Asm. Robert Rivas

Existing law imposes limits on the size, weight, and load of vehicles that may be operated on the highway and authorizes the Department of Transportation and local authorities, with respect to highways under their respective jurisdictions, to issue permits to operate the vehicles exceeding the specified size, weight, and load limits. This bill would, no later than July 1, 2022, require the department to develop a pilot program for the purpose of issuing a special permit to the operator of a vehicle, combination of vehicles, or mobile equipment permitting the hauling of raw milk in excess of 80,000 pounds if the vehicle, combination, or equipment meets specified criteria. The bill would require an application for the permit to contain specified information, including a description of the vehicles to be operated under the permit. The bill would state that a permit is valid for one year and may be canceled by the department for specified reasons including the failure of the applicant to maintain any of the conditions required for the application. The bill would state that the holder of a permit is not authorized to operate outside of designated corridors identified by the department. The bill would require the department to submit a report to the Legislature, as specified. The bill would require the department to conduct a study focused on specific issues, including air pollution emission reductions and fuel consumption, and provide results to the appropriate legislative policy committees. The bill would authorize the department to charge a fee, as specified. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2030.

The existing State General Obligation Bond Law contains procedures for use in authorizing the issuance, sale, and providing for the repayment of, state general obligation bonds. Existing law establishes various funds in the State Treasury for purposes of providing financial incentives to eligible entities for specified purposes. This bill would require the administration of proceeds from the sales of bonds issued under a bond act that is enacted by the Legislature and is approved by the voters on or after January 1, 2022, pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law and that addresses environmental issues, and the administration of certain funds established on or after January 1, 2022, that provide financial assistance to eligible entities to incorporate certain principles of environmental equity. The bill would require guidelines or regulations adopted by state agencies receiving funding to administer a competitive grant program funded by the proceeds of those bonds or moneys in those funds to meet certain requirements.

(1) The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries that includes, among other things, a housing element. Existing law authorizes a development proponent to submit for approval, and requires a local government to approve, a multifamily housing development, as specified, pursuant to a streamlined, ministerial process if it meets certain objective planning standards. This bill would authorize a development proponent to submit for approval, and require a local government to approve, a housing development, as specified, pursuant to a streamlined, ministerial process if it meets certain objective planning standards, including that the development be built or developed by a qualified nonprofit corporation and have 25 or fewer units. The bill would require the development proponent to submit a notice of intent to submit an application to the local government, following which the local government is required to conduct a scoping consultation regarding the proposed development with any California Native American tribe that is traditionally and culturally affiliated with the geographic area, as provided. The bill would, if the development conflicts with any of the objective planning standards, require the local government to respond to a development proponent's housing development application pursuant to the bill's provisions within 60 days of submittal, identifying and explaining the reason for the conflict. The bill would, among other things, limit design review or public oversight of, and automobile parking requirements for, the development as specified. The bill would authorize the Department of Housing and Community Development to review, adopt, amend, and repeal guidelines to implement uniform standards or criteria that supplement or clarify the terms, references, or standards set forth in these provisions. The bill would also provide that the determination of whether an application for a development is subject to the streamlined, ministerial approval process is not a "project" for purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act. (2) The Subdivision Map Act vests the authority to regulate and control the design and improvement of subdivisions in the legislative body of a local agency and sets forth procedures governing the local agency's processing, approval, conditional approval or disapproval, and filing of tentative, final, and parcel maps, and the modification thereof. This bill would require a local agency to issue a building permit for a subdivision that consists of 25 or fewer lots and of which at least 75% of the perimeter adjoins parcels that are developed with urban uses, as specified, if the applicant for the permit has received a tentative map approval or parcel map approval and the applicant has submitted proof, to the satisfaction of the local agency, of a recorded covenant and agreement that states that the applicant and the successors and assignees agree that the building permit is issued on the condition that a certificate of occupancy for the building will not be issued unless the final map has been recorded, and that the total number of lots created by the subdivision will not exceed 25. The bill would require the local agency to issue the building permit based upon the approved tentative or parcel map and its conditions of approval. (3) 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. (4) By imposing additional duties on local officials, 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.

Existing law prohibits a person from selling or otherwise furnishing tobacco products, as defined, to a person under 21 years of age. Existing law, the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) Act, provides for enforcement of that prohibition by the Attorney General. This bill would require the Attorney General to establish and maintain on the Attorney General's internet website a list of tobacco product brand styles that lack a characterizing flavor, as defined. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to require a manufacturer or importer of tobacco products to submit a list of all brand stages of tobacco products they manufacturer or import to the Attorney General. The bill would authorize manufacturers and importers of tobacco products to submit to the Attorney General a list of all brand styles, as defined, of tobacco products that they manufacture or import for sale or distribution in or into California that lack a characterizing flavor. The bill would require a manufacturer or importer that submits a product pursuant to these provisions to, under penalty of perjury, describe each brand style and state that it lacks a characterizing flavor. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Attorney General to determine whether each brand style has a characterizing flavor, as specified. The bill would require any manufacturer or importer that submits a product in this way to, among other things, consent to the jurisdiction of the California courts for the purpose of enforcing these provisions and to appoint an agent for service of process, as specified. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to recover reasonable attorney's fees, investigative costs, and other related costs, against an entity that makes a clearly frivolous submission to the Attorney General for inclusion on the list. The bill would require moneys recovered by the Attorney General in an action pursuant to these provisions to be deposited in the Public Rights Law Enforcement Special Fund, as specified. 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 bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has jurisdiction over electrical corporations. Existing law requires each electrical corporation to annually prepare and submit a wildfire mitigation plan to the Wildfire Safety Division of the commission for review and approval. This bill would require each electrical corporation to also submit its wildfire mitigation plan to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature.

Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of the employee's employment. Existing law provides that in the case of active firefighting members of certain fire departments and in the case of certain peace officers, a compensable injury includes cancer that develops or manifests itself during the period when the firefighter or peace officer demonstrates that they were exposed to a known carcinogen, as defined, while in the service of the public agency. Existing law establishes a presumption that the cancer in these cases arose out of, and in the course of, employment, unless the presumption is controverted by evidence that the primary site of the cancer has been established and that the carcinogen to which the member has demonstrated exposure is not reasonably linked to the disabling cancer. This bill would define "injury," for certain employees of a city, county, city and county, district, or other municipal corporation or political subdivision regularly exposed to active fires or health hazards directly resulting from firefighting operations, to include cancer that develops or manifests during a period in which the individual demonstrates that they were exposed to a known carcinogen while in the employment of the city, county, city and county, district, or other municipal corporation or political subdivision. The bill would establish a presumption that the cancer in those cases arose out of, and in the course of, employment, unless the presumption is controverted by evidence that the primary site of the cancer has been established and that the carcinogen to which the person has demonstrated exposure is not reasonably linked to the disabling cancer.

Existing law establishes the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency in state government, consisting of, among other entities, the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) . Existing law requires HCD to administer various programs intended to promote the development of housing, including the Multifamily Housing Program, pursuant to which HCD provides financial assistance in the form of deferred payment loans to pay for the eligible costs of development for specified activities. Existing law also establishes the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) within HCD with the primary purpose of meeting the housing needs of persons and families of low or moderate income. Existing law also establishes the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) , composed of specified members, and requires that CTCAC, among other things, allocate specified federal low-income housing tax credits, as provided. This bill would enact the State of California Housing Allocation Act, which would require the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, HCD, CalHFA, and CTCAC, no later than January 1, 2023, to jointly establish and operate a single, centralized housing funding allocation committee, which would be within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and comprised of representatives of those entities. The bill would require the committee to be responsible for allocating state controlled financing to housing developments and to serve as the point of contact for developers seeking to build affordable housing in California. The bill, no later than December 31, 2023, would require the committee to create a unified application and award process for the allocation of state-controlled affordable housing funds and, to the extent permitted by any applicable law governing the allocation and use of those state-controlled affordable housing funds, make applications and awards at least twice per calendar year. The bill would authorize the committee to exclude state-controlled affordable housing funds from this unified application and award process for specified reasons. The bill would require the Secretary of Business, Consumer Services, and Housing to develop a new organizational plan for the housing departments in the agency to streamline processes and eliminate redundant tasks between departments, as provided, and to submit a report on that plan to the Legislature no later than December 31, 2022.

(1) The Child Care and Developmental Services Act, administered by the State Department of Education, provides for a comprehensive, coordinated, and cost-effective system of childcare and development services for children from infancy to 13 years of age and their parents, including a full range of supervision, health, and support services through full- and part-time programs, which includes general childcare programs, family childcare home education network programs, and the California state preschool program. Existing law, commencing July 1, 2021, transfers responsibility for the administration of specified childcare and development services programs from the State Department of Education to the State Department of Social Services. Existing law requires statutory references to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, for purposes of the programs transferred to the State Department of Social Services on July 1, 2021, to instead be construed to mean the State Department of Social Services. The act prohibits a contracting agency, as part of the state preschool program, from expelling or unenrolling a child because of a child's behavior, except as provided. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to consider, in determining whether to issue a citation or impose a civil penalty to a state preschool program, whether the program is in the process of complying with the above law relating to expulsion or unenrollment. This bill would revise and recast the above provisions relating to the expulsion or unenrollment of a child from the state preschool program and would include a general childcare and development program and family childcare home education network program as part of those provisions, as provided. The bill would also establish requirements for the use of suspensions in the programs described above. The bill would require these programs to maintain records on expulsion and suspension, as provided. The bill would require, no later than January 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, the State Department of Education and the State Department of Social Services to collect and publish aggregate data on this information, as provided. The bill would require those departments, on or before July 1, 2022, to issue guidance for programs, within their respective jurisdictions, on implementing these requirements. The bill would also require those departments to collaborate to create guidelines for offering additional support and additional staff training for programs with exceptionally high numbers of suspension and expulsion, as specified. The bill would also prohibit the State Department of Social Services from issuing a citation or imposing a civil penalty to a child daycare facility if the facility is complying with specified standards. (2) The California Child Day Care Facilities Act generally requires the State Department of Social Services to license, inspect, and regulate various types of child daycare facilities, defined to include, among others, family daycare homes and daycare centers. A person who willfully or repeatedly violates any provision of the act or any rule or regulation promulgated under the act is guilty of a crime. The bill would also require a licensed child daycare facility, as specified, to utilize positive, age-appropriate behavior management strategies, as specified, and would require those licensed child daycare facilities to develop guidelines for expulsion and suspension. The bill would require, on or before July 1, 2022, the State Department of Social Services to issue guidance to implement those requirements. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law requires the cost to a childcare provider agency of providing an early childhood mental health consultation service, as defined, to be reimbursable if certain requirements are met, including that the consultation service is provided on a schedule of sufficient and consistent frequency and that is supervised and provided by specified mental health professionals. This bill would update the definition of mental health consultation service, revise the requirements relating to the nature and frequency of the consultation service provided, and expand the types of mental health care professionals who can provide the consultation service, as specified. The bill would require, among other things relating to the consultants, the contracting agency to ensure, within the first 30 days upon hire or start of consultation service, that a consultant have specified training. Existing law requires, in order to reflect the additional expense of serving children who meet specified criteria, the provider agency's reported child days of enrollment for these children be multiplied by specified adjustment factors. Existing law requires the adjustment factor for specified children who are served in the state preschool program, in general childcare and development programs, or in a family childcare home education network setting funded by a general childcare and development program, where early childhood mental health consultation services are provided, to be 1.05. This bill would increase that adjustment factor to 1.1. (4) 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 childcare resource and referral programs, which are established to serve a defined geographic area and provide prescribed services. Among the services provided by these programs is the establishment of a referral process that responds to parental need for information, that is provided with full recognition of the confidentiality rights of parents, and that makes referrals to licensed child daycare facilities, as specified. In providing these services, childcare resource and referral programs are required to maintain ongoing documentation of requests for service, including, among other types of data, the number or calls and contacts to the childcare information and referral program or component, the ages of children served, and the reason that the childcare is needed. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that, through greater data transparency and accountability, addresses the suspension and expulsion of African American and Hispanic children in early learning and care settings at disproportionate rates and inequitable access to high-quality early learning and care. The bill would add to the documentation required to be maintained by childcare resource and referral programs the number of requests for care by age of the child, race and ethnicity of the child, hours of care needed by race and ethnicity of the child, and the facility type requested by race and ethnicity of the child. (2) Existing law establishes the Cradle-to-Career Data System Workgroup to assess and recommend data system structural components, processes, and options for expansion and enhancement of data system functionality with respect to data collected as young persons make their way through early learning and on to elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services, in conjunction with the State Department of Education, to develop and maintain the Early Learning and Care Dashboard, a web-based system for publicly reporting data regarding the California state preschool program and specified early learning and care programs, no later than January 1, 2024. The bill would require the dashboard to, subject to all applicable federal and state privacy protections, report information that would include, among other things, enrollment by race, ethnicity, and age in each type of early learning and care program, the total number of complaints related to discrimination or exclusion, by race and age of the child and early learning or childcare facility type, and the total number of children with an individualized education program or individualized family service plan who enrolled in the California state preschool program and were suspended or expelled, by race and ethnicity. The bill would authorize the Cradle-to-Career Data System Workgroup to make recommendations for additions or modifications to the dashboard no later than January 1, 2025. (3) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of child daycare facilities by the State Department of Social Services and imposes various training requirements on employees of child daycare facilities. This bill would require the department, in conjunction with the State Department of Education, to establish the antibias education grant program to enable selected regional leads to offer training, coaching, and professional development to early learning and care staff. The bill would require an application to become a regional lead to include specified components and require the department to give preference to applicants with certain characteristic or qualifications, including, among others, applicants that demonstrate a history of providing antibias, implicit bias, or antiracism training to early learning and care providers, parents, teachers, or its own staff. The bill would require a regional lead selected by the department to offer antibias education to early learning and care providers located in all counties in the region for which it is the regional lead. The bill would require funding to be allocated to each regional lead based on the number of children in its region, but would prohibit a regional lead from receiving less than $250,000. The bill would make the implementation of these provisions contingent on an appropriation for these purposes in the annual Budget Act.

The California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Outdoor Access For All Act of 2018, approved by the voters as Proposition 68 at the June 5, 2018, statewide primary direct election, authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $4,100,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance a drought, water, parks, climate, coastal protection, and outdoor access for all program. Article XVI of the California Constitution requires measures authorizing general obligation bonds to specify the single object or work to be funded by the bonds and further requires a bond act to be approved by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and a majority of the voters. This bill would enact the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparation, Flood Protection, Extreme Heat Mitigation, and Workforce Development Bond Act of 2022, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $7,080,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance projects for safe drinking water, wildfire prevention, drought preparation, flood protection, extreme heat mitigation, and workforce development programs. This bill would provide for the submission of these provisions to the voters at the June 7, 2022, statewide primary election. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.