Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law requires every electric utility, defined to include an electrical corporation, local publicly owned electric utility, and electrical cooperative, to develop a standard contract or tariff providing for net energy metering, as defined, and to make this contract or tariff available to eligible customer-generators, as defined, on a first-come-first-served basis until the time that the total rated generating capacity used by eligible customer-generators exceeds 5% of the electric utility's aggregate customer peak demand, or, for large electrical corporations, which are electrical corporations with 100,000 or more service connections in California, until July 1, 2017, whichever is earlier. Existing law requires the entity that establishes rates for the electric utility to establish a net surplus electricity compensation valuation to compensate a net surplus customer-generator for the value of net surplus electricity generated by the customer-generator, provided that the rate does not result in a shifting of costs between eligible customer-generators and other bundled service customers. Existing law requires the commission, no later than December 31, 2015, to develop a standard contract or tariff for additional eligible customer-generators with renewable electrical generation facilities that are customers of a large electrical corporation. Existing law requires each large electrical corporation to offer this standard contract or tariff to new eligible customer-generators beginning July 1, 2017, or before that date if ordered to do so by the commission because it has reached the net energy metering program 5% limit described above. Under existing law, there is no limitation on the amount of generating capacity or number of new eligible customer-generators entitled to receive service pursuant to this standard contract or tariff. This bill would require the commission, by July 1, 2021, to develop a standard distributed generation compensation contract or tariff for an eligible customer-generator with a renewable electrical generation facility that is a customer of a large electrical corporation, as specified. The bill would require each large electrical corporation to offer the standard contract or tariff to eligible customer-generators beginning January 1, 2022. The bill would require, beginning January 1, 2022, that all new eligible customer-generators be subject to the standard contract or tariff and the applicable rules, terms, and rates developed by the commission. The bill would specify that an eligible customer-generator that has received service under a net energy metering standard contract or tariff or successor contract or tariff, as described above, that is no longer eligible to receive service pursuant to that contract or tariff is eligible to receive service pursuant to the standard contract or tariff. Under existing law, a violation of the act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because any violation of the commission's implementation of these provisions would be 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
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Existing law authorizes the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to enter into cooperative agreements with county boards of supervisors and other specified entities for certain purposes. Existing law prohibits the secretary from entering into a cooperative agreement with a county of the first class for agricultural inspector services, if the agreement requires that the county provide year-round services, unless not less than 66% of the agricultural inspector aids and not less than 75% of the agricultural inspector associates not afforded protections as permanent employees employed under the cooperative agreement are afforded protections as permanent employees under the county's civil service or other personnel system. This bill would delete from the exception to that prohibition the requirement that not less than 75% of the agricultural inspector associates not afforded protections as permanent employees employed under the cooperative agreement are afforded protections as permanent employees under the county's civil service or other personnel system.
Existing law establishes the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission which, among other duties, is authorized to establish a framework and voluntary standard for mental health in the workplace that serves to reduce mental health stigma, increase awareness of mental health issues, and provide employer guidance, as specified. This bill would require the commission, in coordination with the State Department of Education, the State Department of Health Care Services, local educational agencies, county departments of mental health or behavioral health, local public safety agencies, and other relevant state, local, and community-based entities, to develop a framework, as specified, to support the development and deployment of effective strategies that address the root causes of student mental health needs, that produce positive school and mental health outcomes, and that support healthy and safe learning environments.
Existing law, in addition to restitution paid to a victim of a crime, requires the court to impose a separate and additional restitution fine of $150 to $1,000 for a misdemeanor and $300 to $10,000 for a felony unless the court finds compelling and extraordinary reasons for not doing so. Existing law prohibits a court from considering a defendant's inability to pay as a compelling and extraordinary reason not to impose the restitution fine. Existing law imposes an assessment of $30 on every conviction for a misdemeanor or felony and $35 on each infraction to ensure and maintain adequate funding for court facilities. Existing law also imposes an assessment of $40 on every conviction for a criminal offense to assist in funding court operations. Existing case law holds that due process of law requires a court to conduct an ability to pay hearing and ascertain the defendant's present ability to pay before it imposes these court facilities and court operations assessments or executes a restitution fine. This bill would instead make a defendant's inability to pay a fine a compelling and extraordinary reason for a court to not impose a restitution fine upon a conviction of a misdemeanor or felony. The bill would require the court to impose the court facility and court operation assessments unless the court determines that the defendant does not have the ability to pay.
Existing law, the Dental Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of dentists and dental assistants by the Dental Board of California. The act, prior to January 1, 2020, required the board to approve foreign dental schools based on specified standards, and required a foreign dental school seeking approval to submit an application to the board, including, among other things, a finding that the educational program of the foreign dental school is equivalent to that of similar accredited institutions in the United States and adequately prepares its students for the practice of dentistry. Existing law required the foreign dental school to submit a specified registration fee and to pay the board's reasonable costs and expenses to conduct an approval survey. Existing law also required an approved institution to submit a renewal application every 7 years and to pay a specified renewal fee. Existing law, beginning January 1, 2020, prohibits the board from accepting new applications for approval of foreign dental schools and instead requires foreign dental schools seeking approval to complete the international consultative and accreditation process with the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association (CODA) or a comparable accrediting body approved by the board. Existing law requires previously approved foreign dental schools to complete the CODA accreditation by January 1, 2024, to remain approved. This bill would repeal the provisions that, beginning January 1, 2020, prohibit the board from accepting new applications for the approval of foreign dental schools, and would instead require the board to approve foreign dental schools in the same manner as prior to January 1, 2020.
Existing law establishes the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. The California State University comprises 23 institutions of higher education located throughout the state. Existing law authorizes the trustees to require the payment of fees, rents, deposits, and charges for services, facilities, or materials provided by the trustees. Existing law establishes the California Promise, which requires at least 20 individual campuses of the California State University to establish a California Promise program through which each campus would enter into a pledge with a student who satisfies specified criteria to support the student in earning a baccalaureate degree in limited time. Existing law establishes the California College Promise, under the administration of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, to provide funding, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to each community college meeting prescribed requirements. Existing law authorizes a community college to use that funding to waive some or all of the fees for 2 academic years for certain first-time students. This bill would prohibit the charging of tuition or mandatory systemwide fees for enrollment at a campus of the California State University for any academic year, up to 2 academic years, to a California Community College resident transfer student who has completed an associate degree for transfer or has received a fee waiver pursuant to the California College Promise. Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the bill would require the Chancellor of the California State University to distribute funding to each campus participating in the California Promise to offset the costs of waiving tuition and mandatory systemwide fees to transfer students pursuant to this bill.
(1) Existing law requires the Secretary for Environmental Protection to implement a unified hazardous waste and hazardous materials management regulatory program, known as the unified program. Existing law requires every county to apply to the secretary to be certified to implement the unified program, and authorizes a city or local agency that meets specified requirements to apply to the secretary to be certified to implement the unified program, as a certified unified program agency, or CUPA. Existing law authorizes a state or local agency that has a written agreement with a CUPA, and is approved by the secretary, to implement or enforce one or more of the unified program elements as a participating agency. Existing law defines "unified program agency," or UPA, to mean the CUPA or its participating agencies, as provided. Existing law authorizes the UPA, if the UPA determines that a person has committed, or is committing, a violation of any law, regulation, permit, information request, order, variance, or other requirement that the UPA is authorized to enforce or implement, to issue an administrative enforcement order requiring that the violation be corrected and imposing an administrative penalty. Existing law authorizes a UPA to suspend or revoke any unified program facility permit, or an element of a unified program facility permit, for not paying the permit fee or a fine or penalty associated with the permit in accordance with specified procedures. Existing law authorizes a UPA, if a permittee does not comply with a written notice from the UPA to the permittee to make those payments by a specified date, to suspend or revoke the permit or permit element. Existing law requires the permittee, if the permit or permit element is suspended or revoked, to immediately discontinue operating that facility or function of the facility to which the permit element applies until the permit is reinstated, or reissued. This bill would revise those requirements to explicitly require noncompliance with a written notice before a permit or permit element may be suspended or revoked, and would additionally authorize the UPA to withhold issuance of the permit or permit element if a unified program facility does not comply with a written notice. The bill would authorize a UPA to suspend, revoke, or withhold issuance of a unified program facility permit if conditions exist at the unified program facility that the UPA considers, consistent with criteria or factors, which the bill would require the UPAs in the state to develop, and are supported by written findings, an imminent or substantial endangerment to public health, safety, or the environment. The bill would require the permittee to immediately discontinue operating that facility or function of the facility to which the permit or permit element applies until the endangerment is abated and the permit or permit element is issued, reinstated, or reissued. The bill would authorize a UPA to suspend, revoke, or withhold the issuance of any unified program facility permit if a permittee of a facility, or the owner or operator, as appropriate, fails to take appropriate action to abate an endangerment. The bill would require the owner or operator of a unified program facility to be liable for a civil or administrative penalty of not less than $500 or more than $5,000 per day for failure to obtain or keep a permit as required pursuant to the provisions governing the unified program. The bill would provide that the provisions authorizing a UPA to issue an administrative enforcement order or to withhold issuance, or to suspend or revoke, a permit do not prevent the UPA from issuing an administrative enforcement order for the release of a hazardous substance, as defined, for any violation of specified provisions relating to, among other things, business and area plans and risk management plans. (2) Existing law requires a stationary source, as defined, with one or more processes that have certain substances present in more than a threshold quantity to prepare and submit a risk management plan, if the administering agency makes a specified determination. Existing law defines "administering agency" for these purposes to mean a UPA. Existing law requires an administering agency, for a stationary source not otherwise required to submit a risk management plan, to make a preliminary determination as to whether there is a significant likelihood that the use of regulated substances by a stationary source may pose a regulated substances accident risk. Existing law authorizes an administering agency, if it determines that there is not a significant likelihood of a regulated substances accident risk, to do one of two things, including requiring the stationary source to prepare and submit a risk management plan, as provided. This bill would revise these and related provisions to explicitly refer to an administering agency instead as a UPA. The bill would repeal the authorization to require a stationary source to prepare and submit a risk management plan under those circumstances, and would instead authorize a UPA to exempt the stationary source from certain requirements, including the preparation of a risk management plan. The bill would authorize a UPA to revoke that exemption at any time if it determines that there is a significant likelihood of a regulated substance accident risk. The bill would require a person or stationary source with one or more processes at or above the threshold quantity of specified regulated substances to comply with specified provisions and submit a risk management plan to the UPA before the date that the regulated substance is first present in a process above the listed threshold quantity. The bill would make other conforming changes. (3) Existing law requires a business that handles a hazardous material and that meets any of specified conditions to establish and implement a business plan for a response to a release or threatened release of the hazardous material. Existing law requires a business plan to contain certain information, including a site map that contains specified elements. This bill would require some of the elements, as provided, to be included on the site map only if they are present. (4) Because the bill would make changes to provisions enforced by unified program agencies, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires the governing board of a 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. Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to provide for a comprehensive educational counseling program for all pupils enrolled in the school district. This bill would establish the California Student Success Coach Grant Program to award competitive grants to local- and state-operated AmeriCorps programs to support and expand the presence of student success coaches, as defined, in high-need schools, as defined. The bill would make implementation of the grant program contingent on an appropriation being made for its purposes by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
Existing law provides for 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 also establishes the Family Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment (Family PACT) Program, administered by the Office of Family Planning within the department, under which comprehensive clinical family planning services are provided to a person who has a family income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, and who is eligible to receive these services. Existing law provides that comprehensive clinical family planning services under the program includes preconception counseling, maternal and fetal health counseling, and general reproductive health care, among other things. This bill would expand comprehensive clinical family planning services under the program to include the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for persons of reproductive age.
This measure would designate the week of February 24, 2020, to March 1, 2020, as Eating Disorders Awareness Week.