Asm. Steve Bennett

This measure would proclaim January 13, 2022, as Korean American Day.

This measure would declare the month of January 2022 as Positive Parenting Awareness Month.

This measure would, among other things, honor the late civil rights pioneer and icon Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Existing law, the Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, grants agricultural employees the right to form and join labor organizations and engage in collective bargaining with respect to wages, terms of employment, and other employment conditions, and authorizes employees to elect exclusive bargaining representatives for these purposes. Existing law requires the Agricultural Labor Relations Board to certify the results of an election conducted by secret ballot of employees in a collective bargaining unit to designate a collective bargaining representative, unless the board determines there are sufficient grounds to refuse to do so. Existing law further provides that if the board refuses to certify an election because of employer misconduct that would render slight the chances of a new election reflecting the free and fair choice of employees, the labor organization shall be certified as the bargaining representative for the bargaining unit. This bill would refer to the secret ballot election as a polling place election. This bill would also permit agricultural employees, as an alternative election procedure, to select their labor representatives through a representation ballot card election by submitting a petition to the board supported by representation ballot cards signed by a majority of employees in the bargaining unit. This bill would require the board to conduct an immediate investigation regarding the validity of the petition and the supporting representation ballot cards and, within 5 days after receiving a petition, to make an administrative decision as to whether the petition meets certain requirements and as to whether the labor organization submitted the requisite number of cards. The bill would require the board to certify the labor organization as the exclusive bargaining representative if the board determines that the labor organization has submitted the required number of representation ballot cards and the cards meet specified criteria. Existing law authorizes a person aggrieved by the final order of the board granting or denying in whole or in part the relief sought for an unfair labor practice, to obtain a review of the order in a specified court of appeal by filing in the court a written petition requesting that the order of the board be modified or set aside. This bill would require an employer who appeals or petitions for a writ of review of any order of the board involving make-whole, backpay, or other monetary awards to employees, to post an appeal bond in the amount of the entire economic value of the order, as specified, and would provide for the bond to be forfeited under specified conditions. This bill would state that its provisions are severable.

Existing law, the Ralph C. Dills Act (Dills Act) , governs collective bargaining between the state and recognized state public employee organizations. Existing law excludes certain employees from coverage under the Dills Act, including, among others, managerial employees, supervisory employees, and confidential employees, as defined. Existing law creates the Public Employment Relations Board and authorizes it, among other things, to determine appropriate state employee bargaining units, as specified. This bill would enact the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act, to provide employees of the Legislature, including some supervisory and managerial employees, the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations. The bill would prescribe rights, duties, and prohibitions in this context that parallel those in the Dills Act. The bill would prohibit the Public Employment Relations Board from including employees of the Legislature in a bargaining unit that includes employees other than those of the Legislature. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for any person to willfully resist, prevent, impede, or interfere with any member of the board, or any of its agents, in the performance of duties pursuant to its provisions. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that the provisions of the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act are severable. 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.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the State Air Resources Board to adopt regulations to require the reporting and verification of statewide greenhouse gas emissions and to monitor and enforce compliance with the act. The act requires the state board to make available, and update at least annually, on its internet website the emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria pollutants, and toxic air contaminants for each facility that reports to the state board, as provided. This bill would require, beginning January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, a covered corporation to disclose to the state board and the Secretary of State specified information for the prior calendar year, including, but not limited to, the potential financial impacts of, and any risk management strategies relating to the physical and transition risks, as defined, posed to the covered corporation by climate change. The bill would require the state board to establish climate change-related disclosure guidance that, to the extent practicable would be specialized for industries within specified sectors of the economy, establish reporting standards for estimating and disclosing direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, as defined, include reporting standards for fossil fuel-related assets, establish a minimum social cost of carbon, as defined, and require a covered corporation to conduct climate scenario analyses, as provided. The bill would require a covered corporation that engages in the commercial development of fossil fuels, as defined, to include specified information in its disclosure, including, but not limited to, an estimate of the total and disaggregated amount of direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions that are attributable to combustion, flared hydrocarbons, and other specified activity. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2024, the state board, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Treasurer, to develop and adopt regulations for these purposes. The bill would define a "covered corporation" for these purposes as a publicly traded domestic or foreign corporation whose principal executive offices, according to the corporation's SEC 10-K form, are located in the state and whose annual revenues exceed $100,000,000. Existing law designates the Department of Finance as the state agency with general powers of supervision over all matters concerning the financial and business policies of the state. Existing law establishes the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission to, among other things, maintain contact with state and municipal bond issuers, underwriters, investors, and credit rating agencies to improve the market for state and local government debt issues and to assist state and local governments to prepare, market, and sell their debt issues. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2024, the Department of Finance, with guidance from the Treasurer and the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission, to develop climate change disclosure guidance, comparable to the regulations required to be adopted by the state board, for issuers of state and local debt.