engaging in certain activities, including amplifying, promoting, or encouraging covered users' consumption of videos or other forms of content that involve sexual material or other dangerous, abusive, exploitative, or wholly commercial content. The bill would also prohibit an operator of a platform directed to children from engaging in certain activities, including directing content that includes host-selling, as defined, to covered users. The bill would provide that a violation of the act constitutes unfair competition. This bill would require an operator of a platform to only use age verification information collected from covered users for age verification purposes. The bill would require the Attorney General to promulgate, by January 1, 2026, specified regulations relating to the act, including an annual audit process for purposes of evaluating the level of compliance with the act. The bill would require the annual audit to be conducted for 25 platforms that are directed to children and that have the highest total number of covered users in the past calendar year. The bill would require the first annual audit to be completed by no later than January 1, 2027. The bill would also make related findings and declarations.