Asm. Kansen Chu

Under existing law, the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act, a penalty of $4 is imposed upon every conviction for a violation of the Vehicle Code, or a local ordinance adopted pursuant to the Vehicle Code, other than a parking offense. Existing law requires the county or the court that imposed the fine to transfer the moneys collected pursuant to this act to the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund. Under existing law, the assessment of these penalties will terminate on January 1, 2016, and any moneys unexpended and unencumbered in the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund on June 30, 2017, will transfer to the General Fund. Existing law repeals the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act on January 1, 2018. This bill would extend the dates of the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act, so that the assessment of the penalties will terminate commencing January 1, 2018, and any moneys unexpended and unencumbered in the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund on June 30, 2019, will transfer to the General Fund. The bill would extend the operation of the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act until January 1, 2020. The bill would also make legislative findings and declarations as to the harmful effects of relying on penalty assessments to fund core state programs and the necessity to identify alternative funding sources for emergency medical air transportation services. The bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services and the Department of Finance to develop, by March 1, 2017, a funding plan that ensures adequate reimbursement to emergency medical air transportation providers following the expiration of the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act on January 1, 2020.

Existing law requires the state to achieve a 20% reduction in urban per capita water use in California by December 31, 2020, and requires the state to make incremental progress towards this goal by reducing per capita water use by at least 10% on or before December 31, 2015. Existing law requires each urban retail water supplier to develop urban water use targets and an interim urban water use target, in accordance with specified requirements. This bill would require each urban retail water supplier, on or before October 1, 2017, and on or before October 1 of each year thereafter, to submit a completed and validated water loss audit report for the previous calendar year or previous fiscal year as prescribed by rules adopted by the Department of Water Resources on or before January 1, 2017, and updated as provided. The bill would require the department to post all validated water loss audit reports on its Internet Web site in a manner that allows for comparisons across water suppliers and to make these reports available for public viewing. This bill would require the department to provide technical assistance to guide urban retail water suppliers' water loss detection programs. The bill would require the State Water Resources Control Board, no earlier than January 1, 2019, and no later than July 1, 2020, to adopt rules requiring urban retail water suppliers to meet performance standards for the volume of water losses. This bill would require the board to contribute up to $400,000 using funds available for the 2016–17 fiscal year towards procuring water loss audit report validation assistance for urban retail water suppliers.

Existing law requires that a bicycle operated during darkness upon a highway, a sidewalk where bicycle operation is not prohibited by the local jurisdiction, or a bikeway, as defined, be equipped with a red reflector on the rear that is visible from a distance of 500 feet to the rear when directly in front of lawful upper beams of headlamps on a motor vehicle. A violation of this requirement is an infraction. This bill would instead require that a bicycle operated under those circumstances be equipped with a red reflector or a solid or flashing red light with a built-in reflector on the rear that is visible from a distance of 500 feet to the rear when directly in front of lawful upper beams of headlamps on a motor vehicle. By revising the definition of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also include a statement of legislative findings and declarations. 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 regulates the payment of compensation to employees by employers and prohibits an employer from conditioning employment on requiring an employee to refrain from disclosing the amount of his or her wages, signing a waiver of the right to disclose the amount of those wages, or discriminating against an employee for making such a disclosure. Existing law generally prohibits an employer from paying an employee at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of the opposite sex in the same establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions. Existing law establishes exceptions to that prohibition where the payment is made pursuant to a seniority system, a merit system, a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, or a differential based on any bona fide factor other than sex. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for an employer or other person acting either individually or as an officer, agent, or employee of another person to pay or cause to be paid to any employee a wage less than the rate paid to an employee of the opposite sex as required by these provisions, or who reduces the wages of any employee in order to comply with these provisions. This bill would revise that prohibition to eliminate the requirement that the wage differential be within the same establishment, and instead would prohibit an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than those paid to employees of the opposite sex for substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, as specified. The bill would revise and recast the exceptions to require the employer to affirmatively demonstrate that a wage differential is based upon one or more specified factors, including a seniority system, a merit system, a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, or a bona fide factor other than sex, as specified. The bill would also require the employer to demonstrate that each factor relied upon is applied reasonably, and that the one or more factors relied upon account for the entire differential. The bill would prohibit an employer from discharging, or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against, any employee by reason of any action taken by the employee to invoke or assist in any manner the enforcement of these provisions. The bill would authorize an employee who has been discharged or discriminated or retaliated against, in the terms and conditions of his or her employment because the employee engaged in any conduct delineated in these provisions, to recover in a civil action reinstatement and reimbursement for lost wages and work benefits caused by the acts of the employer, including interest thereon, as well as appropriate equitable relief. The bill would prohibit an employer from prohibiting an employee from disclosing the employee's own wages, discussing the wages of others, inquiring about another employee's wages, or aiding or encouraging any other employee to exercise his or her rights under these provisions. The bill would also increase the duration of employer recordkeeping requirements from 2 years to 3 years. By changing the definition 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing federal law provides for allocation of federal funds through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant program to eligible states. Existing law provides for 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 that aid under the CalWORKs program be paid for each qualified family, which includes all eligible brothers and sisters of each eligible applicant or recipient child and the parents of the children, but does not include unborn children or recipients of aid under the Burton-Moscone-Bagley Citizens' Income Security Act for Aged, Blind and Disabled Californians. This bill would require a deceased child to continue to be included as a member of a qualified family for the month in which his or her death occurred, and the following month. Under the CalWORKs program, recipients are required to participate in specified welfare-to-work activities, unless certain circumstance are present. When an individual fails or refuses to comply with specified components of the CalWORKs program without good cause, the individual is subject to prescribed financial sanctions. This bill would prohibit sanctions from being applied for a grieving parent's failure or refusal to comply with program requirements during the month in which a child in the assistance unit died, or the following month. The bill would also require, upon receiving notification of the death of a child in the assistance unit, the county to assist a grieving parent in accessing services for which he or she may be eligible and to provide information to the grieving parent about mental health services. By imposing new duties on counties, 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 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 the bill.

Existing law authorizes an adult to give an individual health care instruction and to appoint an attorney to make health care decisions for that individual in the event of his or her incapacity pursuant to a power of attorney for health care. This bill, until January 1, 2026, would enact the End of Life Option Act authorizing an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for a drug prescribed pursuant to these provisions for the purpose of ending his or her life. The bill would establish the procedures for making these requests. The bill would also establish specified forms to request an aid-in-dying drug, under specified circumstances, an interpreter declaration to be signed subject to penalty of perjury, thereby creating a crime and imposing a state-mandated local program, and a final attestation for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would require specified information to be documented in the individual's medical record, including, among other things, all oral and written requests for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would prohibit a provision in a contract, will, or other agreement from being conditioned upon, or affected by, a person making or rescinding a request for the above-described drug. The bill would prohibit the sale, procurement, or issuance of any life, health, or annuity policy, health care service plan contract, or health benefit plan, or the rate charged for any policy or plan contract, from being conditioned upon or affected by the request. The bill would prohibit an insurance carrier from providing any information in communications made to an individual about the availability of an aid-in-dying drug absent a request by the individual or his or her attending physician at the behest of the individual. The bill would also prohibit any communication from containing both the denial of treatment and information as to the availability of aid-in-dying drug coverage. This bill would provide a person, except as provided, immunity from civil or criminal liability solely because the person was present when the qualified individual self-administered the drug, or the person assisted the qualified individual by preparing the aid-in-dying drug so long as the person did not assist with the ingestion of the drug, and would specify that the immunities and prohibitions on sanctions of a health care provider are solely reserved for conduct of a health care provider provided for by the bill. The bill would make participation in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions voluntary, and would make health care providers immune from liability for refusing to engage in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions. The bill would also authorize a health care provider to prohibit its employees, independent contractors, or other persons or entities, including other health care providers, from participating in activities under the act while on the premises owned or under the management or direct control of that prohibiting health care provider, or while acting within the course and scope of any employment by, or contract with, the prohibiting health care provider. This bill would make it a felony to knowingly alter or forge a request for drugs to end an individual's life without his or her authorization or to conceal or destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request for a drug, if it is done with the intent or effect of causing the individual's death. The bill would make it a felony to knowingly coerce or exert undue influence on an individual to request a drug for the purpose of ending his or her life, to destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request, or to administer an aid-in-dying drug to an individual without their knowledge or consent. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that nothing in its provisions is to be construed to authorize ending a patient's life by lethal injection, mercy killing, or active euthanasia, and would provide that action taken in accordance with the act shall not constitute, among other things, suicide or homicide. This bill would require physicians to submit specified forms and information to the State Department of Public Health after writing a prescription for an aid-in-dying drug and after the death of an individual who requested an aid-in-dying drug. The bill would authorize the Medical Board of California to update those forms and would require the State Department of Public Health to publish the forms on its Internet Web site. The bill would require the department to annually review a sample of certain information and records, make a statistical report of the information collected, and post that report to its Internet Web site. 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 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.

(1) Existing law establishes the State Department of Social Services and sets forth its powers and duties, including, but not limited to, the licensing and administration of community care facilities, residential care facilities for persons with chronic life-threatening illnesses, residential care facilities for the elderly, child day care centers, and family day care homes. Existing law authorizes any person to request an inspection of a residential care facility for the elderly by transmitting to the department notice of an alleged violation of applicable requirements prescribed by statutes or regulations, including, but not limited to, a denial of access of any person statutorily authorized to enter the facility. Under existing law, upon receipt of a complaint alleging denial of a statutory right of access to a residential facility for the elderly, the department is required to review the complaint and promptly notify the complainant of the department's proposed course of action. This bill would instead authorize any person to request an investigation of a residential care facility for the elderly by making a complaint to the department alleging a violation of the applicable statutes or regulations. The bill would delete the department's above-described obligations relating to the denial of a statutory right of access and instead impose specified requirements on the department, including a pre-investigation interview, if a local long-term care ombudsman or the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman files a complaint alleging denial of a statutory right of access to a residential care facility for the elderly. The bill would require the department, within 10 days of completing the investigation of a complaint conducted pursuant to these provisions, to notify the complainant in writing of the department's determination as a result of the investigation. (2) Existing law authorizes the department to impose various civil penalties for a licensing violation under the above-described provisions, as specified. Existing law generally authorizes the department to impose a larger civil penalty for a violation that the department determines resulted in the death of a resident of or a person receiving care at one of those facilities, and for a violation that the department determines constitutes physical abuse of, or results in serious bodily injury to, a resident of or a person receiving care at one of those facilities. Prior to the issuance of a citation imposing one of those death, physical abuse, or serious bodily injury civil penalties, existing law requires the approval of the Director of Social Services. This bill would instead require the approval of the program administrator of the Community Care Licensing Division of the department prior to the issuance of a citation imposing one of the death, physical abuse, or serious bodily injury civil penalties described above. (3) Existing law, beginning July 1, 2015, provides a licensee under the provisions described above the right to submit to the department a written request for a formal review of an assessment of the death, physical abuse, and serious bodily injury civil penalties described above by a regional manager of the Community Care Licensing Division of the department. Existing law establishes a process to appeal that review to the program administrator of the Community Care Licensing Division of the department, to further appeal to the deputy director of the Community Care Licensing Division of the department, and, upon exhausting the deputy director review, to an administrative law judge. This bill would revise the review process of an assessment of the death, physical abuse, and serious bodily injury civil penalties described above by, among other things, deleting the provisions relating to a regional manager of the Community Care Licensing Division of the department and the program administrator of the Community Care Licensing Division of the department. The bill would also establish a process to appeal any other civil penalty assessed pursuant to these provisions. The bill would authorize the department to implement and administer these provisions through all-county letters or similar written instructions until regulations are adopted pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, and would make conforming changes. (4) Existing law requires the department to notify the facilities described above in writing of all deficiencies in their compliance with specified provisions of law, and requires those facilities, unless otherwise specified, to remedy the deficiencies within certain time periods. Existing law requires the department to adopt regulations setting forth the appeal procedures for deficiencies. This bill would establish a process for a licensee to submit to the department a written request for a formal review of a finding of a deficiency, and to further appeal that review to the program administrator of the Community Care Licensing Division. The bill would also require a notification of a deficiency written by a representative of the department to include a factual description of the nature of the deficiency fully stating the manner in which the licensee failed to comply with the specified statute or regulation, and, if applicable, the particular place or area of the facility in which the deficiency occurred. (5) Existing law requires moneys collected from the imposition of the penalties described above relating to child day care centers and family day care homes to be deposited in the Child Health and Safety Fund and expended for certain purposes, including technical assistance, orientation, training, and education of licensed day care centers. This bill would delete the requirement that moneys collected from the imposition of certain penalties and deposited in the Child Health and Safety Fund be used for assisting families with the identification, transportation, and enrollment of children in another day care center or family day care home upon the revocation or suspension of the license of a day care center or family day care home. (6) This bill would incorporate changes to Section 1548 of the Health and Safety Code proposed by both this bill and AB 403, which would become operative only if both bills are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2016, and this bill is chaptered last.

Existing law authorizes a court to issue an ex parte protective order enjoining a party from engaging in specified acts against another party, including, among other things, threatening or harassing that party. Existing law also authorizes a court to include these protective orders and other orders in a judgment entered in specified proceedings, including, among others, a proceeding for the dissolution of marriage. A violation of these court orders constitutes contempt of court, which is punishable as a misdemeanor. This bill would, commencing July 1, 2016, additionally authorize a court, after notice and a hearing, to issue an order directing a wireless telephone service provider to transfer the billing responsibility and rights to a wireless telephone number or numbers to a requesting party. The bill would require that order to be a separate order directed to the wireless telephone service provider that lists the name and billing telephone number of the accountholder, the name and contact information of the person to whom the number or numbers will be transferred, and each number to be transferred to that person. The bill would require, upon transfer of billing responsibility for and rights to a wireless telephone number or numbers, the requesting party to assume all financial responsibility for the transferred wireless telephone number or numbers, monthly service costs, and costs for any mobile device associated with the wireless telephone number or numbers. The bill would not affect the ability of the court to apportion the assets and debts of the parties as provided for in law, or the ability to determine the temporary use, possession, and control of personal property, as specified. The bill would prohibit a cause of action against a wireless telephone service provider, its officers, employees, or agents, for actions taken in accordance with the terms of the court order. The bill would require the Judicial Council to, on or before July 1, 2016, develop any forms or rules necessary to effectuate these provisions. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

This measure would proclaim April 12 through April 19, 2015, as California Holocaust Memorial Week and would urge Californians to observe these days of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.