Rep. Laurie Davies

Existing law designates specific days as holidays in this state, including, among others, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Cesar Chavez Day. Existing law designates certain days as judicial holidays and exempts others including, Lunar New Year, Diwali, and Genocide Remembrance Day. This bill would designate Sylvia Mendez Day as a state holiday, but would exempt the holiday from being a judicial holiday. The bill would include related legislative findings and declarations. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 135 of the Code of Civil Procedure proposed by AB 2017 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2017 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. The bill would also incorporate additional changes to Section 6700 of the Government Code proposed by AB 2017 and SB 1394 to be operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires each public utility to furnish and maintain adequate, efficient, just, and reasonable service, instrumentalities, equipment, and facilities, as are necessary to promote the safety, health, comfort, and convenience of its patrons, employees, and the public. Existing law prohibits a public utility from making or granting any preference or advantage to any corporation or person, as provided. This bill would require, until January 1, 2030, San Diego Gas and Electric Company (SDGE) to energize construction-ready projects within specified timeframes, as provided. Existing law requires the commission to establish annual reporting requirements for electrical corporations to report customer energization projects in order to evaluate the electrical corporation's fulfillment of timely electrical service. Existing law requires the commission to require each electrical corporation to retain an independent third-party auditor to review the electrical corporation's business practices and procedures for energizing new customers and how the electrical corporation is planning for demand growth, including new customer energizations. Existing law requires the third-party auditor to report to the commission on a biannual basis. This bill would require, only until January 1, 2030, reporting on the energization of those construction-ready projects to be included in SDGE's biannual energization reporting submitted to the commission. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the provisions of the bill would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing the bill's requirements would be a crime, 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 a specified reason.

Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to immediately revoke the driving privilege of a person upon receipt of a duly certified abstract of the record of a court showing that the person has been convicted of, among other things, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. Existing law requires a person who has been convicted of driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated, as specified, to install an interlock ignition device on the vehicle they operate for a mandatory period of time as ordered by the court. This bill, Irene's Law, would require the department, commencing on January 1, 2031, to revoke the driving privilege of a person upon a showing that the person has been convicted of a violation of driving while intoxicated that proximately causes bodily injury to any person other than the driver and has 4 or more prior convictions within a 10-year period for, among other things, driving while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage. The bill would additionally prohibit the department from reinstating that person's driving privileges until the expiration of 72 months after the date of revocation, subject to certain requirements, including, among others, agreeing to maintain a functioning, certified ignition interlock device, for a mandatory term of 72 months.

Existing law establishes in the Natural Resources Agency the Department of Water Resources. Existing law vests in the department powers, duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction in matters pertaining to water or dams. Existing law declares the responsibility of the state to assist local governments in providing certain essential services and facilities where water resource construction projects financed, in whole or in part, by the state or by the state jointly with the federal government create an undue burden on a local area's ability to provide these services and facilities. Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, requires the State Water Resources Control Board to administer provisions relating to the regulation of drinking water to protect public health. Existing law declares it to be the established policy of the state that every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes. This bill would establish in the State Treasury the Water Affordability and System Stabilization Fund for holding the principal and income of the Water Affordability and System Stabilization Trust, which the bill would create. The bill would designate the Treasurer as trustee of the trust, as specified, and would require the trustee, among other things, to hold, manage, and invest the principal of the trust with the obligation of providing a growing perpetual source of annual funding to the Water Rate Assistance Fund, administered by the state board, and the Community Water Affordability Assistance Fund, administered by the department, beginning 25 years after the Legislature transfers funding from the General Fund to the Water Affordability and System Stabilization Fund. This bill would require, during the first 25 years following the Legislature's transfer, 45% of the income of the trust to be transferred from the Water Affordability and System Stabilization Fund to each of the Water Rate Assistance Fund and the Community Water Affordability Assistance Fund, and would continuously appropriate the remaining 10% of the income of the trust to be invested as part of the principal of the trust. After the first 25 years, the bill would require 50% of the income of the trust to be transferred from the Water Affordability and System Stabilization Fund to each of the Water Rate Assistance Fund and the Community Water Affordability Assistance Fund. The bill would continuously appropriate no more than 1% of the annual income of the trust to pay for administration of the trust. By making continuous appropriations and by transferring moneys into a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. Existing law requires the Controller to transfer surplus money in any special fund from that fund to the Surplus Money Investment Fund in the State Treasury, a continuously appropriated fund. The bill would authorize the trustee to enter into a trust agreement with a fiscal intermediary to support its duties, as provided, and would authorize the fund to be invested in the Surplus Money Investment Fund, thereby making an appropriation. This bill would require the department, subject to a transfer of moneys by the Legislature, to develop and administer the Community Water Affordability Program to provide funding in the form of grants to community water systems for local water system infrastructure projects, as specified, for the purpose of reducing the amount of local ratepayer funding required for those projects and for avoiding costs that would otherwise be paid for by ratepayers. The bill would require the department to develop and adopt program guidelines and project solicitation documents before disbursing grant funds, and would exempt those guidelines and documents from the rulemaking procedures of the Administrative Procedure Act. The bill would require the program guidelines to, among other things, require an applicant for a grant to provide at least 25% of the total funding required for the project, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to waive or reduce that minimum amount if that requirement would cause extreme financial hardship to the applicant. The bill would also establish the Community Water Affordability Assistance Fund in the State Treasury and would provide for deposit into the fund of contributions from private and public entities, as specified. The bill would make moneys in the fund available to the department for purposes of the program, including up to 5% annually for administration of the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, as provided.

Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act's requirements a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law prohibits specified health care service plan contracts and disability insurance policies from excluding persons covered by the plan from receiving benefits if they are diagnosed as having any significant destruction of brain tissue with resultant loss of brain function, including Alzheimer's disease. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy that is issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2027, to include coverage for all medically necessary treatments or medications, as determined by a health care provider, approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease or other medical conditions affecting memory. On and after January 1, 2027, the bill would prohibit a health care service plan or health insurer from imposing step therapy protocols as a prerequisite to authorizing that coverage, except as provided. Because a willful violation of these provisions by a health care service plan would be a crime, 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.

Existing law establishes the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, under the direction of the Labor Commissioner, within the Department of Industrial Relations, for the purpose of enforcing labor laws. Existing law requires the division to maintain minimum standards for the competency and training of electricians through a system of testing and certification. Existing law requires the division to issue certification cards to electricians who have been certified and paid a fee, in accordance with certain procedures. This bill would authorize an individual who fails the certification examination to immediately submit an application to retake the examination, as specified. The bill would transfer authority over the certification of electricians from the division to the Contractors State License Board, contingent upon an appropriation for these purposes by the Legislature and pursuant to certain timelines and procedures.

Existing law prohibits a person from, among other things, engaging in, aiding, or abetting a motor vehicle exhibition of speed on a highway or in an offstreet parking facility. Under existing law, a violation of this prohibition is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than 90 days, by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500) , or by both that fine and imprisonment. Existing law, beginning on January 1, 2029, authorizes a court to suspend the privilege to operate a vehicle for 90 days to 6 months for a person who engages in, aids, or abets a motor vehicle exhibition of speed that occurred as part of a sideshow. For these purposes, existing law defines "sideshow" as an event in which 2 or more persons block or impede traffic on a highway or in an offstreet parking facility for the purpose of performing motor vehicle stunts, motor vehicle speed contests, motor vehicle exhibitions of speed, or reckless driving for spectators. This bill would revise the definition of sideshow to include the use or operation of any motor vehicle, including, but not limited to, motorcycles or off-highway motor vehicles, as specified, to barricade, block, impede, or otherwise obstruct traffic. The bill would also provide enhanced penalties for engaging in, aiding, or abetting a motor vehicle exhibition of speed as part of a sideshow, including, as specified, increasing fines, requiring a mandatory minimum jail sentence, and making the offense punishable as a misdemeanor or felony if the offense proximately causes injury to another person. By increasing the punishment for an existing crime, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 23109 of the Vehicle Code proposed by AB 1830 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1830 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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.

Existing law requires the Governor to proclaim various days as days of remembrance or recognition. This bill would require the Governor to annually proclaim September 25 as Dolly Parton Day. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law requires each educational institution in the state to have a written policy on sexual harassment and to display that policy in a prominent location, as defined, in the main administrative building or other area of the educational institution's campus or schoolsite. Existing law requires each schoolsite in a school district, county office of education, or charter school, serving pupils in any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, to create a poster that notifies pupils of that policy and to prominently and conspicuously display the poster in each bathroom and locker room at the schoolsite, as specified. This bill would require each school district, county office of education, and charter school maintaining any combination of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, on or before the start of the 2027–28 school year, to display, at each schoolsite, as defined, in at least one men's restroom, one women's restroom, and one all-gender restroom used by pupils a legible poster printed in both English and a primary language other than English spoken by at least 15% of pupils enrolled at the schoolsite, that contains specified information relating to sextortion, including, among other information, an age-appropriate description of sextortion, as defined, and contact information for local, state, and federal law enforcement for purposes of reporting or seeking assistance relating to sextortion. The bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2027, to develop and post on its internet website a model template of the poster for use by those local educational agencies. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, 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, 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.

(1) Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) , establishes the Civil Rights Department to enforce civil rights laws with respect to housing and employment, as prescribed. The FEHA recognizes and declares to be a civil right the opportunity to seek, obtain, and hold employment and housing without discrimination because of a specified characteristic. The FEHA makes certain discriminatory practices based on those characteristics unlawful. The FEHA also declares that its purpose is to provide effective remedies that will eliminate these discriminatory practices. The FEHA defines terms used in connection with unlawful practices. These include "sex," which includes pregnancy or medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth or medical conditions related to childbirth, and breastfeeding or medical conditions related to breastfeeding. This bill would include perimenopause, menopause, or postmenopause or other related medical conditions within the above definition of sex. The FEHA separately defines the term "medical condition" to mean either a health impairment related to or associated with a diagnosis of cancer or a record or history of cancer or specified genetic characteristics. The Unruh Civil Rights Act (Unruh Act) establishes that all persons within the jurisdiction of the state are free and equal and, regardless of their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments, as prescribed. The Unruh Act defines "sex" to include, among other things, pregnancy, childbirth, or medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth. This bill would provide that "medical condition" as used in the definition of "sex" in FEHA and the Unruh Act includes, but is not limited to, the conditions included in the definition of "medical condition" in FEHA. (2) Existing law requires the Civil Rights Department to provide a poster on discrimination in employment to an employer or a member of the public upon request. Existing law requires the poster to be available at each office of the department and requires each employer to post the poster in a prominent and accessible location in the workplace, as prescribed. This bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2027, to update the poster to notify people of their rights and protections in regard to perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause, or related medical conditions. (3) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 51 of the Civil Code proposed by AB 2563 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2563 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 12926 of the Government Code proposed by AB 2563 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2563 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.