Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975 (Knox-Keene Act) , provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of that act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Under existing law, health care service plans and health insurers are required to offer specified types of coverage as part of their health care service plan contracts or health insurance policies. Existing law imposes specified requirements upon a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy that provides maternity coverage. This bill would require specified health care service plans and health insurers to include coverage for lactation consultation and the provision or rental of specified types of breast pumps, as defined, as part of their health care service plan contracts or health insurance policies that provide maternity coverage. Because this bill would specify additional requirements under the Knox-Keene Act, the willful violation of which would be a crime, it 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.
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Existing law contains provisions that define unlawful discrimination and employment practices and establish procedures for an employee who has suffered discrimination or other unlawful practices, as defined, to file a complaint with the Fair Employment and Housing Department, or under certain circumstances, to bring a civil action against his or her employer. This bill would specify when a cause of action for unlawful discrimination or unlawful employment practice with respect to compensation accrues for determining whether a complaint was filed within statutory deadlines.
Existing law governing contracting between state agencies and private contractors sets forth requirements for the procurement of supplies, materials, equipment, and services by state agencies and sets forth the various responsibilities of the Department of General Services and other state agencies in overseeing and implementing state contracting procedures and policies. This bill would require a state agency, except as specified, to provide a link to a centrally located and accessible state-run Internet Web site that includes a list of the personal services and consulting services contracts, as defined, entered into by the agency. This bill would require the listings on the state's Internet Web site to include specified information, and would require, on and after January 1, 2012, a summary of a contract to be initially posted within 15 working days of being signed by all parties. This bill would require the Director of the Department of General Services to maintain the Internet Web site and to establish the publishing of the contract listing information. This bill would also authorize the department to use the services of any state agency. This bill would require contractors to electronically provide specified information to assist state agencies in the reporting of information for the listings of personal services and consulting services contracts.
Existing law prohibits a food from being sold as organic unless it meets certain criteria, and accurate and specific records are kept detailing its production, handling, and sale. This bill would enact the California Transition to Organics Act of 2009. The bill would establish the Transition to Organics Fund in the State Treasury, which would consist of moneys from federal, industry, and citizen sources. The bill would limit the expenditure of moneys from the fund to providing financial assistance to persons who transition their uncertified farms to certified organic farms and to covering administrative and operational expenses incurred in administering the act, as specified. The fund would be administered by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, as provided, and the secretary would be authorized to adopt regulations to carry out the provisions of the act. The bill would also authorize the secretary to levy a civil penalty, as provided, upon a person who renders or furnishes false information to the secretary under the act.
Existing law prohibits the transfer of any tissues, as defined, into the body of another person by means of transplantation, unless the donor of the tissues has been screened and found nonreactive for evidence of infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) , agents of viral hepatitis (HBV and HCV) , human T lymphotrophic virus-1 (HTLV-1) , and syphilis, except as provided. Existing law requires that all donors of sperm be screened and found nonreactive under the above provisions, except as provided. Under existing law, a sperm donor who has tested reactive for HIV or HTLV-1 may be used for insemination or advanced reproductive technology for a recipient who has tested negative only after processing to minimize the infectiousness of the sperm. The State Department of Public Health is required to adopt regulations by January 1, 2010, regulating facilities that perform this processing. Existing law further requires the physician providing insemination or advanced reproductive technologies to, among other things, inform the recipient that the processing may not eliminate the risk of infection, that the sperm may be tested to ensure that it is free from HIV or HTLV-1, and about the potential adverse effects of testing on the sperm. This bill would also require the physician to inform the recipient that she must provide documentation to the physician providing insemination or advanced reproductive technology services prior to treatment that she has established an ongoing physician relationship with another physician to provide for her medical care during and after completion of fertility services and about the medical guidelines for testing after use of sperm from an HIV or HTLV reactive donor. Under existing law, the physician performing insemination or advanced reproductive technology is required to provide prophylactic treatments, followup testing, and monitoring, as specified, to the recipient to minimize the risk of infection. This bill would remove those requirements but would require the physician to recommend followup testing of the recipient for HIV and HTLV, as specified. Existing law allows the use of sperm from a donor who has tested reactive for HIV or HTLV-1 if the recipient has also previously been documented with HIV or HTLV-1 and where mutual consent has been obtained. This bill would remove this provision. The bill would also make all of the provisions above applicable to donors who have tested reactive for any of the human T lymphotrophic viruses. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Real Estate Law provides for the regulation and licensure of real estate brokers and real estate salespersons by the Real Estate Commissioner. Existing law authorizes the commissioner to require that materials used in obtaining advance fee agreements be submitted to him or her at least 10 calendar days before the materials are used and makes it a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding 6 months, or both, to use any agreement that the commissioner has ordered not to be used. Existing law authorizes the commissioner to determine the form of the advance fee agreements. This bill would instead require the commissioner to determine the form of advance fee agreements and to mandate the submission of advance fee agreement materials prior to their use. The bill would also prohibit advertisements used in obtaining advance fee agreements from using words, letters, initials, symbols, or other devices that are similar to those used by a governmental agency or nonprofit entity, as specified. The bill would also increase the maximum fine for using any agreement that the commissioner has ordered not to be used from $1,000 to $2,500, and would increase the maximum imprisonment time for a violation to 12 months. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The Real Estate Law makes it unlawful for any person to claim, demand, charge, receive, collect, or contract for an advance fee for soliciting lenders on behalf of borrowers or performing services for borrowers in connection with a mortgage loan before the borrower becomes obligated to complete the loan and for performing any other activity for which a license is required, unless the person is a licensed real estate broker and has complied with the provisions of the Real Estate Law. A violation of that provision constitutes a public offense punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 for an individual or $50,000 for a corporation. Existing law exempts from that prohibition state-chartered banks, savings associations, credit unions, industrial loan companies, and licensed finance lenders and brokers. This bill would increase those fines to $20,000 and $60,000, respectively, and would increase the maximum imprisonment time for a violation to 12 months. The bill would also make it unlawful, until January 1, 2013, for a real estate broker, or any other person who performs loan modification services, as specified, to claim, demand, charge, receive, or collect a fee paid for by a borrower for a loan modification agreement, as defined, until the terms of the loan have been modified, and would require provision of a specified notice prior to entering into a loan modification agreement with a borrower. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would make an attorney subject to disciplinary sanctions if he or she claims, demands, charges, receives, or collects a fee paid for by a borrower in connection with a loan modification agreement until the terms of the loan have been modified. The bill would further exempt from the fee prohibition licensed residential mortgage lenders and servicers. The bill would also exempt nonprofit community-based organizations, and employees of those organizations, that provide counseling services at no cost to borrowers in connection with loan modifications from certain provisions of the Real Estate Law regulating certain activities of real estate brokers and salespersons. 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.
(1) The Ralph M. Brown Act requires the meetings of the legislative body of a local agency to be conducted openly and publicly, with specified exceptions. Under the act, the legislative body of a local agency may hold a closed session with the local agencies' designated representatives regarding negotiations concerning employee compensation, among other things, but is required, in an open and public session prior to those closed sessions, to disclose specified information identifying the agency's designated representatives. This bill would additionally require a local agency, before holding a closed session, as described above, for the purpose of having designated representatives report on a collectively bargained agreement with represented employees, to make the agreement publicly available at least 15 calendar days before the meeting at which the agreement is to be reported, thus imposing a state-mandated local program. (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 Budget Act of 2008 appropriates $136,000,000 for construction of the Condemned Inmate Complex at San Quentin State Prison. A prior appropriation in the Budget Act of 2003 appropriated $220,000,000 for this construction and was reappropriated in the Budget Act of 2008. This bill would eliminate both appropriations and the reappropriation, to the extent the appropriated funds have not been expended. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. The Governor issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 19, 2008. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on December 19, 2008, pursuant to the California Constitution.
Existing law requires the collection of fees for issuing marriage licenses and for providing certified copies of vital records, including marriage certificates, birth certificates, fetal death records, and death records. Existing law provides for the establishment of county domestic violence program special funds for the purpose of funding local domestic violence programs. Certain fees payable at the time a marriage license or a certified copy of any of the above vital records is issued may be collected by the county clerks for deposit into these funds. Existing law authorizes the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, until January 1, 2010, upon making certain findings and declarations, to authorize an increase in the fees for marriage licenses and confidential marriage licenses, up to a maximum increase of $2. Existing law authorizes the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, and the City Council of the City of Berkeley, upon making certain findings and declarations, to authorize an increase in the fees for certified copies of certain vital records, up to a maximum increase of $2. Existing law authorizes those governmental entities to make further increases in those fees each year, as specified. Existing law requires these fees to be allocated for purposes relating to domestic violence prevention, intervention, and prosecution. This bill would extend the operation of those provisions indefinitely. Existing law requires the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and the City Council of the City of Berkeley to submit to the Assembly and Senate Committees on Judiciary, by July 1, 2009, reports regarding the above fee increases, as specified. This bill would, instead, require the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and the City Council of the City of Berkeley, if they elect to increase fees pursuant to the above-described provisions, to submit preliminary reports by July 1, 2009, and final reports by July 1, 2014. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2015. The bill would also make technical, nonsubstantive related changes.
Existing law requires the local agency formation commission in each county to, among other things, review and approve or disapprove proposals for changes of organization, or reorganization, and authorizes the commission to initiate proposals for the formation, consolidation, or dissolution of a district, a merger, or the establishment of a subsidiary district, as specified. This bill would, on and after January 1, 2011, authorize the Marin County Local Agency Formation Commission to initiate and approve the reorganization or consolidation of the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin (SASM) and its member districts, and would also authorize the commission to require SASM and its member districts to pay the commission's costs associated with the reorganization or consolidation.