Existing law prohibits specified conduct inside public buildings owned and occupied, or leased and occupied, by the state. Existing law provides that a judicial officer has the power to preserve and enforce order in judicial proceedings and to compel obedience to judicial orders, as specified. This bill would clarify the power of judicial officers to prevent activities that threaten access to courthouses, including by protecting the privilege from arrest. The bill would provide that no person shall be subject to civil arrest in a courthouse while attending a court proceeding or having legal business in the courthouse, and that a violation of these provisions constitutes contempt of court. The bill would also authorize the Attorney General to bring a civil action to obtain equitable and declaratory relief for a violation of this section, and it would allow a party in a successful action to enforce liability for a violation of this section to recover court costs and reasonable attorney's fees. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this 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.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, the Multifamily Housing Program, is administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development to address renter housing needs through an omnibus multifamily housing program. Under the program, assistance provided to a project is required to be provided in the form of a deferred payment loan to pay for the eligible costs of development. Existing law, subject to specified terms, authorizes the department to approve an extension of an existing loan, the subordination of an existing loan to new debt, or an investment of tax credit equity if the rental housing development is being operated in a manner consistent with the regulatory agreement and the development requires an extension in order to continue to operate in that manner. Existing law also authorizes the department to reduce the interest rate on any loan issued by the department to a rental housing development to as low as 0.42% per annum, or a rate determined by the department that is sufficient to cover the costs of project monitoring, whichever is greater, if the development meets specified requirements regarding, among other things, debt and household income. Existing law also authorizes the Department of Housing and Community Development to approve an extension of a department loan, the subordination of a department loan to new debt, or an investment of tax credit equity under specified rental housing finance programs other than the Multifamily Housing Program, subject to specified conditions. This bill would include loans made under the Multifamily Housing Program and any and all other multifamily housing loans funded or monitored by the department within these latter provisions authorizing the extension of an existing loan, subordination of an existing loan to new debt, or an investment of tax credit equity. The bill would require the department to reduce the interest rate on any loan issued by the department to a rental housing development if the development will utilize low-income housing tax credits, the department makes a specified determination regarding the loan or the ability of the development to syndicate, and the rate change will materially increase the feasibility of the proposed project and ensure long-term affordability for the residents. Existing law also authorizes the department to change the current interest rate for any loan for which it receives a loan extension request, associated with an award of federal or state low income housing tax credits made on or after January 1, 2014, to the applicable federal rate most recently published by the Internal Revenue Service. This bill instead would provide that the department is authorized to change the current interest rate for any loan issued by the department for which it receives a loan extension request, associated with an award of federal or state low-income housing tax credits made on or after January 1, 2014, to the applicable federal rate published by the Internal Revenue Service and in effect at the time of the project closing. Existing law requires the department to charge a fee in an amount sufficient to cover administrative costs associated with a loan modification requested by a borrower pursuant to these provisions. This bill would instead authorize the department to charge the fee.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law prohibits the formulary or formularies for outpatient prescription drugs maintained by a health care service plan or health insurer from discouraging the enrollment of individuals with health conditions and from reducing the generosity of the benefit for enrollees or insureds with a particular condition. Existing law, until January 1, 2020, provides that the copayment, coinsurance, or any other form of cost sharing for a covered outpatient prescription drug for an individual prescription shall not exceed $250 for a supply of up to 30 days, except as specified. Existing law, until January 1, 2020, requires a nongrandfathered individual or small group plan contract or policy to use specified definitions for each tier of a drug formulary. This bill would extend those provisions until January 1, 2024. The bill would, until January 1, 2024, prohibit a drug formulary maintained by a health care service plan or health insurer from containing more than 4 tiers, as specified. The bill would require a prescription drug benefit to provide that an enrollee or an insured is not required to pay more than the retail price for a prescription drug if a pharmacy's retail price is less than the applicable copayment or coinsurance amount, and the payment rendered by an enrollee or insured would constitute the applicable cost sharing, as specified. Existing law requires a plan contract or policy to cover a single-tablet prescription drug regimen for combination antiretroviral drug treatments that are medically necessary for the treatment of AIDS/HIV, as specified. This bill would, until January 1, 2023, extend that coverage requirement to combination antiretroviral drug treatments that are medically necessary for the prevention of AIDS/HIV, as specified. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans would be a 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.
Existing law authorizes a high school district, unified school district, or county office of education to retroactively grant a high school diploma to persons interned by order of the federal government during World War II, and to veterans of World War II, the Korean War, or the Vietnam War, under specified conditions. This bill would also authorize the retroactive grant of a high school diploma to a person who has departed California against his or her will, as defined, and, at the time of his or her departure, was enrolled in grade 12 of a high school operated by a school district, by or under the jurisdiction of a county office of education, or by a charter school, who did not receive a high school diploma because his or her education was interrupted due to his or her departure, and who was in good academic standing at the time of his or her departure, as specified.
Existing law establishes the California Housing Finance Agency, within the Department of Housing and Community Development, with a primary purpose of meeting the housing needs of persons and families of low or moderate income. Existing law, among other officers within the agency, provides for a director of enterprise risk management and compliance with specified duties related to the development of new programs or changes to existing law or regulations that may result in new or increased risk to the agency. Existing law requires that the board of directors of the agency establish the compensation of key exempt management positions in the agency's annual budget, as provided. This bill, with respect to the compensation of those key exempt management positions, would include the director of enterprise risk management and compliance and the risk manager among those positions, and would delete obsolete references.
Existing law authorizes counties, cities, and other local agencies to impose various taxes and fees in connection with activity or property within those jurisdictions. The California Constitution also authorizes a charter city to levy local taxes to raise revenues for local purposes, subject to restrictions imposed by that city's charter or preemption in matters of statewide concern. The Passenger Charter-party Carriers' Act authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to regulate charter-party carriers in California, including transportation network companies that provide prearranged transportation services for compensation using an online-enabled application or platform to connect passengers with drivers. For purposes of provisions applicable to transportation network companies, the act also defines a participating driver or driver as any person who uses a vehicle in connection with a transportation network company's online-enabled application or platform to connect with passengers. This bill would authorize the City and County of San Francisco, subject to applicable voter approval requirements, to impose a tax on each ride originating in the City and County of San Francisco provided by an autonomous vehicle, whether facilitated by a transportation network company or any other person, or by a participating driver in an amount not to exceed 3.25% of net rider fares, as defined, for a ride and 1.5% of net rider fares for a shared ride, as specified. The bill would also authorize the City and County of San Francisco to set a lower tax rate for net rider fares for a ride provided by a zero-emission vehicle. The bill would require moneys collected by the City and County of San Francisco from this tax to be dedicated to fund transportation operations and infrastructure within the City and County of San Francisco. The bill would require a tax imposed pursuant to this authority to expire no later than November 5, 2045. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City and County of San Francisco.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to establish rules for all public utilities, subject to control by the Legislature. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law prohibits a gas corporation from recovering any fine or penalty in any rate approved by the commission. This bill would additionally prohibit an electrical corporation from recovering a fine or penalty through a rate approved by the commission and would make related nonsubstantive changes. The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to ascertain and fix just and reasonable standards, classifications, regulations, practices, measurements, or service to be furnished, imposed, observed, and followed by specified public utilities, including all electrical corporations and gas corporations. If the commission finds, after a hearing, that the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, or service of any public utility, or the methods of manufacture, distribution, transmission, storage, or supply employed by the public utility, are unjust, unreasonable, unsafe, improper, inadequate, or insufficient, the act requires that the commission determine and, by order or rule, fix the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, service, or methods to be observed, furnished, constructed, enforced, or employed. This bill would prohibit an electrical corporation or gas corporation from recovering through a rate approved by the commission costs or expenses arising from damages caused by the electrical corporation's electric plant or the gas corporation's gas plant if the commission determines that the electrical or gas corporation, or its agent, did not reasonably construct, maintain, manage, control, or operate the plant and this unreasonable act or omission by the electrical or gas corporation, or its agent, increased the risk of the plant causing those damages. The bill would authorize the commission, for an electrical or gas corporation's rate application to recover costs or expenses, to authorize the recovery of those costs or expenses, in full or in part, and would specify that only those costs or expenses that are just and reasonable, which may comprise only a portion of those costs or expenses, are recoverable. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature and make legislative findings and declarations regarding the commission's rate recovery functions.
The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to permit private, nonprofit organizations to conduct raffles as a funding mechanism to support beneficial and charitable works, if, among other conditions, at least 90% of the gross receipts from the raffle go directly to beneficial or charitable purposes in California. The California Constitution further authorizes the Legislature to amend the percentage of gross receipts required to be dedicated to beneficial or charitable purposes by a statute passed by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature. Existing statutory law implements those provisions and requires the Department of Justice to administer and enforce those provisions. Existing statutory law, until December 31, 2018, authorizes a major league sports raffle at a home game conducted by an eligible organization, as defined, for the purpose of directly supporting specified beneficial or charitable purposes in California, or financially supporting another private, nonprofit, eligible organization, as defined, that performs those purposes if, among other requirements, 50% of the gross receipts generated from the sale of raffle tickets are used to benefit or provide support for beneficial or charitable purposes, as defined, the other 50% is paid to the winner, and the winners of the prizes are determined by a manual draw, as specified. Existing law authorizes a loan from the General Fund to the Major League Sporting Event Raffle Fund to address departmental workload related to the Department of Justice's initial implementation of enforcement activities relating to these provisions and requires the loan to be repaid to the General Fund by no later than December 31, 2018. This bill would extend the operation of those provisions until January 1, 2024. The bill would also extend the date by which the loan from the General Fund to the Major League Sporting Event Raffle Fund must be repaid to the General Fund to no later than December 31, 2023. By extending the operation of provisions that revise the percentage of gross receipts required to go to beneficial or charitable purposes pursuant to the California Constitution, this bill would require a 23 vote of each house. Existing law requires an eligible organization to annually file a report for each of the eligible organization's last 3 fiscal years that includes specified information, including, among other things, the aggregate gross receipts from the operation of raffles and the charitable or beneficial purposes for which proceeds of the raffles were used. Existing law requires the department to make these reports available to the public pursuant to the online search portal of the Attorney General's Registry of Charitable Trusts. Under existing law, the failure to submit these reports is grounds for denial of an annual registration. This bill would instead require an eligible organization to file with the department and post on a specified Internet Web site, each season or year, a report that includes, among other things, the total number of raffles conducted for the season or year, the gross receipts generated from the sale of raffle tickets for the season or year, and for each raffle, each eligible recipient organization, and the amount each eligible recipient organization received. The bill would instead require the department to post the reports on its Internet Web site, but not on the online search portal of the Attorney General's Registry of Charitable Trusts. The bill would further authorize the imposition of penalties for the failure to submit these reports, as specified. Existing law authorizes the department to require the payment of fees to cover the reasonable costs of the department in administering and enforcing the above-described provisions, including a minimum annual registration fee of $5,000 to be paid by an eligible organization and a fee of $100 for every individual raffle conducted by the eligible organization at an eligible location, a minimum annual registration fee of $10 to be paid by a person affiliated with the eligible organization who conducts the manual raffle draw, and a minimum annual registration fee of $5,000 to be paid by a manufacturer or distributor of raffle-related products or services. Existing law authorizes the department to audit the records and other documents of a registrant to ensure compliance and authorizes the department to charge a registrant the direct costs associated with that audit. This bill would increase the department's authority to assess fees for those purposes by doubling the amounts specified above. The bill would provide that the department is entitled to reimbursement from a registrant for all actual, reasonable, and direct costs of an audit, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Under the Pharmacy Law, the California State Board of Pharmacy licenses and regulates the practice of pharmacy and the conduct of a pharmacy in this state. The Pharmacy Law refers to various types of pharmacies, including community pharmacies, as specified. A knowing violation of that law is a crime. This bill would prohibit a community pharmacy from requiring a pharmacist to engage in the practice of pharmacy at any time the pharmacy is open to the public, unless either another employee of the pharmacy or, if the pharmacy is located within another establishment, an employee of the establishment within which the pharmacy is located is made available to assist the pharmacist at all times. The bill would exempt certain pharmacies from its provisions, and would specify that violation of its provisions does not constitute a crime.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , by March 1, 2010, to establish a regulatory proceeding to develop and implement a comprehensive program to achieve greater energy savings in California's existing residential and nonresidential building stock. Existing law requires the PUC to investigate the ability of electrical corporations and gas corporations to provide various energy efficiency financing options to their customers for the purposes of implementing the program developed by the Energy Commission. Existing law requires the PUC, by September 1, 2016, to authorize electrical corporations and gas corporations to provide financial incentives, rebates, technical assistance, and support to their customers to increase the energy efficiency of existing buildings, as specified, and to authorize electrical corporations and gas corporations to recover the reasonable costs of those programs in rates. Existing law requires the PUC to authorize electrical corporations and gas corporations to count all energy savings achieved through the authorized programs, unless determined otherwise, toward overall energy efficiency goals or targets established by the PUC and authorizes the PUC to adjust the energy efficiency goals or targets of electrical corporations and gas corporations to reflect the estimated change in energy savings resulting from those programs. This bill would delete the language explicitly authorizing recovery in rates for the costs of those programs. Commencing July 1, 2019, this bill would require the PUC to authorize electrical corporations and gas corporations to provide incentives, rebates, technical assistance, and support to their customers to increase energy efficiency, pursuant to separate procedures applicable only to custom projects and other custom programs for industrial, agricultural, commercial, residential, and public sector customers. The bill would require the PUC to develop and maintain rules for custom energy efficiency projects that include eligibility criteria and other metrics for determining whether a project is eligible for funding pursuant to the program, and sets forth procedural requirements for the adoption and revision of the criteria or metrics. The bill would require that the criteria or metrics operate prospectively and be applied uniformly and consistently by each electrical corporation and gas corporation. The bill would require each electrical corporation and gas corporation to maintain a custom measure project archive and would require the PUC to develop and maintain requirements for what information is to be included in the archive, including information required to support the applications of customers' custom energy efficiency projects. Upon being notified of the filing of a new application, or that a proposed project has moved from the preapplication stage to the application stage, the bill would require the PUC to make a determination of whether the application has been selected for review within 15 days and to notify the electrical corporation or gas corporation of its decision. The bill would require that the review of a proposed project be concluded within 30 business days from when the project documentation is received by the commission, unless the commission determines the supporting information is incomplete and inaccurate. If, as a result of the review, the PUC rejects the proposed project or requests modification of the project, the bill would require the PUC to notify the electrical corporation or gas corporation of the reasons for the rejection or request for modification, including each basis as to why the project is rejected or modification is requested, and would require the PUC to make specific recommendations for the conditions under which the project would be approved. The bill would provide that for projects that were not reviewed, an electrical corporation or gas corporation may rely on its project application review process to determine the forecast energy savings values for the project based on rules adopted by the commission, and base the final customer incentive payment and contractor pay-for-performance payment on postinstallation measurement and verification results. The bill would authorize the PUC to employ postinstallation review of a project to determine if the project was carried out consistent with the application and to obtain information pertaining to whether the eligibility criteria or metrics should be revised. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill are within the act and require action by the PUC to implement its requirements, a violation of these provisions would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. 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.