Existing law, as amended by Proposition 83, the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act (Jessica's Law) , approved by the voters at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, provides that a defendant shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for 25 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, oral copulation, continuous sexual abuse of a child, or rape, spousal rape, or sexual penetration in concert, if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, if the defendant has been previously convicted of a specified offense. Proposition 83 provides that the Legislature may amend the provisions of the act to expand the scope of their application or increase the punishment or penalties by a statute passed by a majority vote of each house. This bill would specify that the prison term of 25 years to life applies if the defendant has been convicted of more than one specified offense on charges brought and tried separately, irrespective of the order in which the offenses were committed or the convictions obtained.
Sponsored bills
Existing law requires the state to have the primary financial responsibility for preventing and suppressing fires in areas that the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has determined are state responsibility areas, as defined. Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, by September 1, 2011, to adopt emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee in an amount not to exceed $150 to be charged on each habitable structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area. Existing law authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, on July 1, 2013, and annually thereafter, to adjust the fire prevention fee, as specified. Existing law requires the fire prevention fee to be collected annually by the State Board of Equalization, in accordance with specified procedures, and specifies that the annual fee shall be due and payable 30 days from the date of assessment by the state board. Existing law authorizes a petition for redetermination of the fee to be filed within 30 days after service of a notice of determination, as specified. This bill would require the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, by July 1, 2016, to amend those emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee in an amount not to exceed $152.33 and would authorize the board, on July 1, 2017, and annually thereafter, to adjust the fire prevention fee, as specified. The bill would extend the time when the fire prevention fee is due and payable from 30 to 60 days from the date of assessment by the State Board of Equalization and would authorize the petition for redetermination to be filed within 60 days after service of the notice of determination, as specified.
Existing law provides specified requirements in awarding certain public contracts. This bill would authorize the Governor to sign agreements required by the United States Olympic Committee as part of the bid process for the City of Los Angeles or the City and County of San Francisco to become the United States applicant city and candidate city for the 2024 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations that, among other things, the endorsing municipality, as defined, has developed a self-sufficient bid for financing the games. This bill would authorize the Governor to enter into an agreement for the state to be jointly liable, not to exceed a specified amount, with the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG) , as specified, for obligations of the OCOG, and for any financial deficit relating to the games, as provided. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would proclaim January 26, 2016, as India Republic Day, and would urge all Californians to join in celebrating India Republic Day.
Existing law, the Hepatitis C Education, Screening, and Treatment Act, sets forth provisions pertaining to education and outreach related to hepatitis C, as specified. The act sets forth findings, declarations, and the intent of the Legislature with regard to these provisions, and requires the Director of Public Health to, among other things, develop and implement a public education and outreach program to raise awareness of the hepatitis C virus aimed at high-risk groups, physician's offices, health care workers, and health care facilities. This bill would, until January 1, 2023, require a primary care clinic to offer each patient who receives primary care services in the clinic, and conduct upon agreement, a hepatitis C screening or diagnostic test, as specified, and would specify the manner in which the results of that test are provided. These requirements would not apply if the patient has taken a hepatitis C screening or diagnostic test, if the patient has been offered a hepatitis C screening or diagnostic test and declined the test within the primary care clinic within the previous 12 months, or to an individual receiving primary care services in a hospital or emergency room setting. The bill would add additional findings and declarations, including that hepatitis C is the most common bloodborne pathogen in the United States, and is a leading cause of complications from chronic liver disease.
The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to prepare and adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan, and requires the general plan to include specified, mandatory elements, including a housing element. That law requires the housing element, in turn, to contain, among other items, an identification and analysis of existing and projected housing needs and a statement of goals, policies, quantified objectives, financial resources, and scheduled programs for the preservation, improvement, and development of housing. This bill would revise references to redevelopment agencies within those housing element provisions to instead refer to housing successor agencies.
The Bergeson-Peace Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Act authorizes the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, known as GO-Biz, to make loans and provide other assistance to public and private entities for various types of economic development projects, among other things. The bank is governed by a board of directors and under the direction of an executive director. The bank administers the California Small Business Finance Center that administers programs to assist businesses seeking new capital resources. The Small Business Financial Assistance Act of 2013 continues in existence the California Small Business Expansion Fund (expansion fund) , a continuously appropriated fund which includes General Fund moneys, and authorizes all or a portion of the funds in the expansion fund to be paid out to a financial institution or financial company that will establish a trust fund and act as a trustee of the funds, as specified. The Small Business Financial Assistance Act of 2013 authorizes the program manager, as defined, to create one or more accounts in the expansion fund and the trust fund for corporations participating in one or more specified programs. The Small Business Financial Assistance Act of 2013 authorizes the bank board to continue programs funded by the expansion fund or to establish one or more programs administered by the bank or under contract with small business financial development corporations. Existing law further authorizes those programs to include specific types of financial products, including loan guarantees and surety bond guarantees. The expansion fund may be used to pay defaulted loan guarantee or surety bond losses, or other financial product defaults or losses, to fund direct loans and other debt instruments, to pay administrative costs of corporations, to pay state support and administrative costs, and to pay costs to protect a real property interest in a financial product default. This bill would authorize the bank to include insurance, coinsurance, and other forms of surety among the types of financial products included in programs administered by the bank, as prescribed. The bill would authorize the bank to act as agent for creditworthy California growers, manufacturers, and other exporters, to sell approved and insured accounts receivable to qualified parties, and function as a clearinghouse for the collection and disbursement of funds relative to those sales. By expanding the activities of the bank that are funded by continuous appropriation from the expansion fund, this bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law establishes the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, administered by the State Department of Social Services and counties, under which qualified aged, blind, and disabled persons are provided with services in order to permit them to remain in their own homes and avoid institutionalization. Existing law requires that those services be performed by providers within a workweek that does not exceed 66 hours, reduced as specified. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would improve the economic security of In-Home Supportive Services program providers.
Existing law makes it a crime to intentionally record a confidential communication without the consent of all parties to the communication. Existing law exempts specified peace officers from that provision if they are acting within the scope of their authority. This bill would impose specified requirements on a law enforcement agency that requires a peace officer employed by the agency to use a body-worn camera, including, among other things, a requirement that the agency conspicuously post its policies and procedures regarding body-worn cameras on its Internet Web site. The bill would prohibit a peace officer employed by a law enforcement agency that requires a body-worn camera to be used by its peace officers from, among other things, making copies of any body-worn camera files for his or her personal use, or using a recording device such as a telephone camera or secondary video camera to record a body-worn camera file or image. Except as provided, the bill would authorize a peace officer subject to its provisions to review his or her body-worn camera video before making his or her initial statement and report. This bill would specifically authorize a law enforcement agency that requires a body-worn camera to be used by a peace officer that the agency employs to consider specified model policies when adopting a body-worn camera policy, including, among others, a policy regarding where a peace officer is authorized to position the body-worn camera to facilitate optimum recording field of view. Existing law, the California Public Records Act, requires state and local agencies to make their records available for public inspection, unless an exemption from disclosure applies. This bill would exempt specified body-worn camera files created by a peace officer of a state or local law enforcement agency from disclosure pursuant to the act, including, among others, files that depict any victim of rape, incest, domestic violence, or child abuse, if the footage relates to any of those incidents. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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 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.
The Economic Revitalization Act establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as "GO-Biz," to serve the Governor as the lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth. The Bergeson-Peace Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Act establishes the Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank within GO-Biz to, among other things, assist in the promotion of economic development throughout the state. This bill would enact the Small Business Technical Assistance Act of 2015, within the bank under the direction of GO-Biz to, among other things, serve as the lead state entity for overseeing the state's participation with the federal California Small Business Development Center Program, the Women's Business Center program, the Veteran Business Outreach Center program, the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) , and the Procurement Technical Assistance Cooperative Agreement program. The bill would also recognize those federal programs, and would authorize GO-Biz or any other state entity to contract with a federal small business technical assistance center. The bill would require the State Chair of the California Small Business Development Center Leadership Council, or the contract lead for any of the other federal small business technical assistance centers, to report specific information to GO-Biz relating to any year that state funds are appropriated to support the California Small Business Development Center Program or any of the other federal small business technical assistance center programs, and would, in turn, require the director of GO-Biz or the contract lead for any of the other small business technical assistance centers to provide that report to the Legislature and post the report on the GO-Biz's Internet Web site. The bill would also require the state chair, as a condition of accepting state funds, to allow access to other information about those federal programs under certain conditions. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations in this regard.