Asm. Warren T Furutani

This measure would designate May 2012 as Foster Care Month in California.

This measure would designate the second full week in April as California Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.

This measure would designate April 18, 2012, as DMV/Donate Life California Day in the State of California, and April 2012 as DMV/Donate Life California Month in the State of California, and would encourage all Californians to be organ, tissue, and blood donors.

This measure would designate February 2012 as No Place for Hate (registered trademark) Month.

This measure would acknowledge the month of April 2012 as Child Abuse Prevention Month, and encourage the people of the State of California to work together to support youth-serving child abuse prevention activities in their communities and schools.

Existing law authorizes employees of public schools to form, join, and participate in the activities of an employee organization for the purpose of representation on matters of employer-employee relations, including terms and conditions of employment. Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Education, requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer child care and development programs that offer a full range of services for eligible children from infancy to 13 years of age. This bill would authorize family child care providers, as defined, to choose whether to be represented by a single provider organization, as defined, that would be designated pursuant to a specified petition and election process overseen by the Public Employment Relations Board or a neutral 3rd party designated by the board. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services and the State Department of Education, with assistance of specified state departments and agencies, and their contractors and subcontractors, to make specified information regarding individual family child care providers available to provider organizations and would require the provider organization requesting the information to bear the costs of collecting the information. The bill would authorize a certified provider organization to perform various functions, including meeting with state regulatory agencies and engaging in various types of negotiation on matters within a specified scope of representation with the Department of Personnel Administration, in consultation with the Superintendent of Public Instruction and other state agencies that administer programs of publicly funded child care. The bill would prohibit provider organizations from calling strikes and from interfering with, intimidating, restraining, coercing, or discriminating against a family child care provider because the family child care provider joins or refuses to join a provider organization. The state, as defined, also would be subject to the latter prohibition.

The State Teachers' Retirement System provides pension benefits based in part upon credited service. Existing law states that by accepting employment to perform creditable service, a member consents to make contributions for service and compensation. The Teachers' Retirement Law requires the employer to contribute monthly to the system 8% of the creditable compensation upon which members' contributions are based. The Teachers' Retirement Law requires portions of the employer contributions to be deposited in the Teachers' Retirement Fund and the Teachers' Health Benefits Fund. Existing law authorizes a limited amount from the employer contributions to also be deposited into the Teachers' Retirement Program Development Fund. This bill would make that deposit into the Teachers' Retirement Program Development Fund a required deposit.

Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to suspend, cancel, or revoke the registration of a vehicle upon notification by an insurance company that the required coverage has been canceled and the owner fails either to submit evidence of financial responsibility or establish that the vehicle is not being operated within 45 days. This bill would extend the period to submit evidence of financial responsibility or establish that the vehicle is not being operated from 45 days to 60 days.

Existing law, the Barbering and Cosmetology Act, establishes the State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology in the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law requires that, not later than September 1, 2005, the board conduct various studies, some in conjunction with the Office of Examination Resources and some in coordination with the Department of Industrial Relations, and to report the results to the department and to the Joint Committee on Boards, Commissions, and Consumer Protection in the Legislature. This bill would repeal the provisions regarding these reporting requirements.

This measure would call upon all Californians to observe César Chávez's birthday, March 31, as a day of public service, to recognize the hard work and self-sacrifice that farmworkers go through to feed all the families in our state, and to learn from César Chávez's life and his mission of nonviolence, social justice, and selfless service to others.