Asm. Gregg Hart

The Emergency Services Act establishes in state government, within the office of the Governor, the Office of Emergency Services and makes the office responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or man-made disasters and emergencies, as specified. This bill would enact the Emergency Fairgrounds Communications Grant Act and would require, on or before January 1, 2025, the office to establish a grant program to provide fairgrounds with grant funding for the purpose of building and upgrading communication and internet infrastructure on fairgrounds. The bill would require the office to establish standards to determine the awarding of grant funding that award funding based on a fairground's need for internet capabilities in order to service an emergency response operation. The bill would authorize the office to prioritize the order of grant disbursements based on prescribed criteria. The bill would also require the office to consult with the Department of Technology and the Department of Food and Agriculture to coordinate the statewide building and upgrading of communication and internet infrastructure on fairgrounds. The bill would provide that the program is operative only upon an appropriation by the Legislature for its purposes.

Existing law provides that libel is a false and unprivileged written publication that injures the reputation and that slander is a false and unprivileged publication, orally uttered, that injures the reputation, as specified. Existing law applies the provisions relating to libel and slander to campaign advertisements and communications, and it further provides that a defendant's willingness or unwillingness to retract or correct a communication made in the course of a campaign is admissible for purposes of determining damages, as specified. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to that provision.

Existing law, the Local Agency Public Construction Act, sets forth the requirements for competitive bidding on various types of contracts awarded by local agencies. That act requires local agencies to pay undisputed portions of specified public works claims for payment, except as otherwise provided for in the contract. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to that provision.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law requires the commission to establish priorities among the types or categories of customers of every electrical corporation and every gas corporation, and among the uses of electricity or gas by those customers, to determine which of those customers and uses provide the most important public benefits and serve the greatest public need, and to categorize all other customers and uses in order of descending priority based on these standards. Existing law requires the commission, in establishing those priorities, to consider, among other things, the economic, social, and other effects of a temporary discontinuance in electrical or gas service to certain customers or for certain uses, as specified. If an electrical or gas corporation experiences a shortage of capacity or capability and is unable to meet all demands by its customers, existing law requires the commission to order that service be temporarily reduced by an amount that reflects the established priorities for the duration of the shortage. This bill would require the commission, in establishing those priorities, to also consider the economic, social equity, and mobility impacts of a temporary discontinuance in electrical service to the customers that rely on electrical service to operate public transit vehicles. Existing law requires each electrical corporation to annually prepare and submit a wildfire mitigation plan to the Wildfire Safety Division for review and approval. The California Energy Infrastructure Safety Act establishes the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety within the Natural Resources Agency, and provides that, on and after July 1, 2021, the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety is the successor to, and is vested with, all of the duties, powers, and responsibilities of the Wildfire Safety Division of the commission. Existing law requires that each wildfire mitigation plan include, among other things, the electrical corporation's protocols for disabling reclosers and deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public safety, including related to mitigating those public safety impacts on critical first responders, health and communication infrastructure, and customers who receive medical baseline allowances. This bill would require that those protocols also include protocols related to mitigating those public safety impacts on public transit vehicle charging infrastructure. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the violation of a commission action implementing some of this bill's requirements would be a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law provides for the out-of-home placement, including foster care placement, of children who are unable to remain in the custody and care of their parents. Existing law, the federal Social Security Act, provides for benefits for eligible beneficiaries, including survivorship and disability benefits and supplemental security income (SSI) benefits for, among others, blind and disabled children. Existing law requires every youth who is in foster care and nearing emancipation to be screened by the county for potential eligibility for federal Supplemental Security Income and requires that screening to occur when the foster youth is at least 16 years and 6 months of age and not older than 17 years and 6 months of age. This bill, among other things, would require a placing agency to act in accordance with specified guidelines and pursuant to certain requirements when acting as the representative payee or in any other fiduciary capacity for a child or youth, including, among other requirements, ensuring that the child's benefits are not used to pay for, or to reimburse, the placing agency for any costs of the child's care and supervision, as defined. The bill would make these requirements operative January 1, 2024, or 30 days after the department issues the necessary all-county letters and informing materials to county placing agencies, whichever is later. By increasing county duties with respect to foster youth, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to convene a workgroup to develop best practice guidelines for county welfare departments to assist eligible children who are in the state's or a county's custody and are qualified in obtaining federal social security and supplemental security income benefits. Existing law requires that workgroup to make recommendations to the department, by December 31, 2006, regarding the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of reserving a designated amount of foster children's social security and SSI/SSP benefits in lieu of reimbursing the county and the state for care and maintenance, and, in making those recommendations, to consider that the reserved benefits would be for the purpose of assisting the foster child in the transfer to self-sufficient living in a manner consistent with federal law. This bill would repeal the requirement for that workgroup to make the above-described recommendations regarding feasibility and cost-effectiveness. 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 collection of specified fees for certified copies of a birth certificate, marriage record, or marriage dissolution record. Existing law imposes fees upon the application for an original class C or M driver's license or a renewal of a driver's license or for a license to operate a different class of vehicle, as described. This bill would instead exempt persons who are recipients of specified assistance programs from payment of a fee for certified copies of a birth certificate, marriage record, or marriage dissolution record. The bill would, beginning July 1, 2027, also exempt a person who can verify their status as a homeless person or homeless child or youth from payment of a fee upon the application for an original or renewal of a driver's license. The bill would require the verification of homeless status to be subject to regulations adopted by the Department of Motor Vehicles and may be made by a homeless services provider, as defined. By establishing an exemption as to fees paid for receipt of certified copies of vital records, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. The bill would make all these provisions operative only to the extent that funding is provided by express reference for these purposes. 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.

Previous law authorized a law enforcement agency to dispose of seized, surrendered, abandoned, and unclaimed firearms by sale at a public auction or by destruction. Existing law requires these firearms to be disposed of by destruction. Existing law prohibits the sale of a firearm on any state property, as specified. This bill would, commencing on January 1, 2025, and except as specifically exempted, prohibit any state or local government agency or department, as specified, to sell any firearm, ammunition, or body armor. The bill would also make other conforming changes and technical corrections. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 16520 of the Penal Code proposed by AB 725 to be operative only if this bill and AB 725 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would also incorporate additional changes to Section 29810 of the Penal Code proposed by AB 732 to be operative only if this bill and AB 732 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) grants a consumer various rights with respect to personal information that is collected or sold by a business, including the right to request that a business disclose specified information that has been collected about the consumer, to request that a business delete personal information about the consumer that the business has collected from the consumer, and to direct a business not to sell or share the consumer's personal information, as specified. The CCPA defines various terms for these purposes. The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA) , approved by the voters as Proposition 24 at the November 3, 2020, statewide general election, amended, added to, and reenacted the CCPA and establishes the California Privacy Protection Agency (agency) and vests the agency with full administrative power, authority, and jurisdiction to enforce the CCPA. Existing law requires a data broker to register with the Attorney General, pay a registration fee, and provide specified information on or before January 31 following each year in which a business meets the definition of data broker. Existing law defines various terms for these purposes. Existing law establishes the Data Brokers' Registry Fund and requires that these registration fees be deposited into the fund, to be available for expenditure by the Department of Justice, upon appropriation, for specified purposes. Existing law provides that a data broker that fails to register as required by these provisions is liable for civil penalties, fees, and costs in an action brought by the Attorney General, as specified, and requires these moneys be deposited in the Consumer Privacy Fund with the intent that they be used to fully offset costs incurred in connection with these provisions. Existing law requires the Attorney General to create and maintain an internet website where specified information provided by data brokers is accessible to the public. This bill would incorporate the definitions from the CCPA into the data broker provisions described above. The bill would require a data broker to register with, pay a registration fee to, and provide information to, the agency instead of the Attorney General and would require the agency to maintain the informational internet website described above. The bill would require a data broker to compile and disclose specified information relating to requests received under the CCPA. The bill would also require, on or before July 1 following each year in which a business meets the definition of a data broker, that business to provide specified information described above and make related changes. The bill would make a data broker that fails to register as required by the provisions described above liable for administrative fines and costs in an administrative action brought by the agency, as specified, instead of in an action brought by the Attorney General. This bill would require the agency to establish, by January 1, 2026, an accessible deletion mechanism that, among other things, allows a consumer, through a single verifiable consumer request, to request that every data broker that maintains any personal information delete any personal information related to that consumer held by the data broker or associated service provider or contractor. The bill would specify requirements for this accessible deletion mechanism, and would, beginning August 1, 2026, require a data broker to access the mechanism at least once every 45 days and, among other things, process all deletion requests, except as specified. Beginning August 1, 2026, after a consumer has submitted a deletion request and a data broker has deleted the consumer's data pursuant to the bill's provisions, the bill would require the data broker to delete all personal information of the consumer at least once every 45 days, as specified, and would prohibit the data broker from selling or sharing new personal information of the consumer, as specified. The bill would, beginning January 1, 2028, and every 3 years thereafter, require a data broker to undergo an audit by an independent third party to determine compliance with these provisions and would require the data broker to submit an audit report to the agency upon the agency's written request, as specified. The bill would authorize the agency to charge a fee to data brokers for accessing the accessible deletion mechanism, as specified. This bill would provide that a data broker that fails to comply with the requirements pertaining to the accessible deletion mechanism described above is liable for administrative fines, fees, expenses, and costs, as specified. The bill would require that moneys collected or received by the agency and the Department of Justice under these provisions be deposited in the Data Brokers' Registry Fund, which the bill would require to be administered by the agency, instead of the Consumer Privacy Fund and would expand the specified uses of moneys in the Data Brokers' Registry Fund to include the costs incurred by the state courts and the agency in connection with enforcing these provisions and the costs of establishing, maintaining, and providing access to the accessible deletion mechanism described above. This bill would require a data broker to provide additional information to the agency, including information related to requests received under the CCPA, whether the data broker collects specified information, and specified information regarding an audit under the provisions described above. This bill would prohibit an administrative action pursuant to these provisions from being commenced more than 5 years after the date on which a violation occurred. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes and intent of the CPRA for specified reasons.