Under existing law, when a person consults a mediator or mediation service for the purpose of retaining mediation services, or when persons agree to conduct and participate in a mediation for the purpose of compromising, settling, or resolving a civil dispute, anything said in the course of a consultation for mediation services or in the course of the mediation is not admissible in evidence or subject to discovery, and all communications, negotiations, and settlement discussions by and between participants or mediators are confidential, except as specified. For purposes of confidentiality, existing law provides that a mediation ends when one of several specified conditions is satisfied, including if there is no communication between the mediator and any of the parties to the mediation relating to the dispute for 10 calendar days. This bill would provide that a mediation ends if there is no communication between the mediator and any of the parties to the mediation relating to the dispute for 14 calendar days.
Sponsored bills
(1) Existing law prohibits the sale or display of the Battle Flag of the Confederacy, as specified, or its image, by the State of California, subject to exceptions serving educational or historical purposes. This bill would, on and after January 1, 2017, prohibit the use of an elected leader or senior military officer of the Confederate States of America to name state or local property. The bill would require a name associated with the Confederate States of America used to name state or local property prior to January 1, 2017, to be changed and any sign associated with the name to be removed. The bill would prohibit its provisions from being construed to require renaming of a city, county, or other political jurisdiction named after an elected leader or senior military officer of the Confederate States of America, or from requiring the renaming of property, as specified, that incorporates the name of the city, county, or political jurisdiction in which it is situated. By increasing the duties of local officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also make a statement of legislative findings and a conforming change. (2) 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 these statutory provisions.
The Trial Court Employment Protection and Governance Act establishes a trial court employee personnel system that provides authority to hire trial court personnel, regulates the classification and compensation of trial court employees, labor relations, and personnel files, and requires each trial court to establish a system of employment selection and advancement and an employment protection system. Existing law authorizes state agencies to use personal services contracts to achieve cost savings if specified standards are satisfied, including, among other things, the contract does not cause the displacement of civil service employees and the contract is awarded through a publicized, competitive bidding process. The State Personnel Board is required to review a proposed contract upon the request of an employee organization for compliance with those standards. This bill would establish specified standards if a trial court intends to enter into a contract for any services that are currently or customarily performed by that trial court's employees. Among other things, the bill would require the trial court to clearly demonstrate that the proposed contract will result in actual overall cost savings to the trial court. The bill would provide that those standards do not apply to a contract under certain circumstances, including, among others, when the services are incidental to a contract for the purchase or lease of real or personal property. This bill would provide that its provisions are severable.
(1) The California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009 provides for the regulation of private postsecondary educational institutions by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education in the Department of Consumer Affairs. The act also establishes the Student Tuition Recovery Fund and requires the bureau to adopt regulations governing the administration and maintenance of the fund, including requirements relating to assessments on students and student claims against the fund, and establishes that the moneys in this fund are continuously appropriated to the bureau for specified purposes. The act caps the amount that may be in the fund at any time at $25,000,000. This bill would raise the cap for the fund to $30,000,000. (2) This bill would appropriate the sum of $1,300,000 from the Student Tuition Recovery Fund to the Attorney General for the purposes of providing grants to eligible nonprofit community service organizations to assist eligible students affected by the closure of Corinthian Colleges, Inc., as defined, with loan discharge and other student loan-related requests and tuition recovery-related claims, and to pay an amount not to exceed $150,000 for the reasonable administrative costs of the Attorney General's office related to these grants, as specified, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require the bureau to notify the Attorney General of all unlawful Corinthian Colleges, Inc., closures within 15 days of the effective date of these provisions. The bill would require the Attorney General to, among other things, within 90 days of the notification, solicit grant applications from eligible nonprofit community service organizations, select one or more of these organizations deemed to be qualified, and set additional terms and conditions of the grants as necessary. The bill would set a schedule for how grant funds are to be distributed. The bill would require the grantee to submit specified information to the Attorney General on a quarterly basis, and require the Attorney General to make these reports available to the Legislature and the bureau upon request. The bill would require the Attorney General to provide the Legislature and the bureau a final report summarizing all the information submitted to it by grantees, promptly following the time when all funds are expended by the grantees, or by August, 1, 2018, whichever is earlier. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to contract with another qualified entity to perform the Attorney General's duties under these provisions. (3) This bill would, for a period not to exceed 2 years from April 27, 2015, authorize state agencies that provide certification, registration, or licensure necessary to promote the safety and protection of the public to, on a case-by-case basis, consider for certification, registration, or licensure students who were enrolled in a program of Corinthian Colleges, Inc., that provided education or training aimed towards these students receiving certification, registration, or licensure from the state agency, and who did not receive that certification, registration, or licensure due to the closure of that institution. (4) The Cal Grant Program prohibits an applicant from receiving Cal Grant awards totaling in excess of the amount equivalent to the award level for a total of four years of full-time attendance in an undergraduate program, except as provided. This bill would partially exempt from this limitation on Cal Grant awards a student who was enrolled and received a Cal Grant award at a California campus of Heald College, and who was unable to complete an educational program offered by the campus due to its closure. (5) The California National Guard Education Assistance Award Program authorizes the renewal of California National Guard Education Assistance Awards, for a maximum of the greater of either four years of full-time equivalent enrollment or the duration for which the qualifying member would otherwise be eligible pursuant to the Cal Grant Program, if specified conditions are met. This bill would partially exempt from this limitation on California National Guard Education Assistance Awards a student who was enrolled and received a California National Guard Education Assistance Award at a California campus of Heald College, and who was unable to complete an educational program offered by the campus due to its closure. (6) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law provides for the licensing and regulation of pilots for the Monterey Bay and the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun, by the Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun in the Transportation Agency. Existing law establishes pilotage rates and surcharges that are paid to licensed pilots by vessels piloted in those bays. Existing law establishes those pilotage rates and surcharges, and provides for changes to them based on the number of pilots licensed by the board and recommendations by the board to the Legislature. Existing law requires each licensed pilot to submit a monthly account to the board of all moneys received by the pilot for pilotage services. This bill would revise and recast those provisions and would require that certain surcharges be separately identified on the pilots' invoices and in their monthly account to the board. The bill would, until January 1, 2021, additionally authorize a technology surcharge, not to exceed a cumulative amount of $1,200,000, to recover pilots' costs for navigation software, hardware, and equipment authorized by the board on or after January 1, 2017. The bill would require the board to submit a schedule of all pilotage rates and surcharges to the Office of Administrative Law for publication in the California Regulatory Notice Register and to post that schedule on the board's Internet Web site. The bill would require an independent audit of all charges collected by pilots to be conducted annually by a public accountant selected by the board. (2) Existing law requires the Board of Pilot Commissioners to review and evaluate pilotage expenses in making recommendations to the Legislature to adjust certain pilotage rates. Existing law establishes procedures for any party directly affected by those rates to petition the board for a public hearing. Existing law requires the board, at the conclusion of the hearings, to review and evaluate the evidence and to submit to the Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Clerk of the Assembly a copy of its findings and recommendations for a final determination. Existing law requires each vessel to pay a board operations surcharge to compensate the board and the Transportation Agency for the services and incidental expenses of the board and agency. Existing law requires those moneys to be deposited in the Board of Pilot Commissioners' Special Fund and continuously appropriates those moneys for the compensation and expenses of the board and its officers and employees. This bill would instead require the hearing on a petition to be before an administrative law judge, as provided, who would act as a finder of fact. The bill would prescribe procedures for the conduct of those hearings, the review of evidence, and the filing of decisions. The bill would require the board to review and evaluate the administrative law judge's decision and either submit the decision to the Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Clerk of the Assembly or prepare and submit a written statement of its reasons for not doing so. The bill would require the administrative law judge to be compensated by the board from revenues from the board operations surcharge. By authorizing the expenditure of continuously appropriated funds for a new purpose, the bill would make an appropriation. (3) Existing law requires that moneys collected from a pilot trainee surcharge and a pilot continuing education surcharge be deposited into the Board of Pilot Commissioners' Special Fund and continuously appropriates those moneys for pilot trainee and pilot continuing education programs, respectively. This bill would create the Pilot Trainee Special Fund, require moneys collected from the pilot trainee surcharge to be deposited into that fund, and continue to continuously appropriate those moneys for pilot trainee programs. The bill would also create the Pilot Continuing Education Special Fund, require moneys collected from the pilot continuing education surcharge to be deposited into that fund, and require those moneys, upon appropriation, to be used for pilot continuing education programs. (4) Under existing law, a pilot who is carried to sea against the pilot's will or unnecessarily detained on board a vessel, as provided, is entitled to receive $600 per day, plus expenses, from the owner, operator, or agents of the detaining vessel. This bill would increase that amount to $2,028 per day.
Existing law creates the Department of Insurance, headed by the Insurance Commissioner, and prescribes the department's powers and duties. Existing law prohibits the department from prohibiting an insurer from inspecting a motor vehicle prior to issuing collision or comprehensive coverage for the vehicle. Existing law also requires an insurer conducting these inspections to inspect every motor vehicle for which coverage is requested except new motor vehicles and motor vehicles previously insured. Existing law requires the inspection to be done by the insurer or its agent, and to be performed not more than 20 miles from the address where the vehicle is insured. This bill would allow the above inspection to be performed not more than 25 miles from the address where the vehicle is insured.
(1) Under existing law, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, an employee who, on or after July 1, 2015, works in California for the same employer for 30 or more days within a year from the commencement of employment is entitled to paid sick days, as specified. Existing law requires an employee to accrue paid sick days at the rate of not less than one hour per every 30 hours worked subject to specified use and accrual limitations. For the purposes of the act, an "employee" does not include a provider of in-home supportive services, as described. This bill, on and after July 1, 2018, would entitle a provider of in-home supportive services who works in California for 30 or more days within a year from the commencement of employment to paid sick days, subject to specified full amount of leave time amounts and that rate of accrual. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services, in consultation with stakeholders, to convene a workgroup to implement paid sick leave for in-home supportive services providers and to issue guidance in that regard by December 1, 2017. The bill would authorize the department to implement that paid sick leave without complying with the Administrative Procedure Act. (2) On and after July 1, 2014, existing law requires the minimum wage for all industries to be not less than $9 per hour. On and after January 1, 2016, existing law requires the minimum wage for all industries to be not less than $10 per hour. This bill would require the minimum wage for all industries to not be less than specified amounts to be increased from January 1, 2017, to January 1, 2022, inclusive, for employers employing 26 or more employees and from January 1, 2018, to January 1, 2023, inclusive, for employers employing 25 or fewer employees, except when the scheduled increases are temporarily suspended by the Governor, based on certain determinations. The bill would also require the Director of Finance, after the last scheduled minimum wage increase, to annually adjust the minimum wage under a specified formula. On or before July 28, 2017, and on or before every July 28 thereafter until the minimum wage is a specified amount for employers employing 26 or more employees, the bill would require the Director of Finance to annually determine, based on certain factors, whether economic conditions can support a scheduled minimum wage increase and certify that determination to the Governor and the Legislature. The bill would also require the State Board of Equalization to publish specified retail sales and use tax information on its Internet Web site to be used by the Director of Finance in making that determination. On or before July 28, 2017, and on or before every July 28 thereafter until the minimum wage is a specified amount for employers employing 26 or more employees, in order to ensure that the General Fund can support the next scheduled minimum wage increase, the bill would also require the Director of Finance to annually determine and certify to the Governor and the Legislature whether the General Fund would be in a deficit in the current fiscal year, or in either of the following 2 fiscal years.
This measure would recognize "Women Warriors" by proclaiming the week of March 14, 2016, to March 20, 2016, inclusive, as Women's Military History Week in California and would encourage Californians to recognize, among other things, the contributions of women to our military and our freedom and the historic lifting of the ban on women in combat on January 24, 2013.
This measure would recognize the Lunar New Year Celebration.
This measure would proclaim January 13, 2016, as Korean American Day.