Rep. Alex Lee

This measure would recognize and affirm the important role of artists, arts organizations, creative arts therapists, and arts for health initiatives in supporting behavioral health, promoting recovery, strengthening community resilience, and contributing to public safety. The measure would encourage and recognize exploration, support, and integration of arts and behavioral health within California's health care, behavioral health, and community-based systems.

Existing law requires every state agency to develop and implement a telecommuting plan as part of its telecommuting program in work areas where telecommuting is identified as being both practical and beneficial to the organization. Existing law requires the Department of General Services to establish a unit for purposes of overseeing telecommuting programs that is required to, among other things, develop and update policy, procedures, and guidelines to assist agencies in the planning and implementation of telecommuting programs. Existing law requires the department to establish criteria for evaluating the state's telecommuting program. Existing law defines "telecommuting" for purposes of those provisions. This bill would revise and recast those provisions. The bill would replace the term "telecommuting" with "telework," as defined. The bill would also require the Department of General Services to establish a telework dashboard that displays the cost-effectiveness and efficiency benefits of state telework programs, including documenting annual savings to the state of reduced office space and operating costs. The bill would additionally require each state agency, every 10 years, to evaluate its telework program to ensure that it aligns with the state agency's unique operational needs to carry out its programmatic missions and to help recruit and retain a qualified workforce. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

(1) Existing law prohibits a transport escort service from accompanying or transporting a minor to any residential facility or institution located outside the state, unless the person or persons transporting or accompanying the minor are trustline-registered childcare providers. Existing law also requires every transport escort service that accompanies or transports a minor who is a resident of California to any residential facility or institution located outside the state to first provide the minor's parents, custodial parent, or legal guardian with specified information, including, among others things, a description of the childcare provider trustline registry. Existing law makes a violation of these provisions a misdemeanor. This bill, the Safe Passage for Youth Act, would expand those provisions relating to transport escort services to apply when accompanying or transporting a minor, without regard to whether the destination is an out-of-state residential facility or institution. The bill would revise the definition of a "transport escort service" and also make these provisions inapplicable to the transport of minors by a transportation network company, minors in the care of a community care facility, or an individual providing private childcare, casual babysitting, or domestic nanny services, if certain conditions are met. The bill would also require a transport escort service accompanying or transporting a minor to an out-of-state facility to provide the minor's parents with specified information, including an explanation of how a parent may obtain more information about the childcare provider trustline registry. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also impose various additional requirements and restrictions on transport escort services, including, among other things, a requirement that they maintain written policies governing the safety and welfare of minors and a prohibition on using behavioral restraints unless it is necessary to prevent imminent, serious physical harm and less restrictive alternatives are not available. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to bring an action in superior court to enforce these provisions if a transport escort service engages in repeated or egregious violations of any of the above provisions. (2) Existing law, the Private Investigator Act, provides for the license and regulation of private investigators, as provided. The act defines private investigator to mean a person who engages in business or accepts employment to furnish any person to protect persons or investigation for the purposes of obtaining information, as specified. Under this bill, a private investigator license issued under the act would not constitute or confer a permit to operate as a transport escort service. Under the bill, a transport escort service would not be required to hold a private investigator license under the act solely by reason of transporting or accompanying a minor. (3) 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 makes it a crime for a law enforcement officer to wear a facial covering in the performance of their duties, except as specified. Existing law defines law enforcement officer for these purposes as anyone designated by California law as a peace officer who is employed by a city, county, or other local agency, and any officer or agent of a federal law enforcement agency, agency or law enforcement agency of another state, or any person acting on behalf of a federal law enforcement agency. This bill would add peace officers employed by a state agency to the definition of law enforcement officers, thereby making those law enforcement officers subject to those criminal penalties. The bill would specify that facial coverings does not include certain items, including, among other things, sunglasses. The bill would, for all of the items excluded from the definition of facial coverings, limit that exclusion if the items are combined or otherwise used in a manner intended to conceal or obscure an officer's identity. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law prohibits any person who is found to have committed an assault, battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, abuse of process, or malicious prosecution, while wearing a facial covering in a knowing and willful violation of these provisions, from asserting any privilege or immunity for their tortious conduct against a claim of civil liability, and makes that person liable for the greater of actual damages or statutory damages of not less than $10,000, whichever is greater. This bill would instead make a person who is found liable for false imprisonment or false arrest liable for those damages if the trier of fact finds that the person knowingly and willfully concealed their identity through the use of a facial covering at the time of the conduct giving rise to liability. Existing law requires a law enforcement agency operating in California to, by July 1, 2026, maintain and publicly post a written policy limiting the use of facial coverings, as specified. Existing law defines a law enforcement agency for these purposes as any entity of a city, county, or other local agency, that employs anyone designated by California law as a peace officer, any federal law enforcement agency, or any law enforcement agency of another state. This bill would add to the definition of law enforcement agency, a state entity that employs a peace officer and would change the date any law enforcement agency has to comply with that requirement to January 1, 2027. The bill would also require those policies to exempt certain surveillance operations related to enforcement of the Fish and Game Code, or similar federal law. 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 Manufactured Housing Act of 1980 sets forth various standards relating to manufactured homes, mobilehomes, special purpose commercial coaches, and commercial coaches, including, but not limited to, construction and alteration of those homes. Existing law, including the Manufactured Housing Act of 1980 and the Uniform Commercial Code–Secured Transactions, defines the term "manufactured home" for various purposes to mean a structure that, among other things, is transportable in one or more sections, is 8 body feet or more in width, or 40 body feet or more in length, in the traveling mode, or, when erected on site, is 320 or more square feet, and is built on a permanent chassis. This bill would modify that definition to mean a structure that was constructed on or after June 15, 1976, with or without a foundation system, and has the same meaning as defined in specified federal law. Existing law, pursuant to the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974, authorizes the Department of Housing and Community Development to assume responsibility for the enforcement of manufactured home and mobilehome construction and safety standards relating to any issue with respect to which a federal standard has been established. Existing law also authorizes the department to adopt regulations to ensure acceptance by the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development of California's plan for the administration and enforcement of federal manufactured home and mobilehome safety and construction standards. Existing law makes any person who knowingly violates any provision of the Manufactured Housing Act of 1980 or any rule or regulation issued pursuant to that act, except as specified, guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would require the department, by July 1, 2027, to review, revise, and adopt regulations to permit the construction, installation, sale, and occupancy of a manufactured home built without a permanent chassis in parity with those applicable to a manufactured home built with a permanent chassis. The bill would exempt those regulations from the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. The bill would also require the department to report to the Legislature by July 1, 2027, on the status of the above-described regulations. This bill would require the department, by July 1, 2029, to prepare and submit a report to the Legislature evaluating the statutory and administrative changes necessary to regulate, finance, title, tax, and protect homeowners in divided-tenure and leasehold homeownership arrangements, as specified, and to contract with appropriate outside parties who shall consult with certain entities, including county assessors and recorders, in preparing that report. By imposing additional duties on local officials, and by expanding the scope of a 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 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 defines those persons who are peace officers in the state, grants certain authority to those individuals and their employing entities, and places certain requirements on those individuals and their employing entities. Under existing law, federal criminal investigators and law enforcement officers are not California peace officers but are granted specified limited arrest authority in limited circumstances including when violations of state and local laws occur in their presence, when there is an immediate danger to persons or property, when detaining a person for evaluation or treatment who, due to a mental illness, is a danger to themselves or others, and when requested by a California law enforcement agency to be involved in a joint task force or criminal investigation. Existing law additionally grants peace officer status to federal employees who comply with certain training requirements, while they are engaged in enforcing state or local law on and adjacent to property owned or possessed by the United States Government, with the written consent of local law enforcement officials, as specified. This bill would remove certain arrest authority or peace officer status for federal criminal investigators, law enforcement officers, and federal employees, including for the purposes of executing a warrant for the arrest of a person. The bill would authorize deputized tribal law enforcement officers of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to exercise the powers of arrest, as specified, if, among other things, they are engaged in the enforcement of federal criminal law and they are exercising arrest powers that are incidental to the performance of those federal duties. The bill would also authorize certain federal employees of, among other agencies, the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, if they are enforcing specified provisions of state law on property owned by the United States government, to exercise peace officer status with the written consent of the sheriff or the chief of police from the respective jurisdiction. The bill would also prohibit a California law enforcement agency, as defined, from entering into an interagency agreement, unless, among other things, the agreement is in writing and expressly provides that the agency shall not engage in racial or identity profiling, as specified. The bill would deem any interagency agreement in existence on January 1, 2027, valid, and would authorize that agreement to remain in effect until July 1, 2027. The bill would require, by no later than July 1, 2027, that the agreement be amended to include the provisions described above, including a prohibition on engaging in certain conduct, including racial or identity profiling. By increasing the duties on local law enforcement, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make these provisions severable. 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. This bill would make related findings and declarations.

Existing federal law, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, replaced the federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant program. Existing federal law provides for allocation of federal funds through the federal TANF block grant program to eligible states. Existing law establishes the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, under which, through a combination of state and county funds and federal funds received through the TANF program, each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families. Existing law requires aid to be granted to a family with a related child under 18 years of age who has been deprived of parental support or care due to the unemployment, continued absence, death, incapacity, or incarceration of a parent. Existing law considers a child to be deprived of parental support or care due to unemployment of the child's parent or parents when the child's parent or parents have worked less than 100 hours in the preceding 4 weeks and meets specified requirements related to the federal AFDC program. This bill would, for purposes of determining a child's deprivation of parental support or care, delete the requirements that the parent or parents work less than 100 hours in the preceding 4 weeks and meet the federal AFDC program requirements. The bill would instead disregard the number of hours that the child's parent or parents work, provided the family does not exceed the applicable gross or net income limits. The bill would make these provisions operative on July 1, 2027, or when the State Department of Social Services notifies the Legislature that the Statewide Automated Welfare System can perform the necessary automation to implement the provisions, whichever is later. To the extent that the bill would expand eligibility for the CalWORKs program, thereby imposing a higher level of service on counties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would instead provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing these provisions. 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.

This measure would proclaim the month of October 2026 as California Firefighter Appreciation Month and October 3, 2026, as California Firefighters Memorial Day.

Existing law defines "sexual orientation change efforts" as practices by mental health providers that seek to change an individual's sexual orientation, as specified. Existing law prohibits a mental health provider, as defined, from engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with a patient under 18 years of age, and provides that such efforts attempted by a mental health provider are considered unprofessional conduct and must subject the mental health provider to discipline by that provider's licensing entity. This bill would define "sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts" as any practices of a licensed mental health provider that seek, during the provision of mental health services, to direct a patient toward a predetermined sexual orientation or gender identity, as specified, and would apply the prohibitions described above to such efforts. The bill would exclude specified practices, including age-appropriate interventions to address unlawful conduct or unsafe practices that do not seek to direct the patient toward a particular sexual orientation or gender identity, from this definition.

Existing law generally regulates the business of renting passenger vehicles to the public. The law prohibits a rental company from taking various actions, including requiring the purchase of a damage waiver, optional insurance, or another optional good or service, and using electronic surveillance technology to track a renter in order to impose fines or surcharges relating to the renter's use of a rental vehicle. This bill would require any privately owned vehicle rented by, or furnished to, any federal, state, or local law enforcement agency for the use of detaining, arresting, or transporting persons who have violated, or are suspected of having violated, any law, to display a temporary decal displaying the agency name and logo, as specified. The bill would authorize certain attorneys, including the Attorney General, to pursue a civil action against the entity renting the vehicle from the private owner for failure to comply with these provisions. The bill would require the rental car contract to include a term that compliance with state law is mandatory. The bill would exempt privately owned vehicles rented or otherwise furnished or loaned to a law enforcement agency for specified purposes and rental car contracts entered into prior to January 1, 2027, from these provisions. The bill would make related findings and declarations.