Existing law requires the governing board of each school district and county board of education to adopt a local control and accountability plan and to update its respective local control and accountability plan before July 1 of each year. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district, before considering the adoption of a plan or an annual update to the plan in a public meeting, to consult with specified persons in developing the plan, present the plan or annual update to the plan to specified committees, and hold a public hearing, as specified. This bill would require a school district to present the plan or annual update to the plan to schoolsite councils, as described, and would require a majority of schoolsite councils to vote to approve the plan or annual update to the plan before it is considered for adoption by the governing board of the school district. By imposing new duties on school districts, the bill would constitute 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.
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The California Emergency Services Act, among other things, establishes the Office of Emergency Services for the purpose of mitigating the effects of natural, man-made, or war-caused emergencies and makes findings and declarations relating to ensuring that preparation within the state will be adequate to deal with those emergencies. Existing law requires the Office of Emergency Services to complete an after-action report within 180 days after each declared disaster, as specified. This bill would require the Office of Emergency Services, on or before September 30, 2021, to review, and make recommendations to the Legislature and the California congressional delegation on, how to enhance the effectiveness of the Strategic National Stockpile, the federal Defense Production Act of 1950, the California stockpile of personal protection equipment, and the procurement of personal protective equipment as part of its COVID-19 Pandemic after- action report. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The California Emergency Services Act authorizes the Governor to declare a state of emergency, and local officials and local governments to declare a local emergency, when specified conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist. Existing law establishes the Office of Emergency Services within the office of the Governor and charges it with responsibility for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or manmade disasters and emergencies, including responsibility for activities necessary to prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of emergencies and disasters upon people and property. Existing law requires the Office of Emergency Services, in consultation with, at minimum, telecommunications carriers, the California cable and broadband industry, radio and television broadcasters, the California State Association of Counties, the League of California Cities, the disability community, appropriate federal agencies, and the Standardized Emergency Management System Alert and Warning Specialist Committee, to develop guidelines for alerting and warning the public of an emergency. This bill would require the office to establish a statewide emergency alert system called California Alert. The bill would require California Alert to utilize Wireless Emergency Alerts authorized by the Integrated Public Alert Warning System, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's national system for local alerting that provides authenticated emergency information to the public through mobile phones within a designate cell tower's coverage area. The bill would require the office to contract with a private vendor that provides alerting systems to send California Alerts to registered phone numbers that are not location based. The bill would require the office to establish standards for issuing emergency alerts to California residents across local jurisdictional boundaries.
Existing law requires, on or before January 1, 2022, the State Department of Public Health and the Office of Emergency Services, in coordination with other state agencies, to establish a personal protective equipment (PPE) stockpile, upon appropriation and as necessary. Existing law further requires the department, informed by the recommendations of the Personal Protective Equipment Advisory Committee, to establish guidelines for its procurement, management, and distribution of PPE. This bill would authorize the department to rotate PPE in the stockpile by selling the PPE to a nonprofit agency, local government, or provider, and by contracting to purchase PPE on behalf of a local government or provider. The bill would require a nonprofit agency, local government, or provider that obtains PPE pursuant to these provisions to reimburse the department for the costs of the PPE. The bill would also make a technical change to the date in these provisions.
Existing law requires the Department of Technology to improve the governance and implementation of information technology by standardizing reporting relationships, roles, and responsibilities for setting information technology priorities. Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to develop, implement, and administer the California Advanced Services Fund program to encourage deployment of high-quality advanced communications services to all Californians. Existing law provides that the goal of the program is to, no later than December 31, 2022, approve funding for infrastructure projects that will provide broadband access to no less than 98% of California households, as provided. This bill would enact the Broadband for All Act of 2022, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $10,000,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to support the 2022 Broadband for All Program that would be administered by the department for purposes of providing financial assistance for projects to deploy broadband infrastructure and broadband internet access services. The bill would provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at the November 8, 2022, statewide general election.
Existing law, the California Disaster Assistance Act, which is administered by the Director of Emergency Services, provides for the allocation of funds to state and local agencies and to eligible private nonprofit organizations for specified purposes relating to disaster assistance and in accordance with specified requirements. Existing law establishes the Disaster Assistance Fund and continuously appropriates moneys in that fund for purposes of the California Disaster Assistance Act. This bill, no later than January 15, 2022, and annually thereafter, would require the Office of Emergency Services to submit a written report, containing specified information, to the Assembly Committee on Emergency Management, the Assembly Committee on Budget, the Senate Committee on Governmental Organization, and the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review that details the priority investments and expenditures of funds made available pursuant to the California Disaster Assistance Act, as provided. The bill would provide that moneys in the Disaster Assistance Fund would be available for expenditure for purposes of the report only upon appropriation. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Emergency Medical Services System and the Prehospital Emergency Medical Care Personnel Act establishes the Emergency Medical Services Authority. The act generally requires the authority to assess existing emergency medical services for the purpose of determining the need for additional emergency medical services, coordination of emergency medical services, and the effectiveness of emergency medical services. The act further requires the authority to develop, using input from stakeholders, including hospitals, local emergency medical services (EMS) agencies, and public and private EMS providers, and, after specified approval, to adopt, a statewide standard methodology for the calculation and reporting by a local EMS agency of ambulance patient offload time, as defined. This bill would require the Director of the Emergency Medical Services Authority to appoint and convene an advisory task force, and would further require the director to recommend a project plan for the advisory task force that includes an evaluation relating to ambulance patient offload delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as specified, and an evaluation of adopting technologies to allow EMS systems to better manage resources and improve response times. The bill would require the director to transmit the evaluations conducted by the advisory task force to the authority, in a manner that allows for their timely inclusion in an existing reporting requirement from the authority to the Commission on Emergency Medical Services, and to specified legislative committees. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, requires employers to provide an employee, who works in California for 30 or more days within a year from the commencement of employment, with paid sick days for prescribed purposes, to be accrued at a rate of no less than one hour for every 30 hours worked. Existing law authorizes an employer to limit an employee's use of paid sick days to 24 hours or 3 days in each year of employment. Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner, who is the Chief of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, with enforcement of various labor laws. This bill, the Health Care Workers Recognition and Retention Act, would require a covered employer, as defined, to pay hazard pay retention bonuses in the prescribed amounts on January 1, 2022, April 1, 2022, July 1, 2022, and October 1, 2022, to each covered health care worker, as defined, that it employs. The bill would provide that hazard pay retention bonuses are in addition to all other compensation due and are not part of the health care worker's regular rate of pay or compensation. The bill would make it a violation of these provisions for a covered employer to discharge, layoff, or reduce a covered health care worker's compensation or hours so as to prevent that worker from receiving hazard pay retention bonuses, as specified. The bill would authorize a covered employer to reduce the total sum of the hazard pay retention bonuses by an amount equal to qualifying hazard pay and qualifying monetary bonuses already paid to a covered health care worker during the state of emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as provided. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that the provisions regarding the discharge, layoff, or reduction in a covered health care worker's compensation or hours in order to avoid paying the bonuses as being a violation of these provisions be retroactively applied to March 1, 2021. The bill would make a covered employer who violates these provisions liable for wages, civil penalties, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs, as specified. The bill would also authorize the commissioner to issue a citation against a covered employer or other person acting on behalf of the health care provider who violates this part, in accordance with certain procedures. The bill would authorize a covered employer to seek a complete or partial exemption from the hazard pay retention bonus requirements based on an inability to pay. The bill would require the commissioner, for a private employer, to make a determination of whether to grant the exemption based on an affidavit from the covered private employer, submitted under penalty of perjury, in which the covered private employer would be required to declare that specified conditions are true and accurate. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also require the commissioner to require the covered employer to pay an amount, not to exceed the reasonable administrative costs, of determining whether the employer is entitled to the exemption. The bill would provide that a covered health care provider that obtains an exemption from the commissioner pursuant to this provision may be eligible to receive grant moneys from a Health Care Worker Recognition and Retention Fund or other fund created by the Legislature for the purpose of providing hazard pay or bonuses to health care workers, upon meeting the requirements for disbursements from that fund. The bill would include related legislative findings. The bill would make the act inoperative on December 31, 2023. 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 Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services, which are delivered through various delivery systems, including fee-for-service and managed care. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the department to implement managed mental health care for Medi-Cal beneficiaries through contracts with mental health plans. Under existing law, mental health plans are responsible for providing specialty mental health services to enrollees, and Medi-Cal managed care plans deliver nonspecialty mental health services to enrollees. Under existing law, emergency services and care, mental health benefits, substance use disorder benefits, and specialty mental health services are covered under the Medi-Cal program. This bill would specify that observation services for a psychiatric emergency medical condition, as defined, are covered under the Medi-Cal program, consistent with coverage under the above provisions and any other applicable law. Under the bill, the scope of coverage of those services would include facility services for observation services provided within the emergency department, or an onsite or offsite observation unit, as defined, of a general acute care hospital to a Medi-Cal beneficiary with a confirmed or suspected psychiatric emergency medical condition. Existing law imposes certain requirements on mental health plans and Medi-Cal managed care plans, including network adequacy standards and a requirement to enter into a memorandum of understanding if the 2 plans serve some of the same Medi-Cal recipients. This bill would require the applicable mental health plan and Medi-Cal managed care plan to notify each other within 24 hours from notification by a general acute care hospital of a Medi-Cal beneficiary with a condition as described above. The bill would require the memorandum of understanding to include a process to coordinate the provision of the above services, as specified. The bill would require disputes between a mental health plan and a Medi-Cal managed care plan, or between mental health plans, regarding the responsibility to pay for the charges for those services to be resolved pursuant to certain processes under existing law. The bill would require that the mental health plan be responsible for observation services for a psychiatric emergency medical condition. If those services are provided to a Medi-Cal fee-for-service beneficiary, the bill would require the department to reimburse the hospital using a specified formula. The bill would also exempt from the observation services billing requirements for emergency psychiatric services a hospital campus with a psychiatric observation unit that has been designated as a crisis stabilization unit by a mental health plan. The bill would, for purposes of meeting certain network adequacy standards under existing law, require agreements between a mental health plan and a general acute care hospital that is not licensed to provide inpatient psychiatric care to include provisions governing the coordination between the hospital and the plan for the provision of the above-described services. The bill would authorize the plan and the hospital to agree to rates of reimbursement other than the above-described fee-for-service rate. The bill would condition implementation of these provisions on any necessary federal approvals being obtained and the availability of federal financial participation. The bill would require the department to seek any necessary federal approvals for implementation of these provisions.
Existing law establishes the Office of Small Business Advocate within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development for the purpose of advocating for the causes of small business and to provide small businesses with the information they need to survive in the marketplace. This bill, the Keep California Working Act, would establish the Keep California Working Grant Program. The act would require the Small Business Advocate to administer the program and award grants, as specified, to small businesses and nonprofit entities that meet specified criteria, including that the entity has experienced economic hardship resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The act would specify that grant money awarded pursuant to the program may be used only for specified purposes, including payroll costs, health care benefits, paid sick, medical, or family leave, and insurance premiums. The act would appropriate $2.6 billion dollars to the Office of Small Business Advocate for those purposes. The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in conformity with federal income tax law, generally define "gross income" as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provide various exclusions from gross income. This bill would exclude from gross income, for state income tax purposes, the amount of a grant awarded pursuant to the Keep California Working Grant Program. Existing law requires a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. The bill also would include additional information required for a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.