Existing law, the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement Act, requires all persons engaging in the retail sale of tobacco products to check the identification of tobacco purchasers, to establish the age of the purchaser, if the purchaser reasonably appears to be under 18 years of age. Under existing law, an enforcing agency, as defined, may assess civil penalties against any person, firm, or corporation that sells, gives, or in any way furnishes to another person who is under 18 years of age, any tobacco, cigarette, cigarette papers, any other instrument or paraphernalia that is designed for the smoking or ingestion of tobacco, or products prepared from tobacco. The existing civil penalties range from $400 to $600 for a first violation, up to $5,000 to $6,000 for a 5th violation within a 5-year period. Existing law prohibits the sale, distribution, or nonsale distribution of tobacco products directly or indirectly to any person under 18 years of age through the United States Postal Service or through any other public or private postal or package delivery service at locations, including, but not limited to, public mailboxes and mailbox stores. Under existing law, a district attorney, city attorney, or the Attorney General may assess civil penalties against a violator of that provision of not less than $1,000 or more than $2,000 for the first violation and up to $10,000 for a 5th violation within a 5-year period. Under existing law, every person, firm, or corporation that knowingly or under circumstances in which it has knowledge, or should otherwise have grounds for knowledge, sells, gives, or in any way furnishes to another person who is under 18 years of age any cigarette, among other specified items, is subject to either a criminal action for a misdemeanor or to a civil action brought by a city attorney, a county counsel, or a district attorney, punishable by a fine of $200 for the first offense, $500 for the 2nd offense, and $1,000 for the 3rd offense. This bill would state findings and declarations of the Legislature regarding the health and safety hazards to residents of the state related to cigarettes utilizing single-use filters. The bill would prohibit a person or entity from selling, giving, or in any way furnishing to another person of any age in this state a cigarette utilizing a single-use filter made of any material, including cellulose acetate, or other fibrous plastic material, and any organic or biodegradable material. The bill would prohibit that selling, giving, or furnishing, whether conducted directly or indirectly through an in-person transaction or by means of any public or private method of shipment or delivery to an address in this state. This bill would authorize a city attorney, county counsel, or district attorney to assess a $500 civil fine against each person determined to have violated those prohibitions in a proceeding conducted pursuant to the procedures of the enforcing agency, as specified.
Sponsored bills
(1) Existing federal law, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, regulates, among other things, the quality and packaging of foods introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce and generally prohibits the misbranding of food. Existing federal law, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, governs state and local labeling requirements, including those that characterize the relationship of any nutrient specified in the labeling of food to a disease or health-related condition. Existing state law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, generally regulates misbranded food and provides that any food is misbranded if its labeling does not conform with the requirements for nutrient content or health claims as set forth in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the regulations adopted pursuant to that federal act. Existing law requires that a food facility, as defined, make prescribed disclosures and warnings to consumers, as specified. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing state law, the Pupil Nutrition, Health, and Achievement Act of 2001, also requires the sale of only certain beverages to pupils at schools. The beverages that may be sold include fruit-based and vegetable-based drinks, drinking water with no added sweetener, milk, and in middle and high schools, an electrolyte replacement beverage if those beverages meet certain nutritional requirements. This bill would establish the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Act, which would prohibit a person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale a sugar-sweetened beverage in a sealed beverage container, or a multipack of sugar-sweetened beverages, in this state unless the beverage container or multipack bears a safety warning, as prescribed. The bill also would require every person who owns, leases, or otherwise legally controls the premises where a vending machine or beverage dispensing machine is located, or where a sugar-sweetened beverage is sold in an unsealed container to place a specified safety warning in certain locations, including on the exterior of any vending machine that includes a sugar-sweetened beverage for sale. (2) Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health, upon the request of a health officer, as defined, may authorize the local health department of a city, county, city and county, or local health district to enforce the provisions of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to assess a civil penalty against any person in an amount not to exceed $1,000 per day, except as specified. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General or any district attorney, on behalf of the State Department of Public Health, to bring an action in a superior court to grant a temporary or permanent injunction restraining a person from violating any provision of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law. This bill, commencing July 1, 2016, would provide that any violation of the provisions described in (1) above, or regulations adopted pursuant to those provisions, is punishable by a civil penalty of not less than $50, but no greater than $500. This bill would also create the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Fund for the receipt of all moneys collected for violations of those provisions. The bill would allocate moneys in this fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for the purpose of enforcing those provisions. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, obesity, and dental disease.
The existing California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 is administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery in the California Environmental Protection Agency. This would make nonsubstantive changes to the provision establishing the department.
This measure would proclaim the month of January 2016 as Human Trafficking Awareness Month, encourage all Californians to become educated about human trafficking and work to eradicate these criminal practices within and beyond our borders, and encourage Members of the Legislature, as well as organizations, businesses, and individuals, to host or sponsor and attend community events in order to bring visibility and support to efforts made by nongovernmental organizations to recognize and combat human trafficking.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations, as defined. The Public Utilities Act requires the Public Utilities Commission to review and adopt a procurement plan for each electrical corporation in accordance with specified elements, incentive mechanisms, and objectives. The act requires that an electrical corporation's proposed procurement plan include certain elements, including a showing that the electrical corporation will first meet its unmet needs through all available energy efficiency and demand reduction resources that are cost effective, reliable, and feasible. Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, to identify all potentially achievable cost-effective electricity efficiency savings, and to establish efficiency targets for electrical corporations to achieve pursuant to their procurement plan. The act requires the Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, to identify all potentially achievable cost-effective natural gas efficiency savings and to establish efficiency targets for gas corporations to achieve, and requires that a gas corporation first meet its unmet resource needs through all available gas efficiency and demand reduction resources that are cost effective, reliable, and feasible. This bill would require the Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the United States Armed Forces, to authorize a pilot program designed to evaluate the effects of using an alternative baseline energy efficiency methodology at United States Armed Forces bases and facilities. The bill would require electrical and gas corporations, using existing military contracting procedures, to the extent feasible, or new partnership with the federal government, to accomplish the goals of the pilot program. This bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to approve financial incentives for energy efficiency measures implemented at Armed Forces bases and facilities pursuant to the pilot program through existing energy efficiency programs administered by electrical corporations and gas corporations. Because a violation of an order or a direction of the commission is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would repeal the pilot program on January 1, 2020. 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.
(1) Existing law requires the State Oil and Gas Supervisor to supervise the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of wells and the operation, maintenance, and removal or abandonment of tanks and facilities attendant to oil and gas production. Existing law authorizes the supervisor to require a well operator to implement a monitoring program, designed to detect releases to the soil and water, for aboveground oil production tanks and facilities. Under existing law, a person who fails to comply with specified requirements relating to the regulation of oil or gas operation is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would additionally authorize the supervisor to require a well operator to implement a monitoring program for belowground oil production tanks and facilities, and disposal and injection wells. Because a failure to comply with this requirement would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The federal Safe Drinking Water Act regulates certain wells as Class II wells. Under existing federal law, the authority to regulate Class II wells in California is delegated to the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources. Under existing regulations, a well operator is required to obtain approval from the supervisor or a district deputy for a subsurface injection or disposal project, including Class II wells, or any change in a project, as provided. This bill would require the division to annually review underground injection or disposal projects approved by the division that use Class II wells. The bill would require the operator of the project, as a part of its application or the annual review process, to submit to the State Water Resources Control Board or appropriate regional water quality control board for its review and concurrence a groundwater monitoring plan containing certain information, including, among other things, a schedule for monitoring and reporting groundwater quality data, as provided. The bill would authorize the state board or appropriate regional water quality control board to periodically require the modification of the plan to reflect changing conditions. The bill would require the data be submitted to the state board in an electronic format compatible with the state board's geotracker database. Because a violation of this requirement would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing federal law prohibits certain well activities that affect underground sources of drinking water unless those sources are located in an exempted aquifer. Existing federal law authorizes a state delegated with the responsibility of regulating Class II wells to propose that an aquifer or a portion of an aquifer be an exempted aquifer and authorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency to approve the proposal if the aquifer or a portion of the aquifer meets certain criteria. This bill would require the division, prior to proposing to the United States Environmental Protection Agency an aquifer for exemption, to hold a public hearing on the proposal and to submit the proposal to the state board for review and written concurrence. The bill would authorize the state board to concur with the proposal if certain conditions are met. (4) 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 authorizes the legislative body of a city, county, or city and county to collect any fee, cost, or charge incurred in specified activities, including the abatement of public nuisances, enforcement of specified zoning ordinances, inspections and abatement of violations of the State Housing Law, inspections and abatement of violations of the California Building Standards Code, and inspections and abatement of violations related to local ordinances that implement these laws. Existing law limits the amount of this fee, cost, or charge to the actual cost incurred performing the inspections and enforcement activity, including permit fees, fines, late charges, and interest. Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a local agency to make, by ordinance, any violation of an ordinance subject to an administrative fine or penalty and limits the maximum fine or penalty amounts for infractions, as specified. For violations of city or county building and safety codes determined to be an infraction, existing law limits the amount of the fine to $100 for a first violation, $500 for a 2nd violation of the same ordinance within one year, and $1,000 for each additional violation of the same ordinance within one year of the first violation. This bill would authorize a county to establish administrative fines, not to exceed specified limits, for violations of certain county ordinances, including a county building and safety ordinance, brush removal ordinance, grading ordinance, film permit ordinance, or zoning ordinance, determined to be an infraction, subject to certain county findings.
Under existing law, the Donahoe Higher Education Act, the segments of postsecondary education in this state include the University of California, the California State University, the California Community Colleges, independent institutions of higher education, and private postsecondary educational institutions. A provision of the act applies to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, act to make the provision applicable. This bill would amend the act to require the governing board of each community college district, the Trustees of the California State University, the Regents of the University of California, the governing body of each independent institution of higher education, and the governing body of each private postsecondary educational institution to indicate on a student's transcript when the student is ineligible to reenroll due to suspension or expulsion for the period of time the student is ineligible to reenroll. For community college districts only, the bill would delay the implementation of this requirement until July 1, 2016. The bill would find and declare that the disclosure of student suspensions and expulsions on student transcripts ensures the integrity and transparency of student transcripts and the safety and security of California campuses. By requiring community college districts to provide for the notation of transcripts, 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, 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.
The California Constitution prohibits a person from being deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or from being denied equal protection of the laws. The United States Constitution prohibits a state from denying to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Existing law establishes various advisory boards and commissions in state government with specified duties and responsibilities. The federal My Brother's Keeper Initiative, launched by the President of the United States in February 2014, required the establishment of the My Brother's Keeper Task Force, an interagency effort to improve the expected educational and life outcomes for and address the persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color in the United States. This bill would establish until January 1, 2026, the Interagency Task Force on the Status of Boys and Men of Color, a multiagency advisory body that would serve as a support mechanism for department agency and systems leaders by taking coordinated action in meeting the myriad of challenges facing boys and men of color in California, and assisting the respective departments and agencies in more successfully improving life outcomes for this population. The membership of the task force would include members of the Legislature, as well as representatives of specified agencies, departments, and private entities. The bill would set forth the initial and ongoing responsibilities of the task force, including, among others, an assessment of state program alignment with the objectives of the My Brother's Keeper program, review the action plan of a specified final report of the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color in California, and an assessment of the development of strategies to enhance positive outcomes and eliminate or mitigate negative outcomes for boys and men of color in the state. The bill would establish the Boys and Men of Color Task Force Fund, which would be subject to appropriation by the Legislature, to carry out the bill's requirements in support of the task force, upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would authorize the task force to accept federal funds, gifts, donations, grants, or bequests for all or any of its purposes.