The California Constitution prohibits a person from being deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or from being denied equal protection of the laws. The United States Constitution prohibits a state from denying to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Existing law establishes various advisory boards and commissions in state government with specified duties and responsibilities. The federal My Brother's Keeper Initiative, launched by the President of the United States in February 2014, required the establishment of the My Brother's Keeper Task Force, an interagency effort to improve the expected educational and life outcomes for and address the persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color in the United States. This bill would establish until January 1, 2026, the Interagency Task Force on the Status of Boys and Men of Color, a multiagency advisory body that would serve as a support mechanism for department agency and systems leaders by taking coordinated action in meeting the myriad of challenges facing boys and men of color in California, and assisting the respective departments and agencies in more successfully improving life outcomes for this population. The membership of the task force would include members of the Legislature, as well as representatives of specified agencies, departments, and private entities. The bill would set forth the initial and ongoing responsibilities of the task force, including, among others, an assessment of state program alignment with the objectives of the My Brother's Keeper program, review the action plan of a specified final report of the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color in California, and an assessment of the development of strategies to enhance positive outcomes and eliminate or mitigate negative outcomes for boys and men of color in the state. The bill would establish the Boys and Men of Color Task Force Fund, which would be subject to appropriation by the Legislature, to carry out the bill's requirements in support of the task force, upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would authorize the task force to accept federal funds, gifts, donations, grants, or bequests for all or any of its purposes.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, the Urban Water Management Planning Act, requires every urban water supplier to prepare and adopt an urban water management plan for submission to the Department of Water Resources and other entities that includes specified content, including an urban water shortage contingency analysis. Existing law requires this analysis to include actions to be undertaken by the urban water supplier to prepare for, and implement during, a catastrophic interruption of water supplies, including an earthquake. Existing law requires an urban water supplier to update its plan at least once every 5 years on or before December 31, in years ending in 5 and 0, except that the 2015 plan is required to be updated and submitted to the department by July 1, 2016. This bill would require an urban water supplier to include within its plan, beginning January 1, 2020, a seismic risk assessment and mitigation plan to assess the vulnerability of each of the various facilities of a water system and mitigate those vulnerabilities. This bill would authorize an urban water supplier to comply with this requirement by submitting a copy of the most recent adopted local hazard mitigation plan or multihazard mitigation plan under specified federal law that addresses seismic risk.
Existing law describes the California Interscholastic Federation, provides the intent of the Legislature regarding its policies, and requires it to report to the Legislature and the Governor on its evaluation and accountability activities on or before January 1, 2016. Existing federal law, Title IX of the federal Education Amendments of 1972, prohibits sex discrimination in an educational institution's programs and activities. This bill would require the California Interscholastic Federation, in consultation with the State Department of Education, to, no later than July 1, 2017, develop guidelines, procedures, and safety standards for the purpose of classifying competition cheer as an interscholastic sport, as specified. The bill would require the California Interscholastic Federation to seek a United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights Title IX compliance designation for competition cheer, and would specify that competition cheer shall not be counted toward a school's Title IX compliance unless the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights deems competition cheer compliant with its definition of a sport.
Existing law provides for the time of commencing civil actions other than for the recovery of real property, as specified. Under existing law, unless a longer period is prescribed for a specific action, an action for damages against a defendant based upon the defendant's commission of a felony offense for which the defendant has been convicted is required to be brought within one year after the judgment has been pronounced. Under existing law, a civil action cannot be commenced pursuant to these provisions if a defendant has received a certificate of rehabilitation or a pardon, among other circumstances. This bill would provide that a civil action cannot be commenced pursuant to these provisions if the defendant was unlawfully imprisoned or restrained but has been released from prison after successfully prosecuting a writ of habeas corpus. Under existing law, a crime victim or family member of a crime victim may request certain information from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation regarding the status of a criminal offender. This bill would require a person or entity that enters into a contract with a criminal offender for the sale of the story of a crime for which the offender was convicted to notify the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which must then notify the victim, or a member of the victim's immediate family, as specified, if he or she has requested notification. This bill would also correct an erroneous cross-reference.
Existing law requires state agencies, boards, or commissions that directly or by contract collect demographic data as to the ancestry or ethnic origin of Californians, and state agencies conducting surveys as to the ancestry or ethnic origin of state civil service employees, to use separate collection categories for each major Asian and Pacific Islander group. This bill would require any state agency, board, or commission that directly or by contract collects demographic data, as soon as reasonably feasible and in no event later than January 1, 2022, to provide forms that offer respondents the option of selecting one more ethnic or racial designations.
Under existing law, when a certificated school employee exhausts all available sick leave, as specified, and continues to be absent from his or her duties on account of illness or accident for an additional period of up to 5 school months, the employee during that additional period receives the difference between his or her salary and the sum that is actually paid a substitute employee employed to fill his or her position during his or her absence or, if no substitute employee was employed, the amount that would have been paid to the substitute had he or she been employed. This bill would additionally provide the differential pay benefit described above for up to 12 weeks if the certificated school employee is absent on account of maternity or paternity leave, as defined, as specified. The bill would provide that the 12-week period shall be reduced by any period of sick leave, including accumulated sick leave, during a period of maternity or paternity leave. The bill would prohibit a certificated school employee on maternity or paternity leave pursuant to the Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act from being denied access to differential pay while on that leave. The bill would provide that, to the extent these provisions conflict with any provision of a collective bargaining agreement entered into before January 1, 2016, by a public school employer and an exclusive bargaining representative, these provisions shall not apply until the expiration or renewal of that collective bargaining agreement.
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.
This measure would designate November 2015 as Court Adoption and Permanency Month and would encourage the courts and their local communities to join in activities to expedite permanency for children.
This measure would recognize the California Association of County Veterans Service Officers for helping veterans secure their federal and state benefits over the past 70 years.
This measure would urge the Congress of the United States to permanently reauthorize and fully fund the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund in order to maintain and preserve land and water resources.