Asm. Esmeralda Soria

The California Water District Law provides for the establishment of water districts and authorizes a district to construct, maintain, and operate plants for the generation of hydroelectric energy and transmission lines for the conveyance of the hydroelectric energy. Existing law merged the former West Plains Water Storage District into the Westlands Water District, and provides for the operation of the Westlands Water District. This bill would authorize the Westlands Water District to provide, generate, and deliver solar photovoltaic electricity and to construct, operate, and maintain works, facilities, improvements, and property necessary or convenient for generating and delivering that electricity. The bill would require the district to use the electricity for the district's own purposes, and the bill would authorize the district to sell surplus electricity to a public or private entity engaged in the distribution or sale of electricity. The bill would also authorize the district to construct, operate, and maintain energy storage systems and electric transmission lines, and to construct, operate, and maintain works, facilities, improvements, and property necessary or convenient for the operation of the energy storage systems and electric transmission lines, within the boundaries of the district, as specified. The bill would require the district to report the amount of income, and the purposes for expenditure of that income, from electricity facilities constructed pursuant to these provisions in a specified report. The bill would require the district to establish a community benefits agreement plan for a specified electrical infrastructure development plan and related transmission and other electrical projects, as provided. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Westlands Water District.

Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, through its Office of Migrant Services, to assist in the development, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or operation of migrant farm labor centers, as provided. Existing law authorizes the Director of Housing and Community Development to contract with specified local public and private entities, including school districts and housing authorities, for the procurement or construction of housing or shelter and to obtain specified services, including education, for migratory agricultural workers. Existing law authorizes a migrant farm labor center subject to these contracts to be operated for an extended period prior to or beyond the standard 180-day period, but not to exceed 275 days in any calendar year, if certain conditions are satisfied. This bill would require the department, by January 1, 2026, to engage and solicit feedback from specified stakeholders on the definition of "migratory agricultural worker" for the purposes of updating the definition. The bill would also require the department to develop, and by July 1, 2027, submit to specified legislative committees, a report that analyzes the feasibility and impact of transitioning housing units at Office of Migrant Services centers to year-round availability. The bill would require the report to include specified criteria, including, among other things, the quantity of housing units at each center. The bill would require the department, by December 31, 2028, and following the completion of the report, to coordinate with the Department of General Services and the Department of Food and Agriculture to identify available excess sites in proximity to migrant farm labor centers and prioritize those locations for the development of permanent farmworker housing. The bill would prescribe various requirements on the department, including that the department conduct an annual inspection of each migrant farm labor center to determine whether health, safety, and infrastructure standards are properly met. The bill would also prescribe various requirements on entities operating a migrant farm labor center, including that the entities ensure that each housing unit complies with all applicable local health and safety laws and prescreen Office of Migrant Services program applicants for eligibility in farmworker-restricted units on properties funded by the Joe Serna, Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant Program. By imposing additional duties on entities with regard to operating a farm labor center, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make related 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, 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.

The Donahoe Higher Education Act sets forth the missions and functions of the public institutions of higher education, including the University of California, administered by the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, administered by the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. The provisions of the Donahoe Higher Education Act apply to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, make them applicable. This bill would prohibit the University of California, California State University, or California Community Colleges from disqualifying a student from being hired for an employment position due to the student's failure to provide proof of federal work authorization, except where that proof is required by federal law or where that proof is required as a condition of a grant that funds the particular employment position for which the student has applied. This bill would require the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges to treat a specified prohibition in federal law on hiring undocumented noncitizens as inapplicable because that provision does not apply to any branch of state government. The bill would further provide that, to the extent student employment is considered a "benefit" for purposes of federal law, the bill constitutes authorization to provide that benefit for purposes of specified federal law. This bill would require the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges to implement the bill by January 6, 2025. The bill's provisions would apply to the University of California, unless it is found inapplicable to the University of California and then only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, make them applicable. By imposing new duties on community college districts, 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.

The Cannella Environmental Farming Act of 1995 requires the Department of Food and Agriculture to establish and oversee an environmental farming program to provide incentives to farmers whose practices promote the well-being of ecosystems, air quality, and wildlife and their habitat. The act also requires the department to establish the Healthy Soils Program and a technical assistance grant program, as specified. Existing law, the Farmer Equity Act of 2017, requires the department to ensure the inclusion of socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, as defined, in the development, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of food and agriculture laws, regulations, and policies and programs, as specified. This bill would require the department, in collaboration with certain entities, to establish the Regional Farmer Equipment and Cooperative Resources Assistance Pilot Program as part of the Farmer Equity Act of 2017 to provide financial and technical assistance to support regional farm equipment sharing and enhance cooperative benefits for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers and, if funding is available, for limited resource farmers and ranchers or eligible entities that serve socially disadvantaged or limited resource farmers and ranchers, as specified. The bill would specify the entities eligible for financial assistance under the program and would require that applications for financial assistance to develop and expand equipment sharing programs include certain information. The bill would make the operation of the program contingent upon the voters approving a specified bond measure at the November 2024 election and the Legislature making an appropriation for purposes of the program. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2030.

Existing law, the Licensed Physicians and Dentists from Mexico Pilot Program, allows up to 30 licensed physicians and up to 30 licensed dentists from Mexico to practice medicine or dentistry in California for a period not to exceed 3 years, in accordance with certain requirements. Existing law requires the Medical Board of California and the Dental Board of California to provide oversight pursuant to these provisions. Existing law requires appropriate funding to be secured from nonprofit philanthropic entities before implementation of the pilot program may proceed. Existing law requires physicians participating in the Licensed Physicians and Dentists from Mexico Pilot Program to be enrolled in English as a second language classes, to have satisfactorily completed a 6-month orientation program, and to have satisfactorily completed a 6-month externship at the applicant's place of employment, among various other requirements. This bill would repeal the provisions regarding the Licensed Physicians and Dentists from Mexico Pilot Program, and would instead establish two bifurcated programs, the Licensed Physicians from Mexico Program and the Licensed Dentists from Mexico Pilot Program. Within these 2 programs, the bill would generally revise and recast certain requirements pertaining to the Licensed Physicians and Dentists from Mexico Pilot Program, including deleting the above-described requirement that Mexican physicians participating in the program enroll in adult English as a second language classes. The bill would instead require those physicians to have satisfactorily completed the Test of English as a Foreign Language or the Occupational English Test, as specified. The bill would remove the requirement that the orientation program be 6 months, and would further require the orientation program to include electronic medical records systems utilized by federally qualified health centers and standards for medical chart notations. The bill would also delete the requirement that the physicians participate in a 6-month externship. The bill would further delete provisions requiring an evaluation of the pilot program to be undertaken with funds provided from philanthropic foundations, and would make various other related changes to the program. The bill would require the Dental Board of California to, notwithstanding existing requirements to provide specified federal taxpayer information, issue a 3-year nonrenewable permit to an applicant who has not provided an individual taxpayer identification number or social security number if the applicant meets specified conditions. Commencing January 1, 2025, the bill would authorize the Medical Board of California to issue a limited number of active licenses to eligible applicants to participate in the Licensed Physicians from Mexico Program, as specified. Under the bill, each additional physician selected for the program would not be eligible to renew their 3-year license. The bill would require the federally qualified health centers employing physicians pursuant to the program to continue specified peer review protocols and procedures and to work with an approved medical school or an approved residency program, as provided. The bill would also require specified entities to be the points of contact involved in securing required documents, recruiting and vetting candidates, assisting candidates to meet all program requirements, selecting appropriate federally qualified health centers throughout California, ensuring compliance with program provisions, developing policy and clinical workshops, monitoring productivity and increased access to medical care, and assessing the necessity of policy and programmatic improvements. The bill would impose fees in connection with both programs, as specified. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute.

Existing law authorizes an owner of real property to install and operate on their property an electrified security fence that has specified technical characteristics and is used to protect and secure commercial, manufacturing, or industrial property, or property zoned under another designation, but legally authorized to be used for a commercial, manufacturing, or industrial purpose. This bill would, until January 1, 2028, instead authorize an owner of real property to install and operate on their property an electrified security fence that is powered by an electrical energizer, driven by solar-charged batteries of no more than 12 volt of direct current, and used to protect and secure manufacturing or industrial property, or property zoned under another designation, but legally authorized to be used for a commercial purpose that stores, parks, services, sells, or rents vehicles and other materials, as specified. Existing law prohibits an owner of real property from installing and operating an electrified security fence if a local ordinance prohibits that installation and operation. Existing law requires, if a local ordinance allows the installation and operation of an electrified security fence, that the installation and operation of the fence meets both the requirements of that ordinance and other specified requirements. This bill would, until January 1, 2028, for manufacturing or industrial property, or property that is legally authorized to be used for specified commercial purposes, that meets specified requirements, instead prohibit a city, county, or city and county from prohibiting the installation and operation of an electrified security fence or requiring a permit or approval that is in addition to an alarm system permit issued by the city, county, or city and county. The bill would, however, authorize a city or county to require an administrative permit confirming the fence meets the statute's requirements, as provided. The bill would, until January 1, 2028, prohibit an owner of real property that is not manufacturing or industrial property, or property that is legally authorized to be used for specified commercial purposes, from installing and operating an electrified security fence if a local ordinance prohibits that installation and operation, and would authorize a local ordinance to prohibit the installation of an electrified security fence if that fence fails to meet specified requirements. Existing law requires an owner of real property who installs and operates an electrified security fence on their property to ensure that, among other things, the fence meets the 2006 international standards and specifications of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) , as specified, and the height of the fence does not exceed 10 feet or 2 feet higher than an existing perimeter fence that is not less than 5 feet in height. This bill would, until January 1, 2028, update the IEC standards and specifications, and provide that the perimeter fence may be a perimeter wall and is nonelectrified. This bill would also require, until January 1, 2028, that the fence include a device that enables first responders to deactivate the fence in response to an emergency, if required by a city, county, or city and county. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law, the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act of 1983, establishes, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health Care Access and Information, a program of seismic safety building standards for certain hospitals constructed on and after March 7, 1973. Existing law requires that, by January 1, 2030, owners of these hospitals must either demolish, replace, or change to nonacute care use all hospital buildings that are not in compliance with these standards or seismically retrofit all acute care inpatient hospital buildings so they are in substantial compliance with these standards, unless subject to an abeyance. This bill would authorize a hospital owner or operator to submit an application, by specified dates, to the department for additional extensions to the compliance deadline. The bill would require the department to grant or deny an extension of the deadline for substantial compliance with seismic safety regulations or standards up to January 1, 2035. The bill would require the application to contain a seismic compliance plan, a specified evaluation report, a financial plan, and an attestation to the department that the appropriate governing board of that hospital is aware that the hospital building is required to be in substantial compliance with the seismic safety regulations or standards. By imposing the above-described attestation, this bill would expand the crime of perjury and impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the hospital and the department to identify specified milestones that are used for determining whether the hospital is making progress towards meeting the hospital's seismic compliance deadline. The bill would require the hospital to demonstrate efforts to comply with the seismic compliance deadline by providing the department with a plan outlining how seismic construction costs and other financial responsibilities will be met and what funding sources will be used if the hospital fails to meet an agreed-upon milestone due to circumstances that were within the hospital owner's or operator's control. The bill would require the owner or operator of that hospital to submit to the department an attestation that the appropriate governing board of that hospital is aware of the hospital's responsibility to comply with the associated construction costs to meet the seismic compliance deadlines. By requiring the owner or operator of a hospital to submit to the department an attestation, this bill would expand the crime of perjury and impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the department, before granting an extension past January 1, 2030, to provide public notice of a hospital's request for an extension, provide copies, upon request, of any publicly available material submitted by the hospital in support of their extension to interested parties, and allow the public to submit written comments on the extension proposal, as specified. The bill would require the department, beginning January 1, 2027, to post on the department's internet website specified information, including, among other things, its decision to grant or deny any extension. The bill would require the department to notify the county board of supervisors, the city council, and the Assembly and Senate representative in writing and electronically if a hospital within their district has been granted or denied an extension. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2026, to adopt regulations and standards or revise regulations and standards, or both, to extend the deadlines for meeting the structural performance and nonstructural performance requirements. The bill would specify that regulatory submissions made by the department to the California Building Standards Commission are deemed to be emergency regulations and that the adoption of these regulations are to be deemed an emergency and necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, and general welfare. Existing law requires, before January 1, 2024, the owner of an acute care inpatient hospital that includes a building that does not substantially comply with seismic safety regulations or standards to post in a lobby or waiting area generally accessible to patients or the public a notice provided by the department that the hospital is not in compliance with the seismic safety requirements the hospital is required to meet by January 1, 2030. Existing law requires, on or before January 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, the owner of an acute care inpatient hospital that includes a building that does not substantially comply with seismic safety regulations or standards to provide an annual status update on the Structural Performance Category ratings of the buildings and the services provided in each hospital building on the hospital campus to specified entities until each of the hospital buildings owned by that hospital building owner is compliant. This bill would require, before January 1, 2025, the owner or operator of an acute care inpatient hospital that includes a building that does not substantially comply with the seismic safety regulations or standards to post in any lobby or waiting area generally accessible to patients or the public the notice mentioned above. The bill would also require, on or before January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, the owner or operator to provide an annual status update, as specified. This bill would specify that the provisions of this act are 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

This measure would, among other things, urge the United States Congress and President Joseph R. Biden to fully fund the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Comprehensive Infrastructure Solution for the Tijuana River due to the ongoing impacts to public health, the environment, and the local economy caused by cross-border pollution and would urge President Joseph R. Biden to declare a national emergency due to those ongoing impacts.

Existing law declares that all water within the state is the property of the people of the state, but the right to the use of the water may be acquired by appropriation in the manner provided by law. Existing law requires the appropriation to be for some useful or beneficial purpose. Existing law provides, however, that the diversion of floodflows for groundwater recharge does not require an appropriative water right if certain conditions are met, including that a local or regional agency that has adopted a local plan of flood control or has considered flood risks as part of its most recently adopted general plan has given notice, as provided, of imminent risk of flooding and inundation of lands, roads, or structures. Existing law defines "floodflow" for these purposes, to include circumstances in which flows would inundate ordinarily dry areas in the bed of a terminal lake to a depth that floods dairies and other ongoing agricultural activities, or areas with substantial residential, commercial, or industrial development. Existing law defines "imminent" for these purposes to mean a high degree of confidence that a condition will begin in the immediate future. Existing law also requires the person or entity making the diversion for groundwater recharge purposes to file with the State Water Resources Control Board and any applicable groundwater sustainability agency for the basin, a notice containing specified information no later than 48 hours after initially commencing diversion of floodflows for groundwater recharge, a preliminary report no later than 14 days after initially commencing that diversion, and a final report no later than 15 days after the diversions cease. These requirements apply to diversions commenced before January 1, 2029. This bill would, among other things, expand the conditions that are required to be met for the diversion of floodwaters for groundwater recharge that do not require an appropriative water right. The bill would expand the definition of "floodflow" to include flows that are projected by the local or regional agency to inundate ordinarily dry areas in the bed of a terminal lake, as described above. The bill would revise the definition of "imminent" to mean a high degree of confidence that a condition will begin or is projected to begin within the next 72 hours. The bill would require that a local or regional agency with the responsibility for flood management take specified actions, including making a declaration that diversion of floodflows for groundwater recharge from a delineated stretch of waterway within its jurisdiction is in accordance with one of certain enumerated plans relating to flood control or flood risk, as specified, or a local hazard mitigation plan under specified federal law, and to give public notice, as specified, that a delineated area within the local or regional agency's jurisdiction is at imminent risk of flooding and inundation of land, roads, or structures. The bill would require diversions to cease no later than 30 days after the public notice is given, unless they are renewed. The bill would require, not less than 48 hours from the projected end of flood conditions, a local or regional agency that has made a declaration authorizing flood diversions to issue a declaration when flood conditions are projected to end informing the public and diverters when diversions shall cease, as provided. The bill would further require, within 24 hours of the declaration, that agency to post the declaration and forward the declaration to all diverters that have informed the agency of diversion. This bill would also require an entity making the diversions for groundwater recharge that is required to file the notice and the reports, including the final report, as described above, with the board and the applicable groundwater sustainability agency for the basin, to also file those documents with the agency that issued the applicable flood determination. The bill would require the final report to contain information, if applicable, describing the forecasting models used to determine a likely imminent escape of surface water and a description of the methodology used to determine the abatement of flood conditions. The bill would further require the board to post the notice and the reports on the board's internet website on the next business day after receipt. The bill would require that temporary floodflow diversions be consistent with the most junior priority relative to all water rights holders in the watershed and prohibit those diversions from injuring a prior water rights holder. Existing law imposes a condition, pursuant to the provisions described above, applicable only to diversions from water tributaries to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) , that the diversion of floodflows for groundwater recharge does not require an appropriative water right if water rights holders are not making releases of stored water or reoperating facilities to provide flow for the purposes of meeting water quality control plan or endangered species requirements in the Delta at the time of the diversion. This bill would revise that condition by additionally authorizing, with respect to diversions from water tributaries to the San Joaquin River upstream of Vernalis, water to be diverted only when the Delta is in excess conditions, as defined, and without restrictions. With respect to all other diversions from water tributaries to the Delta, the bill would authorize water diversions only when the Delta is in excess water conditions and (1) either without restrictions or (2) with restrictions, but Delta operations are controlled only by Old and Middle River flow or San Joaquin River inflow-to-export ratio. The bill would require the diverter to monitor conditions daily, as provided.

This measure would urge the Congress of the United States to repeal the state and local tax deduction limitation so that residents of California and married taxpayers are no longer penalized by the federal tax code.