Existing law establishes the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the Department of Industrial Relations to enforce employment safety laws. Existing law authorizes the division to conduct hearings, inspections, and investigations regarding alleged violations of employment safety laws and to issue a citation for a violation of those laws, including violations that regulations adopted by the division classify as serious, repeat, or willful violations. Existing law authorizes the division to propose appropriate modifications concerning the characterization of violations and corresponding modifications to civil penalties for violations. Existing law requires the division, if a serious violation is not abated at the time of the initial or subsequent inspection, to require the employer to submit a signed statement under penalty of perjury that he or she has complied with the abatement terms within the period fixed for abatement of the violation. Existing law establishes the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board in the department, and prescribes procedures for the appeals board to hear and decide appeals of a citation. Regulations adopted by the appeals board generally stay the abatement period of a citation until the conclusion of the appeal. This bill would prohibit the division from granting, for serious violations, a proposed modification to civil penalties for abatement or credit for abatement unless the employer has abated the violation, as specified, or has submitted a statement to the division in accordance with existing law, and would additionally require supporting evidence with the statement where necessary. The bill would authorize the division to grant such a modification only if the violation has been abated, as specified, or the signed statement and supporting evidence is received within 10 working days after the end of the period fixed for abatement. The bill would generally prohibit the stay or suspension of a requirement to abate the hazards affirmed by the decision or order during the pendency before the appeals board of a petition for reconsideration of a citation for a violation that is classified as a serious violation, repeat serious violation, or willful serious violation. The bill would authorize the appeals board to stay or suspend an abatement, upon petition by the employer, only if the employer demonstrates that a stay or suspension will not adversely affect the health and safety of employees.
Sponsored bills
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law requires the board of governors to adopt criteria and standards for periodic assessment of the fiscal condition of community college districts. Existing law requires the board of governors to develop, by regulation, appropriate procedures and actions for districts that fail to achieve fiscal stability or that fail to comply with the board of governors' recommendations. Existing law authorizes these procedures and remedies to include the appointment of a special trustee to manage the community college district. This bill would require that the regulations pursuant to which the board may appoint a special trustee to manage a community college district provide specific benchmarks to indicate the presence of local capacity to resume management of the community college district and clear standards that require meaningful consultation by a special trustee, or his or her designee, with the community college district prior to decisionmaking.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Housing and Community Development to make advance payments to eligible borrowers and grantees under certain loan or grant programs for housing, if the department makes specified determinations. This bill would additionally authorize the department to reduce the interest rate on any loan issued by the department to a rental housing development to as low as 0.42% per annum, or a rate determined by the department that is sufficient to cover the costs of project monitoring, as specified, if the development meets specified requirements. The bill would also authorize the department to change the current interest rate for any loan for which it receives a loan extension request associated with an award of federal or state low-income housing tax credits made on or after January 1, 2014, to the most recently published applicable federal rate, and would require the additional tax credit equity generated by the change to be used for rehabilitation of the development. The bill would also authorize the department to forgive an amount of accrued interest if the total amount of debt and accrued interest at the end of the loan term would be greater after making this change than it would have been under the original interest rate. The bill would also require the department to charge a fee sufficient to cover administrative costs associated with a loan modification requested by a borrower.
Existing law, the Treasure Island Transportation Management Act, authorizes the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco to designate a board or agency to act as the transportation management agency for Treasure Island, defined to also include Yerba Buena Island. The act authorizes the transportation management agency, pursuant to the terms of a resolution or ordinance adopted by the board of supervisors, to recommend an initial fee structure for congestion pricing fees to be adopted by the board of supervisors and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, and to adopt on-street and off-street parking fees, fines, and penalties, and other parking-related revenues and a transit pass fee structure for Treasure Island. The act specifies the powers and duties of the agency on these and other related matters, including the adoption and administration of a transportation program, the collection and use of revenues generated from those fees, and coordination with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. This bill would rename the Treasure Island Transportation Management Agency as the Treasure Island Mobility Management Agency and would authorize the board of supervisors to revise or revoke this designation of the transportation management agency and designate a new board or agency to act as the transportation management agency at any time. The bill would provide that the transportation management agency is an independent and autonomous public agency governed by the board of the transportation authority, as designated by the board of supervisors on April 1, 2014, or by any future revised governance as designated by the board of supervisors, and is a separate and distinct legal entity responsible for its own obligations, debts, and liabilities and not for the obligations, debts, or liabilities of any other agency or entity. The bill would authorize the transportation management agency to do all acts under its own name that are necessary or convenient for the exercise of its designated powers and the financing of projects, as specified, and would require the agency to adopt an annual budget. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a credit against those taxes for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, in an amount equal to an applicable percentage of either 20% or 25%, respectively, of the qualified expenditures, as defined, attributable to the production of a qualified motion picture in California, or, where the qualified motion picture is a television series that relocated to California or is an independent film, as provided. Existing law imposes specified duties on the California Film Commission related to the administration of the credits, including a requirement to allocate the tax credits until July 1, 2017, and limits the aggregate amount of credits that may be allocated to qualified motion pictures in any fiscal year to $100,000,000 through the 2016–17 fiscal year. Existing law, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, in lieu of the credits authorized under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for qualified motion pictures described above, also allows a credit against qualified state sales and use taxes, as provided. Existing law provides for a tentative minimum tax and further provides that, except for specified credits, no other credit shall reduce the tax imposed below the tentative minimum tax. This bill would establish similar credits under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, to be allocated by the California Film Commission on or after July 1, 2015, and before July 1, 2020. This bill would, as compared to the existing tax credits, extend the scope of the credits for a qualified motion picture to the applicable percentage of qualified expenditures up to $100,000,000, would extend the credit to qualified expenditures for television pilot episodes, and would determine an applicable percentage of 25% or 20% for qualified expenditures, with an additional credit amount available, as specified. This bill would limit the aggregate amount of these new credits to be allocated in each fiscal year to up to $330 million, and would, subject to a computation and ranking of applicants based on the jobs ratio, as defined, require the California Film Commission to allocate credit amounts subject to specified categories of qualified motion pictures. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, in lieu of the credits authorized under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for qualified motion pictures described above, allow a credit against qualified state sales and use taxes, as provided. This bill would also require the Legislative Analyst's Office to prepare reports related to the effectiveness and administration of the qualified motion picture credit under the Sales and Use Tax Law, the Personal Income Tax Law, and the Corporation Tax Law. This bill would, for taxable years, beginning on or after January 1, 2016, additionally allow the credit under the Corporation Tax Law for qualified expenditures for the production of qualified motion pictures to reduce the tentative minimum tax. This bill would also make findings and declarations related to the entertainment industry, and would urge the United States Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission to investigate and impose sanctions on specified motion picture productions and elements of production to combat unfair and illegal competition. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The bill would state that its provisions are severable. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 23036 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, proposed by AB 2754, to be operative only if AB 2754 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law requires that in any of specified circumstances, including, but not limited to, rape, unlawful sexual intercourse, or sodomy, if evidence of sexual conduct of the complaining witness is offered to attack the credibility of the complaining witness, specified procedures be followed. Existing law includes, among those procedures, a requirement that a written motion be made by the defendant to the court and prosecutor stating that the defense has an offer of proof of the relevancy of evidence of the sexual conduct of the complaining witness proposed to be presented and its relevancy in attacking the credibility of the complaining witness. Existing law requires the written motion to be accompanied by an affidavit, filed and sealed, in which the offer of proof is stated. Existing law requires if the court finds that the offer of proof is sufficient, the court to order a hearing out of the presence of the jury, if any, and at the hearing allow the questioning of the complaining witness regarding the offer of proof made by the defendant. Existing law permits at the conclusion of the hearing, if the court finds that evidence proposed to be offered by the defendant regarding the sexual conduct of the complaining witness is relevant and is not found inadmissible, the court to make an order stating what evidence may be introduced by the defendant, and the nature of the questions to be permitted. Existing law states that the defendant may then offer that specified evidence pursuant to the order of the court. This bill would require that in any prosecution for committing an act of disorderly conduct or for loitering in any public place with the intent to commit prostitution, if the possession of one or more condoms is to be introduced as evidence in support of the commission of the crime, specified procedures be followed that are similar to existing law, except that the written motion would be made by the prosecutor to the court and to the defendant stating that the prosecution has an offer of proof of the relevancy of the possession by the defendant of one or more condoms. The bill would permit, at the conclusion of the hearing, if the court finds that evidence proposed to be offered by the prosecutor regarding the possession of condoms is relevant and is not inadmissible, the court to make an order stating what evidence may be introduced by the prosecutor. The bill would then permit the prosecutor to offer that specified evidence pursuant to the order of the court.
Existing law requires the adopted course of study for grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to offer courses in specified areas of study, including social sciences. Existing law requires the instruction in social studies to provide instruction in, among other things, human rights issues, with particular attention to the study of the inhumanity of genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust. This bill would enact the Armenian Genocide Education Act, and would provide that the instruction in human rights issues may also include particular attention to the study of the inhumanity of the Armenian Genocide. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to incorporate materials relating to civil rights, human rights violations, genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust into publications that provide examples of curriculum resources, consistent with the subject frameworks on history and social science and other requirements. Under existing law, the Legislature encourages the incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness testimony into the teaching of human rights, genocide, and the Holocaust. Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission and requires the commission to, among other things, recommend curriculum frameworks to the State Board of Education. This bill would encourage the department to incorporate materials relating to the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides into publications that provide examples of curriculum resources, consistent with the subject frameworks on history and social science. The bill would require the commission to consider including the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides in the recommended history-social science curriculum framework when the history-social science curriculum framework is revised as required by law. The bill would also specify that the Legislature encourages the incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral testimony, as defined, into the teaching of human rights, the Holocaust, and genocide, including the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 51226.3 of the Education Code, proposed by SB 1380, to be operative only if SB 1380 and this bill are chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last.
Existing law requires the Board of Registered Nursing, the Physician Assistant Board, the Respiratory Care Board of California, and the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians of the State of California to regulate and oversee the practice of healing arts within their respective jurisdictions. This bill would require these boards to collect and report specific demographic data relating to its licensees, subject to a licensee's discretion to report his or her race or ethnicity, to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. The bill would require these boards to collect this data at least biennially, at the times of both issuing an initial license and issuing a renewal license.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges under the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, which consists of 16 voting members and one nonvoting member, as specified. Existing law requires the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to establish minimum conditions entitling a community college district to receive state aid for the support of the community colleges. This bill would require the board of governors, in determining whether a community college district satisfies those minimum conditions, to review the accreditation status of the community colleges within that district. Under its existing regulatory authority, the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges requires each community college to be accredited and has designated the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges as the accrediting agency. This bill would require the accrediting agency of the community colleges to report to the appropriate subcommittees of the Legislature upon the agency's issuance of a decision that affects the accreditation status of a community college and, on a biannual basis, any accreditation policy changes that affect the accreditation process or status for a community college.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue specialty license plates, including environmental license plates and specified special environmental design license plates. Under existing law, a state agency is authorized to apply to the DMV to sponsor a specialized license plate program, and the DMV is required to issue those license plates if the agency meets certain requirements. The DMV is required to charge specified fees for certain services related to the issuance of those plates. Existing law establishes the Breast Cancer Control Account in the Breast Cancer Fund, and requires that funds in that account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be allocated for the provision of early breast cancer detection services for uninsured and underinsured women. This bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to apply to sponsor a breast cancer awareness license plate program, and would require the DMV to issue the license plates if the State Department of Health Care Services meets certain requirements. The bill would authorize the State Department of Health Care Services to accept and use donated artwork from California artists for the license plate. The bill would require the revenue generated from the license plates, as specified, to be deposited in the Breast Cancer Control Account in the Breast Cancer Fund. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.