Asm. Robert Rivas

Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas in the state as very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria and the severity of the fire hazard. Existing law requires a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains an occupied dwelling or structure in, upon, or adjoining a mountainous area, forest-covered land, brush-covered land, grass-covered land, or land that is covered with flammable material that is within a very high fire hazard severity zone, as designated by a local agency, or a building or structure in, upon, or adjoining those areas or lands within a state responsibility area, to maintain a defensible space of 100 feet from each side and from the front and rear of the structure, as specified. A violation of these requirements is a crime. This bill would require a person described above to use more intense fuel reductions between 5 and 30 feet around the structure, and to create an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of the structure, based on regulations promulgated by the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, as provided. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime or expand the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require each local agency having jurisdiction of property upon which conditions that are regulated by the defensible space provisions described above apply and, contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute for this purpose, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to make reasonable efforts to provide notice to affected residents of the above requirements before imposing penalties for a violation of those requirements. By expanding the duty of a local agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would prohibit the requirement for an ember-resistant zone from taking effect for new structures until the state board updates the regulations, as specified, and the guidance document described below, as specified. The bill would prohibit the department from changing defensible space inspection practices and forms or enforcement to implement the requirement for an ember-resistant zone until the director makes a written finding that the Legislature has appropriated sufficient resources to do so. Existing law requires the department to develop, periodically update, and post on its internet website a guidance document on fuels management, as provided. This bill would instead require the state board, in consultation with the department, to develop, periodically update, and post on its internet website the guidance document. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2023, the state board, in consultation with the department, to update the guidance document to include suggestions for creating an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of a structure, as provided. The bill would make the requirement that the state board update the guidance document and promulgate certain regulations contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute for these purposes. This bill would also make conforming changes and nonsubstantive changes. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 51182 and 51189 of the Government Code and Section 4291 of Public Resources Code proposed by SB 1348 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1348 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Existing law requires an employer to provide an employee, at the time of hiring, a written notice including specified information in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to the employee. Existing law requires the Labor Commissioner to prepare a template that includes the specified information mentioned above and to make the template available to employers in the manner as determined by the commissioner. This bill would require an employer to include in their written notice to all employees, specified information required in the event of a federal or state declared disaster or applicable to the county or counties in which the employee will be employed. The bill would prohibit an employer from retaliating against an employee for raising questions about the declarations' requirements or recommendations. This bill would additionally require an employer to provide an H-2A employee, as described, on the day the employee begins work in the state, or begins work for another employer after being transferred, a written notice in Spanish and, if requested by the employee, in English, containing specified information relative to an H-2A employee's rights pursuant to federal and state law. The bill would also require the commissioner to create a template, as specified, by either creating a new template or combining these requirements with an existing notification template for purposes of carrying out this requirement, including a separate section of the template listing key legal rights of H-2A workers under California Law, and to make the template available to employers in the manner as determined by the commissioner by January 2, 2021. The bill would also make conforming changes. Existing law requires an employer to provide, among other things, compensation for travel time from an employee housing facility to the worksite, bathroom access, meal and rest break areas to its employees, and to provide protections for those employees from high heat, pesticide exposure, and other safety measures. This bill would require an employer to provide its employees with specified night work equipment and specified worksite layout information. This bill would also exempt employers from providing compensation for travel between housing facilities and the worksite if the employers are covered by a collective bargaining agreement that meets specified criteria.

Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, provides the Division of Occupational Safety and Health within the Department of Industrial Relations with the power, jurisdiction, and supervision over all employment and places of employment necessary to enforce and administer all occupational health and safety laws and standards and to protect employees. Under the act, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board within the division is authorized to adopt, amend, or repeal occupational safety and health standards and orders. This bill would require the division to disseminate, in both English and Spanish, information on best practices for COVID-19 infection prevention, as specified, consistent with the Guidance Documents available on the division's internet website, including, but not limited to, the Guidance Document entitled, "Cal/OSHA Safety and Health Guidance: COVID-19 Infection Prevention for Agricultural Employers and Employees." The bill would also require the division to work collaboratively with community organizations and organizations representing employees and employers to conduct a statewide outreach campaign, targeted at agricultural employees, to assist with the statewide dissemination of the best practices information and to educate employees on any COVID-19-related employment benefits to which they are entitled, including access to paid sick leave and workers' compensation. The bill would require the campaign to include public service announcements on local Spanish radio stations and the distribution of workplace signs. The bill would require the division to routinely compile and report, via its internet website, information relating to the subject matter, findings, and results of any investigation by the division relating to practices or conditions prescribed in the Guidance Documents or a COVID-19 illness or injury at a workplace of agricultural employees, as specified. The bill would repeal these provisions when the state of emergency has been terminated by proclamation of the Governor or by concurrent resolution of the Legislature, as specified. The bill would also direct the division to enforce the Guidance Documents to the extent any specific Guidance Document applies to any specific workplace and to the extent the division has existing regulatory authority. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

(1) Existing law establishes various offices within the Governor's office with specified duties and responsibilities. This bill would create, within the Governor's office, the Office to End Homelessness, which would be administered by the Secretary on Homelessness appointed by the Governor. The bill would require that the office serve the Governor as the lead entity for ending homelessness in California and would task the office with coordinating homeless programs, services, data, and policies between federal, state, and local agencies, among other responsibilities. The bill would require the office to exercise various powers and duties, including, among others, making recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature regarding new state policies, programs, and actions on homelessness. The bill would require the office to be comprised of specified employees serving within the state civil service and to oversee and carry out the existing mandates of the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council, as defined and described below. (2) Existing law requires the Governor to establish the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (referred to as "the coordinating council") and appoint up to 19 members of that council, including the Secretary of Business, Consumer Services, and Housing, or the secretary's designee, to serve as the chair of the coordinating council. Existing law requires that the coordinating council be under the direction of an executive director, who is under the direction of the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, and staffed by employees of that agency. This bill would require that the coordinating council be under the supervision of the Secretary on Homelessness of the Office to End Homelessness. The bill would further require that the Secretary on Homelessness, or the secretary's designee, serve as chair of the council in place of the Secretary of Business, Consumer Services, and Housing. The bill would also change the composition of the council by reducing the overall number of members to 13, replacing representatives of specified state agencies with directors and secretaries of those agencies, adding the Director of Public Health to the council membership, making certain positions part of an advisory committee to the council, and making other related changes. The bill would provide for the transfer of specified duties, powers, employees, assets, and liabilities of the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and the office of the Governor to the Office to End Homelessness with respect to the council, as specified. (3) Existing law authorizes the coordinating council to establish working groups, task forces, or other structures from within its membership or with outside members to assist it in its work. The Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act requires, with specified exceptions for authorized closed sessions, that all meetings of a state body be open and public and all persons be permitted to attend any meeting of a state body. The bill would provide that the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act does not apply to a meeting of a working group, task force, or other structure of the council if only a minority of the members of the council participate in that working group, task force, or other structure. The bill would specify that, except under those circumstances, the council and its meetings are subject to the act. (4) Existing law charges the coordinating council, among other duties, with the goal of creating a statewide data system or warehouse to match data on homelessness to programs impacting homeless recipients of state programs. This bill would require that statewide data system or warehouse to be known as the Homeless Data Integration System. The bill would require all Continuums of Care, as defined, which are currently operating in California, to provide collected data elements, as provided, to the Homeless Management Information System. The bill would prohibit any health information or personal identifying information provided to, or maintained within, that system from being subject to public inspection or disclosure under the California Public Records Act. (5) Existing law provides that the goals of the coordinating council include, among other things, creating partnerships among state agencies and departments, local government agencies, federal agencies, and specified other entities for the purpose of arriving at specific strategies to end homelessness. Existing law requires agencies and departments administering state programs, as defined, to collaborate with the coordinating council to adopt guidelines and regulations, or to revise existing guidelines and regulations, as applicable, to incorporate core components of Housing First, as defined. This bill would require, upon the request of the coordinating council, an agency or department that administers one or more state programs to furnish to the coordinating council any relevant information regarding those state programs. (6) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. (7) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 8256 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by SB 815 to be operative only if this bill and SB 815 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

Existing law authorizes a trial court to adopt local rules permitting electronic filing of documents, subject to specified conditions, including the conditions that if a document that is electronically filed in a civil action requires the signature of a person, not under penalty of perjury, the document is deemed to have been signed by the person who filed the document electronically and that any payment processing fee charged by the court, an electronic filing manager, or electronic filing service provider shall not exceed the costs incurred in processing the payment. Existing law authorizes a court to require electronic filing and service in civil actions, subject to rules adopted by the Judicial Council permitting mandatory electronic filing and service in specified civil actions, the conditions described above, and additional specified conditions, including the conditions that the court charge fees of no more than the actual cost of the electronic filing and service of the documents and that the court shall waive any fees charged if the court deems a waiver appropriate. This bill would instead provide that a document described above shall be deemed filed by the person who signed the document if either the filer is the signer of the document or the document has been signed pursuant to procedures established in the California Rules of Court. The bill would create additional conditions trial courts would be required to satisfy when adopting local rules permitting electronic filing of documents, as defined. The bill would require courts, electronic filing service providers, and electronic filing managers to send notices of receipt or rejection to parties or persons filing electronic documents, as specified. The bill would extend the statute of limitations for a cause of action asserted in a complaint or cross-complaint if a complaint or cross-complaint is rejected for filing, as specified. The bill would extend the condition that the court charge fees of no more than the actual cost of the electronic filing and service of the documents to actions in which electronic filing is permitted by local rule. The bill would require a court, electronic service provider, or electronic filing manager to waive fees for electronic filing if a party has been granted a fee waiver and to waive fees associated with electronic filing of specified types of documents, including a filing exempt from the payment of filing fees under any other law. The bill would prohibit an electronic filing service provider or an electronic filing manager from seeking payment of waived fees from the court. The bill would make technical and conforming changes. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 1010.6 of the Code of Civil Procedure proposed by SB 1146 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1146 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

The California Endangered Species Act prohibits the taking of an endangered or threatened species, except as specified. The act permits the Department of Fish and Wildlife to authorize, by permit, the take of listed species if the take is incidental to an otherwise lawful activity and the impacts are minimized and fully mitigated. This bill would permit the department to authorize under the act, by permit, the take of the Santa Cruz long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum) resulting from impacts attributable to the construction along the State Route 156 corridor through Moro Cojo Slough in the County of Monterey for the purpose of enhancing safety and access, if certain conditions are satisfied. The bill would also provide that those conditions are subject to amendment if required by a certain monitoring program and adaptive management process. The bill would also make a related change.

Existing law provides for various incentives intended to facilitate and expedite the construction of affordable housing, including the Density Bonus Law, which requires, when an applicant proposes a housing development within the jurisdiction of a local government, that the city, county, or city and county provide the developer with a density bonus and other incentives or concessions for the production of lower income housing units or for the donation of land within the development if the developer, among other things, agrees to construct a specified percentage of units for very low, low-, or moderate-income households or qualifying residents. This bill would prohibit a local agency from requiring the replacement of religious-use parking spaces that a developer of a religious institution affiliated housing development project proposes to eliminate as part of that housing development project. The bill would prohibit the number of religious-use parking spaces requested to be eliminated from exceeding 50% of the number that are available at the time the request is made. The bill would prohibit a local agency from requiring the curing of any preexisting deficit of the number of religious-use parking spaces as a condition of approval of a religious institution affiliated housing development project. The bill would require a local agency to allow the number of religious-use parking spaces that will be available after completion of a religious institution affiliated housing development project to count toward the number of parking spaces otherwise required for approval. The bill would prohibit a local agency from denying a housing development project proposed by a religious institution, or a developer working with a religious institution, solely on the basis that the project will reduce the total number of parking spaces available at the place of worship provided that the total reduction does not exceed 50% of existing parking spaces. The bill would authorize a local agency to require up to one parking space per unit for a religious institution affiliated housing development project. The bill would include findings that the 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. By adding to the duties of local planning officials, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the department, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services, including federally qualified health center (FQHC) services and rural health clinic (RHC) services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. FQHC and RHC services are reimbursed, to the extent that federal financial participation is obtained, to providers on a per-visit basis, and a "visit" is defined as a face-to-face encounter between a patient of an FQHC or RHC and specified health care professionals, including dental providers. Existing law prohibits a requirement of in-person contact between a health care provider and a Medi-Cal patient when the service may be provided by telehealth, and, for purposes of telehealth, prohibits the department from limiting the type of setting where Medi-Cal services are provided. Existing law authorizes, to the extent that federal financial participation is available, the use of health care services by store and forward under the Medi-Cal program, subject to billing and reimbursement policies developed by the department, and prohibits a requirement of in-person contact between a health care provider and a Medi-Cal patient when these services are provided by store and forward. This bill would provide that an FQHC or RHC "visit" includes an encounter between an FQHC or RHC patient and a health care provider using telehealth by synchronous interaction or asynchronous store and forward. The bill would specify that an FQHC or RHC is not precluded from establishing a patient who is located within the FQHC's or RHC's federal designated service area through synchronous interaction or asynchronous store and forward as of the date of service if specified requirements are met. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations, as specified, and to provide a status report to the Legislature on a semiannual basis until those regulations have been adopted. The bill would make these provisions inoperative 180 days after the state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic has been terminated, as specified.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law establishes a schedule of benefits under the Medi-Cal program and provides for various services, including behavioral and mental health services that are rendered by Medi-Cal enrolled providers. This bill would require the department, by July 1, 2022, subject to any necessary federal waivers or approvals, to establish statewide requirements for counties or their representatives to use in developing certification programs for the certification of peer support specialists, who are individuals who self-identify as having lived experience with the process of recovery from mental illness, substance use disorder, or both. The bill would authorize a county, or an agency that represents a county, to develop a peer support specialist certification program and certification fee schedule, both of which would be subject to department approval. The bill would require the department to seek any federal waivers it deems necessary to establish a demonstration or pilot project for the provision of peer support services in a county that agrees to participate in and fund the project, as specified.

Existing law, the Student Loan Servicing Act, prohibits a person from engaging in the business of servicing a student loan in California without first obtaining a license. Existing law commits the administration of these provisions to the Commissioner of Business Oversight and grants the commissioner various powers in this regard, including the authority to conduct investigations of applicants and licensees. The act requires an applicant for a license to submit audited financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and acceptable to the commissioner that indicate a net worth of at least $250,000 and requires a licensee to maintain a minimum net worth of $250,000. Existing law, the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, regulates the collection of consumer debts by debt collectors, as defined. Under existing law, a debt collector who violates the act is liable to a debtor for actual damages resulting from the violation, and is subject to additional civil penalties for any willful or knowing violation of the act, and other specified remedies. This bill would authorize the commissioner to allow a licensee that is a wholly owned subsidiary of a public holding company required to comply with the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission to satisfy the requirement to submit audited financial statements with an application for a license and to maintain a minimum net worth of $250,000 by submitting the annual consolidated audited financial statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as specified. This bill would impose new requirements on a student loan servicer, defined as any person engaged in the business of servicing student loans in the state. These requirements would include the timely posting, processing, and crediting of student loan payments within certain timeframes, applying overpayments consistent with the best financial interest of a student loan borrower, as defined, applying partial payments to minimize late fees and negative credit reporting, maintaining records, timely processing of paperwork, and diligently overseeing service providers. The bill would require a student loan servicer to provide specialized training for customer service personnel that advises military borrowers, borrowers in public service, borrowers with disabilities, and older borrowers. The bill would prohibit a student loan servicer from engaging in unfair or deceptive practices, or abusive acts or practices in connection with the servicing of a student loan, as specified. The bill would authorize a consumer who suffers damages as a result of a person's failure to comply with these provisions as well as all applicable federal laws relating to student loan servicing to bring an action for actual damages, injunctive relief, restitution, punitive damages, attorney's fees, and other relief, including treble damages in certain circumstances. The bill would require a consumer to give specified notice to a person before bringing an action for damages against that person for a violation of the bill's provisions and would provide that person an opportunity to cure the alleged violation, as specified. The bill would prohibit an attempt to cure a violation by a person who receives a notice of that violation from being admissible in court against that person but would authorize the attempt to cure to be admitted as evidence by that person, as specified. The bill would define terms for purposes of its provisions. The bill would require, beginning on July 1, 2021, the commissioner, as specified, to designate a Student Loan Ombudsman to work within the department and to hire additional staff, as needed to implement these provisions. The bill would require the Student Loan Ombudsman to receive and review complaints, to refer complaints to an appropriate unit within the department that would be authorized to investigate the complaint, and to refer complaints regarding servicers not subject to licensing under the Student Loan Servicing Act to the Department of Justice, which would be permitted to investigate those complaints. The bill would require complaints regarding any private postsecondary educational institution licensed by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education to be referred to the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education's Office of Student Assistance and Relief. The bill would require the Student Loan Ombudsman to confer with the Department of Justice and the Office of Student Assistance and Relief regarding the student loan servicing complaints, the proper referral processes for those complaints, and the reporting requirements imposed by the bill. The bill would require the Student Loan Ombudsman not later than 18 months after the operative date of the bill, and no less than once yearly thereafter, to submit a report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature regarding the implementation of these provisions, the types of complaints received, and other data and analysis on student loan issues. The bill would also, beginning July 1, 2021, authorize the Commissioner of Business Oversight to monitor for risks to consumers in the provision of student loan servicing and would authorize the commissioner to gather information regarding the organization, business conduct, and activities of student loan services. The bill would authorize the commissioner to gather and compile information from student loan servicers and to develop and publicize metrics based on the data collected. Among other actions, the bill would authorize the commissioner to require student loan servicers to file, under oath or otherwise, annual or special reports or answers in writing to specific questions. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would include related legislative findings and would make conforming and nonsubstantive changes to provisions in the Student Loan Servicing Act. 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.