Asm. Adrin Nazarian

Existing law requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to develop and implement a course of instruction and training for specified peace officers on the topic of hate crimes. Existing law requires that training to be implemented into the basic course and requires, as specified, all state and local law enforcement agencies to provide the training to all peace officers they employ. This bill would require POST to develop and periodically update an interactive refresher course on hate crimes for in-service peace officers, and require specified peace officers to take the course every 5 years.

This measure would proclaim March 15, 2020, to March 22, 2020, as California Down Syndrome Awareness Week and March 21, 2020, as California Down Syndrome Day, and would encourage all Californians to support and participate in related activities.

Existing law, the Marks-Roos Local Bond Pooling Act of 1985, authorizes joint powers authorities, among other powers, to issue bonds and loan the proceeds to local agencies to finance specified types of projects and programs. The act authorizes certain joint powers authorities, upon application by a local agency that owns and operates a publicly owned utility, defined to mean certain utilities furnishing water or wastewater service to not less than 25,000 retail customers, to issue rate reduction bonds to finance utility projects, as defined, subject to certain requirements. Under the act, these rate reduction bonds are secured by a pledge of utility project property, and the joint powers authority issuing the bonds may impose on, and collect from, customers of the publicly owned utility a utility project charge to finance the bonds, as provided. The act requires the California Pollution Control Financing Authority, among other things, to review each issuance of rate reduction bonds issued under these provisions. This bill would expand the definition of a publicly owned utility for these purposes to include certain utilities furnishing generation, transmission, or distribution electrical service to retail customers, and would authorize an authority to issue rate reduction bonds to finance or refinance utility projects for the provision of generation, transmission, or distribution electrical service. The bill would include in the allowable costs of a public capital improvement, a utility project, or portion of the improvement or utility project financed with rate reduction bonds all or any part of the cost of financing or refinancing specified charges imposed upon the customers of the electrical corporation from which all or part of the improvement or utility project was acquired. The act prohibits a local agency from applying to an authority for financing or refinancing of a utility project pursuant to these provisions unless the legislative body of the local agency has determined, among other things, that the rates of the publicly owned utility plus the utility project charge resulting from the financing or refinancing of the utility project with rate reduction bonds are expected to be lower than the rates of the publicly owned utility if the utility project was financed or refinanced with bonds payable from revenues of the publicly owned utility. The act authorizes a local agency with a publicly owned utility having 500,000 or more retail customers, in lieu of making that determination, to alternatively determine that the use of rate reduction bonds to finance or refinance utility projects provides substantial benefits to the publicly owned utility. This bill would additionally authorize a local agency that has a population of 800,000 or more with a publicly owned utility that provides, or that will provide upon the acquisition of the utility project, electrical service anywhere within the service area of the local agency, to make that alternative substantial benefit determination. The bill would also make clarifying changes to the act.

Existing law, the Gender Tax Repeal Act of 1995 (the act) , prohibits a business establishment from discriminating against a person because of the person's gender with respect to the price charged for services of similar or like kind and specifies that this prohibition does not apply to price differences based specifically upon the amount of time, difficulty, or cost of providing the services. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act protects and safeguards the right and opportunity of all persons to seek, obtain, and hold employment without discrimination, abridgment, or harassment on account of various personal characteristics. Under existing law, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing is responsible for receiving, investigating, conciliating, mediating, and prosecuting complaints alleging violations of specified civil rights. This bill would prohibit a business establishment from discriminating against a person because of a person's gender with respect to the price charged for any 2 consumer products from the same manufacturer that are substantially similar if those products are priced differently based on the gender of the individuals for whose use the products are intended or marketed, as specified. The bill would make the department responsible for receiving, investigating, conciliating, mediating, and prosecuting complaints alleging violations of these provisions.

Existing law requires the governing board of any school district to give diligent care to the health and physical development of pupils and authorizes the governing board of a school district to employ properly certified persons for the work. The School-Based Early Mental Health Intervention and Prevention Services for Children Act of 1991 authorizes the Director of Health Care Services, in consultation with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to award matching grants to local educational agencies to pay the state share of the costs of providing school-based early mental health intervention and prevention services to eligible pupils at schoolsites of eligible pupils, subject to the availability of funding each year. Existing law establishes the Mental Health Student Services Act as a mental health partnership competitive grant program for the purpose of establishing mental health partnerships between a county's mental health or behavioral health departments and school districts, charter schools, and the county office of education within the county, as provided. This bill would establish the Integrated School-Based Behavioral Health Partnership Program to provide early intervention for, and access to, behavioral health services for pupils. The bill would authorize a county behavioral health agency and the governing board or governing body of a local educational agency to agree to collaborate on and implement an integrated school-based behavioral health partnership program and to develop a memorandum of understanding outlining the requirements for the partnership program. The bill would require a county behavioral health agency to provide, through its own staff or through its network of contracted community-based organizations, one or more behavioral health professionals that meet specified licensing requirements to serve pupils with serious emotional disturbances or substance use disorders, or who are at risk of developing a serious behavioral health condition. The bill would require a local educational agency to provide school-based locations, including space at schools, appropriate for the delivery of behavioral health services, and would additionally authorize these services to be provided at locations that are not at the school-based location, for purposes of accommodating the individual needs of a pupil. The bill would establish processes for delivering services and would specify the types of services that may be provided pursuant to the partnership program. The bill would provide processes and requirements for serving pupils with private insurance, including requirements related to reimbursement for services by private insurers. The bill would require the Department of Managed Health Care to have trained staff available to address any disputes arising from the partnership program and to create a workgroup with a specified membership to recommend policies to expedite payments to county behavioral health agencies serving privately insured pupils under the partnership program. The bill would require the partnership program to annually report specified information to the State Department of Education, the State Department of Health Care Services, the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, and the Legislature.

The California Health Facilities Financing Authority Act (act) authorizes the California Health Facilities Financing Authority (authority) to, among other things, make loans from the continuously appropriated California Health Facilities Financing Authority Fund (fund) to participating health institutions, as defined, for financing or refinancing the acquisition, construction, or remodeling of health facilities. Under the act, the authority is authorized to issue revenue bonds to provide the funds for achieving these purposes. This bill would, until January, 1, 2026, authorize the authority, consistent with the provisions of the act, to make a loan to a for-profit skilled nursing facility, if at least 70% of its patients at any given time are Medi-Cal beneficiaries, to fund emergency preparedness improvements of the skilled nursing facility's buildings. Because this bill would expand the purposes for which the continuously appropriated fund may be used, it would make an appropriation. The bill would require the authority to make data available to the Legislature regarding the number of loans granted, projects completed, and other benefits provided to patients pursuant to this temporary authorization.

Existing law requires a school district, county superintendent of schools, or charter school maintaining kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide a needy pupil with one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each schoolday, and authorizes a school district or county office of education to use funds available from any federal program, including the federal School Breakfast Program, to comply with that requirement. Existing law generally requires a school district or a county superintendent of schools to provide breakfast and lunch free of charge to all pupils at a very high poverty school, as defined. This bill would require the State Department of Education to develop and post on its internet website guidance for local educational agencies participating in the federal School Breakfast Program that maintain kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 6, inclusive, on how to serve eligible nonschoolaged children breakfast or a morning snack at a local educational agency schoolsite. The bill would define "eligible nonschoolaged child" to mean a child who is not enrolled in school and who is a sibling, half-sibling, or step-sibling of, or a foster child residing with, a pupil who is eligible for a free or reduced-price breakfast. The bill would require a guardian of an eligible nonschoolaged child to be present in order for the nonschoolaged child to receive breakfast or a morning snack. The bill would require the department to establish a process for state reimbursement to be provided upon appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute to local educational agencies for breakfasts and morning snacks served to guardians of nonschoolaged children receiving breakfast or a morning snack. The bill would require the department to seek a waiver of federal law or regulation if necessary to secure federal reimbursement for breakfasts and morning snacks served to guardians of nonschoolaged children. The bill would require the department to evaluate the guidance and to submit the evaluation to the Legislature by January 1, 2023. The bill would require a local educational agency that chooses to implement the department's guidance to submit to the department certain information relating to serving breakfast and morning snacks to nonschoolaged children and guardians.

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, independent institutions of higher education, and private postsecondary educational institutions as the segments of postsecondary education in this state. This bill would establish the California Ban on Scholarship Displacement Act of 2020, which would prohibit each public and private institution of higher education that receives, or benefits from, state-funded financial assistance or enrolls students who receive state-funded student financial assistance from reducing a student's institution-based financial aid award below the student's financial need, as specified. The bill would make its provisions severable, as specified.

Existing law establishes within the Capital Access Loan Program the California Americans with Disabilities Act Small Business Capitol Access Loan Program to assist small businesses in complying with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the California Seismic Safety Capital Access Loan Program to assist qualified residential property owners and qualified small business owners in seismically retrofitting qualified buildings by covering losses on qualified loans for those purposes. Existing law requires the California Pollution Control Financing Authority to administer both programs, including adopting regulations and holding funds received for the programs, as specified. Existing law defines the term "qualified residential property owner" for purposes of the seismic retrofitting program to mean an owner of, or a qualified small business that owns, a residential building that is a qualified building, as specified. Existing law defines the term "loss reserve account" for purposes of both programs as an account established and maintained by the authority for the benefit of a financial institution participating in the Capital Access Loan Program from which, among other things, the authority's contributions for each enrolled loan are recaptured upon the maturation of the loan or after a period of years, as specified, from the date of enrollment and applied to future program and administrative expenditures. Existing law establishes the California American with Disabilities Act Small Business Capital Access Loan Program Fund and the California Seismic Safety Capital Access Loan Program Fund, both of which are continuously appropriated to the authority to carry out the purposes of these programs. This bill would expand the definition of a "qualified residential property owner" for purposes of the seismic retrofitting program to include a homeowners' association that owns a residential building that is a qualified building, and is authorized to seismically retrofit such a building. The bill would also authorize moneys in the California Seismic Safety Capitol Access Loan Program Fund to be used by the authority for incentives to borrowers. By expanding the purposes of a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would clarify that the authority is required to contribute to, and to establish a minimum threshold for, the loss reserve account it creates for each lender that enrolls loans in either the California Americans with Disabilities Act Small Business Capital Access Loan Program or the California Seismic Safety Capital Access Loan Program. The bill also would make other conforming changes.

Existing law vests the Department of Transportation with full possession and control of the state highway system and associated real property. Existing law generally requires vehicles to be driven upon the right half of a roadway, defined to include only that portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel. Existing law generally prohibits the driver of a vehicle from overtaking and passing another vehicle by driving off the paved or main-traveled portion of the roadway. Existing law authorizes the Monterey-Salinas Transit District and the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District to conduct a transit bus-only program using the shoulders of certain state highways as transit bus-only traffic corridors, subject to approval by the Department of Transportation and the Department of the California Highway Patrol. Existing law requires that the highway segments to be used for the program are to be jointly determined by the districts, the department, and the Department of the California Highway Patrol, as provided. This bill would authorize the Department of Transportation to establish a pilot program to authorize a transit operator or operators to operate transit buses on the shoulders of state highways, under a project selected under the program. The bill would authorize an operator or operators, in partnership with a regional transportation agency that meets specified requirements, to submit an application to the department to establish and operate a project under the program. The bill would authorize the department to select no more than 8 total projects under the program using guidelines developed with input from the Department of the California Highway Patrol and the public. The bill would require the department, the Department of the California Highway Patrol, and the operator or operators and regional transportation agency that submitted the application to jointly determine the state highways, or segment of state highways, that will be used in a project. The bill would require the applicable regional transportation agency to be responsible for all costs attributable to the project. Two years after commencing a project, the bill would require an operator or operators, in conjunction with the applicable regional transportation agency, to submit a report to the Legislature that includes certain information about the project.