Existing law, the Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, grants agricultural employees the right to form and join labor organizations and engage in collective bargaining with respect to wages, terms of employment, and other employment conditions, and authorizes employees to elect exclusive bargaining representatives for these purposes. Existing law requires the Agricultural Labor Relations Board to certify the results of an election conducted by secret ballot of employees in a collective bargaining unit to designate a collective bargaining representative, unless the board determines there are sufficient grounds to refuse to do so. Existing law further provides that if the board refuses to certify an election because of employer misconduct that would render slight the chances of a new election reflecting the free and fair choice of employees, the labor organization shall be certified as the bargaining representative for the bargaining unit. This bill would refer to the secret ballot election as a polling place election. This bill would also permit agricultural employees, as an alternative election procedure, to select their labor representatives through a representation ballot card election by submitting a petition to the board supported by representation ballot cards signed by a majority of employees in the bargaining unit. This bill would require the board to conduct an immediate investigation regarding the validity of the petition and the supporting representation ballot cards and, within 5 days after receiving a petition, to make an administrative decision as to whether the petition meets certain requirements and as to whether the labor organization submitted the requisite number of cards. The bill would require the board to certify the labor organization as the exclusive bargaining representative if the board determines that the labor organization has submitted the required number of representation ballot cards and the cards meet specified criteria. Existing law authorizes a person aggrieved by the final order of the board granting or denying in whole or in part the relief sought for an unfair labor practice, to obtain a review of the order in a specified court of appeal by filing in the court a written petition requesting that the order of the board be modified or set aside. This bill would require an employer who appeals or petitions for a writ of review of any order of the board involving make-whole, backpay, or other monetary awards to employees, to post an appeal bond in the amount of the entire economic value of the order, as specified, and would provide for the bond to be forfeited under specified conditions. This bill would state that its provisions are severable.
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Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the department to provide presumptive Medi-Cal eligibility to pregnant women and children. Existing law authorizes a qualified hospital to make presumptive eligibility determinations if it complies with specified requirements. Existing law authorizes the department, on a regional pilot project basis, to issue an identification card to a person who is eligible for Medi-Cal program benefits, but does not possess a valid California driver's license or identification card issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Existing law requires the department, in consultation with the board governing the California Health Benefit Exchange, to develop a single paper, electronic, and telephone application for insurance affordability programs, including Medi-Cal. This bill would require the department to implement a program of presumptive eligibility for persons experiencing homelessness, under which a person would receive full-scope Medi-Cal benefits without a share of cost. The bill would require the department to authorize an enrolled Medi-Cal provider to issue a temporary Medi-Cal benefits identification card to a person experiencing homelessness, and would prohibit the department from requiring a person experiencing homelessness to present a valid California driver's license or identification card issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles to receive Medi-Cal services if the provider verifies the person's eligibility. This bill would authorize an enrolled Medi-Cal provider to make a presumptive eligibility determination for a person experiencing homelessness. The bill would require the department to reimburse an enrolled Medi-Cal provider who bills the Medi-Cal program for Medi-Cal services provided off the premises to a person experiencing homelessness, as specified. The bill would require a Medi-Cal managed care plan to allow a beneficiary to seek those services and to reimburse a provider for providing those services, but would authorize a Medi-Cal managed care plan to establish reasonable requirements governing network participation. The bill would require a Medi-Cal managed care plan to reimburse a participating Medi-Cal provider providing covered services, without requiring the provider to obtain prior approval, as specified. The bill would authorize an enrolled Medi-Cal provider to refer a Medi-Cal beneficiary who is experiencing homelessness for specialist care and diagnostics. The bill would require the department to seek any necessary federal approvals to implement the above provisions, and would condition their implementation on receipt of those federal approvals and the availability of federal financial participation. The bill would require the insurance affordability program's application to include information collection means for the applicant to indicate if they are experiencing homelessness at the time of application. If Medi-Cal covered health care services covered by a Medi-Cal managed care plan are not provided within the first 60 calendar days of enrollment to a Medi-Cal beneficiary who has indicated that they are a person experiencing homelessness at the time of application, the bill would require the department to deduct the capitation payments made by the department to the plan from subsequent payments due to the plan for the time period from when the person was initially enrolled into a plan until the first receipt of plan-covered services. If a person experiencing homelessness who is assigned a primary care provider (PCP) receives services by another provider off the premises of the assigned PCP, the bill would require the department or the Medi-Cal managed care plan to notify the assigned PCP that their patient was seen by another provider.
The California Constitution prohibits the state, including any political subdivision or government instrumentality of or within the state, from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting. Existing law establishes in state government various commissions and committees, including, among others, the California Commission on Disability Access, the Healthy California for All Commission, the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, and the Committee on Revision of the Penal Code to study and recommend reforms on certain topics, including issues related to equality and justice. This bill would establish in state government the California Commission on Human Rights, as an advisory commission, and would require it to, among other things, identify and evaluate California's successes and failures in protecting human rights of individuals living within the state, determine statutory, regulatory, or budgetary solutions to better protect human rights, and report, at least annually, on the status of human rights to the Legislature and the Governor with statutory and regulatory recommendations. The bill would require the commission to consist of 17 members, including, among others, Members of the Assembly and the Senate. The bill would also create the California Commission on Human Rights Fund in the General Fund to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, carry out these provisions and support the commission. The bill would make related findings and declarations. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2027.
Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensing and regulation of community care facilities, including a children's crisis residential program, by the State Department of Social Services, and defines a children's crisis residential program to mean a facility licensed as a short-term residential therapeutic program and approved by the State Department of Health Care Services, or a county mental health plan, to operate a children's crisis residential mental health program to serve children experiencing mental health crises as an alternative to psychiatric hospitalization. Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services, including specified mental health and substance use disorder services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid provisions. Existing federal Medicaid regulations provide for inpatient psychiatric services for individuals under 21 years of age in psychiatric facilities, as prescribed. This bill would reclassify children's crisis residential programs as children's crisis psychiatric residential treatment facilities, and would transfer responsibility for licensing these facilities to the State Department of Health Care Services, contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act for these purposes. The bill would define "children's crisis psychiatric residential treatment facility" to mean a licensed residential facility operated by a public agency or private organization that provides the psychiatric services, as prescribed under the Medicaid regulations, to individuals under 21 years of age, in an inpatient setting. The bill would require the department to establish regulations for the licensing of children's crisis psychiatric residential treatment facilities, and would require those facilities to obtain certification from the department. The bill would require the department's regulations and certifications to be consistent with applicable Medicaid regulations governing psychiatric residential treatment facilities, in order to maximize federal financial participation. The bill would include inpatient psychiatric services to individuals under 21 years of age provided in a licensed children's crisis psychiatric residential treatment facility as mental health services provided under the Medi-Cal program.
Existing law, the Ralph C. Dills Act (Dills Act) , governs collective bargaining between the state and recognized state public employee organizations. Existing law excludes certain employees from coverage under the Dills Act, including, among others, managerial employees, supervisory employees, and confidential employees, as defined. Existing law creates the Public Employment Relations Board and authorizes it, among other things, to determine appropriate state employee bargaining units, as specified. This bill would enact the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act, to provide employees of the Legislature, including some supervisory and managerial employees, the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations. The bill would prescribe rights, duties, and prohibitions in this context that parallel those in the Dills Act. The bill would prohibit the Public Employment Relations Board from including employees of the Legislature in a bargaining unit that includes employees other than those of the Legislature. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for any person to willfully resist, prevent, impede, or interfere with any member of the board, or any of its agents, in the performance of duties pursuant to its provisions. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that the provisions of the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations 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.
Existing law provides for the housing of juvenile wards of the court in juvenile facilities, including juvenile halls and forestry camps. Existing law requires the Board of State and Community Corrections to adopt minimum standards for the operation and maintenance of juvenile halls for the confinement of minors. Existing law requires the judge of the juvenile court of the county to annually inspect any jail or juvenile hall that was used for the confinement of any minor and to notify the operator of the jail or juvenile hall of any observed noncompliance with the minimum standards of the juvenile facility adopted by the board. This bill would prohibit the use or storage of a chemical agent, as defined, with the exception of oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray, inside, or on the grounds of, a juvenile facility. The bill would prohibit, commencing July 1, 2024, the use of a chemical agent against a juvenile who is under 18 years of age or in any space where a juvenile who is under 18 years of age is present. The bill would require an entity that manages, operates, or owns a juvenile facility to dispose of all chemical agents, with the exception of OC spray, in its possession on or before December 31, 2023, and to notify the board of that disposition. The bill would require the custodian of each juvenile facility to report quarterly to the board on the use of a chemical agent in the facility, as provided. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to submit to the Legislature a report on model practices and protocols for alternatives to the use of chemical agents in juvenile facilities, as specified. The bill would require the board to develop training, model practices, and regulations to implement the findings and recommendations of the report, as specified. By imposing new duties on local juvenile facilities, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law requires the Board of Parole Hearings to meet with every inmate during the 6th year before the inmate's minimum eligible parole release date to determine parole eligibility. For purposes of parole consideration, existing law prohibits a sentence based on a conviction for which a person was previously pardoned on the express ground that the person was not guilty from counting as a previous conviction. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.
Under existing law, there is established in each county treasury a Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Account (SLESA) to receive all amounts allocated to a county for specified purposes. In any fiscal year for which a county receives moneys to be expended for implementation, existing law requires the county auditor to allocate the moneys in the county's SLESA within 30 days of the deposit of those moneys into the fund. Existing law requires the moneys to be allocated in specified amounts, including, but not limited to, 50% to a county or city and county to implement a comprehensive multiagency juvenile justice plan, as specified. Existing law requires the juvenile justice plan to be developed by the local juvenile justice coordinating council in each county and city and county. Existing law requires the plan to be annually reviewed and updated by the council and submitted to the Board of State and Community Corrections. Existing law requires the multiagency juvenile justice plan to include certain components, including, but not limited to, a local juvenile justice action strategy that provides for a continuum of responses to juvenile crime and delinquency. Existing law also requires each council to annually report to their board of supervisors and the board information on the effectiveness of the programs and strategies funded under these provisions, and requires the board to annually report this information to the Governor and the Legislature and post it on its internet website. This bill would revise and recast required components of the multiagency juvenile justice plan to, among other things, additionally require a plan to include an assessment of existing community-based youth development services, identification and prioritization of areas of the community that face significant public safety risk from crime, documentation of the effectiveness of the programs funded under these provisions, and a description of the target population funded under these provisions. The bill would require programs and strategies funded under these provisions to, among other things, be modeled on trauma-informed and youth development approaches and in collaboration with community-based organizations. The bill would require no less than 95% of the funds allocated under these provisions to be distributed to community-based organizations and other public agencies or departments that are not law enforcement entities, as specified, and prohibits this portion of the funds from being used for law enforcement activities or personnel. The bill would require a council to include additional information in its annual report to the board of supervisors and the board relating to their programs, including data on participants, and would impose additional requirements on the board with respect to those annual reports, including, but not limited to, providing a statewide analysis of county spending. Existing law requires a juvenile justice coordinating council to consist of certain members, including, but not limited to, the chief probation officer, as chair, and a representative from the district attorney's office, the public defender's office, and the sheriff's department, among others. This bill would revise and recast those membership provisions, and instead require each Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council to, at a minimum, consist of 7 members with at least 50% community representatives with the remainder of the seats allocated to government agencies. The bill would require a council to select 2 co-chairs from amongst its members, at least 1 of which must be a community representative. The bill would require a council to meet no less than 3 times per year and announce its meetings at least 10 days in advance of a meeting.
Existing law authorizes the Department of the California Highway Patrol to retain license plate data captured by license plate reader technology, also referred to as an automated license plate recognition (ALPR) system, for not more than 60 days unless the data is being used as evidence or for the investigation of felonies. Existing law authorizes the department to share that data with law enforcement agencies for specified purposes and requires both an ALPR operator and an ALPR end-user, as those terms are defined, to implement a usage and privacy policy regarding that ALPR information, as specified. Existing law requires that the usage and privacy policy implemented by an ALPR operator or an ALPR end-user include the length of time ALPR information will be retained and the process the ALPR operator and ALPR end-user will utilize to determine if and when to destroy retained ALPR information. This bill would include in those usage and privacy policies a requirement that, if the ALPR operator or ALPR end-user is a public agency and not an airport authority, ALPR data that does not match a hot list be destroyed within 24 hours. Existing law requires an ALPR operator and an ALPR end-user to maintain reasonable security procedures and practices. Under existing law, the reasonable security procedures and practices must include operational, administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect ALPR information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure. This bill would additionally require those procedures and practices to include an annual audit to review ALPR end-user searches during the previous year and, where the ALPR operator or ALPR end-user is a public agency and not an airport authority, the destruction of all ALPR information that does not match information on a hot list within 24 hours. The bill would also prohibit an ALPR operator or an ALPR end-user that is a public agency and not an airport authority from accessing an ALPR system that retains ALPR information for more than 24 hours that does not match a hot list. Existing law requires an ALPR operator that accesses or provides access to ALPR information to maintain a record of that access and require that ALPR information only be used for the authorized purposes described in the usage and privacy policy. This bill would extend the requirement to keep a record of access to ALPR information to an ALPR end-user. The bill would additionally require an ALPR operator or an ALPR end-user that accesses or provides access to ALPR information to conduct an annual audit to review ALPR end-user searches during the previous year and to confirm that, if the ALPR operator or ALPR end-user is a public agency and not an airport authority, all ALPR information that does not match a hot list is routinely destroyed in 24 hours or less. The bill would require these annual audits be made available to the public in writing, and, if the ALPR operator or ALPR end-user has an internet website, would require the annual audits be posted conspicuously on that internet website. This bill would require the Department of Justice, on or before July 1, 2022, to draft and make available on its internet website a policy template and would permit local law enforcement agencies to use the template as a model for their ALPR policies. The bill would also require the Department of Justice to develop and issue guidance to help local law enforcement agencies identify and evaluate the types of data they are currently storing in their ALPR database systems.
(1) Existing law prohibits health care service plans and their contracting entities from including provisions in their contracts that interfere with the ability of a physician and surgeon or other licensed health care provider to communicate with a patient regarding their health care. This bill would prohibit a health facility from requiring a physician or surgeon, as a condition of obtaining or maintaining clinical privileges, to agree to comply with criteria, rules, regulations, or other policies or procedures that are not knowingly and explicitly ratified, issued, or promulgated by the medical staff, that directly or indirectly prohibit, limit, or restrict the ability of the physician or surgeon to provide a particular medical treatment or service that falls within the scope of their privileges, or from requiring a physician or surgeon to obtain permission from a nonphysician or nonsurgeon to perform a particular medical treatment or service for which consent has been obtained from the patient or the patient's representative, except as provided. The bill would prohibit a health facility from limiting or otherwise exercising control over the independent professional judgment of a physician or surgeon concerning the practice of medicine or the diagnosis or treatment of disease, if the physician or surgeon, exercising their independent professional judgment, determines that a particular medical service or treatment is medically appropriate, unless specified circumstances apply. This bill would authorize a superior court, upon application by a health facility's medical staff or an individual member of a facility's medical staff, to issue an injunction or other appropriate order restraining any acts or practices that could constitute a violation of these provisions. The bill would specify that its provisions cannot be construed to prohibit a health facility from establishing criteria, rules, regulations, policies, or procedures that are required by federal or state law or regulation as a condition of licensure, receipt of federal or state funds, or participation in Medicare, Medi-Cal, or other federal or state health care programs, or limit a medical staff's authority to take corrective action against medical staff members in accordance with the medical staff bylaws, except in specified circumstances. The bill would also prohibit health facility corporate bylaws, policies, rules, contracts, or other institutional requirements that conflict with these provisions from being applied to directly or indirectly affect a physician's clinical privileges or rights, or privileges of membership on the medical staff, except as required by federal or state law. (2) Existing law requires each shareholder, director, and officer of a medical or podiatry corporation, except as provided, to be a licensed person, as defined. This bill would require the shareholders, directors, and officers of a medical corporation to manage and have ultimate control, as defined, over the assets and business operations of the medical corporation and not be replaced, removed, or otherwise controlled by any lay entity or individual, as specified. (3) Existing law requires any nonprofit corporation that operates or controls a health facility or operates or controls a facility that provides similar health care, as specified, to provide written notice to, and to obtain the written consent of, the Attorney General prior to entering into any agreement or transaction to sell, transfer, lease, or exchange its assets to a for-profit corporation or entity or to a mutual benefit corporation or entity when a material amount of the assets of the nonprofit corporation are involved in the agreement or transaction, or to transfer control, responsibility, or governance of a material amount of the assets or operations of the nonprofit corporation to any for-profit corporation or entity or to any mutual benefit corporation or entity, as specified. Existing law requires any nonprofit corporation that operates or controls a health care facility, or that or operates or controls a facility that provides similar health care to provide written notice to, and to obtain the written consent of, the Attorney General prior to entering into any agreement or transaction to sell, transfer, lease, or exchange its assets to another nonprofit corporation or entity when a material amount of the assets of the nonprofit corporation are involved in the agreement or transaction, or to transfer control, responsibility, or governance of a material amount of the assets or operations of the nonprofit corporation to another nonprofit corporation or entity. Existing law gives the Attorney General discretion to consent to, give conditional consent to, or not to consent to these agreements or transactions considering any factor they determine to be relevant. This bill would include among those factors that, if applicable, may be relevant to the Attorney General in determining whether to consent whether the agreement or transaction may create a reduction of or limitation on the availability of the full range of health care services to any group of individuals based on any characteristic listed or defined in the Unruh Civil Rights Act. The bill would also include among those factors whether the agreement or transaction may result in undue interference in patients' access to medical care due to improper or unlawful motives. (4) This bill would state that its provisions are severable.