Existing law requires the state, through the State Department of Social Services and county welfare departments, to establish and support a public system of statewide child welfare services, as specified, and declares the intent of the Legislature, in providing for this statewide system of child welfare services, that all children are entitled to be safe and free from abuse and neglect. Existing law requires the Office of the State Foster Care Ombudsperson to be established in the State Department of Social Services with prescribed powers and duties relating to the management of foster children, including the dissemination of information on the rights of children and youth in foster care. Existing law requires the Director of Social Services, in consultation with a committee of interested individuals chosen by the director, to appoint the ombudsperson for a term of 4 years. This bill would establish the Office of the Child Protection Ombudsperson, with the intent to provide all California children with similar protections. The bill would require the State Child Protection Ombudsperson to be appointed by the Governor, subject to confirmation by the Senate, for a term of 2 years. The bill would specify the duties of the office, including investigating specified child deaths caused by abuse or neglect. The bill would also authorize the office to take specified actions, including investigating systemic issues and suggesting corrective action accordingly. The bill would require the Office of the State Child Protection Ombudsperson to report to the Legislature, at the end of each 2-year legislative session, data collected by the office describing the nature of the complaints received and systemic suggestions to improve the child welfare system.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, the Gambling Control Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of various legalized gambling activities and establishments by the California Gambling Control Commission and the investigation and enforcement of those activities and establishments by the Department of Justice. Existing law prohibits, until January 1, 2023, the governing body and the electors of a city, county, or city and county that has not authorized legal gaming within its boundaries prior to January 1, 1996, from authorizing legal gaming. Existing law also prohibits, until January 1, 2023, an ordinance in effect on January 1, 1996, that authorizes legal gaming within a city, county, or city and county from being amended to expand gaming in that jurisdiction beyond that permitted on that effective date. This bill would exclude an increase in the number of tables authorized in existing gambling establishments from the prohibition on expansion of gaming and would explicitly authorize a city, county, or city and county to expand, by ordinance, the number of tables permitted in a gambling establishment.
Existing law establishes the Employment Development Department, administered by the Director of Employment Development, within the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and sets forth its powers and duties related to the administration of the state unemployment and disability compensation programs. This bill would require the department to establish, upon appropriation by the Legislature, an advisory committee to advise the department on matters within the department's jurisdiction, including, but not limited to, unemployment insurance. The bill would require the committee to include members representing a diverse spectrum of private and public employers and employees impacted by programs overseen by the department, as provided. The bill would require the committee to hold open and public meetings in compliance with the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act at least once a quarter. The bill would require, commencing on January 1, 2023, the committee to prepare and publicly publish an annual report describing its activities, including, but not limited to, recommendations made by the advisory committee and the department's response to those recommendations. The bill would also make related findings and declarations.
Existing law requires the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to a person, other than that driver, or in the death of a person to immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of the accident and provide specified personal information to the injured person or the occupants of the other vehicle and to any traffic or police officer at the scene of the accident. Under existing law, if a vehicle accident results in permanent, serious injury or death, a person who violates the requirement to stop is subject to punishment by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days nor more than one year, or by a specified fine, or both the imprisonment and fine. Existing law authorizes the court, in the interests of justice and for other reasons stated in the record, to reduce or eliminate the minimum imprisonment or fine requirements. This bill would instead make a person who fails to immediately stop, as required, at the scene of an accident that resulted in a permanent, serious injury subject to punishment by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days nor more than one year, and a specified fine, and if the accident resulted in death, the violation of those requirements would be punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 3, 4, or 6 years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days nor more than one year, and a specified fine.
Existing law makes it a crime to maliciously, and with the intent to obstruct justice or the due administration of laws, or with the intent or threat to inflict imminent bodily harm in retaliation for the due administration of the laws, to publish, disseminate, or otherwise disclose the residence address or telephone number of any peace officer, nonsworn police dispatcher, employee of a city police department or county sheriff's office, or public safety official, including an elected or appointed official, or that of the spouse or children of those persons, as specified. This bill would broaden this crime to include taking those actions with the intent to cause intimidation, harassment, as defined, or a threat to inflict bodily harm in retaliation for the due administration of laws. The bill would also make this crime apply to those actions taken against the immediate family, as defined, of any of the officials listed above, and would make the crime apply to the release of a license plate or description of the vehicle of any of those individuals. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would create 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 requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to establish a local assistance grant program for fire prevention activities, as defined, in the state. Existing law requires the department to prioritize, to the extent feasible, projects that are multiyear efforts. Existing law authorizes the department to consider the fire risk of an area, among other things, when awarding local assistance grants. This bill would expand the definition of "fire prevention activities" to include the removal of hazardous dead trees, creation of fuel breaks and community defensible spaces, and creation of ingress and egress corridors. The bill would also require the department to prioritize projects that have a completed, or nearly completed, environmental review document, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to consider and evaluate the wildfire risk within the proposed project area, as well as the socioeconomic characteristics of communities that the various education and mitigation projects are intended to protect, when awarding local assistance grants. Existing law requires the department to provide a report to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature on or before July 1, 2022, that includes a summary of specified findings relating to fire prevention activities and the local assistance grant program. This bill would also require the report to include, but not be limited to, the total amount of acreage treated by an awarded grant recipient, whether the project was awarded funding for vegetation management activities, the number of communities protected by an awarded project, and the total number of population receiving a benefit of the project.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal law, generally define "gross income" as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provides various exclusions from gross income for purposes of computing tax liability. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2021, and before January 1, 2026, would exclude, under both laws, from gross income the amount of a grant awarded pursuant to the California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law defines "hate crime" as a criminal act committed, in whole or in part, because of actual or perceived characteristics of the victim, including, among other things, race, religion, disability, and sexual orientation. Existing law provides punishments for hate crimes that range from misdemeanors with specified penalties to felonies with additional terms of one to 3 years in state prison, depending on the underlying criminal act and other circumstances. This bill would require the Board of State and Community Corrections to establish a hate crimes task force. The bill would authorize local law enforcement agencies to participate in the task force through regional task forces, as specified. The bill would require the board to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, administer grants to law enforcement agencies that participate in the regional hate crime task forces. The bill would require funds allocated to the regional task forces to be expended with the goal of reducing hate crimes, identifying suspects engaging in hate crimes, identifying interregional movement of offenders, coordinating enforcement efforts, and promoting law enforcement training and best practices to reduce the incidence of hate crimes. The bill would require the regional task forces to report specified information to the board, and would require the board to compile that information and report it to the Legislature, as specified.
Existing law establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) , which is administered by a director appointed by the Governor. The office serves the Governor as the lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth. This bill would, in addition to making certain findings and declarations, state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would establish the California Aerospace Commission to develop an official space plan and oversee a special district created within the GO-Biz that would foster the growth and development of a sustainable and world-leading aerospace industry in the state, and promote aerospace business development by facilitating business financing, spaceport operations, research and development, workforce development, and innovative education programs.
Existing law establishes the Employment Development Department within the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and sets forth its powers and duties, including administration of the unemployment and disability insurance programs for California. Existing law requires the department to pay unemployment compensation benefits to unemployed individuals meeting specified requirements, to periodically review policies and practices used to determine eligibility for and the amount of benefits in the unemployment insurance program, and to report to the Legislature, as specified. Under existing law, unemployment compensation benefits are paid from the Unemployment Fund, and the expenses for administering these provisions are paid from the Unemployment Administration Fund, which is continuously appropriated for these purposes. This bill would establish the Unemployment Insurance Reform Project to be administered by the Director of Employment Development. Under the bill, the Employment Development Department would be required to comply with various reporting and review processes. In this regard, the bill would require the department to report specified information regarding overpayments at least once every 6 months on its internet website, to immediately perform a risk assessment of its deferred workloads, and to develop a workload plan that prioritizes its deferred workloads based on that risk assessment. The bill would require the department to develop a recession plan so that it is well prepared to provide services during future economic downturns, as specified. The bill would require the department to, by March 1, 2021, revise its public dashboards with regard to the number of backlogged claims, as specified. This bill would require the department to convene a working group to assess the lessons learned from claim surges and identify the processes that the department can still improve and issue a report by January 1, 2022, as specified. The bill would require the department, by June 1, 2021, to determine the reasons that claimants cannot successfully complete their identity verification, as specified, and to identify the elements of the Benefit System Modernization that can assist the department in making timely payments. This bill would require the department to, by May 1, 2021, implement a formal policy that establishes a process for tracking and periodically analyzing the reasons why unemployment insurance claimants call for assistance and, by October 1, 2021, and every 6 months thereafter, to analyze this data to improve its call center. Because this bill would authorize the expenditure of funds from the Unemployment Administration Fund for new purposes, the bill would make an appropriation.