Existing law authorizes a governing body of a political subdivision, as those terms are defined, to declare a shelter crisis if the governing body makes a specified finding. Upon declaration of a shelter crisis, existing law, among other things, suspends certain state and local laws, regulations, and ordinances to the extent that strict compliance would prevent, hinder, or delay the mitigation of the effects of the shelter crisis. This bill would authorize a city with a population of more than 3,500,000 to permit the operation of an emergency housing facility year round when the facility does not comply with state building standards for local fire and life safety standards if they submit reasonable standards to the State Fire Marshal that include specified minimum requirements, including, among other things, 24-hour active fire watch, emergency evacuation signage and emergency egress lighting, among other things. The State Fire Marshal would be required to review the standards within 30 days and either approve them or respond as to why they do not meet the threshold requirements. The bill would authorize permits for a period of 90 days and would authorize 90-day extensions, not to exceed 730 days of operation, and would prohibit the authorization of new permits on and after January 1, 2023.
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Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health within the California Health and Human Services Agency. This bill would authorize the State Department of Public Health to establish the Office of Suicide Prevention within the department, would require the office to perform specified duties, including providing information and technical assistance to statewide and regional partners regarding best practices on suicide prevention policies and programs and reporting on progress to reduce rates of suicide, and authorize the office to apply for and use federal, state, and foundation grants. The bill would require the office to consult with the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to implement suicide prevention efforts. The bill would require that the duties and responsibilities of the office be accomplished with existing staff and resources. The bill would make these provisions operative subject to an appropriation for these purposes in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law establishes a schedule of benefits under the Medi-Cal program and provides for various services, including behavioral and mental health services that are rendered by Medi-Cal enrolled providers. This bill would require the department, by July 1, 2022, subject to any necessary federal waivers or approvals, to establish statewide requirements for counties or their representatives to use in developing certification programs for the certification of peer support specialists, who are individuals who self-identify as having lived experience with the process of recovery from mental illness, substance use disorder, or both. The bill would authorize a county, or an agency that represents a county, to develop a peer support specialist certification program and certification fee schedule, both of which would be subject to department approval. The bill would require the department to seek any federal waivers it deems necessary to establish a demonstration or pilot project for the provision of peer support services in a county that agrees to participate in and fund the project, as specified.
Existing law designates the Secretary of State as the chief elections officer of the state and requires the Secretary of State to make reasonable efforts to promote voter registration and encourage eligible voters to vote. This bill would require the Secretary of State to establish a Native American Voting Accessibility Advisory Committee. The committee would include the Secretary of State, the Secretary of State's designees, and additional members appointed by the Secretary of State who have demonstrated experience with voting rights or are county elections officials. The committee would serve in an advisory capacity to the Secretary of State and would make specified recommendations and take other actions to make voting more accessible to Native American voters.
Existing law, the Student Loan Servicing Act, prohibits a person from engaging in the business of servicing a student loan in California without first obtaining a license. Existing law commits the administration of these provisions to the Commissioner of Business Oversight and grants the commissioner various powers in this regard, including the authority to conduct investigations of applicants and licensees. The act requires an applicant for a license to submit audited financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and acceptable to the commissioner that indicate a net worth of at least $250,000 and requires a licensee to maintain a minimum net worth of $250,000. Existing law, the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, regulates the collection of consumer debts by debt collectors, as defined. Under existing law, a debt collector who violates the act is liable to a debtor for actual damages resulting from the violation, and is subject to additional civil penalties for any willful or knowing violation of the act, and other specified remedies. This bill would authorize the commissioner to allow a licensee that is a wholly owned subsidiary of a public holding company required to comply with the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission to satisfy the requirement to submit audited financial statements with an application for a license and to maintain a minimum net worth of $250,000 by submitting the annual consolidated audited financial statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as specified. This bill would impose new requirements on a student loan servicer, defined as any person engaged in the business of servicing student loans in the state. These requirements would include the timely posting, processing, and crediting of student loan payments within certain timeframes, applying overpayments consistent with the best financial interest of a student loan borrower, as defined, applying partial payments to minimize late fees and negative credit reporting, maintaining records, timely processing of paperwork, and diligently overseeing service providers. The bill would require a student loan servicer to provide specialized training for customer service personnel that advises military borrowers, borrowers in public service, borrowers with disabilities, and older borrowers. The bill would prohibit a student loan servicer from engaging in unfair or deceptive practices, or abusive acts or practices in connection with the servicing of a student loan, as specified. The bill would authorize a consumer who suffers damages as a result of a person's failure to comply with these provisions as well as all applicable federal laws relating to student loan servicing to bring an action for actual damages, injunctive relief, restitution, punitive damages, attorney's fees, and other relief, including treble damages in certain circumstances. The bill would require a consumer to give specified notice to a person before bringing an action for damages against that person for a violation of the bill's provisions and would provide that person an opportunity to cure the alleged violation, as specified. The bill would prohibit an attempt to cure a violation by a person who receives a notice of that violation from being admissible in court against that person but would authorize the attempt to cure to be admitted as evidence by that person, as specified. The bill would define terms for purposes of its provisions. The bill would require, beginning on July 1, 2021, the commissioner, as specified, to designate a Student Loan Ombudsman to work within the department and to hire additional staff, as needed to implement these provisions. The bill would require the Student Loan Ombudsman to receive and review complaints, to refer complaints to an appropriate unit within the department that would be authorized to investigate the complaint, and to refer complaints regarding servicers not subject to licensing under the Student Loan Servicing Act to the Department of Justice, which would be permitted to investigate those complaints. The bill would require complaints regarding any private postsecondary educational institution licensed by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education to be referred to the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education's Office of Student Assistance and Relief. The bill would require the Student Loan Ombudsman to confer with the Department of Justice and the Office of Student Assistance and Relief regarding the student loan servicing complaints, the proper referral processes for those complaints, and the reporting requirements imposed by the bill. The bill would require the Student Loan Ombudsman not later than 18 months after the operative date of the bill, and no less than once yearly thereafter, to submit a report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature regarding the implementation of these provisions, the types of complaints received, and other data and analysis on student loan issues. The bill would also, beginning July 1, 2021, authorize the Commissioner of Business Oversight to monitor for risks to consumers in the provision of student loan servicing and would authorize the commissioner to gather information regarding the organization, business conduct, and activities of student loan services. The bill would authorize the commissioner to gather and compile information from student loan servicers and to develop and publicize metrics based on the data collected. Among other actions, the bill would authorize the commissioner to require student loan servicers to file, under oath or otherwise, annual or special reports or answers in writing to specific questions. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would include related legislative findings and would make conforming and nonsubstantive changes to provisions in the Student Loan Servicing Act. 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 registration and regulation of dispensing opticians, spectacle lens dispensers, nonresident contact lens sellers, and contact lens dispensers by the State Board of Optometry and requires certain fees and fines in connection therewith to be paid to the board. Existing law establishes the Dispensing Opticians Fund and requires that these fees and fines be paid into that fund, and provides that the funds be available, upon appropriation, to the board for specified purposes. Existing law, the Optometry Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of optometrists by the board and requires certain fees and fines in connection therewith to be paid to the board. The act establishes the Optometry Fund and requires that these fees and fines be paid into that fund, and provides that the funds, unless otherwise provided, be available, upon appropriation, to the board in order to carry out the purposes of the act. This bill would abolish the Dispensing Opticians Fund on July 1, 2022, and would require that any moneys in that fund be transferred to the Optometry Fund before July 1, 2022. The bill would make various related conforming changes. Existing law provides that specified provisions of the Medical Practice Act that are not inconsistent or in conflict with certain provisions of law relating to the registration and regulation of dispensing opticians apply to the issuance, and govern the expiration and renewal, of certificates of registration issued to dispensing opticians. This bill would delete that provision. The Optometry Practice Act requires each licensed optometrist, before engaging in the practice of optometry, to notify the board in writing of the address or addresses where the optometrist is to engage in the practice of optometry and of any changes in their place of practice. A violation of the act is a crime. This bill would define "mobile optometric office" to mean a trailer, van, or other means of transportation in which the practice of optometry is performed and which is not affiliated with an approved optometry school in California. The bill would limit ownership of a mobile optometric office to a tax-exempt nonprofit or charitable organization that provides optometric services to patients regardless of the patient's ability to pay. The bill would require the owner and operator of a mobile optometric office to register with the board and to provide specified information on registering. The bill would prohibit the owner and operator of a mobile optometric office from accepting payment for services other than those provided to Medi-Cal beneficiaries. The bill would require the owner and operator of a mobile optometric office to file a quarterly report with the board and to provide a consumer notice prescribed by the board to patients. The bill would require the board, by January 1, 2022, to adopt regulations establishing a registry for mobile optometric offices and to set a registration fee at an amount not to exceed the costs of administration. The bill would authorize the board to adopt regulations to conduct quality assurance reviews for optometrists engaging in the practice of optometry at a mobile optometric office. The bill would prohibit the board from bringing an enforcement action against an owner and operator of a mobile optometric office based solely on its affiliation status with an approved optometry school in California for remotely providing optometric service before January 1, 2022. The bill would require the owner and operator of a mobile optometric office to maintain records, as prescribed, to be made available to the board upon request for inspection. The bill would require a licensed optometrist who provides patient care in conjunction with a mobile optometric office to obtain a statement of licensure with the mobile optometric office's address as registered with the board. The bill would require, if the licensee is not practicing optometry at a location other than with the owner and operator of the mobile optometric office, that the licensee list as their primary address of record the owner and operator of the mobile optometric office's address as registered with the board. The bill would repeal these mobile optometric office provisions on July 1, 2024. Because this bill would expand the scope of an existing crime, it would therefore 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. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 205 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 1474 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1474 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for, and provides for regulation by the State Department of Public Health of, retail food facilities, as defined, and requires local health agencies to enforce these provisions. Existing law provides specified standards for the transportation of food, including, among others, the requirement for all food to be transported so as to be pure and free from adulteration and spoilage, and the requirement for potentially hazardous food to be maintained at the required holding temperatures, except as specified. A person who violates any provision of the code is guilty of a misdemeanor, except as otherwise provided. This bill would require ready-to-eat food delivered through a third-party food delivery platform, as defined, to be transported in a manner in which the ready-to-eat food is protected from contamination, as specified, and would require all bags or containers in which ready-to-eat foods are being transported or delivered from a food facility to a customer through a third-party food delivery platform to be closed by the food facility with a tamper-evident method prior to the food deliverer taking possession of the food. The bill would authorize enforcement officers to recover reasonable costs in enforcing those requirements. The bill would exempt from the bag or container requirement food transported as part of a charitable feeding program and food that is being donated to a food bank. By imposing duties on local officials and creating a new 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 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, the Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act, commonly known as the California Family Rights Act, makes it an unlawful employment practice for a government employer or any employer with 50 or more employees, as specified, to refuse to grant a request by an employee, who has at least 1,250 hours of service with the employer during the previous 12-month period, to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid protected leave during any 12-month period to bond with a new child of the employee or to care for themselves, a child, a parent, or a spouse, as specified. Existing law authorizes an employer to refuse to grant the request if the employer employs less than 50 employees within 75 miles of the worksite where the employee is employed or if the employee is a salaried employee who is among the highest paid 10% of the employer's employees, as provided. Existing law, if both parents of a child are employed by the same employer, authorizes the employer to only grant both employees a total of 12 workweeks of unpaid protected leave during the 12-month period. Existing law prohibits an employer from refusing to allow a female employee disabled by pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition to take a leave for a reasonable time of up to 4 months before returning to work. Existing law also prohibits an employer from refusing to maintain and pay for coverage under a group health plan for an employee who takes that leave, as specified. The California Family Rights Act specifies that those existing pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition leave provisions are separate and distinct from the protections provided by the California Family Rights Act. Existing law, the New Parent Leave Act, makes it an unlawful employment practice for any employer to refuse to grant a request by an employee to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid protected leave during any 12-month period to bond with a new child. The New Parent Leave Act defines employee as a parent who has more than 12 months of service with the employer, who has at least 1,250 hours of service with the employer during the previous 12-month period, and who works at a worksite in which the employer employs at least 20 employees within 75 miles. This bill would expand the California Family Rights Act to make it an unlawful employment practice for any employer with 5 or more employees to refuse to grant a request by an employee to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid protected leave during any 12-month period to bond with a new child of the employee or to care for themselves or a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, or domestic partner, as specified. The bill would require an employer who employs both parents of a child to grant leave to each employee. The bill would also make it an unlawful employment practice for any employer to refuse to grant a request by an employee to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid protected leave during any 12-month period due to a qualifying exigency related to the covered active duty or call to covered active duty of an employee's spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent in the Armed Forces of the United States. The bill would define employee for these purposes as an individual who has at least 1,250 hours of service with the employer during the previous 12-month period, unless otherwise provided.
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.
Existing law authorizes a court to allow a defendant sentenced to county jail for a felony to withdraw their plea of guilty or plea of nolo contendere and enter a plea of not guilty, after the lapse of one or 2 years following the defendant's completion of the sentence, provided that the defendant is not under supervision, and is not serving a sentence for, on probation for, or charged with the commission of any offense. Existing law requires the defendant to be released from all penalties and disabilities resulting from the offense of which the defendant was convicted, except as specified. This bill would allow a defendant who successfully participated in the California Conservation Camp Program or a county incarcerated individual hand crew as an incarcerated individual hand crew member, and has been released from custody, to petition to withdraw their plea of guilty or plea of nolo contendere and enter a plea of not guilty. The bill would make persons convicted of specified violent felonies and sex offenses ineligible for relief. The bill would allow the court, if the defendant is eligible for relief, to dismiss the accusations or information against the defendant at the court's discretion and in the interest of justice and would release the defendant from all penalties and disabilities resulting from the offense, except as provided. In granting this relief, the bill would require the court to order the early termination of probation, parole, or supervised release if the court determines that the defendant has not violated any of the terms or conditions of their release during the pendency of the petition.