Existing law generally protects employees who disclose illegal or improper workplace activities by prohibiting interference with, and retaliation for, making such disclosures. Existing law provides procedures for a person to file a complaint alleging violations of legislative ethics. Existing law also authorizes each house of the Legislature to adopt rules for its proceedings and to select committees necessary for the conduct of its business. This bill would impose criminal and civil liability on a Member of the Legislature or legislative employee, as defined, who interferes with, or retaliates against, a legislative employee's exercise of the right to make a protected disclosure, which is defined as a good faith allegation made by a legislative employee to specified entities that a Member of the Legislature or a legislative employee has engaged in, or will engage in, activity that may constitute a violation of law, including sexual harassment, or a violation of a legislative standard of conduct. The bill would also impose civil liability on an entity that interferes with, or retaliates against, a legislative employee's exercise of the right to make a protected disclosure, as specified. By creating new crimes, 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Sponsored bills
The California Emergency Services Act establishes the Office of Emergency Services and provides that the office is responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services and serves as the State Disaster Council for the purposes of the California Disaster and Civil Defense Master Mutual Aid Agreement. The act authorizes state agencies to provide mutual aid, including personnel, equipment, and other available resources, to assist political subdivisions during a local emergency or in accordance with mutual aid agreements or at the direction of the Governor. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation relating to the inclusion of all California federally recognized tribes in California's emergency services and disaster preparedness agreements, including, but not limited to, state mutual aid agreements.
Existing law requires the Attorney General to establish and maintain the Violent Crime Information Center to assist in the identification and the apprehension of persons responsible for specific violent crimes and for the disappearance and exploitation of persons, particularly children and at-risk adults. This bill would require the Attorney General to establish and maintain within the center a Voluntary Online At-Risk Community Network for purposes of providing information to first responders in order to prevent harmful interactions between first responders and seniors or persons with disabilities, as defined. The bill would prescribe the information that a senior, a person with a disability, a person with a limited conservatorship of a person with a developmental or intellectual disability, as specified, or a parent or legal guardian of a minor child with a disability may voluntarily provide to the Attorney General for inclusion in the network, and prescribe how the network would be developed and communicated to the public, as specified. The bill would prohibit a conservator from submitting information on behalf of a conservatee if the conservatee directs the conservator not to submit information. The bill would require specified first responders to broadcast a "Be on the Lookout" bulletin within its jurisdiction under circumstances upon which a person in the network is missing or needs assistance. By imposing new duties on local entities under various provisions of the bill, the bill would create 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law, as amended by Proposition 21 as approved by the voters at the March 7, 2000, statewide primary election and by Proposition 83 at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, classifies certain felonies as violent felonies for purposes of various sentencing schemes. Existing law imposes an additional one-year term for a felony and a 3-year term for a violent felony for each prior separate prison term served for a violent felony. The Legislature may amend the above-specified initiative statutes by a statute passed in each house by a23 vote. This bill would additionally define human sex trafficking as a violent felony and expand the scope of sodomy, oral copulation, sexual penetration, and rape offenses that are categorized as violent felonies, including if the victim was unconscious, if the victim was incapable of giving consent due to intoxication, if the victim was incapable of giving legal consent because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, if the victim submitted to the act under the belief that the person committing the act was someone known to the victim other than the accused, or if the act was accomplished against the victim's will by threatening to use the authority of a public official. By changing the sentence 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
(1) Existing law establishes the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program as a state education, economic, and workforce development initiative with the goal of providing pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, with the knowledge and skills necessary to transition to employment and postsecondary education. Existing law appropriates $200,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for purposes of this grant program for the 2017–18 fiscal year. Existing law requires applicants for grants under the program to demonstrate that they have local matching funds, as specified. Existing law specifies that no applicant may receive a renewal grant under the program for the 2018–19 fiscal year. This bill would change the name of the program to the California Career Technical Education Grant Program. The bill would increase to $300,000,000 the General Fund appropriation to the State Department of Education for this program for the 2017–18 fiscal year, and would further provide for an appropriation to the department in this amount for the 2018–19, 2019–20, and 2020–21 fiscal years. The bill would lower the amount of local matching funds required of an applicant from $1.50 for every dollar received to $1 for every dollar received, for the 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, and 2020–21 fiscal years. The bill would also provide that an applicant receiving a grant from this program in the 2017–18, 2018–19, or 2019–20 fiscal year would be eligible for a renewal grant in the next fiscal year if that applicant demonstrates continued compliance with program requirements. (2) The funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.
Existing law specifies the number of judges for the superior court of each county. Existing law allocates additional judgeships to the various counties in accordance with uniform standards for factually determining additional judicial need in each county, as updated and approved by the Judicial Council, pursuant to the Update of Judicial Needs Study, based on specified criteria, including, among others, workload standards that represent the average amount of time of bench and nonbench work required to resolve each case type. This bill would require the suspension of 4 vacant judgeships, as defined, in superior courts with more authorized judgeships than their assessed judicial need. The bill would require the allocation of 4 judgeships to superior courts with fewer authorized judgeships than their assessed judicial need and would require the judgeships to be funded using existing appropriations for the compensation of superior court judges. The bill would require the suspension to be in accordance with a methodology approved by the Judicial Council, as specified, and would require the determination of a superior court's assessed judicial need to be in accordance with the above uniform standards and be based on the criteria described above. The bill would require the Judicial Council, if a vacant judgeship is eligible for suspension, to promptly notify the applicable courts, the Legislature, and the Governor that the judgeship will be suspended, subject to approval by the Governor. This bill would also make a statement of legislative intent regarding the authority of the Legislature, the Governor, and the Chief Justice of California.
Under existing law, everyone is generally responsible, not only for the result of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person. Existing law exempts from civil liability any person who, in good faith and not for compensation, renders emergency medical or nonmedical care or assistance at the scene of an emergency other than an act or omission constituting gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct. Existing law exempts public or private organizations that sponsor, authorize, support, finance, or supervise the training of people, or certifies those people in emergency medical services, from liability for civil damages alleged to result from those training programs. This bill would define "trauma kit" to mean a first aid response kit that contains specified items, including, among other things, at least 2 tourniquets. The bill would require a person or entity that supplies a trauma kit to provide the person or entity that acquires the trauma kit with all information governing the use, installation, operation, training, and maintenance of the trauma kit. The bill would apply the provisions governing civil liability described above to a lay rescuer or person who renders emergency care or treatment by the use of a trauma kit and to a person or entity that provides training in the use of a trauma kit to provide emergency medical treatment, or certifies certain persons in the use of a trauma kit. Existing law requires certain occupied structures that are not owned or operated by any local government entity and are constructed on or after January 1, 2017, to have an automated external defibrillator on the premises. This bill would require the State Fire Marshal, the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the California Building Standards Commission to research and collect public input, as specified, between January 1, 2018, and January 1, 2020, for the purpose of determining if mandatory or voluntary building standards should be adopted regarding the placement of trauma kits in a public building constructed, or a public building that has any addition, significant repair, or alteration completed, on or after January 1, 2018. The bill would require an entity responsible for managing the building, facility, and tenants of an occupied structure in which a trauma kit is placed to comply with certain requirements, such as periodically inspecting and replacing the contents of a trauma kit, restocking the trauma kit after each use, and notifying tenants of the building or structure of the location of the trauma kit. The bill would exempt a person or entity that acquires and places a trauma kit for emergency care from liability for civil damages resulting from any acts or omissions in the rendering of emergency care if those requirements have been met.
Existing law creates the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority for the purpose of awarding and overseeing all design and construction contracts for completion of the Los Angeles-Pasadena Foothill Extension Gold Line light rail project, and identifies the City of Montclair, which is in the County of Bernardino, as an "extension city." This bill would appropriate $30,000,000 from the General Fund to the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority for the purpose of funding the project extension to the City of Montclair.