Asm. Autumn R. Burke

Existing law establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as GO-Biz, to serve as the Governor's lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth. The office, among other things, makes recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature regarding policies, programs, and actions to advance statewide economic and business development goals. This bill would establish the Business Workforce Coordination Unit in the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development to engage industry and business on alignment of career technical education courses, workforce training programs, and preapprenticeship and apprenticeship programs with regional and local labor market demand, as specified.

Existing law requires a local agency to make an inventory of all lands held, owned, or controlled by the local agency or any of its departments. Existing law authorizes a local agency, or any of its departments, to lease, sell, or grant real property found to be in excess of its foreseeable needs. This bill would require a city or a county with a population greater than 330,000, in coordination with other entities, as specified, to establish a safe parking program that provides safe parking locations and options for individuals and families living in their vehicles. The bill would require a safe parking program to provide a bathroom facility and onsite security, among other requirements. The bill would exempt a city or a county that has a specified safe parking program administered by a nongovernmental entity operating in its jurisdiction from these requirements. The bill would require the safe parking programs be developed and implemented by June 1, 2022. The bill would encourage cities and counties to review the Department of General Services' internet website for the availability of surplus state property and the Department of Transportation's internet website for the availability of excess land that could be used for a safe parking program. The bill would also grant a city or county that establishes a safe parking program immunity from civil liability for an employee's good faith act or omission that fails to prevent an injury to a person participating in the program that occurs in, or in close proximity to, a safe parking program location. The bill would limit this immunity by making the immunity inapplicable to gross negligence, intentional misconduct, or violations of other provisions of law. The bill would repeal those provisions on June 1, 2027. By requiring certain cities and counties to create safe parking programs, 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, 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. 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, including charter cities.

This measure would recognize September 2020 as Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month and encourage the Legislature to appropriate funds for research, treatment, and monitoring of sickle cell disease, and for related education and outreach.

This measure would urge specified state departments and the Attorney General to use their authority to ensure that health care service plans and health insurers subject to their authority comply with the federal Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.

Existing law prohibits human oocytes or embryos from being acquired, sold, offered for sale, received, or otherwise transferred for valuable consideration for medical research or development of medical therapies, and prohibits payment in excess of the amount of reimbursement of direct expenses to be made to any research subject to encourage an individual to produce human oocytes for the purposes of medical research. Before obtaining informed consent from a subject for assisted oocyte production (AOP) or any alternative method of ovarian retrieval on a subject for the purpose of procuring oocytes for research or the development of medical therapies, existing law requires a physician and surgeon to provide to the subject a standardized medically accurate written summary of health and consumer issues associated with AOP, as specified. Existing law also requires all oocyte extractions for research to be approved by an institutional review board, as defined. This bill, until January 1, 2024, would require individuals who provide human oocytes for research to be compensated for their time, discomfort, and inconvenience in the same manner as other research subjects, as prescribed and determined by a human subject research panel or institutional review board. The bill would establish the Research Participants Undergoing Oocyte Retrieval for Medical Research Purposes Bill of Rights and would require the bill of rights to contain specified information relating to the rights of a research participant providing human oocytes. The bill would require a physician and surgeon to obtain written and oral informed consent prior to providing a procedure for ovarian retrieval, including a signed acknowledgment of the bill of rights. The bill would require the institutional review board to disregard the amount of compensation paid to an individual providing human oocytes for fertility if certain requirements are met, including that the individual in fertility treatment does not want or need the oocytes for their own reproductive success. The bill would require an institutional review board to require any research program or project that comes under its review that involves AOP or any alternative method of oocyte retrieval to inform the research participant that ongoing studies are necessary to assess the long-term health impacts of ovarian stimulation and oocyte retrieval. The bill would require a research program that offers compensation to research participants providing human oocytes, on or before January 16, 2023, to provide aggregated deidentified information to the Legislative Analyst regarding the research participants, including, among other things, the number of candidates and participants in the program, and basic demographic information and clinical data about the candidates and participants. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst to compile the information received by the research programs and, on or before March 17, 2023, to prepare and submit a report to the Legislature containing the aggregated deidentified information. The bill would change references in existing law that refer to an individual who provides human oocytes for research as a "subject" to "research participant."

Existing law requests the California Council on Science and Technology to undertake and complete a study analyzing the regional and gas corporation specific issues relating to minimum heating value and maximum siloxane specifications adopted by the Public Utilities Commission for biomethane before it can be injected into common carrier gas pipelines. This bill would, until January 1, 2023, request the council upon request by the chairperson of a fiscal committee or certain policy committees of either the Assembly or Senate, the Speaker of the Assembly, or the President pro Tempore of the Senate, and if the council determines it has sufficient funds, to undertake and complete an analysis of the effects of legislation proposing to mandate procurement of electricity products, gas products, energy storage resources, or electrical or gas infrastructure by an electrical corporation, gas corporation, community choice aggregator, electric service provider, local publicly owned electric or gas utility, or any state-level energy procurement entity. The bill would request that the analysis be in writing and include relevant data on specified subjects, and would request that the council provide the written analysis to those policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature within 60 days of the request. Upon providing the written analysis to those committees, the bill would request the council contemporaneously post the analysis on its internet website and make a copy of the analysis available to a member of the public upon request. Existing law requires an electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility to adopt certain strategies in a long-term plan or a procurement plan, as applicable, to achieve efficiency in the use of fossil fuels and to address carbon emissions. This bill would require that these strategies be adopted to address emissions of greenhouse gases instead of carbon emissions.

Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to license and regulate health care facilities, including hospitals. Existing law establishes the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, which is vested with all the duties, powers, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction of the State Department of Public Health relating to health planning and research development. This bill would require a licensed hospital with operating expenses of $50,000,000 or more, and a licensed hospital with operating expenses of $25,000,000 or more that is part of a hospital system, to annually submit a report to the office on its minority, women, LGBT, and disabled veteran business enterprise procurement efforts, as specified. The bill would require the reports to be submitted by July 1, 2021, and then updated annually thereafter. The bill would impose specified civil penalties for a failure to submit a report. The bill would require the office to maintain a link on the office's internet website that provides public access to the content of those reports, as specified. The bill would require the office to convene a hospital diversity commission comprised of a member of the public and health care, diversity, and procurement stakeholders who are appointed by the Director of Statewide Health Planning and Development for specified terms of office. The bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2020, to hold an initial meeting with all commissioners. The bill would require the commission, among other things, to promote and provide outreach to hospitals that are actively engaged in supplier diversity issues. The bill would prohibit the commissioners from receiving compensation for their services, but authorize the office to reimburse them for their actual and necessary expenses incurred in connection with attending a meeting of the commission. The bill would require the office to review and revise, if necessary, the office's conflicts of interest regulations to ensure that each commissioner is required to disclose conflicts of interest to the public.

Existing law establishes the policy of the Legislature to ensure equal access to specific information about the many local regulating and advisory boards, commissions, and committees and to ensure equal opportunity to be informed of vacancies on those boards. Existing law requires each legislative body of a local agency to prepare an appointments list of all regular and ongoing boards, commissions, and committees that are appointed by the legislative body of the local agency. This bill, on and after January 1, 2030, would require, with respect to a city with a population of 50,000 or more, that the city not appoint members of nonsalaried, nonelected boards or commissions consisting of 5 or more members such that individuals of the same gender identity comprise more than 60% of the board or commission's membership. The bill would also prohibit a board or commission with 4 or fewer nonelected and nonsalaried members from being comprised exclusively of people with the same gender identity. The bill would define "gender identity" for purposes of the bill, and would exclude from its provisions a board or commission that has as its primary purpose addressing issues of relevance to a particular gender identity. By imposing new requirements on cities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would include findings that the changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. 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.

Existing law requires an insurer, at least 45 days prior to the expiration of an insurance policy, except for specified insurance policies, to deliver or mail to the named insured, an offer of renewal or a notice of nonrenewal of the policy, as specified. If the insurer fails to do so, existing law requires the existing policy, with no change in its terms and conditions, to remain in effect for 45 days from the date that either the offer to renew or the notice of nonrenewal is delivered or mailed to the named insured. This bill, with respect to a notice of nonrenewal for a policy that expires on or after July 1, 2020, would require an insurer to deliver or mail the notice of nonrenewal to the named insured on or before 75 days prior to the policy expiration and, if the insurer fails to do so, would require the existing policy, with no change in its terms and conditions, to remain in effect for 75 days from the date that the notice of nonrenewal is delivered or mailed. The bill also would require, commencing on July 1, 2020, a notice of nonrenewal of a policy to contain specified contact information for the Department of Insurance. Existing law creates the California Insurance Guarantee Association (CIGA) and requires all insurers admitted to transact specified insurance lines in this state to become members. Under existing law, CIGA pays and discharges covered claims, which are the obligations of an insolvent insurer, including the obligation for unearned premiums, that meet specified requirements. Existing law excludes the portion of a claim in excess of $500,000 from the definition of "covered claims," except in a claim for workers' compensation benefits. This bill would require, with respect to a policy of residential property insurance, each claim for a loss under a different coverage category to be considered a separate covered claim. The bill would increase the limit for a covered claim for damage to, or loss of, a dwelling structure under a policy of residential property insurance to an amount that does not exceed $1,000,000 or the amount recoverable under the policy, whichever is less. Under existing law, the California FAIR Plan Association, also known as the facility, is a joint reinsurance association formed by state insurers licensed to write and engaged in writing basic property insurance within this state to assist persons in securing basic property insurance and to formulate and administer a program and FAIR Plan for the equitable apportionment among insurers of basic property insurance. Existing law requires the FAIR Plan and any amendment to the plan to be approved by the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law requires, under the plan, each insurer to participate in the writings, expenses, and profits and losses of the association in the proportion that its premiums written bear to the aggregate premiums written by all insurers in the program, as specified, but requires the plan, pursuant to regulations adopted by the commissioner, to provide for a method for insurers who voluntarily write basic property insurance on risks located in areas designated as brush hazard areas to be proportionately relieved of the liability to participate in the plan. This bill would add to the insurers that are proportionately relieved of the liability to participate in the FAIR Plan those insurers voluntarily writing basic property insurance on risks in high or very high fire hazard severity zones, as determined and mapped by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The bill would, for purposes of providing that proportionate relief from liability for all of those risk areas, require those areas to be designated as either a brush hazard area or a high or very high fire hazard severity zone at the beginning of the policy period. The bill would require the facility to prepare and submit a report to the Governor, the commissioner, and the insurance committees of the Senate and the Assembly identifying the credit for voluntary writings submitted by licensees in the high and very high fire hazard severity zones, as specified. The bill would require the facility to prepare and submit the report 3 times, as specified, beginning on or before July 1, 2023. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.