Under existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, the Governor is authorized to proclaim a state of emergency, as defined, under specified circumstances. The California Emergency Services Act also authorizes the governing body of a city, county, city and county, or an official designated by ordinance adopted by that governing body, to proclaim a local emergency, as defined. Existing law provides that a person has a privilege to refuse to disclose, and prevent another from disclosing, a confidential communication with specified persons, except in specified circumstances. This bill would enact the California Firefighter Peer Support and Crisis Referral Services Act. The bill would authorize the state or a local or regional public fire agency to establish a Peer Support and Crisis Referral Program to provide an agencywide network of peer representatives available to aid fellow employees on emotional or professional issues. The bill would, for purposes of the act, define a "peer support team" as a team composed of emergency service personnel, as defined, hospital staff, clergy, and educators who have completed a peer support training course, as specified. The bill would provide that an emergency service personnel, whether or not a party to an action, has a right to refuse to disclose, and to prevent another from disclosing, a confidential communication between the emergency service personnel and a peer support team member, crisis hotline staff member, or crisis referral service, except under limited circumstances, including, among others, when disclosure is reasonably believed to be necessary to prevent death, substantial bodily harm, or commission of a crime, or when disclosure is required as part of a mandated reporter obligation. The bill would also provide that, except for an action for medical malpractice, a peer support team member providing peer support services as a member of a peer support team and the public fire agency that employs them are not liable for damages, as specified, relating to an act, error, or omission in performing peer support services, unless the act, error, or omission constitutes gross negligence or intentional misconduct.
Sponsored bills
Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board administers a water rights program pursuant to which the board grants permits and licenses to appropriate water. Existing law, the Open and Transparent Water Data Act, requires the Department of Water Resources, the board, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife to coordinate and integrate existing water and ecological data from local, state, and federal agencies. This bill would require the Department of Water Resources and the board, upon an appropriation of funds by the Legislature, to develop a plan to deploy a network of stream gages that includes a determination of funding needs and opportunities for modernizing and reactivating existing gages and deploying new gages, as specified. The bill would require the department and the board, in consultation with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Department of Conservation, the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, interested stakeholders, and, to the extent they wish to consult, local agencies, to develop the plan to address significant gaps in information necessary for water management and the conservation of freshwater species. The bill would require the Department of Water Resources and the board to give priority in the plan to placing or modernizing and reactivating stream gages where lack of data contributes to conflicts in water management or where water can be more effectively managed for multiple benefits and to consider specified criteria in developing the plan.
This measure would condemn regulations recently adopted by the Department of Homeland Security to prescribe how a determination of inadmissibility for a person who is not a citizen or national is made based on the likelihood that the person will become a public charge. This measure would also urge the federal government to repeal the new regulations.
This measure would state that the Legislature strongly and unequivocally supports the existing fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards, the preservation of California's authority to enact stricter air pollution standards pursuant to its federal Clean Air Act waiver, and the enactment of a voluntary agreement between the State Air Resources Board and automobile manufacturers that preserves California's status as a leader in the fight for clean air; will consider any and all appropriate actions to maintain and enact vehicle emissions standards for the protection of public health, California residents, and the economy; supports any and all appropriate actions that enhance longstanding protections for the public's health, California residents, and the economy; and strongly urges the President and Vice President of the United States, the Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation, and the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency to reject the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Proposed Rule for Model Years 2021–2026.
This measure would call upon all Californians to embrace the individual and social benefits of family and community acceptance, upon religious leaders to counsel on LGBTQ matters from a place of love, compassion, and knowledge of the psychological and other harms of conversion therapy, and upon the people of California and the institutions of California with great moral influence to model equitable treatment of all people of the state.
This measure would designate June 2019 as Second Chances Month in California, highlighting existing services and events to support reentry from incarceration.
This measure would recognize the need to pursue avenues to implement proposed reparations for the descendants of African slaves in the United States. The measure would further recognize August 2019 as marking 400 years since Africans were brought to Virginia.
This measure would proclaim September 29, 2019, as Gold Star Mothers' and Families' Day in California.
This measure would welcome refugees and declare its support for the resettlement of refugees in California, no matter their religion, race, nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity, or country of origin, and calls upon other local governments and communities to join them in supporting a stronger national effort to resettle the world's most vulnerable refugees. This measure would call on the federal government to resettle all 30,000 refugees that the United States has committed to resettle in the fiscal year 2019, and would call on Congress and the presidential administration to raise the Presidential Determination to at least 75,000 refugees for fiscal year 2020.
This measure would designate October 20, 2019, and each 20th day of October thereafter, as Leyte Landing Commemoration Day in recognition of the significance of the Leyte landing in liberating the Philippines from Japanese occupation and would also honor the significant contributions to California made by generations of Filipino Americans since that time.