Asm. Miguel Santiago

This measure would designate a portion of State Route 119, between E Kern Street, postmile 0.34, and Cedar Street, postmile 1.300, in the County of Kern as the Corporal Luis Carlos Ruan Memorial Highway. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.

Existing law prescribes various protections for employees and generally charges the Labor Commissioner with the enforcement of labor laws. Existing law establishes the powers and responsibilities of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health and the Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement, which are within the Department of Industrial Relations. This bill would enact the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act or FAST Recovery Act. The bill would establish, until January 1, 2029, the Fast Food Council (council) within the Department of Industrial Relations, to be composed of 10 members to be appointed by the Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Senate Rules Committee, and would prescribe its powers. The purpose of the council would be to establish sectorwide minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other working conditions related to the health, safety, and welfare of, and supplying the necessary cost of proper living to, fast food restaurant workers, as well as effecting interagency coordination and prompt agency responses in this regard. The bill would define the characteristics of a fast food restaurant, including that the establishment be part of a set of fast food restaurants consisting of 100 or more establishments nationally that share a common brand, or that are characterized by standardized options for decor, marketing, packaging, products, and services. This bill would require the council to promulgate minimum fast food restaurant employment standards, including standards on wages, working conditions, and training, and to issue, amend, and repeal any other rules and regulations, as necessary to carry out its duties, subject to a petition signed by 10,000 fast food restaurant employees approving the creation of the council, as specified. Under the bill, if a conflict exists between council's standards, rules, or regulations and those issued by another state agency, the standards, rules, or regulations issued by the council would apply to fast food restaurant workers and fast food restaurant franchisees and franchisors, and the conflicting rules or regulations of the other state agency would not have force or effect with respect to these parties. The bill would except from this application proposed standards within the jurisdiction of the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board and would prescribe a process for the council to petition the board to adopt, amend, or repeal a standard. This bill would require the council to submit a report to the Legislature, as specified, for a standard, or repeal or amendment of a standard, to become effective, and would specify that a standard, repeal, or amendment shall not take effect before October 15 of the same year. The bill would also require the council to provide information as requested by the appropriate committees of the Legislature on labor to facilitate a review of the council's performance and standards, as specified. This bill would require the council to conduct a full review of the adequacy of minimum fast food restaurant health, safety, and employment standards at least once every 3 years. The bill would require the council, following that review, to issue, amend, or repeal, or make recommendations to issue, amend, or repeal, any fast food employment, health or safety standard applicable to fast food restaurants, as appropriate. The bill would require the council to hold meetings or hearings no less than every 6 months that would be open to the public, as specified, and would authorize the council to coordinate with and authorize local agencies to hold such meetings. The bill would authorize a county, or a city with a population greater than 200,000, to establish a Local Fast Food Council, and would prescribe its powers and requirements for its composition. The bill would authorize a Local Fast Food Council to provide recommendations to the council. This bill would require standards for minimum wages, maximum hours of work, and other working conditions fixed by the council to be the minimum standards for fast food restaurant employees, absent a valid collective bargaining agreement, as specified, and would require that they be enforced by the commissioner, as specified, and the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. By expanding the application of crimes associated with those enforcement procedures, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner and the commissioner's deputies to take assignments of violations of standards issued by the council upon the filing of a claim in writing by an employee or an employee's authorized representative. This bill would prohibit a fast food restaurant operator from discharging or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against any fast food restaurant employee for specified reasons and would create a cause of action and right to reinstatement for employees in this connection, as well as a presumption of unlawful discrimination and retaliation in certain circumstances. 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 establishes the Classified School and Community College Employee Summer Assistance Programs. Existing law authorizes local educational agencies and community college districts to elect to participate in the applicable program, and authorizes a classified employee of a participating local educational agency or community college district who meets specified requirements to withhold an amount from the employee's monthly paycheck during the academic school year to be paid out during the summer recess period, as provided. Existing law authorizes a classified employee to be eligible to participate in the applicable program if the classified employee is employed by the local educational agency or community college district in the employee's regular assignment for 11 months or fewer out of a 12-month period. For certain school years, for purposes of determining a classified employee's total months employed by the local educational agency or community college district, existing law requires the employing local educational agency or community college district to exclude any hours worked by the classified employee as a result of an extension of the academic school year directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as provided. This bill would define "month," for purposes of these provisions, as 20 days or 4 weeks of 5 days each, including legal holidays. The bill would extend, for the 2023–24 and 2024–25 school years, the exclusion of hours worked by the classified employee of a local educational agency as a result of an extension of the academic school year directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Existing law generally designates air pollution control and air quality management districts with the primary responsibility for the control of air pollution from all sources other than vehicular sources. Existing law establishes maximum civil penalties for any person for violations of air pollution laws from nonvehicular sources. A person who violates these laws and who acts negligently is liable for a civil penalty in a greater amount, as specified. Existing law annually adjusts the maximum penalties for violations of these laws based on the California Consumer Price Index. This bill would increase the maximum amount of those civil penalties and would subject those maximum amounts to the annual adjustment based on the California Consumer Price Index, as specified. This bill would also require any moneys, above the costs of prosecution and other specified costs, collected from penalties assessed by specified air pollution control districts and air quality management districts in excess of $10,000 for violations of air pollution control laws from nonvehicular sources that occurred in disadvantaged communities to be used to mitigate air pollution in the community or communities affected by the violation.

Existing law, the California Values Act, prohibits a California law enforcement agency from providing a person's release date, or responding to a request for notification of a release date, unless that information is available to the public, and prohibits the transfer of an individual to immigration authorities, as specified, unless the person has been convicted of specified crimes or arrested for a serious or violent felony. This bill would prohibit any state or local agency from arresting or assisting with the arrest, confinement, detention, transfer, interrogation, or deportation of an individual for an immigration enforcement purpose, except as specified. The bill would additionally prohibit state or local agencies or courts from using immigration status as a factor to deny or to recommend denial of probation or participation in any diversion, rehabilitation, mental health program, or placement in a credit-earning program or class, or to determine custodial classification level, to deny mandatory supervision, or to lengthen the portion of supervision served in custody. The bill would authorize a person to bring an action for equitable or declaratory relief in a court of competent jurisdiction against a state or local agency or state or local official that violates these provisions, and would make those agencies or officials liable for actual and general damages and reasonable attorney's fees. Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to implement and maintain procedures to identify inmates serving terms in state prison who are undocumented felons subject to deportation. Existing law requires the department to annually report to the Legislature the number of persons identified as undocumented aliens, as specified. This bill would repeal those provisions. Existing law requires all basic information stored in state or local criminal offender record information systems to be recorded in the form of specified standard data elements, including, among other things, place of birth. This bill would no longer require that information to include place of birth.

Existing law establishes the California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) Grant Program, administered by the Board of State and Community Corrections, to award competitive grants for the purpose of violence intervention and prevention. Existing law imposes various taxes, including taxes on the privilege of engaging in certain activities. The Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime, provides procedures for the collection of certain fees and surcharges. This bill, the Gun Violence Prevention, Healing, and Recovery Act, would, commencing July 1, 2023, impose an excise tax in the amount of 10% of the gross receipts from the retail sale in this state of a handgun and 11% of the gross receipts from the retail sale in this state of a long gun, rifle, firearm precursor part, and ammunition, as specified. The tax would be collected by the state pursuant to the Fee Collection Procedures Law. The bill would require that the revenues collected be deposited in the Gun Violence Prevention, Healing, and Recovery Fund, which the bill would establish in the State Treasury. The bill would require that 12 of the moneys received in the fund be used to fund gun violence prevention programs, gun violence prevention education, and gun violence prevention research, upon appropriation by the Legislature, and would continuously appropriate the other 12 of the moneys received in the fund to the Board of State and Community Corrections for the CalVIP Grant Program, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require the Director of Finance to transfer, as a loan, $2,400,000 from the General Fund to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to implement these provisions, as specified. This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIII A of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature. Because this bill would expand the scope of the Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law, the Ralph C. Dills Act (Dills Act) , governs collective bargaining between the state and recognized state public employee organizations. Existing law excludes certain employees from coverage under the Dills Act, including, among others, managerial employees, supervisory employees, and confidential employees, as defined. Existing law creates the Public Employment Relations Board and authorizes it, among other things, to determine appropriate state employee bargaining units, as specified. This bill would enact the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act, to provide employees of the Legislature the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations. The bill would prescribe rights, duties, and prohibitions in this context that parallel those in the Dills Act. The bill would prohibit the Public Employment Relations Board from including employees of the Legislature in a bargaining unit that includes employees other than those of the Legislature. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for any person to willfully resist, prevent, impede, or interfere with any member of the board, or any of its agents, in the performance of duties pursuant to its provisions. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that the provisions of the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act are severable. The bill would become operative on July 1, 2024. 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, for every year that the Breeders' Cup World Championship series is conducted at a race meeting in California, that specified amounts that would have otherwise been distributed to a purse account be made available to the organization operating the series for the purpose of promoting and supporting the Breeders' Cup World Championship. This bill would instead require these amounts to be available to the thoroughbred racing association hosting the Breeders' Cup World Championship as well as to the organization operating the series. Existing law requires the thoroughbred racing association hosting the Breeders' Cup World Championship to enter into a written agreement, in consultation and cooperation with the California Tourism Commission and a specified statewide marketing organization, with the organization that operates the Breeders' Cup World Championship regarding the manner in which funds set aside to support and promote the Breeders' Cup World Championship are to be expended. This bill would delete the requirement for participation of the specified statewide marketing organization in this agreement.

Existing law makes it a crime for the owner or keeper of any animal to permit an animal to be in any enclosure without proper care and attention, or to abuse or neglect an animal, as specified. This bill would enact the Dog and Cat Bill of Rights, and would require every public animal control agency or shelter, society for the prevention of cruelty to animals shelter, humane society shelter, or rescue group in the state to make a copy of the notice, as specified, available through at least one of the methods specified, including, among others, that the notice is posted on the facility's website in a clear and conspicuous manner. The bill would, commencing on January 1, 2024, impose a civil penalty for failure to post the notice, as specified. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations in support of the Dog and Cat Bill of Rights. The bill would also authorize the Attorney General, or the district attorney or city attorney in whose jurisdiction the violation is alleged to have occurred to bring a civil action to enforce the violation.

This measure would celebrate the history and culture of cruising and encourage local officials and law enforcement to work with local car clubs to conduct safe cruising events.