Asm. Jim Cooper

Existing law establishes the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) in state government as a means of resolving disputes and enforcing the statutory duties and rights of employers and employees under the Educational Employment Relations Act, the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, the Ralph C. Dills Act, and the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act. Existing law includes within PERB's jurisdiction resolving disputes alleging violation of rules and regulations adopted by a public agency, as defined, concerning unit determinations, representations, recognition, and elections, as specified. Existing law requires bargaining unit determinations and representation elections to be determined and processed in accordance with rules adopted by a public agency, as specified. Existing law requires, in a representation election, a majority of the votes cast by the employees in the appropriate bargaining unit. Existing law requires PERB to enforce and apply rules adopted by a public agency concerning unit determinations, representation, recognition, and elections. Existing law also requires specified complaints to be processed as an unfair practice charge by PERB. Existing law does not apply the above provisions to persons who are peace officers, as defined. This bill would expand the jurisdiction of PERB to include resolving disputes and statutory duties and rights of persons who are employed by public agencies, as defined, and are peace officers, as defined. The bill also would authorize a peace officer, or a recognized employee organization that represents any person who is a peace officer, as specified, to bring an action in superior court to seek injunctive and other relief pending a final determination by the board, as specified. The bill would except the employee relations commissions of the County of Los Angeles and the City of Los Angeles from the application of its provisions.

Existing law requires a person or entity that sells any quantity of specified substances to record the date of sale, product description, purchaser's identification, and other specified information. Existing law requires the seller to retain this information for a period of 5 years and to present it upon demand by any law enforcement officer or authorized representative of the Attorney General. Existing law requires a person or entity that purchases any quantity of these specified substances to record the date of purchase, product description, and other specified information for a period of 3 years and to present it upon demand by any law enforcement officer or authorized representative of the Attorney General. A violation of these provisions is a crime. This bill would require a person or entity that sells any quantity of nonodorized butane, as defined, to a customer, as defined, to record specified information about the transaction, including the identity of the customer and to maintain that information for 2 years. The bill would, subject to available funds, require the Department of Justice to create a database of butane purchases and to post a notice on its Internet Web site when the database is operational. The bill would require sellers of nonodorized butane to keep hard copy records of nonodorized butane sales and to electronically submit a report to the Department of Justice upon request. After the database system described above is operational, this bill would make it unlawful to sell to any one customer more than 600 milliliters of nonodorized butane in a 30-day period or to sell any quantity of nonodorized butane to a customer that would cause the customer to exceed 600 milliliters of nonodorized butane purchased from all sellers in a 30-day period. The bill would authorize a civil penalty to be assessed for the violation of these provisions.

(1) Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide specified information to local law enforcement agencies regarding an inmate released by the department to the agency's jurisdiction on parole or postrelease community supervision, including a record of the offense for which the inmate was convicted that resulted in parole or postrelease community supervision. This bill would require the department to also provide the local law enforcement agency with copies of the record of supervision during any prior period of parole. (2) Existing law requires the department to be the agency primarily responsible for the Law Enforcement Automated Data System and requires county agencies supervising inmates released from prison on postrelease community supervision to provide any information requested by the department to ensure the availability of accurate information regarding inmates released from state prison. Under existing law, this information may include the issuance of warrants, revocations, or the termination of postrelease community supervision. This bill would require the county to provide the department, upon request, with all records of supervision. By imposing additional duties on county agencies administering postrelease community supervision, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law provides the procedure by which the Board of Parole Hearings considers an indeterminately sentenced inmate's suitability for parole and generally requires a panel of the board, or the board, sitting en banc, to grant parole on the inmate's minimum eligible parole date unless it determines that the gravity of the current convicted offense or offenses, or the timing and gravity of current or past convicted offense or offenses, is such that consideration of the public safety requires a more lengthy period of incarceration. This bill would require the panel or board, sitting en banc, to consider the entire criminal history of the inmate, including all current or past convicted offenses, in making this determination. (4) Existing law requires the county agency supervising the release of a person on postrelease community supervision to petition a court to revoke, modify, or terminate postrelease community supervision if the agency determines, following application of its assessment processes, that intermediate sanctions are not appropriate. This bill would require the county agency supervising the release of a person on postrelease community supervision to also petition a court to revoke, modify, or terminate postrelease community supervision if the person has violated the terms of his or her release for a third time. The bill would allow a peace officer to arrest a person without warrant who fails to appear at a hearing to revoke, modify, or terminate postrelease community supervision. By imposing additional duties on county agencies administering postrelease community supervision, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) Existing law allows each county agency responsible for postrelease supervision to determine appropriate responses to alleged violations, which can include a one to 10 consecutive day period of flash incarceration. This bill would require the probation department to notify the court, public defender, district attorney, and sheriff of each imposition of flash incarceration. By imposing additional duties on county agencies administering postrelease community supervision, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (6) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 3003 of the Penal Code proposed by AB 335 to be operative only if this bill and AB 335 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (7) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 3041 of the Penal Code proposed by AB 1448 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1448 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (8) 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 measure would recognize August 6, 2017, as the 52nd anniversary of the signing of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

This measure would proclaim the period of October 23, 2017, to October 31, 2017, inclusive, as Red Ribbon Week and would encourage all Californians to help build drug-free communities and to participate in drug prevention activities.

Existing law requires a candidate for elective office to pay a prescribed filing fee or to submit, at least 15 days before the close of the nomination period, a petition containing signatures of registered voters in lieu of the filing fee. Existing law requires the Secretary of State or an elections official to make forms for securing signatures available 45 days before the first day for circulating nomination papers. Existing law requires the elections official, within 10 days after receiving the in-lieu-filing-fee petition, to notify a candidate of any deficiency with the petition. If a deficiency is found, existing law requires the candidate to either submit a supplemental in-lieu-filing-fee petition or pay a pro rata portion of the filing fee to cover the deficiency. This bill would instead require a candidate to file an in-lieu-filing-fee petition at least 30 days before the close of the nomination period. The bill would decrease the number of required signatures on an in-lieu-filing-fee petition, as specified. The bill would also strike the authorization for a candidate to submit a supplemental petition to cover any deficiency, and it would instead only permit the candidate to pay a pro rata portion of the filing fee. The bill would require that the forms for securing signatures be made available 60 days before the first day for circulating nomination papers and would make a conforming change. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The Horse Racing Law provides that any unallocated balance from the total revenue received by the Department of Food and Agriculture pursuant to that law, except as specified, is hereby appropriated without regard to fiscal years for allocation by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture for capital outlay to California fairs, including state-designated fairs, for among other things, fair projects involving public health and safety, and projects that are required to protect fair property. That law also provides that a portion of these funds may be allocated to California fairs for general operational support. This bill would, beginning July 1, 2018, require a return filed with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) to report gross receipts for sales and use tax purposes to segregate the gross receipts of the seller and the sales price of the property on a line or a separate form as prescribed by the CDTFA when the place of sale in this state or for use in this state is on or within the real property of a state-designated fair, as defined, or any real property of a state-designated fair that is leased to another party. The bill would require the CDTFA to report the amount of the total gross receipts segregated on the returns filed pursuant to these provisions to the Department of Finance on or before November 1 of each year. The bill would require the CDTFA to estimate the total gross receipts segregated for the 2019–20 fiscal year by January 31, 2019, based on the 3rd quarter of 2018, and would require that an amount equal to 34 of 1% of this estimated amount be included in the Governor's revised budget in May 2019 for allocation to fairs pursuant to the provisions described above. The bill would require the CDTFA to reconcile this first-year estimate with actual return data from the full 2018–19 fiscal year, and to then adjust this figure as appropriate as the amount to be reported to the Department of Finance on November 1, 2019. The bill would require that an amount equal to 34 of 1% of the total amount of gross receipts reported to the Department of Finance be included in the next annual Governor's Budget for the Department of Food and Agriculture for allocation to fairs pursuant to the provisions described above. The bill would require, upon the enactment of the annual Budget Act, that this amount be transferred by the Controller to the Fair and Exposition Fund, which is continuously appropriated, and would allocate these moneys to state-designated fairs for specified fair projects and subject to certain conditions. The bill would require the CDTFA to be paid the actual cost for administering those provisions, as specified. By creating a new source of revenue to be deposited into a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.

Existing law prohibits an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of the opposite sex for substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, and performed under similar working conditions, unless the employer demonstrates that one or more specific factors, reasonably applied, account for the entire wage differential. Existing law also similarly prohibits an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of another race or ethnicity for substantially similar work. Existing law authorizes an employee paid lesser wages in violation of these prohibitions to file a complaint with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, and authorizes the employee, the division, or the Department of Industrial Relations to commence a civil action for the wages the employee was deprived of because of the violation, interest on those wages, and liquidated damages. Under existing law, an employer or other person who violates or causes a violation of that prohibition, or who reduces the wages of any employee in order to comply with that prohibition, is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would define "employer" for those purposes to include public and private employers. The bill would specify that a public employer is not subject to the misdemeanor provision.

Under the existing Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act, a penalty of $4 is imposed upon every conviction for a violation of the Vehicle Code, or a local ordinance adopted pursuant to the Vehicle Code, other than a parking offense. Existing law requires the county or the court that imposed the fine to transfer the moneys collected pursuant to this act to the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund. Under existing law, money in the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund is made available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the State Department of Health Care Services for specified purposes relating to emergency medical air transportation. Under existing law, the assessment of this $4 penalty will terminate on January 1, 2018, and any moneys unexpended and unencumbered in the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund on June 30, 2019, will transfer to the General Fund. Existing law repeals the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act on January 1, 2020. This bill would rename the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund as the Emergency Medical Air Transportation and Children's Coverage Fund and would authorize the department to use money from the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to fund children's health care coverage in addition to the purposes described above. This bill would extend the dates of the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act, so that the assessment of the penalties will terminate commencing January 1, 2020, and any moneys unexpended and unencumbered in the Emergency Medical Air Transportation and Children's Coverage Fund on June 30, 2021, would be transferred to the General Fund. The bill would extend the effective date of the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act until January 1, 2022. The bill would also make conforming changes.