This measure would declare February 19, 2014, as a Day of Remembrance in order to increase public awareness of the events surrounding the internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
The Trial Court Employment Protection and Governance Act establishes a trial court employee personnel system that provides authority to hire trial court personnel, regulates the classification and compensation of trial court employees, labor relations, and personnel files, and requires each trial court to establish a system of employment selection and advancement and an employment protection system. Existing law authorizes state agencies to use personal services contracts to achieve cost savings if specified standards are satisfied, including, among other things, the contract does not cause the displacement of civil service employees and the contract is awarded through a publicized, competitive bidding process. The State Personnel Board is required to review a proposed contract upon the request of an employee organization for compliance with those standards. This bill, until January 1, 2020, would establish specified standards if a trial court intends to enter into a new contract, or renew or extend an existing contract, for any services that are currently or customarily performed by that trial court's employees. Among other things, the bill would require the trial court to clearly demonstrate that the contract will result in actual overall cost savings to the trial court for the duration of the entire contract as compared with the trial court's actual costs of providing the same services. The bill would require a contract for services in excess of $100,000 annually to include specific, measurable performance standards and provisions for audits on performance and cost savings, as specified. This bill would provide that these standards apply to any contract entered into, renewed, or extended after the effective date of this measure. The bill would provide that its provisions do not apply to a contract under specified circumstances, including when services are incidental to a contract for the purchase or lease of real or personal property. This bill would require each trial court to provide a report by February 1, 2014, to the Chairperson of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and the chairpersons of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Assembly Judiciary Committee if the trial court entered into a contract between July 1, 2013, and the effective date of this measure for services that were provided or are customarily provided by its trial court employees if the contract has a term extending beyond March 31, 2014. This report would be required to include specified information relating to these contracts, including an analysis of whether the contract resulted in the displacement of trial court employees. The bill would provide that its provisions are severable.
Under existing law, the Department of Consumer Affairs is comprised of boards that license and regulate various professions and vocations. Existing law provides that these boards are established to ensure that private businesses and professions are regulated to protect the people of this state. Existing law authorizes the director or the Attorney General to intervene in a matter or proceeding pending before any state commission, regulatory agency, department, or agency, or any court, which the director finds may affect substantially the interests of consumers within California, in any appropriate manner to represent the interests of consumers. Existing law also authorizes the director, or any officer or employee designated by the director for that purpose, or the Attorney General to thereafter present evidence and argument to the agency, court of department, as specified, for the effective protection of the interests of consumers. This bill would additionally authorize any employee designated by the Attorney General to make those presentations.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of various professions and vocations by boards within the Department of Consumer Affairs. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would promote and pursue programmatic changes to nursing and paramedic licensure requirements for California's military medical personnel in order to recognize the talent, skills, and training of these military medical personnel.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, to afford to qualifying individuals health care and related remedial or preventive services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid provisions. Existing law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, requires applicable large employers, as defined, who offer full-time employees and their dependents the opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage and for whom one full-time employee has been certified as having enrolled in a qualified health plan for which a premium tax credit or cost-sharing reduction is allowed or paid, to pay a specified fee. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2015, require a large employer, as defined, to pay the Employment Development Department an employer responsibility penalty for each covered employee, as defined, enrolled in Medi-Cal based on the average cost of employee-only coverage provided by large employers to their employees, including both the employer's and employee's share of the premiums, as specified. The bill would assess interest of 10% per annum on employer responsibility penalties not paid on or before the date payment is due, as specified, and would require a large employer subject to an employer responsibility penalty to pay a penalty, as specified, for any employer responsibility penalty payment that is more than 60 days overdue. The bill would establish the Employer Responsibility for Medi-Cal Trust Fund, which would consist of the penalty amounts and interest collected pursuant to these provisions and would require that, upon appropriation, the moneys in the fund be used by the State Department of Health Care Services to provide payment for the nonfederal share of Medi-Cal costs for covered employees, to increase reimbursement to providers of care by providing supplemental Medi-Cal payments for specified benefits and providers, to provide reimbursement to county health systems, community clinics, and other safety net providers, as defined, that provide care without expectation of compensation to those Californians who do not have minimum essential coverage, as defined, to fund medical residency programs that meet certain criteria developed by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, and for all costs to implement the penalty provisions, as specified. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2015, prohibit a large employer from discharging or taking other action, as specified, against an employee who enrolls in a public health benefit program or advance premium tax credits through the California Health Benefit Exchange, and would provide that an employee is entitled to reinstatement and reimbursement of lost wages and work benefits if a large employer discharges or takes other action against an employee for those reasons. The bill would authorize an employee to file a complaint with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement of the Department of Industrial Relations if the employee is discharged, threatened with discharge, demoted, suspended, or in any other manner discriminated or retaliated against in the terms and conditions of employment by his or her employer in violation of these provisions. Existing law requires employers to file specified information with the Employment Development Department, upon hiring an employee, that may be used by specified state departments, exchanges, and boards, and county departments and agencies for specified purposes, including verifying or determining the eligibility of an applicant for, or a recipient of, state health subsidy programs, as specified, if the verification or determination is directly connected with, and limited to, the administration of the referenced state health subsidy programs. This bill would expand these provisions to allow the information to be used if the verification or determination is directly connected with, and limited to, the administration or funding of the referenced state health subsidy programs. Existing law authorizes the Director of the Employment Development Department to permit the use of information in his or her possession for specified purposes and to require reimbursement for all direct costs incurred in providing that information. Existing law provides that this information includes information provided to enable federal, state, or local government departments or agencies, subject to federal law, to verify or determine the eligibility or entitlement of an applicant for, or a recipient of, public social services if the verification or determination is directly connected with, and limited to, the administration of public social services. This bill would expand these provisions to allow the information to be used if the verification or determination is directly connected with, and limited to, the administration or funding of the public social services. Existing law also authorizes the director to permit the use of information in his or her possession and to require reimbursement for all direct costs incurred in providing that information to enable specified state departments, exchanges, and boards, and county departments and agencies, to obtain information regarding employee wages, California employer names and account numbers, employer reports of wages and number of employees, and disability insurance and unemployment insurance claim information, for specified purposes. This bill would authorize the director to provide information to enable these entities to obtain information regarding state employer identification numbers. The bill would also authorize the director to provide to the State Department of Health Care Services employer information and employee wage information on individuals who are enrolled in the Medi-Cal program to determine the employer responsibility penalties that would owed by large employers. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services and the State Department of Health Care Services to make use of the records of the Franchise Tax Board to match unearned income against reported income of applicants for, and recipients of, aid or public social services. This bill would also require each department to use these records to match social security numbers of applicants for, and recipients of, aid or public services with their employer's state employer identification number, which shall then be forwarded to the appropriate county welfare department or other appropriate state departments for use, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires each state agency to establish a procedure pursuant to which incoming telephone calls on any public line are answered within 10 rings during regular business hours, except as specified. For purposes of this provision, "state agency" includes every state office, officer, department, division, bureau, board, and commission. This bill would require, in addition, that the procedure established by the state agency enable a caller to leave a message, as specified, and that the message be returned within 3 business days, or 72 hours, whichever is earlier.
Existing law establishes various plans and programs intended to preserve, protect, and rehabilitate lands adjacent to rivers in the state. This bill would establish the statewide Greenway Initiative, which is intended to promote the development of greenways along rivers in the state, including the development of a greenway along the Los Angeles River. The bill would define the term "greenway" for purposes of the bill, and would authorize a city, county, city and county, or other local government entity to designate lands along a river in its jurisdiction, upon approval of its legislative body by ordinance or resolution, or by incorporating such a designation into an adopted general plan element or adopted river master plan and to apply for public or private funding available for the development of a greenway in its jurisdiction, to the extent any funds secured for that purpose are used in a manner consistent with state laws.
