Existing law provides that no person shall be granted physical or legal custody of, or unsupervised visitation with, a child if the person is required to be registered as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration Act, if the victim was a minor, or if the person has been convicted under specified other criminal provisions, including injuring or molesting a child, unless the court finds that there is no significant risk to the child and states its reasons in writing or on the record. In addition, no person may be granted physical or legal custody of, or unsupervised visitation with, a child if anyone residing in the person's household is required, as a result of a felony conviction in which the victim was a minor, to be registered as a sex offender, unless the court finds that there is no significant risk to the child and states its reasons in writing or on the record. Existing law also provides that the child may not be placed in a home in which a person described above resides, nor permitted to have unsupervised visitation with that person, unless the court states the reasons for its findings in writing or on the record. Existing law authorizes, upon the motion of one or both parents, or the legal guardian or custodian, or upon the court's own motion, an order granting physical or legal custody of, or unsupervised visitation with, a child, to be modified or terminated if the circumstances described above have arisen, as specified, since the order was entered, unless the court finds that there is no significant risk to the child and states its reasons in writing or on the record. This bill would delete the court's discretion in the cases described above, thereby prohibiting the court from granting a person physical or legal custody of, or unsupervised visitation with, a child if the person is a registered sex offender or has been convicted of specified criminal offenses, and prohibiting the court from placing the child in a home in which that person resides. The bill would also make conforming changes.
Sponsored bills
Existing law imposes specified duties on state governmental agencies and provides for public access to government records. This bill would require each state department and agency to develop and operate an Internet Web site accessible by the public that includes specified information relating to expenditures of state funds, defined to include, among other things, grants, contracts, subcontracts, purchase orders, and tax refunds, rebates, and credits.
Existing law provides that a cause of action against a person arising from any act of that person in furtherance of the person's right of petition or free speech under the United States or California Constitution in connection with a public issue shall be subject to a special motion to strike, unless the court determines that the plaintiff has established that there is a probability that the plaintiff will prevail on the claim. The Political Reform Act of 1974, including provisions known as the Ethics in Government Act of 1990, imposes ethical standards on elected officials and candidates for elective or judicial office, including provisions governing the acceptance of gifts, honoraria, and campaign contributions. Existing law authorizes a person to sue for injunctive relief to enjoin violations of, or to compel compliance with, these provisions. This bill would provide that the special motion to strike described above shall not apply to a cause of action brought by a private citizen or business entity pursuant to the provision authorizing a person to sue for injunctive relief to enjoin violations of, or to compel compliance with, the provisions imposing ethical standards on elected officials and candidates for elective or judicial office.
Existing law authorizes a board of trustees, city council, or other governing body of a city, defined as a legislative body, to pass ordinances not in conflict with state or federal law and the state or federal constitution. This bill would prohibit a legislative body, as defined, from selling or leasing any building to an entity that is controlled by the legislative body to raise money to fund the general expenses of the jurisdiction of the legislative body. This bill would also declare that this prohibition is a matter of statewide concern, thus making it applicable to charter and general cities.
Under existing law, parties to actions or proceedings are entitled to their costs, as specified. Except to the extent attorney's fees are specifically provided for by statute, the measure and mode of compensation of attorneys and counselors at law is left to the agreement, express or implied, of the parties. This bill would require that any award of attorney's fees paid in settlement to a professional objector or an objector's counsel shall be approved by the court prior to payment.
Existing law establishes the California State University and its various campuses under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University. Existing law requires the California State University to offer undergraduate and graduate instruction through the master's degree in the liberal arts and sciences and professional education, including teacher education. This bill would authorize the California State University to award the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. The bill would distinguish the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the doctor of philosophy degree offered at the University of California. The bill would require the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program to be designed to enable professionals to earn the degree while working full time, train nurses for advanced practice, and prepare clinical faculty to teach in postsecondary nursing programs. The bill would require initial funding to come from existing budgets, without diminishing the quality of undergraduate programs or reducing enrollment therein. The bill would require the California State University to annually report on the status of the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program, as specified.
Existing law prescribes the procedure for a school district to adopt a budget for the expenditures of the district during each fiscal year and for the county superintendent of schools to review and approve the adopted budget. This bill, commencing with the 2010–11 fiscal year, would require a school district with an annual enrollment greater than 300,000 pupils to limit its expenditures for administrative costs, as defined, to no more than 5% of its total budget during each fiscal year, including moneys received from all state, federal, and local sources during the fiscal year.
Existing law provides that an appeal is to the court of appeal, other than in a limited civil case, and specifies certain judgments and orders from which an appeal may be taken. This bill would require the appellant, upon filing a notice of appeal, to state if the appeal is from a lower court's approval of a class action settlement. If so, then the appeal shall be entitled to expedited briefing and preference in setting the date for oral argument within 120 days after the notice of appeal has been filed.
Existing law provides for the CalWORKs program, under which each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families and individuals. This bill would require the district attorney's office in the county of residence of an applicant for aid, within 10 days of the applicant's preliminary approval, to arrange for an authorized investigator to conduct a home call, consisting of a brief interview with the applicant and walk-through of the applicant's residence. The bill would require the district attorney's office to report its findings to the appropriate county officials prior to final approval of aid for the applicant. By increasing the duties of district attorneys and county public assistance agencies, 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, including the creation of a State Mandates Claims Fund to pay the costs of mandates that do not exceed $1,000,000 statewide and other procedures for claims whose statewide costs exceed $1,000,000. 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which basic health care services are provided to qualified low-income persons. Existing law creates the continuously appropriated Medical Providers Interim Payment Fund, for the purposes of paying Medi‑Cal providers, providers of drug treatment services for persons infected with HIV, and providers of services for the developmentally disabled, on and after July 1, and before September 1, of the fiscal year for which a budget has not yet been enacted or there is a deficiency in the Medi‑Cal budget in any fiscal year, and appropriates, for each fiscal year in which these payments are necessary, up to $1,000,000,000 from the General Fund, in the form of loans, and $1,000,000,000 from the Federal Trust Fund to the Medical Providers Interim Payment Fund. This bill would, instead, provide that these transfers to the Medical Providers Interim Payment Fund shall be in an amount sufficient to make continued payments to the above-described providers on or after July 1 of the fiscal year for which no budget has been enacted until the date upon which a budget is enacted for that year or when there is a deficiency in the Medi-Cal budget. To the extent that the bill would increase the amount transferred into a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. Under existing law, notwithstanding any other provision of law, and to the extent not otherwise conflicting with federal law, the department is authorized to hold, or direct the medical fiscal intermediary for the Medi-Cal program to hold, payments for Medi-Cal providers, as described, for a period of one month for a month ending prior to June 30, 2009. This bill would delete the above provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.