Asm. Phillip Chen

This measure would designate the month of January 2018 as Gang Awareness and Prevention Month in the State of California and would encourage cities and constituents across the state to observe the month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities to prevent future gang activity and honor those who lost their lives due to gang activity.

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.

Existing law gives the Department of Transportation full possession and control of all state highways. Existing law describes the authorized routes in the state highway system by route numbers and provides that the route numbers are those given to the routes by the California Transportation Commission. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the latter provision.

Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires the legislative body of each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city and of any land outside its boundaries that bears relation to its planning. That law further requires the planning agency overseeing a general plan to render a report as to conformity with the adopted general plan before, among other things, the acquisition or disposition of real property or the construction or authorization of a public building or structure impacting the general plan. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.

Existing law authorizes persons employed as investigators of an auditor-controller or director of finance of any county or persons employed by a city and county who conduct investigations under the supervision of the controller of the city and county, as specified, to serve warrants and access criminal history information. Existing law authorizes specified persons to inspect a juvenile case file. This bill would permit these investigators to inspect and copy juvenile case files when conducting an investigation within the scope of their duties if it is reasonably believed that the information contained in the juvenile case file may be relevant to an investigation of waste, fraud, or abuse, as specified.

Existing law provides that an employer is not in violation of specified orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission if he or she charges, pursuant to a voluntary written agreement, a resident apartment manager up to 23 of the fair market rental value of the apartment supplied to the manager, if the rental value is not applied to satisfy the employer's minimum wage obligation to the manager. This bill would extend the exemption from those orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission to an employer who does not charge the resident apartment manager any rent and, pursuant to a voluntary written agreement, applies up to 2 3 "?> ½ of the fair market rental value of the apartment to meet his or her minimum wage obligations to the manager.

Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to submit to the Governor, the Legislature, and the State Board of Education a report on pupil dropouts in California, as provided. Existing law requires the Superintendent to submit this report on or before August 1, 2011, and annually thereafter. This bill would instead require the Superintendent to submit the report annually, on or before September 1.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district to accept interdistrict transfers of pupils in accordance with a policy adopted by resolution, and sets forth various requirements in that regard, including, among other things, requirements relating to attendance priorities, applications for transfer, and the calculation of average daily attendance. Existing law requires certain information in connection with interdistrict transfers to be reported to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Department of Finance, and requires the Department of Finance to report specified information to the Legislative Analyst, upon request. Existing law makes those provisions inoperative on July 1, 2017, and repeals them on January 1, 2018. This bill would extend those inoperative and repeal dates to July 1, 2022, and January 1, 2023, respectively.