Asm. Jim Patterson

This measure would proclaim the month of January 2019 as Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month, and would encourage certain activities to honor that month.

(1) Existing law generally requires the State Department of Social Services to license and regulate designated types of care facilities. The department is specifically required to investigate the criminal record of certain individuals who provide services to the residents and clients of a community care facility, a residential care facility for persons with chronic life-threatening illness, a residential care facility for the elderly, or a child day care facility. Violations of the licensing requirements for these different types of care facilities are crimes. This bill would expand who is required to comply with the requirement for obtaining a criminal record clearance by limiting an exception to this requirement and would expand a requirement for the department to maintain criminal record clearances of individuals in its active files. The bill would require, until an automated information system for tracking changes in facility associations is available, the department to permit a licensee who operates more than one of the same kind of care facility to coordinate the criminal record clearances for individuals associated with its facilities, as specified, and a licensee to update the department regarding individuals associated with its facilities at specified times and in a designated manner. By expanding the requirements for these different licensees, this bill would expand the crimes for a failure to comply with those requirements, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. (2) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 1522 of the Health and Safety Code proposed by AB 1930 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1930 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (3) 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 generally provides for the adoption of a child native to a foreign country by a prospective adoptive parent or parents who are California residents that is either finalized in another country or this state. A licensed adoption agency facilitating an intercountry adoption that will be finalized in a foreign country is required to provide specific services that include certification to the federal government whether this state's intercountry adoption requirements have been met. Existing law requires each resident of the state who adopts a child through an intercountry adoption that is finalized in a foreign country to readopt the child in this state if it is required by the United States Department of Homeland Security, and requires this readoption to include at least one postplacement in-home visit, a home study report, and final adoption order. Existing law also authorizes a resident of the state who adopts a child through an intercountry adoption that is finalized in a foreign country to readopt the child in this state. This bill would repeal these readoption provisions and would instead require an adoptive parent, or if an adoptive parent fails to do so, then the adoption agency that facilitated the adoption, to file a petition to readopt within specified deadlines to establish a record by which an adoptee can prove the facts of the foreign adoption. The bill would require the petition to include, among other things, a report from at least one postplacement home visit by an intercountry adoption agency or a contractor of that agency licensed to provide intercountry adoption services in the state. The bill would require the clerk of the court to submit an order granting the petition to the State Registrar, and would require the State Registrar to issue a delayed registration of birth, as specified. This bill would require a court that finds a child may be the subject of human trafficking or specified types of abuse to notify all appropriate authorities. This bill would, if a licensed adoption agency has a written agreement for which postadoption services have been paid, require the licensed adoption agency to provide those services, and would also make technical, nonsubstantive changes to the other services a licensed adoption agency facilitating an intercountry adoption is required to provide.

Existing law, the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 2001 (California act) , requires all agencies and museums that receive state funding that have possession or control over collections of California Native American human remains or cultural items, as defined, to inventory those remains and items for the identification and repatriation of the items to the appropriate Indian tribes. The California act states the intent of the Legislature to apply the state's repatriation policy consistent with the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (federal act) and to facilitate the implementation of the provisions of the federal act with respect to publicly funded agencies and museums in California. Existing law establishes the Native American Heritage Commission and vests the commission with specified powers and duties. Existing provisions of the California Constitution establish the University of California as a public trust under the administration of the Regents of the University of California. The California Constitution grants to the regents all the powers necessary or convenient for the effective administration of this public trust, subject to such legislative control as may be necessary to insure the security of its funds, compliance with the terms of the endowments of the university, and certain competitive bidding procedures. This bill would require the regents, or their designee, as a condition for using state funds to handle and maintain Native American human remains and cultural items, to establish and support a systemwide Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Implementation and Oversight Committee, with specified membership, and, for any campus subject to the federal act, a campus implementation committee, with specified membership. The bill would require the regents, as a condition for using state funds to handle and maintain Native American human remains and cultural items, in consultation with the systemwide committee, to adopt and implement certain policies and procedures to better implement the federal act and to timely submit the policies and procedures to the Native American Heritage Commission for review and comment by July 1, 2019. The bill would make conforming changes to the powers and duties of the Native American Heritage Commission. The bill would require the regents, as a condition for using state funds to handle and maintain Native American human remains and cultural items, to ensure that the campus committees implement the policies and procedures adopted by the regents and reviewed by the Native American Heritage Commission. The bill would provide that, if the regents use state funds to handle and maintain Native American human remains and cultural items, all claims for repatriation or claims of any violation of the policies and procedures shall be submitted to the campus committee for determination and would require the regents to adopt procedures to support appeals and dispute resolution in cases where a tribe disagrees with a campus determination regarding repatriation or disposition of cultural items directly to the systemwide committee. The bill would require the California State Auditor to conduct an audit commencing in the year 2019 and again in 2021 regarding the University of California's compliance with the federal and California acts and to report its findings to the Legislature and to all other appropriate entities.

Existing law establishes the Spaceport Office in the Department of Transportation to seek and obtain federal funding for the commercialization of private space activities in the state. Existing law, for the January 1, 2014, lien date to, and including, the January 1, 2024, lien date, exempts from taxation qualified property, as defined, for use in space flight. Existing law authorizes airport districts to provide and maintain spaceports and landing places for space reentry traffic. Existing law establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (office) , which is administered by a director appointed by the Governor. The office serves 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. This bill would establish the California Aerospace and Aviation Commission consisting of 17 members, as specified, to serve as a central point of contact for businesses engaged in the aerospace and aviation industries and to support the health and competitiveness of these industries in California. The bill would require the commission to make recommendations on legislative and administrative action that may be necessary or helpful to maintain or improve the state's aerospace and aviation industries and would require the commission to report and provide recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature, as specified. The bill would require the commission to have offices contained within existing operations of the office, as specified, and would require the operations of the commission to be supported through nonstate moneys. The bill would also require that funds received by the commission be deposited in the Aerospace and Aviation Account, which the bill would create in the California Economic Development Fund, to be used by the commission upon appropriation by the Legislature, and would preclude any actions by the office relating to the commission until a determination is made and reported regarding the sufficiency of funds received. The bill would enact other related provisions.

The Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act, among other things, generally requires every state agency, as defined, directly involved in certain activities involving contact with a substantial number of non-English-speaking people, and every local agency, as defined, serving a substantial number of non-English-speaking people, to employ a sufficient number of qualified bilingual persons in public contact positions. For specified provisions of the act, the act defines a "substantial number of non-English-speaking people" as members of a group who either do not speak English, or who are unable to effectively communicate in English because it is not their native language, and who comprise 5% or more of the people served by the statewide or any local office or facility of a state agency. This bill would modify the definition of "substantial number of non-English-speaking people" to reduce that percentage from 5% to 3%.

Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to implement various fire prevention programs intended to protect forest resources and prevent uncontrolled wildfires. Existing law establishes the forestry assistance program, to be conducted by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to encourage forest resource improvements and otherwise facilitate good forest land management through a program of financial, technical, and education assistance, as well as through applied research. Existing law authorizes the director of the department to enter into an agreement with an eligible landowner pursuant to which the landowner will undertake forest resource improvement work in return for an agreement by the director to share the cost of carrying out that work. Existing law authorizes the director to make various types of loans, including loans to cover all or part of the landowner's cost for the work. Existing law requires these loans to be made for a term not exceeding 20 years and bearing interest at the prevailing rate. This bill would instead authorize the director to enter into those agreements with small nonindustrial landowners, as defined. The bill would delete the term and interest rate requirements relating to these loans and instead require the director to establish reasonable terms relating to the length of, and the interest rate for, the loans. The bill would also authorize the director to provide the director's share of the costs described above in advance of any performed work if the eligible landowner agrees in writing to undertake the forest resource improvement work and agrees to the condition that any funds provided for uncompleted work shall constitute grounds for a claim and lien upon the real property owned by the landowner, as provided. The bill would require any money recovered from the lien to be deposited into the fund. This bill would also authorize the director to enter into an agreement with the owner or any other person who has legal control of any property, any public agency with regulatory or natural resource management authority over any property that is included within any wildland, or any nonprofit organization to conduct joint prescribed burning operations that serve the public interest and are beneficial to the state. The bill would require the agreement to adhere to specified requirements and would require each prescribed burn to be for one or more specified purposes. This bill would authorize the Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency to jointly develop and submit to the Legislature a specified plan for forest and watershed restoration investments in the drainages that supply the Oroville, Shasta, and Trinity Reservoirs, as prescribed. The bill would also authorize those agencies to jointly develop and propose to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature a pilot project for the coordinated, multiagency permitting of specified watershed restoration activities. The bill would establish the Headwaters Restoration Account in the General Fund and would authorize the deposit of funds into the account for use, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for those forest and watershed restoration purposes.

Under existing law the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations. This bill would require the Public Utilities Commission, if it determines that a moratorium on new natural gas service connections is necessary to prevent substantial and imminent harm or to ensure gas system reliability, to provide a report to specified policy committees of the Legislature and the affected gas corporation stating the necessity for the action. The bill would require the report to the policy committees to contain certain information. The bill would require a gas corporation, upon receiving a report from the commission that an action is pending to suspend new gas service connections, to immediately notify potential or current customers that may experience a service impact as a result of the proposed suspension. The bill would require the commission to present to the policy committees, at specified yearly information hearings, the status of the natural gas service connections and efforts to provide natural gas supply. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This measure would designate a specified portion of State Highway Route 395 in the County of Mono as the Senator David E. Cogdill, Sr., Memorial Highway. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.