Existing law governs the procedure by which crime victims may obtain compensation from the Restitution Fund, a continuously appropriated fund. Existing law establishes eligibility for compensation when prescribed requirements are met and authorizes the California Victim Compensation Board to grant compensation from the fund for pecuniary loss when the board determines it will best aid the person seeking compensation. Existing law authorizes the board to provide compensation equal to the loss of income or loss of support, or both, that a victim or derivative victim incurs as a direct result of the victim's or derivative victim's injury or the victim's death. Under existing law, as amended by Proposition 35, the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act, an initiative measure approved by the voters at the November 6, 2012, statewide general election, a person who deprives or violates another person's personal liberty with the intent to obtain forced labor or services or who deprives or violates another person's personal liberty for the purpose of prostitution or sexual exploitation is guilty of human trafficking, a felony. This bill would authorize the board to provide compensation equal to loss of income or support that a victim incurs as a direct result of the victim's deprivation of liberty during the crime, if the qualifying crime is human trafficking, in an amount not exceeding the value of the victim's labor as guaranteed under California law for up to 40 hours per week, as specified. The bill would require the board to adopt guidelines on or before July 1, 2020, that allow the board to rely on evidence other than official employment documentation in considering and approving an application for loss of income or support, including any reliable corroborating information approved by the board. The bill would prohibit compensation for loss of income paid by the board if the qualifying crime is human trafficking from exceeding $10,000 per year that the services were performed, for a maximum of 2 years. By expanding the authorizations for use of moneys in the Restitution Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 13957 of the Government Code proposed by AB 415 to be operative only if this bill and AB 415 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
Sponsored bills
Existing law requires a for-profit or nonprofit transit operator that receives funds through the Mills-Alquist-Deddeh Act and that provides dial-a-ride or paratransit service to provide those services consistent with certain requirements. Existing law requires a transit operator to honor any current valid identification card for the type of transportation service or discount requested and that has been issued to an individual with disabilities by another transit operator. Existing law establishes in state government the Transportation Agency, which consists of various state entities, including the Department of Transportation. This bill would require the agency, in consultation with public transit operators, to conduct an assessment of the procedures public transit operators use to provide dial-a-ride and paratransit services to individuals with disabilities who are visiting their service territories and are certified to use another in-state public transit operator's similar dial-a-ride and paratransit services. The bill would require the agency to publish the assessment on its internet website on or before July 1, 2021. The bill would require the agency, after conducting and publishing the assessment, to adopt guidelines for the development of a statewide program to enable individuals with disabilities who a public transit operator has certified to use its dial-a-ride and paratransit services to use another in-state public transit operator's similar dial-a-ride and paratransit services.
(1) Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires that health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies provide coverage for certain services and treatments, including emergency medical transportation services. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or a health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2020, to provide that if an enrollee, insured, or subscriber (individual) receives covered services from a noncontracting air ambulance provider, the individual shall pay no more than the same cost sharing that the individual would pay for the same covered services received from a contracting air ambulance provider, referred to as the in-network cost-sharing amount. The bill would provide that an individual would not owe the noncontracting provider more than the in-network cost-sharing amount for services. The bill would authorize a noncontracting provider to advance to collections only the in-network cost-sharing amount that the individual has failed to pay. The bill would authorize a health care service plan, health insurer, or provider to seek relief in any court for the purpose of resolving a payment dispute, and would not prohibit a provider from using a health care service plan's or health insurer's existing dispute resolution processes. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law, the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act, effective until January 1, 2022, imposes a penalty of $4 until January 1, 2020, upon every conviction for a violation of the Vehicle Code or a local ordinance adopted pursuant to the Vehicle Code, other than a parking offense. The act requires the county or the court that imposed the fine to transfer the moneys collected pursuant to that act to the Treasurer for deposit into the Emergency Medical Air Transportation and Children's Coverage Fund. Under the act, moneys in the fund are made available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the State Department of Health Care Services for children's health care coverage and administrative costs relating to emergency medical air transportation provider payments. Existing law requires the assessed penalty to continue to be collected, administered, and distributed until exhausted or until June 30, 2021, whichever occurs first, and requires any remaining unexpended and unencumbered moneys in the fund to be transferred to the General Fund, to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for specified purposes, including funding children's health care coverage. This bill would impose the penalty until July 1, 2020, and would extend the above-specified dates by six months. (3) 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 prescribes various statutes of limitations for criminal acts, ranging from a requirement that prosecution commence within one year after commission of the offense to provisions authorizing prosecution to be commenced at any time for offenses punishable by death or imprisonment for life in the state prison. Existing law makes the infliction of corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition upon specified victims, including, among others, the offender's spouse or former spouse, punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years, or in a county jail for not more than one year, or a fine of up to $6,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment. This bill would authorize prosecution for that crime to be commenced within 5 years. The bill would apply to crimes that are committed on or after January 1, 2020, and to crimes for which the statute of limitations that was in effect prior to January 1, 2020, has not run as of January 1, 2020. By extending the statute of limitations indefinitely, under certain circumstances, for a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to implement a training course for law enforcement officers in the handling of domestic violence complaints and to develop guidelines for officer response to domestic violence. Existing law requires the course to include instruction on specified procedures and techniques for responding to domestic violence, including techniques for handling incidents of domestic violence that minimize the likelihood of injury to the officer and that promote the safety of the victim, and the assessment of lethality or signs of lethal violence in domestic violence situations. Existing law also requires the course of instruction, the learning and performance objectives, the standards for the training, and the guidelines to be developed by the commission in consultation with appropriate groups and individuals having an interest and expertise in the field of domestic violence, including 2 domestic violence experts. This bill would require those techniques for handling domestic violence to include methods for ensuring victim interviews occur in a venue separate from the alleged perpetrator, deescalation techniques, and specified questions for victims. The bill would require the course of training to include the signs of domestic violence and current and historical context on communities of color impacted by incarceration and violence. The bill would authorize the training experts to include victims of domestic violence and people who have committed domestic violence and have been or are in the process of being rehabilitated. The bill would also expand the groups and individuals with whom the commission is required to consult to include one representative of an organization working to advance criminal justice reform and one representative of an organization working to advance racial justice. The bill would include a statement of legislative findings and declarations. The bill would also delete obsolete provisions and make other technical changes. 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 establishes the Student Aid Commission as the state agency primarily responsible for the administration and coordination of student financial aid programs at California postsecondary educational institutions. Existing federal law establishes the Chafee Educational and Training Vouchers Program for purposes of providing financial aid to current and former foster youth who are attending qualifying postsecondary educational institutions. Existing law provides that the Student Aid Commission, through an interagency agreement with the State Department of Social Services, currently operates the program in California. Existing law authorizes the commission or the department, for the fiscal years 2018–19 to 2020–21, inclusive, to expend up to $80,000, of any moneys appropriated by the Legislature to expand the Chafee Educational and Training Vouchers Program age eligibility of former foster youth up to 26 years of age, for outreach to newly eligible former foster youth who are at least 23 years of age, but are not yet 26 years of age. Commencing with the 2021–22 award year, this bill would authorize the commission to make initial award offers of up to 200% of total state and federal program funding available for all awards, with the number of initial award offers and the amount of the award to be determined based on the historical rate of award acceptance. The bill would require the commission to make award offers contingent upon available funding. The bill would authorize the commission to adjust or withdraw offers to ensure that awards do not exceed available program funding. The bill would also require the commission to advise award offer recipients that offers may be withdrawn or adjusted before payment and that awards are payable to eligible students only if funding is available. This bill would impose certain requirements on a student who fails to demonstrate satisfactory academic progress, as defined by the institution where the student is enrolled, to maintain Chafee grant eligibility, and would take away Chafee grant eligibility from a student who fails to demonstrate satisfactory academic progress, as specified. The bill would require that institutions provide an appeal process in writing and reinstate the student's Chafee grant when certain conditions are met. The bill would also provide that a student who loses Chafee eligibility and subsequently is not enrolled for one or more terms shall regain eligibility upon reenrollment. The bill would require the California Community Colleges and the California State University, and would request the University of California, to provide all Chafee grant recipients, upon release of the first payment, with information regarding available support services on campus and the process for completing an educational plan and, in that notification, to strongly encourage Chafee grant recipients to avail themselves of those services if they have not already done so. To the extent that the bill would impose new duties on community college districts, it would constitute a state-mandated local program. This bill would limit the duration of receipt of a Chafee award to 5 years, which would not be required to be consecutive. The bill would prohibit an institution from requiring any other eligibility criteria for a Chafee grant than those described in this bill and in specified federal law. 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 authorizes an agency that processes unpaid parking penalties and related service fees to collect those penalties and fees pursuant to one of specified options. Under one option, a processing agency is authorized to file an itemization of unpaid penalties with the Department of Motor Vehicles for the department to collect the penalties along with the registration of the vehicle. Existing law requires a processing agency that uses this option to offer an indigent person a payment plan for them to pay unpaid parking penalties and related service fees in monthly installments of no more than $25 per month for total amounts due that are $300 or less, and requires this option to include a waiver of all late fees and penalty assessments if the indigent person enrolls in the payment plan. This bill would exclude the amount of those late fees and penalty assessments waived pursuant to that process from being counted in determining the indigent person's eligibility for the payment plan. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law authorizes an individual to contribute amounts in excess of their personal income tax liability for the support of specified funds. Existing law sets forth general administrative provisions applicable to voluntary contributions, which, among other things, repeal funds that fail to meet a minimum contribution amount of $250,000 in a given taxable year. This bill would allow a taxpayer to designate an amount in excess of personal income tax liability to be transferred into the Suicide Prevention Voluntary Contribution Fund, which the bill would create. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to revise the tax return to include a space for this fund when another voluntary contribution designation is removed or space becomes available. The bill would require the fund to meet an annual minimum contribution amount of $250,000, as specified. The bill would require moneys transferred to the Suicide Prevention Voluntary Contribution Fund to be continuously appropriated and allocated to the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to award grants and provide disbursements to crisis centers located in the state that are active members of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline for the purpose of providing suicide prevention services and to reimburse the commission, the Franchise Tax Board, and the Controller for related administrative costs, as provided. The bill would provide that these provisions shall remain in effect only until January 1 of the 7th calendar year following the first appearance of the fund on the personal income tax return, and would repeal these provisions on December 1 of that year. The bill would provide for an earlier repeal if the Franchise Tax Board determines that the amount of contributions estimated to be received during the 2nd and later calendar years after its first appearance on a return will not at least equal the minimum contribution amount, in which case these provisions would be repealed on December 1 of that year. By continuously appropriating these funds, the bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law requires the court, in a case involving a conviction of a serious or violent felony resulting in a sentence of 15 years or more, to order that the defendant be provided reasonable access to discovery materials upon the prosecution of a postconviction writ of habeas corpus or a motion to vacate judgment and a showing that good faith efforts to obtain discovery materials from trial counsel were made and were unsuccessful. In a case in which a sentence other than death or life in prison without the possibility of parole has been imposed, if a court has entered a previous order granting discovery pursuant to the above provision, existing law authorizes a subsequent order granting discovery to be made in the court's discretion. Existing law states that those provisions, which took effect January 1, 2019, apply prospectively. This bill would instead make those provisions also apply to a case in which a defendant has ever been convicted of those specified felonies. By expanding the number of circumstances under which the court would be authorized to require local agencies to provide access to physical evidence, 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, 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.
(1) Existing law requires a person, as defined, who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains an occupied dwelling or occupied structure in, upon, or adjoining specified types of land areas within a very high fire hazard severity zone to maintain defensible space around the structure, as specified. Existing law also requires the State Fire Marshal, in consultation with the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Director of Housing and Community Development, to recommend updated building standards that provide for comprehensive site and structure fire risk reduction to protect structures from fires spreading from adjacent structures or vegetation and to protect vegetation from fires spreading from adjacent structures, as provided. Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to develop, periodically update, and post on its internet website guidance documents on fuels management, as provided. This bill would require the Office of the State Fire Marshal to develop, in consultation with representatives from local, state, and federal fire services, local government, building officials, utility companies, the building industry, insurers and insurance research organizations, and the environmental community, a model defensible space program to be made available for use by a city, county, or city and county in the enforcement of the defensible space provisions. The bill would set forth required components of the program. The bill would require the model defensible space program to be updated when the guidance documents specified above are substantially updated, as provided. (2) Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas in the state, except as specified, as very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria in order to enable public officials to identify measures that will retard the rate of spread and reduce the potential intensity of uncontrolled fires that threaten to destroy resources, life, or property and to require that those measures be taken. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to prepare and adopt a model ordinance that provides for the establishment of very high fire hazard severity zones. Existing law also requires the State Fire Marshal to annually review, revise as necessary, and administer the California Fire Service Training and Education Program. Existing law requires a local agency to designate, by ordinance, very high fire hazard severity zones within its jurisdiction. This bill would require the Office of the State Fire Marshal to develop and make available on its internet website a Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Safety Building Standards Compliance training intended for use in the training of local building officials, builders, and fire service personnel. The bill would also require the office to develop and update on a regular basis a Wildland-Urban Interface Products listing of products and construction assemblies that comply with specified fire safety building standards, as provided. (3) Existing law establishes the Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund in the State Treasury. Existing law provides that moneys in the fund, which include building permit applicant fees, shall be available, upon appropriation, to the Office of the State Fire Marshal, among other state entities, for expenditure in carrying out various provisions relating to building and housing standards, as provided. This bill would additionally provide that, upon appropriation, moneys in the fund may be available for purposes of carrying out the requirements described in (1) and (2) above, as provided.
Under existing law, a person injured in the course of employment is generally entitled to receive workers' compensation on account of that injury. Existing law provides that, in the case of certain state and local firefighting personnel and peace officers, the term "injury" includes various medical conditions that are developed or manifested during a period while the member is in the service of the department or unit, and establishes a disputable presumption in this regard. This bill would provide, only until January 1, 2025, that in the case of certain state and local firefighting personnel and peace officers, the term "injury" also includes post-traumatic stress that develops or manifests itself during a period in which the injured person is in the service of the department or unit. The bill would apply to injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2020. The bill would prohibit compensation from being paid for a claim of injury unless the member has performed services for the department or unit for at least 6 months, unless the injury is caused by a sudden and extraordinary employment condition.