Asm. Liz Ortega

Under existing law, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board within the Department of Industrial Relations promulgates and enforces occupational safety and health standards for the state, including standards dealing with toxic materials and harmful physical agents. Under existing law, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health is required to enforce all occupational safety and health standards, as specified. A violation of these standards and regulations under specific circumstances is a crime. This bill would, by December 1, 2026, require the division to submit to the board a proposed regulation requiring a health facility to evacuate or remove plume to the extent technologically feasible through the use of a plume scavenging system in all settings that employ techniques that involve the creation of plume. The bill would require the division, when developing regulations, to consider, among other things, recommendations on the evacuation of plume from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The bill would require the board to consider for adoption a proposed regulation by June 1, 2027. This bill would provide that compliance with general room ventilation standards or the use of surgical masks does not satisfy the requirements for protection from surgical plumes under these provisions. The bill would provide that the use of respirators does not satisfy the requirements for protection from surgical plumes under these provisions, except as specified. The bill would require the manufacturer of a plume scavenging system to provide evidence that the system meets specified minimum requirements when installed, operated, and maintained in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. This bill would specify that these provisions do not limit the authority of the division to develop, or limit the authority of the board to adopt, a regulation with a broader scope or broader application than required by these provisions. By expanding the definition of an existing crime, 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, the Ralph C. Dills Act (Dills Act) , governs collective bargaining between the state and recognized state public employee organizations. Existing law excludes certain employees from coverage under the Dills Act, including, among others, managerial employees, supervisory employees, and confidential employees, as defined. Existing law creates the Public Employment Relations Board and authorizes it, among other things, to determine appropriate state employee bargaining units, as specified. This bill would enact the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act, to provide employees of the Legislature, except certain specified categories of excluded employees, the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations. The bill would prescribe rights, duties, and prohibitions in this context that parallel those in the Dills Act. For the purposes of bargaining or meeting and conferring in good faith, the bill would define "employer" to mean the Assembly Committee on Rules or the Senate Committee on Rules. The bill would require the employer to meet and confer with representatives of recognized employee organizations regarding matters within the scope of representation. The bill would exclude certain matters from the scope of representation, as specified. The bill would grant exclusive jurisdiction to the Public Employment Relations Board to make an initial determination as to whether charges of unfair practices are justified, and, if so, the necessary remedy, as specified. However, the bill would prohibit the board from issuing a decision or order that intrudes upon or interferes with the Legislature's core function of efficient and effective lawmaking or the essential operation of the Legislature. The bill would require the board to determine appropriate bargaining units, and would prohibit the board from including employees in a bargaining unit that includes employees other than those of the employer. The bill would prohibit the board from including within a bargaining unit employees from both the Assembly and Senate. This bill would make it a misdemeanor for any person to willfully resist, prevent, impede, or interfere with any member of the board, or any of its agents, in the performance of duties pursuant to its provisions. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that the provisions of the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act are severable. The bill would become operative on July 1, 2026. 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. This bill would additionally exempt from public inspection records related to activities governed by the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act that reveal the employer's deliberative processes, impressions, evaluations, opinions, recommendations, meeting minutes, research, work product, theories, or strategy, or that provide instruction, advice, or training to employees who do not have full collective bargaining and representation rights under the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act. 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.

Existing law establishes, within the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan, a low-cost automobile insurance program for all counties in California. Existing law, until January 1, 2025, requires the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan to report to the Insurance Commissioner on an annual basis on the status of the program and, on or before March 15 of each year, requires the commissioner to prepare and propose a plan in a report to the Legislature setting forth the commissioner's methods to inform households eligible for the program about the availability of low-cost automobile insurance. Existing law, on or before March 15 of each year, requires the commissioner to submit a combined report to the Legislature. This bill would, instead, require the commissioner to submit the combined report to the Legislature on or before March 15, 2024, and on or before March 15 every 5 years thereafter. The bill would, instead, require the commissioner to submit the annual report on the methods to inform households eligible for the program to the Legislature on or before March 15, 2024, March 15, 2025, and March 15, 2026, and every 5 years thereafter. The bill would require this annual report to be posted on specified internet websites beginning with the report due on or before March 15, 2024. The bill would remove the January 1, 2025, sunset date, thereby extending the operation of the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan indefinitely, and would make conforming changes.

Existing law, until January 1, 2024, increases the smog abatement fee on certain vehicles by a specified amount and requires the revenues generated by the increase to be deposited in the Air Quality Improvement Fund and the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Fund. Existing law, until January 1, 2024, increases vehicle registration fees and certain service fees for identification plates by specified amounts. Existing law requires the revenue generated by the increase in those fees to be deposited in the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Fund and either the Air Quality Improvement Fund or the Enhanced Fleet Modernization Subaccount, as provided. This bill would extend the increases in those charges to July 1, 2035. Existing law, until January 1, 2024, prohibits the State Air Resources Board from enforcing any element of its clean fuels outlet regulations or other regulation that requires or has the effect of requiring suppliers, as defined, to construct, operate, or provide funding for the construction or operation of publicly available hydrogen-fueling stations. Existing law, until January 1, 2024, requires the state board to aggregate and make available certain information regarding projected leases and sales of, and the registration of, hydrogen-fueled vehicles, to evaluate, based on that information, the need for additional publicly available hydrogen-fueling stations for the actual and projected number of hydrogen-fueled vehicles, the geographic areas where fuel will be needed, and station coverage, and to report the finding of the evaluation to the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) . Existing law, until January 1, 2024, requires the Energy Commission to annually allocate $20,000,000 to fund the number of publicly available hydrogen-fueling stations identified by the state board, not to exceed 20% of the moneys appropriated by the Legislature from the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Fund, until at least 100 publicly available hydrogen-fueling stations are operating in the state. This bill would extend the above-described provisions to July 1, 2035, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2036. The bill would require the annual allocation described above to instead be no less than 15% of the moneys appropriated by the Legislature from the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Fund from revenues attributable to specified sources, would require the commission to make that allocation only until July 1, 2030, and would impose other specified requirements. The bill would also delete the requirements that the hydrogen-fueling stations be publicly available and that there be at least 100 hydrogen-fueling stations operating in the state. Existing law creates the Enhanced Fleet Modernization Program to provide compensation for the retirement and replacement of passenger vehicles and light-duty and medium-duty trucks that are high polluters. Existing law requires the Bureau of Automotive Repair to administer the program and the state board to adopt the guidelines for the program. Existing law requires the guidelines to ensure vehicle replacement or a mobility option be an option for all motor vehicle owners and may be in addition to compensation for vehicles retired. This bill would require the guidelines to ensure each replacement vehicle in the program be either a plug-in hybrid or zero-emission vehicle unless the state board makes a specified determination regarding either the availability of vehicles or the availability of charging and refueling capabilities in consultation with the Energy Commission, as specified. Existing law establishes the Air Quality Improvement Program under the administration of the State Air Resources Board for the purpose of funding air quality improvement projects relating to fuel and vehicle technologies. The primary purpose of the program is to fund projects to reduce criteria air pollutants, improve air quality, and provide funding for research to determine and improve the air quality impacts of alternative transportation fuels and vehicles, vessels, and equipment technologies. This bill would instead provide that the purpose of the program is to fund air quality improvement projects relating to zero-emission fuel and vehicle technologies and that the primary purpose of the program is to fund projects to reduce criteria air pollutants in the logistics, goods movement, off-road, warehouse, and port sectors, improve air quality in nonattainment basins, with a priority for projects located in the areas of extreme nonattainment, and improve the air quality impacts of zero-emission transportation fuels and vehicles, vessels, and equipment technologies. The bill would also revise the list of the types of projects eligible for funding under the program. Existing law establishes the Clean Transportation Program that is administered by the Energy Commission to provide financial assistance to develop and deploy innovative technologies that transform California's fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state's climate change policies with an emphasis on the development and deployment of technology and alternative and renewable fuels in the marketplace. Existing law authorizes the Energy Commission to make a single source or sole source award for applied research. This bill would revise and recast the Clean Transportation Program to, among other things, change the emphasis of the program to the development and deployment of zero-emission technology and fuels in the marketplace where feasible and near-zero-emission technology and fuels elsewhere. The bill would require certain information regarding electric vehicle charging infrastructure and hydrogen-fueling infrastructure funded by the program to be reported to the Energy Commission. The bill would additionally authorize the Energy Commission to make a single source or sole source award to public or nonpublic entities that manage a United States Department of Energy national laboratory. The bill would require the Energy Commission, on and after January 1, 2025, to expend at least 50% of the moneys appropriated to the program on programs and projects that directly benefit or serve residents of disadvantaged and low-income communities and low-income Californians. The bill would require the Energy Commission, for any hydrogen application scoring under the program, to provide preference to applicants with the least carbon-intensive proposed fuel, as specified. The bill would also require the Energy Commission, by January 1, 2026, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board and the Department of Motor Vehicles, to propose to the Legislature alternative funding methodologies or fee structures for funding zero-emission vehicle infrastructure for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles. The bill would require the proposal to include an assessment of the economic equity of the alternatives. Existing law requires the Energy Commission, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission, to develop uptime recordkeeping and reporting standards for electric vehicle chargers and charging stations by January 1, 2024, that only apply to electric vehicle chargers and charging stations installed on or after January 1, 2024, and that received an incentive from a state agency or through a charge on ratepayers. Existing law authorizes the Energy Commission, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission, to adopt tools to increase charging station uptime and to include incentives, as specified. Existing law repeals these provisions on January 1, 2035. This bill would require the Energy Commission, by January 1, 2025, to set standards for how these stations shall notify customers about the availability and accessibility of publicly available charging infrastructure. This bill also would require, rather than authorize, the Energy Commission to adopt tools to increase charging station uptime. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law deems the month of May to be Labor History Month throughout the public schools, and encourages school districts to commemorate that month with appropriate educational exercises that make pupils aware of the role the labor movement has played in shaping California and the United States. This bill would require the week of each year that includes April 28 to be known as "Workplace Readiness Week." The bill would require all public high schools, including charter schools, to annually observe that week by providing information to pupils on their rights as workers, and would specify the topics to be covered. The bill would require the observances to be integrated into the regular school program in grades 11 and 12, consistent with the history-social science framework. By imposing additional duties on public school officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to annually send a written notice to every public high school, including charter schools, with certain information relating to Workplace Readiness Week, as provided. Existing law authorizes specific school administrators to issue a work permit to pupils subject to specific requirements, including requiring certain information to be included on the work permit. This bill would require, beginning August 1, 2024, any minor seeking the signature of a verifying authority on a Statement of Intent to Employ a Minor and Request for a Work Permit-Certificate of Age to be issued, before or at the time of receiving the signature of the verifying authority, a document clearly explaining basic labor rights extended to workers, as provided. The bill would encourage the University of California Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education to produce, with input from bona fide labor organizations, a draft template for the document to be provided to minors, including translations into languages other than English, as specified. The bill would require the document to express those labor rights in plain, natural terminology easily understood by the pupil. The bill would require the document, in English, to be in a physical form and include a Uniform Resource Locator for, and a quick response code linked to, an internet website with electronic versions of the document, including any translated versions of the document, produced by the University of California Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. To the extent these requirements would impose additional duties on public school 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, 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 requires that any decisions governing eligibility for the Medi-Cal program, the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, or the CalFresh program that, in the state, are made by a county pursuant to provisions relating to public social services be made exclusively by a merit or civil service employee of the county. Existing law generally requires the federal and state laws and regulations governing the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (or CalFresh in the state) to also govern the California Food Assistance Program (CFAP) . Existing law requires the delivery of nutrition benefits under CFAP to be identical to the delivery of CalFresh benefits, to the extent permissible under federal law. Existing law generally requires the federal and state laws and regulations governing the Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Program for the Aged, Blind, and Disabled (SSI/SSP) program to also govern the Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI) . Existing law sets forth various provisions relating to the implementation of the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program as a covered Medi-Cal benefit. Existing law requires that the investigation of allegations of elder and dependent adult abuse under provisions relating to Adult Protective Services (APS) , and the case management of elder and dependent adult abuse cases, be performed by county merit systems civil service employees. This bill would add CFAP, CAPI, IHSS, and APS to the above-described list of programs for which any decisions governing eligibility that are made by a county would be made exclusively by a merit or civil service employee of the county.

Existing law, after a tenant has continuously and lawfully occupied a residential real property for 12 months, prohibits the owner of the residential real property from terminating the tenancy without just cause and requires that just cause to be stated in the written notice to terminate tenancy. Existing law distinguishes between at-fault just cause and no-fault just cause and defines no-fault just cause to mean intent to occupy the residential real property by the owner or the owner's spouse, domestic partner, children, grandchildren, parents, or grandparents, withdrawal of the residential real property from the rental market, the owner complying with specified government orders that necessitate vacating the real property, and intent to demolish or to substantially remodel the residential real property. This bill would, with respect to the no-fault just cause related to an eviction based on an intent to occupy the residential real property, require, among other things, that the owner, as defined, or the owner's spouse, domestic partner, children, grandchildren, parents, or grandparents occupy the residential real property for a minimum of 12 continuous months as the person's primary residence, as provided. The bill would also, with respect to the no-fault just cause related to withdrawal of the residential real property from the rental market, require the rental units at the rental property be withdrawn from the rental market, as prescribed. The bill would require an owner who displaces a tenant to substantially remodel or demolish a unit to provide the tenant with written notice providing the tenant with specified information, including a description of the substantial remodel to be completed and the expected duration of the repairs, or the expected date by which the property will be demolished, and a copy of permits required to undertake the substantial remodel or demolition, as specified. This bill would also prescribe new enforcement mechanisms with respect to the provisions described above, including by making an owner who attempts to recover possession of a rental unit in material violation of those provisions liable to the tenant in a civil action for damages of up to 3 times the actual damages, in addition to punitive damages. The bill would authorize the Attorney General and the city attorney or county counsel, within whose jurisdiction the rental unit is located, to bring actions for injunctive relief against the owner, as specified. Existing law, until January 1, 2030, prohibits an owner of residential real property from, over the course of any 12-month period, increasing the gross rental rate for a dwelling or a unit more than 5% plus the percentage change in the cost of living, or 10%, whichever is lower, of the lowest gross rental rate charged for that dwelling or unit at any time during the 12 months before the effective date of the increase, subject to specified conditions. This bill would make an owner who demands, accepts, receives, or retains any payment of rent in excess of the maximum rent increase allowed, as prescribed, liable in a civil action to the tenant from whom those payments are demanded, accepted, received, or retained for certain relief, including, upon a showing that the owner has acted willfully or with oppression, fraud, or malice, damages up to 3 times the amount by which any payment demanded, accepted, received, or retained exceeds the maximum allowable rent. This bill would authorize the Attorney General and the city attorney or county counsel, within whose jurisdiction the residential property is located, to enforce the bill's provisions and bring an action for injunctive relief, as specified. This bill would also make a technical, nonsubstantive change to those provisions. The bill would provide that its provisions become effective on April 1, 2024.

Existing law authorizes the Board of Supervisors of Alameda County to establish the Alameda Health System Hospital Authority for the management, administration, and control of the medical center in that county. Existing law prohibits the hospital authority, before January 1, 2024, from entering into a contract with any other person or entity to replace services being provided by physicians and surgeons who are employed by the hospital authority and in a recognized collective bargaining unit, with services provided by that other person or entity without clear and convincing evidence that the needed medical care can only be delivered cost effectively by that other person or entity. This bill would prohibit the hospital authority, before January 1, 2035, from entering into those contracts.

Existing law defines the term "serious felony" for various purposes, including, among others, enhancing the punishment for felonies pursuant to existing sentencing provisions commonly known as the Three Strikes Law. This bill would include human trafficking of a minor within the definition of a serious felony for all purposes, including for purposes of the Three Strikes Law, except as specified. By expanding the scope of an enhancement, 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.

The measure would apply to the United States Congress to call a constitutional convention under Article V of the Constitution of the United States for the purpose of proposing a constitutional amendment relating to firearms, as specified.