Existing law prohibits an employer from knowingly or intentionally permitting, and a person from engaging in, the smoking of tobacco products in an enclosed space at a place of employment. Existing law provides that "place of employment" for purposes of that prohibition does not include, among other places, patient smoking areas in long-term health care facilities, as defined. Existing law provides that any violation of that prohibition is an infraction, punishable by a fine not to exceed $100 for a first violation, $200 for a 2nd violation within one year, and $500 for a 3rd and for each subsequent violation within one year. This bill would provide that a patient smoking area, as defined, is not a place of employment for purposes of the smoking prohibition described above only if the patient smoking area is not located in a patient's room, is located outdoors in a courtyard, patio, or other outdoor space that can be monitored by facility staff, and is located in an area that reasonably prevents smoke from entering the facility or patient rooms. By limiting the application of the exception for patient smoking areas, the bill would make some of those areas subject to the smoking prohibition, thereby creating an additional crime punishable as an infraction and imposing 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.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, requires the State Department of Social Services to license and regulate community care facilities, including foster family agencies and other facilities that provide foster care services for children. A violation of community care facility provisions is a misdemeanor. Existing law requires the department to develop, and an administrator of a group home facility to complete, a certification program that includes training in various areas, including the rights of foster children. Existing law requires a foster family agency to provide, and a licensed foster parent to complete, preplacement training and additional annual training in various areas, including the rights of foster children. Existing law also requires a community college district with a foster care education program to make orientation and training available to a relative or nonrelative extended family member caregiver, as specified. The bill would require the training for an administrator of a group home facility, licensed foster parent, and relative or nonrelative extended family member caregiver to also include instruction on cultural competency and sensitivity relating to, and best practices for, providing adequate care to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth in out-of-home care. Existing law provides that it is the policy of the state that foster children have specified rights. This bill would provide that foster children also have the right to have caregivers and child welfare personnel who have received instruction on cultural competency and sensitivity relating to, and best practices for, providing adequate care to LGBT youth in out-of-home care.
Existing law authorizes use of the Emergency Alert System to inform the public of local, state, and national emergencies. Existing law requires a law enforcement agency to activate the Emergency Alert System within the appropriate area if that agency determines that a child 17 years of age or younger, or an individual with a proven mental or physical disability, has been abducted and is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death, and there is information available that, if disseminated to the general public, could assist in the safe recovery of that person. This bill would require that if a person is reported missing to a law enforcement agency, and that agency determines that certain requirements are met, including, among others, that the missing person is 65 years of age or older, the law enforcement agency shall request the California Highway Patrol to activate a Silver Alert. The bill would require the California Highway Patrol to activate a Silver Alert upon request if it concurs with the law enforcement agency that specified requirements are met. The bill would require the California Highway Patrol to, upon activation of a Silver Alert, take certain actions to assist the agency investigating the disappearance. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2016.
Existing law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, requires all manufacturers of Asian rice-based noodles to place labels on the Asian rice-based noodles that indicate the date and time of manufacture and include a warning that the Asian rice-based noodles are perishable and must be consumed within 4 hours of manufacture. Existing law prohibits the sale of Asian rice-based noodles unless they have this labeling. Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for retail food facilities, as defined. The law requires the State Department of Public Health to adopt regulations to implement and administer those provisions, and delegates primary enforcement duties to local health agencies. This bill would revise the definition of Asian rice-based noodles, as specified, and require the labels to instead indicate the date and time that the Asian rice-based noodles first came out of hot holding, as specified. This bill would exempt Asian rice-based noodles from these labeling requirements if the Asian rice-based noodles meet specific criteria. Existing law authorizes the sale of Asian rice-based noodles, as defined, that have been at room temperature for no more than 4 hours, and requires that Asian rice-based noodles that have been kept at room temperature be consumed, cooked, or destroyed within 4 hours of manufacture. This bill would require Asian rice-based noodles kept at room temperature to be segregated for destruction after 4 hours of the date and time labeled on the product. This bill would exempt Asian rice-based noodles from the above-described time-temperature requirements if the Asian rice-based noodles meet specific criteria. By imposing new enforcement duties upon local 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law requires the Instructional Quality Commission to recommend curriculum frameworks for adoption by the State Board of Education in accordance with regulations. Existing law defines "curriculum framework" as an outline of the components of a given course of study designed to provide state direction to school districts in the provision of instructional programs. This bill would require the commission and the state board to ensure that the health and science curriculum frameworks adopted in the course of the next submission cycle, as specified, include the subject of organ procurement and tissue donation, as appropriate.
Existing law establishes various programs for measuring pupil achievement, including the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program, the high school exit examination, and English language development testing programs. Existing law requires that each pupil have an individual record of accomplishment by the end of grade 12 that includes the results of specified achievement tests, end-of-course exams, and vocational education certification exams. Existing law requires that pupil results or a record of accomplishment be private, and prohibits the release to any person without express written parental consent, subject to certain exceptions. This bill would require the State Department of Education to provide to a school district that is the chartering authority of a charter school, in accordance with a specified federal law relating to the disclosure of pupil records, individual pupil achievement data, including test results from the STAR Program, high school exit examination, and English language development tests, as well as pupil demographic data and program data, relating to pupils who attend the charter school, except as specified. The bill would require the department to provide this data, to the extent it has the data, along with the unique pupil identification number of each of those pupils, to the school district.
Existing law establishes the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in the state. Existing law authorizes the trustees by rule to require all persons to pay fees, rents, deposits, and charges for services, facilities, or materials provided by the trustees to those persons. This bill would prohibit specified California State University campus-based mandatory fees from being reallocated without an affirmative vote of the majority of the members of either the student body or a specified campus fee advisory committee voting on the fee reallocation, unless the vote that established the fee authorizes an alternative or automatic reallocation mechanism for that fee.
(1) Existing law vests with the Department of Parks and Recreation control of the state park system. Existing law requires the department to achieve any required budget reductions, as defined, by closing, partially closing, and reducing services at selected units of the state park system, based on specified factors. This bill would enact the California State Park Stewardship Act of 2012, which would require the department to develop a prioritized action plan to increase revenues and the collection of user fees at state parks. The bill would require the department to report to the Legislature and the Governor on the prioritized action plan by July 1, 2013. (2) Existing law authorizes the department to enter into an operating agreement with a qualified nonprofit organization for the development, improvement, restoration, care, maintenance, administration, or operation of a unit or units, or portion of a unit, of the state park system, as identified by the Director of Parks and Recreation, as provided. Existing property tax law requires that all property subject to tax be assessed at its full value, and includes certain possessory interests among those property interests subject to tax. The California Constitution exempts certain property from property taxation, including property owned by the state. This bill would provide that a qualified nonprofit corporation that has entered into an agreement with the Department of Parks and Recreation is deemed to be an agent of the state for purposes of property taxation, and that any state-owned property, including possessory interests in that property, used or possessed by the qualified nonprofit organization for the development, improvement, restoration, care, maintenance, administration, or operation of a unit or units, or portion of a unit, of the state park system would be exempt from taxation under the exemption for property owned by the state. (3) Provisions relating to the administration of personal income taxes allow individual taxpayers to contribute amounts in excess of their tax liability for the support of specified funds to be used for specified purposes. This bill would, for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2012, require the Franchise Tax Board to revise the individual taxpayer return form, as specified, to allow a taxpayer to designate an otherwise refundable amount in excess of tax liability to be deposited to the State Parks Protection Fund, which the bill would create. This bill would entitle a taxpayer making a contribution to receive a single state parks day use annual pass from the Department of Parks and Recreation if the price of the pass, as determined by the department, is less than or equal to the amount of the taxpayer's contribution. This bill would require moneys transferred to the State Parks Protection Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be allocated to the Franchise Tax Board and Controller, as provided, and to the Department of Parks and Recreation to cover the costs of the issuance of the passes to taxpayers, and for purposes related to the protection and preservation of state parks. This bill would also allow a deduction under the Personal Income Tax Law for any contribution amount in excess of the price of the pass received, if any. This bill would repeal these voluntary contribution provisions if contributions made on returns would be less than a specified amount, as provided. (4) Existing law provides that it is a misdemeanor for any officer or employee of the state to disclose certain tax information. This bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to provide necessary information, as provided, to the Department of Parks and Recreation so that individuals who deposited amounts equal to or in excess of the price of a state parks day use annual pass can be contacted. By changing the scope of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) 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 establishes procedures regarding the registration of voters. Under existing law, a person may not be registered to vote except by affidavit of registration, and a voter may not vote in an election unless his or her affidavit of registration is executed and received by the county elections official on or before the 15th day prior to the election. Existing law permits any registered voter to vote by a vote by mail ballot, and further permits any voter using a vote by mail ballot to vote the ballot at the office of the elections official beginning 29 days before the election. Existing law requires that the affidavit of registration show facts necessary to establish the affiant as an elector, as specified, and provides that if the affiant has not been issued a current and valid driver's license or social security number, he or she shall be provided a unique identification number for voter registration purposes. This bill would establish conditional voter registration, using an affidavit of registration, whereby a person would be permitted to register to vote after the 15th day prior to an election or on election day, and cast a provisional ballot to be counted if the conditional voter registration is deemed effective. This bill would provide that a conditional voter registration shall be deemed effective if the county elections official is able to determine before or during the canvass period for the election that the registrant is eligible to register to vote and that the registrant has provided information that matches specified state or federal databases. The bill would provide that if the information provided by the registrant cannot be verified by matching the information to those specified state or federal databases and the registrant is otherwise eligible to vote, the registrant shall be issued a unique identification number pursuant to the above-referenced provisions and the conditional voter registration shall be deemed effective. The bill would establish specific criminal and civil penalties for the commission of fraud in the execution of a conditional voter registration pursuant to these provisions. The bill would require the county elections official to offer conditional voter registration and provisional voting at its permanent offices, and would permit the official to offer this registration and voting at satellite offices on election day, in accordance with specified procedures. The bill would also require the county elections official to cancel, as specified, duplicate voter registrations that may arise due to conditional voter registration. The above provisions of the bill would become operative on January 1 of the year following the year in which the Secretary of State certifies that the state has a statewide voter registration database that complies with the requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002. Existing law provides that upon conviction for a crime pertaining to an election for which no fine is prescribed, the court may impose, in addition to any prescribed imprisonment, a fine on the offender of not more than $1,000 for a misdemeanor or $10,000 for a felony. This bill would increase the amount of that fine for a felony to $25,000. By creating a new crime and new duties for local elections officials, the 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 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 Donahoe Higher Education Act, sets forth the missions and functions of the public and independent institutions of higher education. The provisions of the Donahoe Higher Education Act apply to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, make them applicable. Existing law exempts specified students from paying nonresident tuition at the California State University and the California Community Colleges and establishes financial aid programs for students, as specified. Existing law requires the governing board of each community college district to charge resident students a fee of $46 per unit per semester and to waive that fee for specified students. This bill would require students who are victims of trafficking, domestic violence, and other serious crimes who have been granted a specified status under federal law, to be exempt from paying nonresident tuition at the California State University and the California Community Colleges, and to be eligible to apply for, and participate in, all student financial aid programs and scholarships administered by a public postsecondary educational institution or the State of California, to the same extent as individuals who are admitted to the United States as refugees under specified federal law. The bill would request the University of California to adopt policies that are consistent with those provisions. The bill would also require community college districts to waive the fees of those students to the same extent as individuals who are admitted to the United States as refugees under specified federal law. To the extent the bill would place additional requirements on community college districts to exempt those students from nonresident tuition and to administer financial aid programs and scholarships, and provide fee waivers to those students, the 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 these statutory provisions.