Sen. Scott Wiener

Existing law generally protects employees who disclose illegal or improper workplace activities by prohibiting interference with, and retaliation for, making such disclosures. Existing law provides procedures for a person to file a complaint alleging violations of legislative ethics. Existing law also authorizes each house of the Legislature to adopt rules for its proceedings and to select committees necessary for the conduct of its business. This bill would impose criminal and civil liability on a Member of the Legislature or legislative employee, as defined, who interferes with, or retaliates against, a legislative employee's exercise of the right to make a protected disclosure, which is defined as a good faith allegation made by a legislative employee to specified entities that a Member of the Legislature or a legislative employee has engaged in, or will engage in, activity that may constitute a violation of law, including sexual harassment, or a violation of a legislative standard of conduct. The bill would also impose civil liability on an entity that interferes with, or retaliates against, a legislative employee's exercise of the right to make a protected disclosure, as specified. By creating new crimes, 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act generally requires the administrator for oil spill response, acting at the direction of the Governor, to implement activities relating to oil spill response, including emergency drills and preparedness, and oil spill containment and cleanup, and to represent the state in any coordinated response efforts with the federal government. Existing law requires the Governor to establish a California oil spill contingency plan that provides for an integrated and effective state procedure to combat the results of major oil spills within the state and that specifies state agencies to implement the plan. Existing law requires the administrator to submit to the Governor and the Legislature an amended California oil spill contingency plan that addresses marine oil spills, by January 1, 1993, and to submit revised plans every 3 years thereafter. Beginning January 1, 2017, and every 3 years thereafter, the administrator is required to submit an amended California oil spill contingency plan that addresses both marine and inland oil spills. Existing law requires the administrator to adopt and implement regulations governing the adequacy of oil spill contingency plans to be prepared and implemented and requires the regulations to provide for the best achievable protection of coastal and marine waters. Existing law requires an owner or operator of a facility, small marine fueling facility, or mobile transfer unit, or an owner or operator of a tank vessel, nontank vessel, or vessel carrying oil as secondary cargo, while operating in the waters of the state or where a spill could impact waters of the state, to have an oil spill contingency plan that complies with the rules, regulations, and policies established by the administrator, that meets specified minimum requirements, and that has been submitted to, and approved by, the administrator. This bill would define "nonfloating oil" for purposes of the act. The bill would require the administrator, by January 1, 2020, to conduct and complete an independent scientific study on the best achievable protection of state waters from spills of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oils, including criteria for oil spill contingency plans and oil spill response organizations (OSROs) responsible for remediating those spills. The bill would require that the scientific study evaluate the hazards and risks and potential hazards and risks that nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oils pose to natural resources and public, occupational, and environmental health and safety. The bill would require the administrator to post the results and recommendations of the completed scientific study on an Internet Web site maintained by the administrator. The bill would require the administrator, by January 1, 2019, to identify those oils transported into or through the state that place waters of the state at risk from an oil spill that are composed in whole or in part of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil and, through a public process, to establish criteria to identify specific characteristics of nonfloating and potentially nonfloating oil. The bill would require the administrator to periodically update and publicly release this list as the sources and types of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil change. The bill would, if nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil is present, require that the oil spill contingency plan that is filed with and approved by the administrator identifies one OSRO capable of oil spill response activities related to that nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil. The bill would additionally require the oil spill contingency plan to describe spill location-specific procedures, techniques, and demonstrated technologies effective for responding to a spill of the nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil. The bill would require that the 3-year update to the California oil spill contingency plan that addresses marine and inland oil spills that is to be revised and submitted to the Governor and the Legislature by January 1, 2020, and every 3 years thereafter, include consideration of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oils. Existing law authorizes an OSRO to apply to the administrator for a rating of that OSRO's response capabilities. Upon receiving a completed application for rating, the administrator is required to review the application and rate the OSRO based on the OSRO's satisfactory compliance with criteria established by the administrator, including specified elements. This bill would require that those elements include the type of oil, including nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil, the OSRO is capable of recovering and containing. The bill would require any OSRO seeking a nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil response capability rating to explain, in detail, the tools, technologies, and techniques it will deploy, including how these tools, technologies, and techniques will overcome identified challenges in remediating spills of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oils, in order to meet the criteria developed for remediating a nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil spill necessary to protect state waters. The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act prohibits a person from operating a marine facility, as defined, unless the owner or operator of the marine facility has obtained a certificate of financial responsibility. To receive a certificate of financial responsibility from the administrator for oil spill response, the act requires the owner or operator of a marine facility to make a specified showing of financial resources to the satisfaction of the administrator. The act authorizes the administrator to issue a certificate of financial responsibility on a lesser showing of financial resources for a period of not longer than 3 years if the administrator makes specified findings. This bill would require that the administrator, when determining whether to issue a certificate of financial responsibility on a lesser showing of financial resources, to consider the particular risks posed by the type of oil proposed to be carried and to differentiate the risk based upon whether the oil is floating oil or nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil.

The Trial Jury Selection and Management Act requires one jury commissioner to be appointed by, and serve at the pleasure of, a majority of the judges of the superior court in each county. Existing law requires the jury commissioner to maintain records regarding the selection, qualification, and assignment of prospective jurors, and records that provide a clear audit trail regarding a juror's attendance, jury fees, and mileage. This bill would require a jury commissioner to develop a form for the purpose of determining if the pool of prospective jurors who appear for jury service accurately represents a cross section of the population of the area served by the court. This bill would require the jury commissioner to use the form solely to collect specified demographic information, and would prohibit using the form to collect personal identifying information or disclosing the form to any person, organization, or agency. The bill would require the jury commissioner to biannually produce a report that aggregates the data collected from the forms, and would require each county court to make these reports public.

Existing law requires the director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife to report annually in writing to the Fish and Game Commission on the status of sport and commercial marine fisheries managed by the state, as provided. This bill would require an annual report provided on or after January 1, 2019 to be posted on the department's Internet Web site within 24 hours of the date on which the director makes the report to the commission.

Existing law requires the State Water Resources Control Board to establish uniform statewide recycling criteria for each varying type of use of recycled water where the use involves the protection of public health. This bill would, on or before December 1, 2018, require the state board, in consultation with other state agencies, to adopt regulations, consistent with federal and state law in effect on January 1, 2018, to provide comprehensive risk-based standards for local jurisdictions permitting programs for onsite recycling of water in multifamily residential, commercial, and mixed-use buildings for nonpotable use. The bill would require the regulations to address specified issues and practices relating to the management, monitoring, and treatment of recycled water for nonpotable use. The bill would require that a local jurisdiction comply with those regulations if the local jurisdiction allows the onsite recycling of water and subsequent uses of that recycled water.

Existing law provides for the procedure of approving and accepting bail, and issuing an order for the appearance and release of an arrested person. Existing law requires that bail be set in a fixed amount, as specified, and requires, in setting, reducing, or denying bail, a judge or magistrate to take into consideration the protection of the public, the seriousness of the offense charged, the previous criminal record of the defendant, and the probability of his or her appearing at trial or at a hearing of the case. Under existing law, the magistrate or commissioner to whom the application is made is authorized to set bail in an amount that he or she deems sufficient to ensure the defendant's appearance or to ensure the protection of a victim, or family member of a victim, of domestic violence, and to set bail on the terms and conditions that he or she, in his or her discretion, deems appropriate, or he or she may authorize the defendant's release on his or her own recognizance. Existing law provides that a defendant being held for a misdemeanor offense is entitled to be released on his or her own recognizance, unless the court makes a finding on the record that his or her release would compromise public safety or would not reasonably ensure the appearance of the defendant as required. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to safely reduce the number of people detained pretrial, while addressing racial and economic disparities in the pretrial system, to ensure that people are not held in pretrial detention simply because of their inability to afford money bail. This bill would implement a revised pretrial release procedure. The bill would require, except when a person is arrested for certain felonies, that a pretrial services agency conduct a pretrial risk assessment on an arrested person and prepare a pretrial services report that includes the results of the pretrial risk assessment and recommendations on conditions of release for the person immediately upon booking. The bill would require the pretrial services agency to transmit the report to a magistrate, judge, or court commissioner and the magistrate, judge, or court commissioner, within an unspecified number of hours, to issue an oral or written order to release the person, with or without release conditions, subject to the person signing a specified release agreement. The bill would require, if a person is in custody at the time of his or her arraignment, the judge or magistrate to consider the pretrial services report and any relevant information provided by the prosecuting attorney or the defendant and to order the pretrial release of the person, with or without conditions, subject to the person signing a specified release agreement. If the judge or magistrate determines that pretrial release, with or without conditions, will not reasonably ensure the appearance of the person in court as required, the bill would require the judge or magistrate to set monetary bail at the least restrictive level necessary to ensure the appearance of the defendant in court as required. The bill would authorize, if the judge or magistrate has set monetary bail, the person to execute an unsecured appearance bond, execute a secured appearance bond, or deposit a percentage of the sum mentioned in the order setting monetary bail. The bill would authorize a prosecuting attorney to file a motion seeking the pretrial detention of a person in certain circumstances, including when the person has been charged with a capital crime and the prosecuting attorney alleges that the facts are evident or the presumption great. The bill would require, if this motion has been filed, a hearing to be held to determine whether to release the person pending trial, unless the person waives the hearing. The bill would authorize the person to be detained pretrial only if the court makes one of several specified findings. The bill would require each county to establish a pretrial services agency that would be responsible for gathering information about newly arrested persons, conducting pretrial risk assessments, preparing individually tailored recommendations to the court regarding release options and conditions, and providing pretrial services and supervision to persons on pretrial release. The bill would require an unspecified agency to take certain actions relating to the implementation of the revised pretrial release procedure, including, among others, selecting a pretrial risk assessment tool to be used in conducting pretrial risk assessments that meets specified requirements and reviewing collected data to monitor compliance with state law and guidelines relating to pretrial release. The bill would also authorize that agency to take certain actions relating to the implementation of the revised pretrial release procedure, including, among other things, providing training and assistance to judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, pretrial services agencies, jail staff, and law enforcement agencies. The bill would require the Board of State and Community Corrections, in consultation with that unspecified agency, to develop a plan that establishes statewide requirements for counties relating to annual reporting of pretrial release and detention information. By imposing additional duties on local agencies, 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, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.

(1) Existing federal law, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, regulates, among other things, the quality and packaging of foods introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce and generally prohibits the misbranding of food. Existing federal law, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, governs state and local labeling requirements, including those that characterize the relationship of any nutrient specified in the labeling of food to a disease or health-related condition. Existing state law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, generally regulates misbranded food and provides that any food is misbranded if its labeling does not conform with the requirements for nutrient content or health claims as set forth in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the regulations adopted pursuant to that federal act. Existing law requires that a food facility, as defined, make prescribed disclosures and warnings to consumers, as specified. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing state law, the Pupil Nutrition, Health, and Achievement Act of 2001, also requires the sale of only certain beverages to pupils at schools. The beverages that may be sold include fruit-based and vegetable-based drinks, drinking water with no added sweetener, milk, and in middle and high schools, an electrolyte replacement beverage if those beverages meet certain nutritional requirements. This bill would establish the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Health Warning Act, which would prohibit a person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale a sugar-sweetened beverage in a sealed beverage container, or a multipack of sugar-sweetened beverages, in this state unless the beverage container or multipack bears a health warning, as prescribed. The bill also would require every person who owns, leases, or otherwise legally controls the premises where a vending machine or beverage dispensing machine is located, or where a sugar-sweetened beverage is sold in an unsealed container, to place a specified safety warning in certain locations, including on the exterior of any vending machine that includes a sugar-sweetened beverage for sale. (2) Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health, upon the request of a health officer, as defined, may authorize the local health department of a city, county, city and county, or local health district to enforce the provisions of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to assess a civil penalty against any person in an amount not to exceed $1,000 per day, except as specified. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General or any district attorney, on behalf of the State Department of Public Health, to bring an action in a superior court to grant a temporary or permanent injunction restraining a person from violating any provision of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law. This bill, commencing July 1, 2018, would provide that any violation of the provisions described in (1) above, or regulations adopted pursuant to those provisions, is punishable by a civil penalty of not less than $50, but no greater than $500. This bill would also create the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Fund for the receipt of all moneys collected for violations of those provisions. The bill would allocate moneys in this fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for the purpose of enforcing those provisions. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, obesity, and dental disease.

Existing sales and use tax laws impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. Those laws provide various exemptions from those taxes. This bill, on and after January 1, 2018, would exempt from those taxes the gross receipts from the sale in this state of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, tampons, sanitary napkins, menstrual sponges, and menstrual cups. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws. Existing law requires the state to reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse any local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

(1) Under existing law, the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources in the Department of Conservation regulates the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of oil and gas wells in the state. Existing law requires the State Oil and Gas Supervisor to continue the prohibition against Southern California Gas Company injecting any natural gas into the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility located in the County of Los Angeles until a comprehensive review of the safety of the gas storage wells at the facility is completed, as specified, the supervisor determines that well integrity has been ensured by the review, the risks of failures identified in the review have been addressed, the supervisor's duty to prevent damage to life, health, property, and natural resources, and other requirements is satisfied, and the Executive Director of the Public Utilities Commission has concurred via letter with the supervisor regarding his or her determination of safety. This bill would additionally require the supervisor to continue that prohibition until a specified root cause analysis of the natural gas leak from the facility that started approximately October 23, 2015, has been completed and released in its entirety to the public. The bill would, notwithstanding that prohibition, authorize the Governor to order incremental injections at the facility, but only if the Governor determines it is necessary to avoid, or respond to, an emergency situation. (2) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission is authorized to supervise and regulate every public utility in the state. Existing law requires the commission, no later than July 1, 2017, to open a proceeding to determine the feasibility of minimizing or eliminating use of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility located in the County of Los Angeles while still maintaining energy and electric reliability for the region, and to consult with specified entities in making its determination. This bill would require the commission, in conducting the proceeding, to act in the manner that will maximize transparency. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.