Asm. Cristina Garcia

Existing law prohibits a person owning or in control of a property from allowing a tree or shrub to be placed or to grow on the property subsequent to the installation of a solar collector on the property of another, if the tree or shrub casts a shadow of a specified size on the collector absorption area during specified times. Existing law authorizes the owner of a property where the solar collector is to be installed to provide, prior to its installation, a written notice by certified mail containing specified information to owners of affected property. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the provision authorizing a property owner to provide the written notice.

(1) The Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Social Services, establishes a system of childcare and development services for children up to 13 years of age. Existing law requires the department to contract with local contracting agencies for alternative payment programs for childcare services to be provided throughout the state. Existing law requires the alternative payment program to reimburse childcare providers based upon specified criteria, including the actual days and hours of attendance for those families with variable schedules. This bill would instead require the alternative payment program to reimburse childcare providers based upon the maximum certified hours of need, as documented. (2) The act requires an alternative payment program to verify childcare provider rates no less frequently than once a year. The act requires the department to develop regulations for addressing discrepancies in the childcare provider rate levels identified through the rate verification process described above. This bill would delete these provisions. (3) The act authorizes a contractor to retain a reserve fund balance for alternative payment model and certificate childcare contracts, as provided. The act prohibits these funds from exceeding either 2% of the sum of the parts of each contract, as provided, or $1,000, whichever is greater. This bill would instead prohibit the funds from exceeding either 15% of the sum of the parts of each contract, as provided, or $1,000, whichever is greater. (4) Existing law, the Early Education Act, requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to, among other things, provide an inclusive and cost-effective preschool program. The Early Education Act and the Child Care and Development Services Act authorize alternative payment programs and providers operating or providing services under the acts to use digital signatures that comply with state and federal standards and authorize the use of digital forms to allow families to apply for services. This bill would instead authorize the use of electronic signatures and forms.

Existing law, the Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, grants agricultural employees the right to form and join labor organizations and engage in collective bargaining with respect to wages, terms of employment, and other employment conditions, and authorizes employees to elect exclusive bargaining representatives for these purposes. Existing law requires the Agricultural Labor Relations Board to certify the results of an election conducted by secret ballot of employees in a collective bargaining unit to designate a collective bargaining representative, unless the board determines there are sufficient grounds to refuse to do so. Existing law further provides that if the board refuses to certify an election because of employer misconduct that would render slight the chances of a new election reflecting the free and fair choice of employees, the labor organization shall be certified as the bargaining representative for the bargaining unit. This bill would refer to the secret ballot election as a polling place election. This bill would also permit agricultural employees, as an alternative election procedure, to select their labor representatives through a representation ballot card election by submitting a petition to the board supported by representation ballot cards signed by a majority of employees in the bargaining unit. This bill would require the board to conduct an immediate investigation regarding the validity of the petition and the supporting representation ballot cards and, within 5 days after receiving a petition, to make an administrative decision as to whether the petition meets certain requirements and as to whether the labor organization submitted the requisite number of cards. The bill would require the board to certify the labor organization as the exclusive bargaining representative if the board determines that the labor organization has submitted the required number of representation ballot cards and the cards meet specified criteria. Existing law authorizes a person aggrieved by the final order of the board granting or denying in whole or in part the relief sought for an unfair labor practice, to obtain a review of the order in a specified court of appeal by filing in the court a written petition requesting that the order of the board be modified or set aside. This bill would require an employer who appeals or petitions for a writ of review of any order of the board involving make-whole, backpay, or other monetary awards to employees, to post an appeal bond in the amount of the entire economic value of the order, as specified, and would provide for the bond to be forfeited under specified conditions. This bill would state that its provisions are severable.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the department to provide presumptive Medi-Cal eligibility to pregnant women and children. Existing law authorizes a qualified hospital to make presumptive eligibility determinations if it complies with specified requirements. Existing law authorizes the department, on a regional pilot project basis, to issue an identification card to a person who is eligible for Medi-Cal program benefits, but does not possess a valid California driver's license or identification card issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Existing law requires the department, in consultation with the board governing the California Health Benefit Exchange, to develop a single paper, electronic, and telephone application for insurance affordability programs, including Medi-Cal. This bill would require the department to implement a program of presumptive eligibility for persons experiencing homelessness, under which a person would receive full-scope Medi-Cal benefits without a share of cost. The bill would require the department to authorize an enrolled Medi-Cal provider to issue a temporary Medi-Cal benefits identification card to a person experiencing homelessness, and would prohibit the department from requiring a person experiencing homelessness to present a valid California driver's license or identification card issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles to receive Medi-Cal services if the provider verifies the person's eligibility. This bill would authorize an enrolled Medi-Cal provider to make a presumptive eligibility determination for a person experiencing homelessness. The bill would require the department to reimburse an enrolled Medi-Cal provider who bills the Medi-Cal program for Medi-Cal services provided off the premises to a person experiencing homelessness, as specified. The bill would require a Medi-Cal managed care plan to allow a beneficiary to seek those services and to reimburse a provider for providing those services, but would authorize a Medi-Cal managed care plan to establish reasonable requirements governing network participation. The bill would require a Medi-Cal managed care plan to reimburse a participating Medi-Cal provider providing covered services, without requiring the provider to obtain prior approval, as specified. The bill would authorize an enrolled Medi-Cal provider to refer a Medi-Cal beneficiary who is experiencing homelessness for specialist care and diagnostics. The bill would require the department to seek any necessary federal approvals to implement the above provisions, and would condition their implementation on receipt of those federal approvals and the availability of federal financial participation. The bill would require the insurance affordability program's application to include information collection means for the applicant to indicate if they are experiencing homelessness at the time of application. If Medi-Cal covered health care services covered by a Medi-Cal managed care plan are not provided within the first 60 calendar days of enrollment to a Medi-Cal beneficiary who has indicated that they are a person experiencing homelessness at the time of application, the bill would require the department to deduct the capitation payments made by the department to the plan from subsequent payments due to the plan for the time period from when the person was initially enrolled into a plan until the first receipt of plan-covered services. If a person experiencing homelessness who is assigned a primary care provider (PCP) receives services by another provider off the premises of the assigned PCP, the bill would require the department or the Medi-Cal managed care plan to notify the assigned PCP that their patient was seen by another provider.

The California Constitution prohibits the state, including any political subdivision or government instrumentality of or within the state, from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting. Existing law establishes in state government various commissions and committees, including, among others, the California Commission on Disability Access, the Healthy California for All Commission, the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, and the Committee on Revision of the Penal Code to study and recommend reforms on certain topics, including issues related to equality and justice. This bill would establish in state government the California Commission on Human Rights, as an advisory commission, and would require it to, among other things, identify and evaluate California's successes and failures in protecting human rights of individuals living within the state, determine statutory, regulatory, or budgetary solutions to better protect human rights, and report, at least annually, on the status of human rights to the Legislature and the Governor with statutory and regulatory recommendations. The bill would require the commission to consist of 17 members, including, among others, Members of the Assembly and the Senate. The bill would also create the California Commission on Human Rights Fund in the General Fund to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, carry out these provisions and support the commission. The bill would make related findings and declarations. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2027.

Existing law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, requires, with specified exceptions, that all meetings of a legislative body of a local agency, as those terms are defined, be open and public and that all persons be permitted to attend and participate. Under existing law, a member of the legislative body who attends a meeting where action is taken in violation of this provision, with the intent to deprive the public of information that the member knows the public is entitled to, is guilty of a crime. This bill would require local agencies to conduct meetings subject to the act consistent with applicable state and federal civil rights laws, as specified. This bill would, until December 31, 2023, require all open and public meetings of a city council or a county board of supervisors that governs a jurisdiction containing least 250,000 people to include an opportunity for members of the public to attend via a two-way telephonic option or a two-way internet-based service option, as specified, and would require a city council or county board of supervisors that has, as of June 15, 2021, provided video streaming, as defined, of at least one of its meetings to continue to provide that video streaming. The bill would require all open and public meetings to include an in-person public comment opportunity, except in specified circumstances during a declared state or local emergency. The bill would require all meetings to provide the public with an opportunity to comment on proposed legislation in person and remotely via a telephonic or an internet-based service option, as provided. By imposing new duties on local governments and expanding the application of a crime with respect to meetings, 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 specified reasons. The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities and counties, including charter cities and counties. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 54953 of the Government Code proposed by AB 361 to be operative only if this bill and AB 361 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

Existing law, the Small Business Financial Assistance Act of 2013, requires the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank to administer the Small Business Finance Center, which administers programs that assist businesses seeking new capital resources, including, but not limited to, the Small Business Loan Guarantee Program. Existing law establishes the Small Business Expansion Fund and requires, among other things, that the fund provide guarantees to loans offered by financial institutions and financial companies, as those terms are defined, to small businesses, as provided. Existing law, the California Pollution Control Financing Authority Act, establishes the California Pollution Control Financing Authority, with specified powers and duties, and authorizes the authority to approve financing for projects or pollution control facilities to prevent or reduce environmental pollution. This bill would enact the Equity in Lending and Fair Recovery Act to require the California Pollution Control Financing Authority to establish and administer the Equity in Lending and Fair Recovery Program, in accordance with specified requirements, for the purpose of supporting and expanding eligible lender access to lending capital and borrower access to responsible installment loans for low- to moderate-income individuals and communities. The bill would require the program to provide partial loan guarantees and other credit enhancements for eligible lenders, as defined, to access additional capital to expand the availability of eligible loans, as defined. This bill would, among other things, require the authority to require that participating eligible lenders pay premiums, fees, and interest sufficient to cover the reasonable administrative costs of the program and manage the risk of defaults associated with the program. The bill would require that these premiums, fees, and interest payments be deposited into the Equity in Lending and Fair Recovery Fund, which this bill would establish as a continuously appropriated fund, thereby making an appropriation. This bill would authorize the authority to establish and operate a program to provide grants to support minority-owned small businesses, as defined, allocated through a competitive application process in accordance with specified requirements. The bill would make moneys in the fund available for these grants only to the extent that there are sufficient moneys in the fund for purposes of this bill's provisions. The bill would require the authority to charge an application fee to each grantee under this program, in an amount sufficient to cover the reasonable costs of the authority in administering that program. This bill would appropriate $25,000,000 to the authority for deposit into the fund, to be used for initial startup costs relating to the establishment and operation of the Equity in Lending and Fair Recovery Program.

(1) Existing law defines the crime of rape as an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a person who is not the spouse of the perpetrator under specified circumstances. Existing law separately defines the crime of rape of a person who is the spouse of the perpetrator as an act of sexual intercourse under specified circumstances. Under existing law, an act of sexual intercourse in which a person is unconscious of the nature of the act because of the perpetrator's fraudulent representation that the sexual penetration served a professional purpose or in which a person submits under the belief that the person committing the act is someone known to the victim other than the accused both constitute rape, but do not constitute spousal rape. This bill would expand the definition of the crime of rape to include those acts when accomplished with a person who is a spouse of the perpetrator and would repeal the crime of spousal rape. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law requires persons convicted of specified sex offenses to register with local law enforcement agencies while residing in the state or while attending school or working in the state. Willful failure to register is a crime. Existing law requires a person convicted of rape to register as a sex offender. Existing law requires a person convicted of spousal rape to register only if the act involved the use of force or violence for which the person was sentenced to state prison. This bill would require a person convicted of rape of a person who is the perpetrator's spouse to register as a sex offender under all circumstances defining rape. By imposing additional duties on local authorities, and by requiring additional persons to be registered as sex offenders, who, if they fail to do so commit a crime, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law allows a defendant to plea bargain in response to an accusatory pleading charging a felony, except that certain crimes are excluded, including rape of an unconscious person who is not the spouse of the perpetrator. This bill would make this exception to the general authorization to plea bargain applicable to the rape of an unconscious person who is the spouse of the perpetrator. (4) The bill would make numerous conforming changes. (5) 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.