This measure would recognize the month of February 2012 as American Heart Month in California and recognize February 3, 2012, as Wear Red Day in California.
The Unruh Civil Rights Act generally prohibits business establishments from discriminating on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, or medical condition. The act provides civil remedies for violations of its provisions. Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, it is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to adopt or enforce a policy that prohibits the use of any language in the workplace, except if that policy is justified by business necessity, as defined, and prescribed notice of the policy and consequences for violation of the policy is given to employees. This bill would make it a violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act to adopt or enforce a policy that requires, limits, or prohibits the use of any language in or with a business establishment, unless the policy is justified by a business necessity, as defined, and notification has been provided to persons subject to the language restriction or requirement of the circumstances and the time when the language restriction or requirement is to be observed and of the consequences for its violation. The bill would define business necessity to require, among other things, that the language restriction or requirement is necessary for the safe and efficient operation of the business and that an equally effective, but less discriminatory, alternative practice does not exist. The bill would provide for an award of damages, and attorney's fees as may be determined by the court, for a violation of its provisions.
This resolution would recognize the month of January 2012, and each following January, as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and it would recognize February 1, 2012, and each following February 1, as California's Free From Slavery Day.
Existing law, the Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act, makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer, as defined, to refuse to grant a request by an eligible employee to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid protected leave during any 12-month period (1) to bond with a child who was born to, adopted by, or placed for foster care with, the employee, (2) to care for the employee's parent, spouse, or child who has a serious health condition, as defined, or (3) because the employee is suffering from a serious health condition rendering him or her unable to perform the functions of the job. Under the act, "child" means a biological, adopted, foster, or stepchild, a legal ward, or a child of a person standing in loco parentis, who is either under 18 years of age or an adult dependent child. The act defines "parent" to mean the employee's biological, foster, or adoptive parent, stepparent, legal guardian, or other person who stood in loco parentis to the employee when the employee was a child. This bill would increase the circumstances under which an employee is entitled to protected leave pursuant to the Family Rights Act by (1) eliminating the age and dependency elements from the definition of "child," thereby permitting an employee to take protected leave to care for his or her independent adult child suffering from a serious health condition, (2) expanding the definition of "parent" to include an employee's parent-in-law, and (3) permitting an employee to also take leave to care for a seriously ill grandparent, sibling, grandchild, or domestic partner, as defined.
Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, restricts the employment of licensed physicians and surgeons and podiatrists by a corporation or other artificial legal entity, subject to specified exemptions. Existing law established, until January 1, 2011, a pilot project to allow qualified district hospitals that, among other things, provide more than 50% of patient days to the care of Medicare, Medi-Cal, and uninsured patients, to employ a physician and surgeon, if the hospital does not interfere with, control, or otherwise direct the professional judgment of the physician and surgeon. The pilot project authorized the direct employment of a total of 20 physicians and surgeons by those hospitals to provide medically necessary services in rural and medically underserved communities. This bill would authorize a health care district, as defined, and a clinic owned or operated by a health care district, as specified, to employ physicians and surgeons if the health care district's service area includes a Medically Underserved Area (MUA) or a Medically Underserved Population (MUP) , or has been federally designated as a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) ; the district board conducts a public hearing and adopts a formal resolution declaring the need for the district to recruit and directly employ one or more physicians and surgeons; and the executive officer of the district provides specified documentation to the Medical Board of California. Upon receipt of that documentation, the bill would require the Medical Board of California to approve the employment of up to 5 primary or specialty care physicians and surgeons by the district, and, upon receipt of additional documentation after that employment, to approve an additional 5 primary or specialty care physicians and surgeons. The bill would provide that a district may, until December 31, 2022, enter into, renew, or extend any employment contract with a physician and surgeon for up to 10 years. The bill would require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, in consultation with the State Department of Public Health and the Medical Board of California, to report to the Legislature by June 1, 2020, with regard to the efficacy of the employment of physicians and surgeons by health care districts, as specified.
(1) Existing law provides for emergency apportionments to school districts subject to specified conditions, including, in certain circumstances, the repayment of an emergency loan and the appointment by the Superintendent of Public Instruction of an administrator who would exercise the powers and responsibilities of the governing board of the school district. As a condition of receiving an emergency apportionment, existing law requires the Controller, or his or her designee, to cause an audit to be conducted on the books and accounts of the school district. Pursuant to these provisions, existing law appropriates $100,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for purposes of providing the Oakland Unified School District with an emergency loan, and requires the Controller to conduct an audit for the fiscal year in which the loan moneys are disbursed and each fiscal year thereafter. This bill would require the Oakland Unified School District to be released from any requirement to be subject to, or to pay for, fines or penalties imposed as a result of those emergency loan audits for the 2003–04 to 2008–09 fiscal years, inclusive. (2) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Oakland Unified School District.
Under existing law, after a person has reached 18 years of age, the person may petition a court to seal all records relating to the person's case in the custody of a juvenile court if he or she has not been subsequently convicted of a felony or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, and if rehabilitation has been attained to the satisfaction of the court. Under existing law, a person may have a conviction for a misdemeanor set aside if the court, in its discretion and the interests of justice, determines that a defendant should be granted relief, provided that the petitioner is not then serving a sentence for any other offense, is not on probation for another offense, and is not being charged with any other offense. This bill would provide that a person who was adjudicated a ward of the court for the commission of a violation of specified provisions prohibiting prostitution may petition a court to have his or her records sealed as pertains to the prostitution offenses without showing that he or she has not been subsequently convicted of a felony or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, or that rehabilitation has been attained, as provided. The bill would provide that a person who was 18 years of age or older, or who was under 18 years of age but was tried as an adult, at the time of a commission of a violation of specified provisions prohibiting prostitution may petition a court to allow the petitioner to withdraw his or her plea of guilty or plea of nolo contender and enter a plea of not guilty, or to have the court set aside the verdict. The bill would require the court to grant the petition if the petitioner has made a satisfactory showing that the violation was a result of the petitioner having been a victim of human trafficking. The bill would provide that the relief provided by the bill would not apply to a person who paid money, or attempted to pay money, to any person for the purposes of prostitution, as specified. The bill would provide that these provisions apply to convictions and adjudications that occurred before and after the effective date of the bill.
Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to assume all the rights, duties, and powers of the governing board of the Oakland Unified School District and to appoint an administrator to act on behalf of the Superintendent in exercising the Superintendent's authority over the school district. Existing law requires the Controller, or his or her designee, to cause an audit to be conducted of the books and accounts of the school district for the fiscal years in which emergency loan moneys are disbursed to the school district. Existing law provides that at the discretion of the Controller, the audit may be conducted by the Controller, his or her designee, or an auditor selected by the county superintendent and approved by the Controller. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would realign the audit penalties and fines assessed on the Oakland Unified School District and authorize the school district to retain an independent audit firm to conduct the school district's annual audit.
