Existing law establishes various social services and programs to address the needs of young people in this state including the California Youth Leadership Project to support and promote civic engagement through scholarships to disconnected and disadvantaged youth. This bill would create the California Youth Empowerment Act to address, among other issues, the growing need to engage youth directly with policymakers. The bill would establish the California Youth Empowerment Commission in state government consisting of 24 voting commissioners between 14 and 25 years of age and meeting specified requirements, with 20 members appointed by the Governor, 2 at-large members appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules, and 2 at-large members appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, along with several ex officio, nonvoting members from various geographic regions of the state. The bill would establish the commission to be advisory in nature, for the main purpose of providing meaningful opportunities for civic engagement to improve the quality of life for California's disconnected and disadvantaged youth. The bill would require the commission to conduct regular meetings, in accordance with specified timeframes and procedures, and, among other duties, formally advise and make recommendations to the Legislature, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Governor, on various legislative and fiscal issues affecting youth. The bill would also authorize the commission to draft and approve resolutions, draft model legislation, provide testimony during legislative committee meetings, conduct public hearings, and award prizes or direct grants to organizations. The bill would require the Governor to appoint an executive director of the California Youth Empowerment Commission to assist the commission in carrying out its work, would authorize the commission to accept gifts and grants, and would create the Youth Commission Fund in the State Treasury, with moneys deposited in the fund available for expenditure, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to carry out the duties of the commission.
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Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to promote the participation of current and former foster youth in the development of state foster care and child welfare policy and, subject to the availability of funds, to contract with California Youth Connection to provide technical assistance and outreach to current and former foster youth. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that provision.
(1) The California Constitution directs the California Citizens Compensation Commission to establish and adjust the salary and benefits for state officers, including Members of the Legislature. This measure would remove the commission's authority to establish and adjust the benefits of Members of the Legislature first elected to the Legislature for terms commencing on or after December 7, 2020, and would instead require that the total monetary value of the medical, dental, insurance, and other similar benefits for a Member of the Legislature who is first elected to the Legislature for a term commencing on or after December 7, 2020, be equal to the total monetary value of those benefits provided to a full-time employee of the house in which the Member serves. (2) The California Constitution permits Members of the Legislature elected or serving after November 1, 1990, to participate only in the federal Social Security System, and prohibits those Members from accruing any other pension or retirement benefits as a result of service in the Legislature. This measure would authorize a Member of the Legislature who is first elected to the Legislature for a term commencing on or after December 7, 2020, to elect to participate in the Public Employees' Retirement System in any state retirement plan in which a majority of the employees of the state may participate. The measure would provide that retirement credit earned by a person through service in another state or local government agency may qualify for credit in that state retirement plan. The measure would permit the State to pay only the employer's contribution necessary for participation in the Public Employees' Retirement System.
Existing law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, specifies that all persons within the jurisdiction of the state are free and equal, and no matter their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status, are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind. This bill would require a retail department store with 500 or more employees to maintain undivided areas of its sales floor where, if it sells childcare articles, children's clothing, or toys, all childcare items, all clothing for children, or all toys, regardless of whether a particular item has traditionally been marketed for either girls or for boys, shall be displayed. Beginning on January 1, 2023, the bill would make a retail department store that fails to correct a violation of these provisions within 30 days of receiving written notice of the violation from the Attorney General liable for a civil penalty of $1,000, as provided.
This measure would proclaim January 23, 2020, as Maternal Health Awareness Day, to draw attention to the efforts that have improved maternal health in California and to highlight the need for continued improvement of maternal health for all women.
This measure would designate the week of January 26, 2020, to February 1, 2020, inclusive, as Physician Anesthesiologist Week.
Existing law provides for officers and employees of the state, when away from their headquarters for state business, to receive travel expenses. Existing law prohibits a state agency and the Legislature from requiring any of its employees, officers, or members to travel to, or approving a request for state-funded or state-sponsored travel to, states that enacted laws that authorize or require discrimination against same-sex couples or their families or on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, as specified. This bill would prohibit a state agency, as defined, from paying, reimbursing an employee, providing a per diem allowance, or contracting for the cost of lodging, procuring a good or service, or any other expense at a lodging establishment where the owner, as specified, is the President of the United States.
This measure would designate the month of January 2020 as Positive Parenting Awareness Month in California.
This measure, among other things, would declare that California is a Reproductive Freedom State for All and provide that the Legislature is committed to guaranteeing the constitutionally protected right to an abortion and supporting efforts to increase access to the best available reproductive and pregnancy-related care for women and pregnant individuals.