Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to classify lands within state responsibility areas into fire hazard severity zones and, by regulation, to designate fire hazard severity zones and assign each zone a rating reflecting the degree of severity of fire hazard that is expected to prevail in the zone. This bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, by July 1, 2022, to develop a wildland-urban interface wildfire risk model to determine the risk for a community or parcel in a local responsibility area or state responsibility area and guidelines for the proper use of the model, as provided. The bill would require the department to establish, and consult with, an advisory workgroup, with specified members, to develop the model. The bill would require the department to update the model and guidelines when fire hazard severity zones are revised. This bill would also make a revision to the provision relating to the purpose of the fire hazard severity zones provisions. This bill would make the implementation of these provisions contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute for these purposes. This bill would also repeal these provisions relating to the wildland-urban interface wildfire risk model and the guidelines and the revisions to the provisions relating to the purpose of the fire hazard severity zones on January 1, 2025.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, the Nursing Practice Act, provides for the certification and regulation of nurse practitioners by the Board of Registered Nursing. Existing law authorizes the implementation of standardized procedures that authorize a nurse practitioner to perform certain acts that are in addition to other authorized practices, including certifying disability after performing a physical examination and collaboration with a physician and surgeon. A violation of the act is a misdemeanor. This bill would establish the Nurse Practitioner Advisory Committee to advise and give recommendations to the board on matters relating to nurse practitioners. The bill would require the committee to provide recommendations or guidance to the board when the board is considering disciplinary action against a nurse practitioner. The bill would require the board, by regulation, to define minimum standards for a nurse practitioner to transition to practice independently. The bill would authorize a nurse practitioner who meets certain education, experience, and certification requirements to perform, in certain settings or organizations, specified functions without standardized procedures, including ordering, performing, and interpreting diagnostic procedures, certifying disability, and prescribing, administering, dispensing, and furnishing controlled substances. The bill, beginning January 1, 2023, would also authorize a nurse practitioner to perform those functions without standardized procedures outside of specified settings or organizations in accordance with specified conditions and requirements if the nurse practitioner holds an active certification issued by the board. The bill would require the board to issue that certification to a nurse practitioner who meets additional specified education and experience requirements, and would authorize the board to charge a fee for the cost of issuing the certificate. The bill would also require the board to request the department's Office of Professional Examination Services, or an equivalent organization, to perform an occupational analysis of nurse practitioners performing certain functions. The bill would require the occupational analysis to be completed by January 1, 2023. The bill would require the board to take specified measures to identify and assess competencies. The bill would require the board to identify and develop a supplemental examination for licensees if needed based on the assessment, as provided. Existing law makes it unlawful for specified healing arts practitioners, including physicians and surgeons, psychologists, and acupuncturists, to refer a person for certain services, including laboratory, diagnostic nuclear medicine, and physical therapy, if the physician and surgeon or their immediate family has a financial interest with the person or in the entity that receives the referral. A violation of those provisions is a misdemeanor and subject to specified civil penalties and disciplinary action. This bill would make those provisions applicable to a nurse practitioner practicing pursuant to the bill's provisions. Existing law requires certain peer review organizations responsible for reviewing the medical care provided by specified healing arts licentiates to file with the relevant agency an "805 report," which is a report of certain adverse actions taken against a licentiate for a medical disciplinary cause or reason. Existing law exempts a peer review body from the requirement to file an 805 report for an action taken as a result of a revocation or suspension, without stay, of a physician and surgeon's license by the Medical Board of California or a licensing agency of another state. Existing law requires the licensing agency to disclose, among other things, a copy of any 805 report of a licensee upon a request made by specified institutions prior to granting or renewing staff privileges for the licentiate. Existing law specifies certain penalties for failing to file an 805 report, and requires the action or proceeding to be brought by the Medical Board of California if the person who failed to file an 805 report is a licensed physician and surgeon. Existing law defines "licentiate" for those purposes. This bill would include as a licentiate a nurse practitioner practicing pursuant to the bill's provisions, and make conforming changes. The bill would exempt a peer review body from the requirement to file an 805 report for an action taken as a result of a revocation or suspension, without stay, of a nurse practitioner's license by the Board of Registered Nursing or a licensing agency of another state. The bill would require the action or proceeding to be brought by the Board of Registered Nursing if the person who failed to file an 805 report is a licensed nurse practitioner. Because the bill would expand the scope of crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 650.01 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 1237 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1237 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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 Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas in the state as very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria and the severity of the fire hazard. Existing law requires a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains an occupied dwelling or structure in, upon, or adjoining a mountainous area, forest-covered land, brush-covered land, grass-covered land, or land that is covered with flammable material that is within a very high fire hazard severity zone, as designated by a local agency, or a building or structure in, upon, or adjoining those areas or lands within a state responsibility area, to maintain a defensible space of 100 feet from each side and from the front and rear of the structure, as specified. A violation of these requirements is a crime. This bill would require a person described above to use more intense fuel reductions between 5 and 30 feet around the structure, and to create an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of the structure, based on regulations promulgated by the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, as provided. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime or expand the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require each local agency having jurisdiction of property upon which conditions that are regulated by the defensible space provisions described above apply and, contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute for this purpose, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to make reasonable efforts to provide notice to affected residents of the above requirements before imposing penalties for a violation of those requirements. By expanding the duty of a local agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would prohibit the requirement for an ember-resistant zone from taking effect for new structures until the state board updates the regulations, as specified, and the guidance document described below, as specified. The bill would prohibit the department from changing defensible space inspection practices and forms or enforcement to implement the requirement for an ember-resistant zone until the director makes a written finding that the Legislature has appropriated sufficient resources to do so. Existing law requires the department to develop, periodically update, and post on its internet website a guidance document on fuels management, as provided. This bill would instead require the state board, in consultation with the department, to develop, periodically update, and post on its internet website the guidance document. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2023, the state board, in consultation with the department, to update the guidance document to include suggestions for creating an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of a structure, as provided. The bill would make the requirement that the state board update the guidance document and promulgate certain regulations contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute for these purposes. This bill would also make conforming changes and nonsubstantive changes. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 51182 and 51189 of the Government Code and Section 4291 of Public Resources Code proposed by SB 1348 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1348 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law makes it a crime to commit various acts of sexual assault, including sexual battery and rape. Existing law makes it a crime to possess or use various controlled substances or for a person who is under 21 years of age to purchase or consume alcohol, as specified. Existing law provides, with respect to specified proceedings or investigations regarding felony offenses, that if a person refuses to answer a question or produce evidence on the ground that the person may be incriminated and if the person is ordered to comply but would have been privileged to withhold the answer given or the evidence produced except for the order, the person shall not be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty or forfeiture for, or on account of, any fact or act concerning which the person was required to answer or produce evidence, except as specified. Under existing law, a district attorney or other prosecuting agency may request an order granting use immunity or transactional immunity to a witness compelled to give testimony or produce evidence. This bill would make the testimony of a victim or witness in a felony prosecution for a violation or attempted violation of specified crimes of sexual assault that states that the victim or witness, at or around the time of the violation or attempted violation, unlawfully possessed or used a controlled substance or alcohol inadmissible in a separate prosecution of that victim or witness to prove illegal possession or use of that controlled substance or alcohol. The bill would specify that evidence that the testifying witness unlawfully possessed or used a controlled substance or alcohol is not excluded from use in the felony prosecution for a violation or attempted violation of specified crimes of sexual assault. The bill would specify that evidence that a witness received use immunity for testimony is not excluded in the felony prosecution of a violation or attempted violation of specified crimes of sexual assault. The California Constitution provides for the Right to Truth-In-Evidence, which requires a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature to exclude any relevant evidence from any criminal proceeding, as specified. Because this bill would exclude from a criminal action a person's statement regarding their use of controlled substances or alcohol that would otherwise be admissible, it requires a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA establishes a procedure by which a person may seek judicial review of the decision of the lead agency made pursuant to CEQA. CEQA requires a court to make specified orders if it finds that any determination, finding, or decision of a public agency has been made without compliance with CEQA. The Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011 (leadership act) authorizes the Governor, until January 1, 2020, to certify projects that meet certain requirements, including certain labor-related requirements, for streamlining benefits provided by the leadership act related to compliance with CEQA and streamlining of judicial review of action taken by a public agency to require a judicial action to be resolved within 270 days of the filing of the certified record of proceedings with the court. The leadership act provides that if a lead agency fails to approve a project certified by the Governor before January 1, 2021, the certification expires and is no longer valid. The leadership act requires a lead agency to prepare the record of proceedings for the certified project concurrent with the preparation of the environmental documents. The leadership act is repealed by its own terms on January 1, 2021. This bill would additionally include projects to construct a fixed guideway, as defined, and related fixed facilities meeting certain conditions as projects that are eligible for certification by the Governor under the leadership act. The bill would provide that the certification by the Governor expires if the lead agency fails to approve the project by January 1, 2024. Because a lead agency would be required to prepare the record of proceedings for these projects, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would provide that this act shall become effective only if Senate Bill 995 of the 2019–20 Regular Session is enacted on or before January 1, 2021. 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 regulates the use of pesticides and authorizes the Director of Pesticide Regulation to adopt regulations to govern the possession, sale, or use of any pesticide, as prescribed. Existing law prohibits the use of any pesticide that contains one or more of specified anticoagulants in wildlife habitat areas, as defined. Existing law exempts from this prohibition the use of these pesticides for agricultural activities, as defined. Existing law requires the director, and each county agricultural commissioner under the direction and supervision of the director, to enforce the provisions regulating the use of pesticides. A violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor. This bill, the California Ecosystems Protection Act of 2020, would additionally prohibit the use of any second generation anticoagulant rodenticide, as defined, in this state until the director certifies to the Secretary of State that, among other things, the Department of Pesticide Regulation has completed a reevaluation of second generation anticoagulant rodenticides and the Department of Pesticide Regulation, in consultation with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, has adopted any additional restrictions necessary to ensure that continued use of second generation anticoagulant rodenticides is not reasonably expected to result in significant adverse effects to nontarget wildlife, as provided. The bill would expand the exemption for agricultural activities to include activities conducted in certain locations. The bill would also exempt from its provisions the use of second generation anticoagulant rodenticides in certain locations and under specified conditions, including use by any governmental agency employee for public health activities, use by a mosquito or vector control district to protect the public health, use for the eradication of nonnative invasive species inhabiting or found to be present on offshore islands in a manner that is consistent with all otherwise applicable federal and state laws and regulations, use to control an actual or potential rodent infestation associated with a public health need, and use for research purposes related to the above-described reevaluation. By imposing additional duties on county agricultural commissioners, and expanding the definition of a crime, 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA includes exemptions from its environmental review requirements for numerous categories of projects, including, among others, projects for the institution or increase of passenger or commuter services on rail or highway rights-of-way already in use and projects for the institution or increase of passenger or commuter service on high-occupancy vehicle lanes already in use, as specified. This bill would further exempt from the requirements of CEQA certain projects, including projects for the institution or increase of new bus rapid transit, bus, or light rail services on public rail or highway rights-of-way, as specified, whether or not the right-of-way is in use for public mass transit, as specified, and projects for the designation and conversion of general purpose lanes, high-occupancy toll lanes, high-occupancy vehicle lanes, or highway shoulders, as specified. The bill would additionally exempt transit prioritization projects, projects that improve customer information and wayfinding for transit riders, bicyclists, or pedestrians, projects by a public transit agency to construct or maintain infrastructure to charge or refuel zero-emission transit buses, projects carried out by a city or county to reduce minimum parking requirements, and projects for pedestrian and bicycle facilities. The bill would, except as provided, require those exempt projects to meet additional specified criteria, including that a public agency is carrying out the project and is the lead agency for the project. The bill would, except as provided, require the lead agency to certify that those projects will be carried out by a skilled and trained workforce, except as provided. For those exempted projects exceeding $100,000,000 in 2020 United States dollars, the bill, except as provided, would require the lead agency to complete and consider the results of a project business case and a racial equity analysis, as prescribed, would require the lead agency, before exempting a project from CEQA, to hold at least 3 noticed public meetings in the project area to hear and respond to public comments, would require the lead agency, in at least one of those public meetings, to review the project business case and the racial equity analysis, and would require the lead agency to conduct at least 2 noticed public meetings annually during project construction for the public to provide comments. If the lead agency determines to carry out a project exempt under the above provisions, the bill would require the lead agency to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Planning and Research and the county clerk of the county in which the project is located. The bill would repeal the above-described exemptions on January 1, 2023. (2) CEQA, until January 1, 2021, exempts from its requirements bicycle transportation plans for an urbanized area for restriping of streets and highways, bicycle parking and storage, signal timing to improve street and highway intersection operations, and related signage for bicycles, pedestrians, and vehicles under certain conditions, including the requirement that the lead agency, before determining that a project is exempt, prepare an assessment of any traffic and safety impacts of the project and include measures in the bicycle transportation plan to mitigate potential vehicular traffic impacts and bicycle and pedestrian safety impacts. This bill would extend the above exemption until January 1, 2030. The bill also would, among other things, remove the above requirement related to traffic and safety impacts and measures.
Existing law requires county agencies that place children in foster care to conduct an evaluation of the county's placement resources and programs in relation to the needs of children placed in out-of-home care, and requires county placement agencies to specifically examine placements that are out of county and determine the reason the placement was necessary. This bill would additionally require a county placement agency to conduct an evaluation of the county's placement resources and programs in relation to the needs of nonminor dependents and to examine its ability to meet the emergency housing needs of nonminor dependents, as specified. Existing law establishes the supervised independent living placement as an independent supervised setting that is specified in a nonminor dependent's transitional independent living case plan and in which the nonminor dependent is living independently. Existing law defines a supervised independent living setting to include a supervised independent living placement and a residential housing unit certified by a transitional housing placement provider, as specified. Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of community care and residential facilities by the State Department of Social Services. A violation of the act is a misdemeanor. Existing law exempts certain facilities from the act. This bill would expand the definition of a supervised independent living setting to include a transitional living setting approved by a county to support youth who are entering or reentering foster care or transitioning between placements, excluding a youth homelessness prevention center or adult homeless shelter. The bill would exempt that transitional living setting from the act. The bill would also authorize a county, under certain conditions, to elect to certify that a supervised independent living placement meets health and safety standards once every 12 months. Existing law requires, in order to be licensed as a transitional housing placement provider, an applicant to obtain certification from the county specifying the population that will be served by the facility. Existing law requires the certification to confirm that the program includes specified components. This bill would authorize a county, in certain circumstances, to continue to approve payment to a transitional housing placement provider for a period of up to 14 days in a calendar month in which a nonminor dependent is absent from the placement and would generally prohibit a transitional housing placement provider from providing a removal notice or filling a nonminor dependent's place in the program if the county continues to pay the board and care costs for up to 14 days during the nonminor dependent's absence. The bill would also require the State Department of Social Services to issue guidance encouraging counties to continue to approve payment during temporary absences from the program as a best practice, consistent with federal law, to prevent nonminor dependent housing instability. By imposing new duties on counties, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires the Director of State Planning and Research to establish the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program under the administration of the Office of Planning and Research to coordinate regional and local efforts with state climate adaptation strategies to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Existing law requires the office, in coordination with appropriate entities, to establish a clearinghouse for climate adaptation information for use by state, regional, and local entities. This bill would require the office, through the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program, to develop the California Climate Change Assessment, in coordination with the Natural Resources Agency, the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, and the Strategic Growth Council, and in consultation with partner public agencies designated by the office. The bill would require the office to complete the assessment no less frequently than every 5 years. The bill would require the assessment to provide an integrated suite of products that report the impacts and risks of climate change, based on the best available science, and identify potential solutions to inform legislative policy, as provided. The bill would require the products to include, among other things, downscaled climate projections that assess climate change impacts throughout the state, including at regional and local levels, for near-term, medium-term, and long-term timescales, and under varied emissions scenarios, as provided. The bill would require the office to engage with regional and local governments, tribes, vulnerable communities, businesses, and members of the public, as necessary, in determining the scope of the assessment and would require all final assessment products to be posted on or accessible through a state internet website. The bill would make the implementation of these provisions contingent upon an appropriation of funds by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute for these purposes.
This measure would designate a specified portion of State Route 50 in the County of El Dorado as the Deputy Sheriff Brian "Ish" Ishmael Memorial Highway. The measure would request that the Department of Transportation determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, erect those signs.