The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, approved by the voters as Proposition 24 at the November 3, 2020, statewide general election, establishes various rights that a consumer, as defined, has with respect to personal information, as defined, collected by a business, as defined, including the right of a person to direct a business that sells or shares personal information about the consumer to third parties not to sell or share the consumer's personal information. The act also provides a consumer with the right to direct a business that collects sensitive personal information about the consumer to limit its use of the consumer's sensitive personal information to certain prescribed uses, including a use that is necessary to perform the services or provide the goods reasonably expected by an average consumer who requests those goods or services. The act defines "sensitive personal information" to mean, among other things, the processing of biometric information, as defined, for the purpose of uniquely identifying a consumer. On or before September 1, 2023, this bill would require a private entity in possession of biometric information, as defined, to develop and make available to the public a written policy establishing a retention schedule and guidelines for permanently destroying the biometric information, as prescribed. The bill would require a private entity to comply with that retention schedule and those guidelines. The bill would, among other things, prohibit a private entity from disclosing biometric information unless certain criteria are met, including the disclosure completes a financial transaction requested or authorized by the subject of the biometric information or the subject's legally authorized representative. The bill would prohibit a private entity from conditioning the provision of a service on the collection, use, disclosure, transfer, sale, or processing of biometric information unless biometric information is strictly necessary to provide the service. The bill would authorize a person to bring a civil action against a private entity for violation of these provisions and to obtain certain relief, including the greater of statutory damages in an amount not less than $100 and not greater than $1,000 per day or actual damages.
Sponsored bills
The Political Reform Act of 1974 prohibits a foreign government or foreign principal from making any contribution, expenditure, or independent expenditure in connection with the qualification or support of, or opposition to, a state or local ballot measure or an election for a state or local office. The act prohibits a person or committee from soliciting or accepting a contribution from a foreign government or foreign principal for the same purposes. The act makes a violation of these prohibitions a misdemeanor. This bill would expand these prohibitions to include contributions, expenditures, or independent expenditures made by a foreign-influenced business entity, as defined, in connection with an election or ballot measure. The bill would require a business entity that makes a contribution, expenditure, or independent expenditure to file with the filing officer and the applicable candidate or committee a statement of certification, signed by the entity's chief executive officer under penalty of perjury, avowing that the entity was not a foreign-influenced business entity on the date the contribution, expenditure, or independent expenditure was made. The bill would prohibit a person who receives funds from a business entity from using those funds for purposes of a contribution, expenditure, or independent expenditure in connection with a ballot measure or election unless the person receives a copy of the statement of certification from the business entity. By creating a new crime and expanding the scope of an existing 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. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.
(1) The Planning and Zoning Law requires the legislative body of each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city that includes, among other mandatory elements, a housing element. Under that law, supportive housing, as defined, is a use by right in zones where multifamily and mixed uses are permitted if the developer provides the planning agency with a plan for providing supportive services and the proposed housing development meets specified criteria. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA does not apply to the approval of ministerial projects. This bill would make an adaptive reuse project a use by right in all areas regardless of zoning. The bill would define "adaptive reuse project" to mean any commercial, public, industrial, or office building or structure that has 25-percent occupancy or less, which is converted into a housing development project. The bill would define "use by right" to mean that the city or county's review of the adaptive reuse project may not require a conditional use permit, planned unit development permit, or other discretionary city or county review or approval that would constitute a "project" for purposes of CEQA, as specified. This bill would prohibit a city or county from imposing various requirements on an adaptive reuse project, including a requirement that the adaptive reuse project provide more parking than the amount of on-site parking for the existing building or structure. The bill would provide that an adaptive reuse project is subject to the California Existing Building Code. By imposing new requirements of cities and counties in the review and approval of adaptive reuse projects, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by these provisions address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. (2) Existing law, the California Building Standards Law, establishes the California Building Standards Commission within the Department of General Services. Existing law requires the commission to approve and adopt building standards and to codify those standards in the California Building Standards Code, which is required to be published once every 3 years. This bill would require the California Building Standards Commission, in consultation with the Department of Housing and Community Development, to update, adopt, approve, codify, and publish building standards in the California Existing Building Code that revise and clarify fire, safety, health, structural, seismic, and environmental elements that apply to adaptive reuse projects, as specified. The bill would require the building standards to facilitate the development of adaptive reuse projects. (3) Existing law establishes the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019, which requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, to establish and administer a grant program to allocate those funds to capital improvement projects that are an integral part of, or necessary to facilitate the development of, a qualifying infill project or qualifying infill area, as those terms are defined, pursuant to specified requirements. Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to adopt guidelines for the operation of the grant program, as specified. This bill would require the department's guidelines to include provisions that grant an unspecified application bonus to an adaptive reuse project that otherwise meets the requirements of the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019. (4) 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, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, prohibits discrimination in employment and housing based on specified personal characteristics. Existing law establishes the Department of Fair Employment and Housing and sets forth its powers and duties relating to enforcement of those provisions. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to change the name of the Department of Fair Employment and Housing to more accurately reflect its powers and duties.
Existing law requires any person who engages in the transportation of inedible kitchen grease to be registered with the Department of Food and Agriculture. Existing law authorizes a registered transporter of inedible kitchen grease to deliver any inedible kitchen grease to a licensed renderer or collection center for processing or recycling into usable products, including biofuels and animal feed, as specified. Existing law authorizes the department to assess a fee to regulate these transporters and to exempt from 75% of that fee any registered transporter who transports inedible kitchen grease for personal, noncommercial use as an alternative fuel, subject to specified requirements. This bill would authorize a business entity to contract with a biofuel company for that biofuel company to collect inedible kitchen grease, as defined, from that business. The bill would exempt any person or entity engaged in the transportation of inedible kitchen grease pursuant to that business transaction from the above-described registration, licensing, and fee requirements.
Existing law generally regulates fertilizer materials and provides for the licensure of individuals who manufacture or distribute fertilizing materials. Existing law defines various terms for the purpose of carrying out these provisions, including biochar, defined as materials derived from thermochemical conversion of biomass in an oxygen-limited environment containing at least 60% carbon. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to the definition of biochar.
Existing law provides that if any officer or employee of the State Board of Equalization recklessly disregards board-published procedures, a taxpayer aggrieved by that action or omission may bring an action for damages against the State of California in superior court. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to this provision.
Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission and the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to undertake certain actions in furtherance of meeting the state's clean energy and pollution reduction objectives. This bill would make nonsubstantive revisions to those requirements.