Asm. Eduardo Garcia

This measure would name the public street, circle, and plaza at 914 and 915 Capitol Mall in the City of Sacramento as the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Circle and Plaza. The measure would request the Department of General Services to determine the cost of erecting the appropriate signage commemorating this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources, to cover that cost to erect that signage.

Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to develop and implement the Electric Program Investment Charge program for the purpose of awarding funds to projects that may lead to technological advancement and breakthroughs to overcome barriers that prevent the achievement of the state's statutory energy goals and that may result in a portfolio of projects that are strategically focused and sufficiently narrow to make advancement on the most significant technological challenges. Existing law authorizes an individual to contribute amounts in excess of their personal income tax liability for the support of specified funds. Under existing law, there are general administrative provisions applicable to these voluntary contributions, which, among other things, provide for the disbursement of contributions following the repeal of the fund's provisions and require undesignated funds to be transferred to the General Fund. Existing law requires any new or extended voluntary contribution to include the words "voluntary tax contribution" in the name of the fund, to require the administering agency to include specified information about the fund on its internet website, to continuously appropriate from the fund the contributions made to the administering agency, to set a minimum contribution amount for the continuation of any voluntary tax contribution on the tax return form, and to include a generally applicable repeal date for a voluntary tax contribution. This bill would establish the Climate Innovation Grant Program, to be administered by the Strategic Growth Council or another entity identified by the council that it determines to have the appropriate skills necessary to successfully implement this program. The bill would establish the Climate Innovation Fund, a special fund, in the State Treasury and would continuously appropriate the moneys in the fund to the council for purposes of the program. Once the Climate Innovation Fund accrues $2,000,000, the bill would require the council or the entity implementing the program to notify the Franchise Tax Board and would require the program to award grants for the development and research of new innovations and technologies that either reduce emissions of greenhouse gases or address impacts caused by climate change. The bill would repeal the program on January 1, 2031. This bill would allow an individual to designate on their tax return that a specified amount in excess of their personal income tax liability be transferred to the Climate Innovation Voluntary Tax Contribution Account, which would be created by this bill. The bill would conform with those aforementioned administrative requirements by continuously appropriating those funds to the Franchise Tax Board and the Controller for administrative costs and to the Climate Innovation Fund, as specified. The bill would also conform by requiring the Strategic Growth Council to comply with certain internet website reporting requirements. The bill would make the voluntary tax contribution provisions operative upon notification of the Franchise Tax Board that the fund has accrued $2,000,000. The bill would repeal these provisions as of the sooner of December 1 of the year that the minimum contribution amount of $250,000 is not met or by a specified repeal date. By continuously appropriating these funds, the bill would make an appropriation.

Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and charges it with certain duties and powers, including, among other things, the operation of prisons and other specified institutions. This bill would require the department to establish a Peace Officer Peer Support Labor Management Committee tasked with crafting, updating, and monitoring the implementation of a standardized statewide peace officer policy for the department's peer support program to provide substantive assistance to the peace officers employed by the department. The bill would require the committee to be composed of an equal number of representatives of the employer and peace officer employees, and would require the members of the committee to be selected and hold their first meeting on or before July 1, 2020. The bill would require the policy to address, among other things, the selection process and training for peer support team members, and guidelines for the types of communication that would remain confidential within the peer support program. The bill would require the policy to be fully implemented by January 1, 2022. The bill would require the department to submit, beginning July 1, 2020, an annual report to the Legislature that contains data pertaining to the utilization rates of the peace officer peer support program statewide.

Existing law establishes in state government the Natural Resources Agency, consisting of various departments, including the Department of Parks and Recreation, the California Coastal Commission, and the State Coastal Conservancy. Existing law, the State Urban Parks and Healthy Communities Act, requires the Director of Parks and Recreation to develop a competitive grant program to assist state parks, specified state conservancies, urbanized and heavily urbanized local agencies, and community-based organizations within those jurisdictions to provide outdoor educational opportunities to children. This bill would require the Natural Resources Agency to develop and implement a community access program focused on engagement programs, technical assistance, or facilities that maximize safe and equitable physical admittance, especially for low-income and disadvantaged communities, to natural or cultural resources, community education programs, or recreational amenities. The bill would authorize the agency, in consultation with certain state entities, to develop a grant program within a state department for innovative transportation projects that provide disadvantaged and low-income youth with access to outdoor experiences, as specified.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the department to implement managed mental health care for Medi-Cal beneficiaries through contracts with mental health plans, and requires mental health plans to be governed by various guidelines, including a requirement that a mental health plan assess the cultural competency needs of the program. Existing law requires mental health plan reviews to be conducted by an external quality review organization (EQRO) on an annual basis, and requires those reviews to include specific data for Medi-Cal eligible minor and nonminor dependents in foster care, such as the number of Medi-Cal eligible minor and nonminor dependents in foster care served each year. This bill would require each mental health plan to prepare a cultural competence plan to address specified matters, including mental health disparities in access, utilization, and outcomes by various categories, such as race, ethnicity, and immigration status. The bill would require a mental health plan to convene a committee for the purpose of reviewing and approving the cultural competence plan, to annually update its cultural competence plan and progress, to post this material on its internet website, and to submit its cultural competence plan to the department every 3 years for technical assistance and implementation feedback. The bill would require the department to develop at least 8 statewide mental health disparities reduction targets, to post the cultural competence plan submitted by each mental health plan to its internet website, and to consult with the Office of Health Equity to review and implement county assessments and statewide performance on mental health disparities reductions. The bill would require the department to direct the EQRO to develop a protocol for monitoring performance of each mental health plan, and to report on identified matters, including statewide progress related to the mental health disparities reduction targets. The bill would require the EQRO to publish specified information in the annual detailed technical report, such as recommendations for statewide strategies to reduce mental health disparities. The bill would require the mental health plan to meet specified mental health disparities reduction targets or make year-over-year improvements toward meeting the targets.

Existing law establishes the Department of Community Services and Development and requires the department to administer, among other things, the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Existing law requires the department to develop and administer the Energy Efficiency Low-Income Weatherization Program and to expend moneys appropriated by the Legislature for the purposes of the program. This bill would require the department to develop and administer the Agricultural Working Poor Energy Efficient Housing Program and to expend moneys appropriated by the Legislature for the purposes of the program to improve energy efficiency in farmworker-owned housing. The bill would require the department to report to the Legislature on the program with respect to balances and expenditures, households reached, demographics of the households reached, measures funded, and energy savings. Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to supervise certain low-income targeted energy efficiency programs administered by electrical corporations, gas corporations, or 3rd-party administrators, and requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to undertake various activities and administer various programs to promote energy efficiency. This bill would require the department, in developing the Agricultural Working Poor Energy Efficient Housing Program, to consult with the PUC and the Energy Commission in order to ensure compatibility with the state's energy policies and goals and to avoid duplication of the energy efficiency programs supervised by those commissions.

This measure would recognize September 2020 as Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month and encourage the Legislature to appropriate funds for research, treatment, and monitoring of sickle cell disease, and for related education and outreach.

(1) Existing law establishes the Office of California-Mexico Affairs and provides that the office succeeds to, and is vested with, all the duties, powers, purposes, and responsibilities vested in the previously established Commission of the Californias. Existing law generally sets forth the duties and authority of that office with respect to California-Mexico relations. This bill would establish the Commission on California-Mexico Affairs, consisting of 9 voting and 2 nonvoting members, as specified. The bill would require the commission to, among other things, develop policy proposals and provide recommendations as to issues pertaining to the border between California and Mexico and to advise the Legislature and the Governor on matters of particular concern to this state in relation to border issues and matters with Mexico. The bill would expressly authorize the commission to develop and inform the Legislature of its position on pending legislative proposals, to make other legislative recommendations, and to state its position and viewpoint on issues developed in the performance of its duties and responsibilities. The bill would establish the California-Mexico Border Relations Account in the Special Deposit Fund within the State Treasury to receive specified moneys received by the commission and, upon appropriation, make the moneys in the account available to the commission for these purposes. The bill would also authorize the Governor to enter into an agreement with the governments of the State of Baja California and the State of Baja California Sur to establish the authority of a binational commission to support the coordination of activities between all three states that are related to cross-border programs, initiatives, projects, and partnerships of mutual interest to the governments and civil societies of the 3 states. (2) Existing law establishes the California-Mexico Border Relations Council and requires the council to, among other things, coordinate activities of state agencies that are related to cross-border programs, initiatives, projects, and partnerships that exist within state government, and to improve the effectiveness of state and local efforts that are of concern to California and Mexico. Beginning January 1, 2008, existing law requires the council to submit a report to the Legislature on its activities annually. Existing law also requires the State Department of Health Care Services to establish a permanent Office of Binational Border Health to facilitate cooperation between health officials and health professionals in California and Mexico, as specified, and requires that office to convene a voluntary community advisory group of representatives of border community-based stakeholders to develop a strategic plan with short-term, intermediate, and long-range goals and implementation actions, as provided. Existing law also requires the office to prepare an annual border health status report and submit it to the Director of Health Care Services, the Legislature, and the Governor. This bill, beginning on January 1, 2020, would require the California-Mexico Border Relations Council to provide a copy of the report submitted to the Legislature to the Commission on California-Mexico Affairs at the same time that it submits that report to the Legislature. The bill would also require the Office of Binational Border Health to provide a copy of the above-described strategic plan to the commission and to submit the above-described annual border health status report to the commission.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. The Moore Universal Telephone Service Act established the lifeline telephone service program in order to provide low-income households, as defined, with access to affordable basic residential telephone service. Existing law requires that a lifeline telephone service subscriber be provided with one lifeline subscription at the subscriber's principal place of residence, and provides that no other member of that subscriber's family or household who maintains residence at that place is eligible for lifeline telephone service. This bill would revise the definition of "household" for these purposes and would authorize multiple lifeline telephone service subscribers to maintain the same address if they are not of the same household or if a subscriber meets one of certain requirements. The bill would require the commission, in a new or existing proceeding, to determine whether a lifeline telephone service subscriber shall be permitted an additional lifeline subscription for broadband services and would require the commission to issue a decision in the proceeding by no later than July 1, 2022. The bill would require the commission, by July 1, 2020, as part of an existing proceeding, to update the lifeline program to address certain issues. The bill would require the commission, by July 1, 2021, to adopt updated program rules for the lifeline program to, among other things, include various methods to increase participation of eligible low-income individuals in the lifeline program. The bill would require the commission, in consultation with relevant state agencies, to develop outreach and enrollment programs for the formerly incarcerated and for veterans. The bill would require the commission to consider accepting alternative forms of identification to increase participation in the lifeline program by members of certain vulnerable or disadvantaged groups.