Existing law authorizes an unmarried person who is under 18 years of age to marry upon obtaining a court order granting permission and the written consent of at least one of the parents or the guardian of each underage party to the marriage, as specified. Existing law requires the court, if it considers it necessary, as part of the court order granting permission to marry, to require the parties to the prospective marriage of a minor to participate in premarital counseling, as specified. Existing law provides that 2 unmarried, unrelated adults who have chosen to share one another's lives in an intimate and committed relationship of mutual caring may establish a domestic partnership by filing a declaration with the Secretary of State if certain requirements are met. Existing law provides that a person under 18 years of age who, together with the person with whom he or she proposes to establish a domestic partnership, meets the requirements for a domestic partnership other than the requirement of being at least 18 years of age, is capable of consenting to and establishing a domestic partnership upon obtaining a court order granting permission to the underage person or persons to establish a domestic partnership. Under existing law, registered domestic partners have the same rights, protections, and benefits as spouses. This bill would require the court, in determining whether to issue an order granting permission for a person under 18 years of age to marry or establish a domestic partnership, to require Family Court Services to separately interview the parties intending to marry or establish a domestic partnership and at least one of the parents or the guardian, as specified, and to require Family Court Services to prepare and submit to the court a written report containing, among other things, recommendations for either granting or denying the parties permission to marry or establish a domestic partnership. If Family Court Services knows or reasonably suspects that either party is a victim of child abuse or neglect, the bill would require Family Court Services to submit a report of the known or suspected child abuse or neglect to the county child protective services agency. The bill would also require the court to consider whether there is evidence of coercion or undue influence on the minor. The bill would require the court to separately interview each of the parties, as specified, prior to making a final determination regarding the court order. If the court issues an order granting the parties permission to marry or establish a domestic partnership, and if one or both of the parties are 17 years of age or younger, the bill would make the parties eligible to request a marriage license or to file a Declaration of Domestic Partnership no earlier than 30 days from the time the court order was issued. The bill would exempt from the above-described requirements a minor who is 17 years of age and who has achieved a high school diploma or a high school equivalency certificate. The bill would exempt from the above-described 30-day waiting requirement a minor who is 16 or 17 years of age and who is pregnant or whose prospective spouse or domestic partner is pregnant. The bill would require that a minor granted permission to marry or establish a domestic partnership be provided with specified information, including the procedures for legal separation or dissolution of marriage or termination of a domestic partnership, and the rights of a minor to enter into contracts. The bill would require the court, if it considers it necessary, as part of the court order granting permission to establish a domestic partnership, to require the parties to the domestic partnership of a minor to participate in counseling before the domestic partnership is established, as specified. Existing law requires the person solemnizing the marriage to return the marriage license, as specified, to the county recorder of the county in which the license was issued within 10 days after the ceremony. This bill would also require the person solemnizing the marriage to include with the marriage license a copy of the court order granting permission to marry, if one or both of the parties to the marriage were minors at the time of solemnization of the marriage. Existing law requires the local registrar of marriages, who is the county recorder, to transmit to the State Registrar of Vital Statistics all marriage certificates accepted for registration, as specified. This bill would also require the local registrar to submit to the State Registrar, at least annually, the total number of marriage certificates and the age and gender of each party, as specified, concerning marriage certificates in which one or both of the parties were minors at the time of solemnization of the marriage. The bill would authorize the local registrar to dispose of this information no earlier than 2 years after the local registrar submits the information to the State Registrar, and to immediately dispose of the copy of the court order after that submission. The bill would authorize the State Department of Public Health to implement these provisions through an all-county letter or similar instruction from the State Registrar without taking regulatory action. By creating new duties for county officials relating to certain marriage certificates, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the State Registrar and the Secretary of State to each create a document, no later than March 1, 2020, with annual updates, disaggregated by county, containing only the total number of marriage certificates or registered domestic partnerships, respectively, and the age and gender of each party, concerning marriage certificates or registered domestic partnerships in which one or both of the parties were minors, as specified. The bill would require the State Registrar and the Secretary of State to make the document available to the public upon request. The bill would require, only for purposes of completing the document, the documentation of the gender of each party, if provided, on the above-described court order granting permission to marry or establish a domestic partnership. The bill would also require the documentation of the date of birth of each party on the court order. This bill would also make conforming changes to related provisions. Existing law requires a certified copy of a court order granting a minor permission to establish a domestic partnership to be filed with the Secretary of State with the Declaration of Domestic Partnership. This bill would authorize the Secretary of State to dispose of a certified copy of a court order immediately after the Secretary of State uses the court order to create or update the document reflecting the total number of domestic partnerships and the age and gender of the parties. Existing law, the Emancipation of Minors Law, provides that a minor is emancipated if he or she meets one of certain conditions, including if he or she has entered into a valid marriage. Under existing law, an emancipated minor is generally considered to be an adult, as specified. This bill would make a minor emancipated if he or she has established a domestic partnership. 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.
Sponsored bills
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 Emergency Services Act establishes the Office of Emergency Services (OES) in the office of the Governor and provides that OES is responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or manmade disasters and emergencies. The act also provides for systems for the public dissemination of alerts regarding missing children, attacks upon law enforcement officers, and missing persons who are 65 years of age or older, among others, and requires the Department of the California Highway Patrol to activate these systems and issue alerts upon the request of a law enforcement agency if certain conditions are met. This bill, on or before July 1, 2019, would require OES, in consultation with specified entities, to develop voluntary guidelines for alerting and warning the public of an emergency. The bill would require OES to provide each city, county, and city and county with a copy of the guidelines. This bill would authorize OES to impose conditions upon application for voluntary grant funding that it administers requiring operation of alert and warning activities consistent with the guidelines. The bill would also require OES, within 6 months of making the statewide guidelines available and at least annually thereafter and through its California Specialized Training Institute, to develop an alert and warning training, as specified. This bill would authorize OES to adopt emergency regulations for these purposes, as specified.
(1) Existing law requires an insurer to comply with certain procedures relating to the cancellation of insurance policies, except as specified, in the case of a total loss to the primary insured structure under a residential policy. Among other requirements, an insurer may not cancel coverage while the primary insured structure is being rebuilt, as specified, nor use the fact that the primary insured structure is in damaged condition as a result of the total loss as the sole basis for a decision to cancel the policy, and must offer, at least once, to renew the policy, as specified, if the total loss to the primary insured structure was caused by a disaster. This bill would prohibit, subject to certain exceptions, an insurer from canceling or refusing to renew a policy of residential property insurance for one year after the declaration of a state of emergency based solely on the fact that the insured structure is located in an area in which a wildfire has occurred, with respect to an insured property located within or adjacent to the fire perimeter, as specified. (2) Existing law creates the Department of Insurance, headed by the Insurance Commissioner, and prescribes the department's and commissioner's powers and duties. Existing law authorizes the commissioner to require reports from insurers concerning risks and solvency, and authorizes the commissioner to impose civil penalties for failure to submit reports or data to the commissioner. Under existing law, the acts and orders of the commissioner are subject to a court's review or other action. This bill would require an admitted insurer with written California premiums above a specified threshold to submit a report with specified fire risk information on its residential property policies to the commissioner on or before April 1, 2020, and every 2 years thereafter. The bill would require the commissioner to post a report on wildfire risk compiled from the submitted data to the department's Internet Web site every 2 years. The bill would authorize the commissioner to specify the manner of submission and the format of the report submitted by the insurer and would authorize the commissioner to grant a submission extension to an insurer. The bill would subject an admitted insurer that fails to submit a report to a civil penalty to be fixed by the commissioner, not to exceed $5,000, or $10,000 if the act was willful, and would specify the appeals process. The bill would provide that fire risk information submitted to the commissioner is confidential and not subject to subpoena, as specified. (3) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. (4) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 675.1 of the Insurance Code proposed by SB 894 to be operative only if this bill and SB 894 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law requires the board of governors to appoint a chief executive officer, to be known as the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. Existing law establishes community college districts, administered by governing boards, throughout the state, and authorizes these districts to provide instruction to students at the community college campuses maintained by the districts. Existing law requires community colleges to offer instruction through the 2nd year of college and authorizes community colleges to grant associate degrees in arts and science. In addition, existing law authorizes the board of governors, in consultation with the California State University and the University of California, to establish a statewide baccalaureate degree pilot program at not more than 15 community college districts, with one baccalaureate degree program each, to be determined by the chancellor and approved by the board of governors. Existing law requires a student participating in a baccalaureate degree pilot program to complete his or her degree by the end of the 2022–23 academic year. Existing law requires the Legislative Analyst's Office to conduct and report to the Legislature and the Governor the results of a final evaluation of the pilot program, as specified, on or before July 1, 2022. Existing law makes the authorization to establish pilot baccalaureate degree programs inoperative on July 1, 2023, and repeals the authorization on January 1, 2024. This bill would require that a student participating in a baccalaureate degree pilot program commence his or her degree program by the beginning of the 2022–23 academic year. The bill would instead require the Legislative Analyst's Office to report the results of the final evaluation of the pilot program on or before July 1, 2021. The bill would extend the inoperative and repeal dates for the authorization to establish pilot baccalaureate degree programs by 3 years.
Existing law regulates tax preparers and states that it is the intent of the provisions governing the regulation of tax preparers to enable consumers to easily identify credible tax preparers who are bonded and registered, to ensure tax preparers receive adequate education and treat confidential information appropriately, to prohibit tax preparers from making fraudulent, untrue, or misleading representations, and to provide for the California Tax Education Council (council) to register tax preparers and ensure that they meet all necessary requirements. Existing law, for the purposes of these provisions, defines client to mean an individual for whom a tax preparer performs or agrees to perform tax preparation services, and defines the council as a single nonprofit organization exempt from taxation and made up of representatives from specified entities. Existing law requires the council to issue a registration to any applicant who provides satisfactory evidence that he or she meets specified requirements and who complies with the rules established by the council. Existing law requires a tax preparer to provide to the customer in writing specified information prior to rendering any tax preparation services. Except as specified, a violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing law repeals these provisions on January 1, 2019. The Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act requires, with specified exceptions, that all meetings of a state body be open and public and all persons be permitted to attend. This bill would name these provisions the Tax Preparation Act, and would require a tax preparer, on and after July 1, 2019, to report a paid claim against its surety bond to the council, which would be required to post a notice of the claim on its Internet Web site. The bill would extend the definition of client to the term "customer." The bill would establish public protection as the council's highest priority in exercising its registration and disciplinary authority and other functions. The bill would make the meetings of the council's board of directors subject to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act. The bill would require the council to establish and maintain on its Internet Web site a searchable public registry of registrants with specified information about each registrant. The bill would require a tax preparer to include the address of the council's Internet Web site in the information the tax preparer is required to provide to a customer before rendering services. The bill would direct the council to require an applicant, beginning July 1, 2020, to submit fingerprint images for submission to the Department of Justice, and would require the Department of Justice to compile and disseminate a fitness determination regarding the applicant based on the applicant's criminal offender record information, as prescribed. The bill would require the Department of Justice and the council to charge a fee sufficient to cover the costs of processing the request for state- and federal-level criminal offender record information. The bill would include among the list of persons exempt from the act an employee supervised by a person who is exempt from the act, subject to specified conditions. The bill would extend the operation of the act's provisions to January 1, 2023. By extending the operation of these provisions, 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 California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, generally requires rigid plastic packaging containers, as defined, sold or offered for sale in this state to meet one of specified criteria. This bill would enact the Sustainable Packaging for the State of California Act of 2018, which would prohibit a food service facility located in a state-owned facility, operating on or acting as a concessionaire on state property, or under contract to provide food service to a state agency from dispensing prepared food using a type of food service packaging unless the type of food service packaging is on a list that the bill would require the department to publish and maintain on its Internet Web site that contains types of approved food service packaging that are reusable, recyclable, or compostable. The bill would exempt packaging acquired before its inclusion on the list, as specified. The bill would require the department to regularly, but no less than once every 5 years, evaluate the list of approved types of food service packaging and would authorize the department to add or remove types of food service packaging to or from the list based on whether the packaging is recyclable, reusable, or compostable. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2021, the department to adopt, in consultation with specified state and local agencies, regulations for determining the types of food service packaging that are reusable, recyclable, or compostable, and would prescribe specified criteria for the Director of the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to consider in determining whether a type of food service packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable. The bill would require local governments, solid waste facilities, recycling facilities, and composting facilities to provide information requested by the department for purposes of developing those regulations. By imposing additional duties on local governments, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require a food service facility to provide to the department reasonable and timely access to contracts, invoices, and purchase orders that include information demonstrating whether the food service packaging material acquired by the food service facility is in compliance with the bill. The bill would require the Department of General Services or any state agency that is entering into a contract or agreement or amending an existing contract or agreement with a food service facility to ensure that the relevant contract or agreement conforms to any applicable provisions of the bill and would impose specified additional duties on the Department of General Services in relation to those contracts or agreements. 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.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law requires the board of governors to appoint a chief executive officer, to be known as the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. Existing law establishes community college districts, administered by governing boards, throughout the state, and authorizes these districts to provide instruction to students at the community college campuses maintained by the districts. Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to, among other duties, establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials, certificates, and permits. Existing law establishes minimum requirements for the preliminary multiple or single subject teaching credential, including satisfactory completion of a program of professional preparation, as provided. This bill would establish the California Community College Teacher Credentialing Partnership Pilot Program under which the commission, in coordination with the chancellor, would award up to 3 grants, in the amount of $500,000 each, to collaboratives, that would be comprised of at least one accredited degree-granting institution of higher education with a physical presence in this state and at least one community college, for the purpose of offering teacher credential coursework remotely at participating community college or colleges. The bill would require these degree programs to be accredited by the commission's Committee on Accreditation on the basis of standards of program quality and effectiveness. The bill would authorize priority for the receipt of grants to be given to a collaborative that is located in areas of the state with low rates of K–12 credentialed public school teachers, demonstrates that its degree program or programs meet the documented labor market demand of its target region, and identifies the resources necessary to offer its degree program or programs. The bill would provide that grants shall be awarded only to the extent that funding for the statewide pilot program is provided in the annual Budget Act. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to submit a report on the implementation of the statewide pilot program to the Legislature and the Department of Finance on or before April 1, 2023.
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.
Existing law establishes the Acupuncture Board, which consists of 7 members, to administer and enforce laws in the Acupuncture Licensure Act until January 1, 2019. The Acupuncture Licensure Act authorizes the board, until January 1, 2019, to appoint an executive officer. Existing law specifies that, for purposes of the act, an "approved educational and training program" is a school or college that meets specified conditions and requirements, including, among others, being granted candidacy status by the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, as provided. This bill would extend the operation of the board and the authority to appoint an executive officer to January 1, 2023. The bill would require an approved educational and training program to be granted preaccreditation status, rather than candidacy status, by the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for a person who does not hold a current and valid acupuncturist's license to hold himself or herself out as practicing or engaging in the practice of acupuncture and describes what constitutes a person holding himself or herself out as engaging in the practice of acupuncture to include, among other things, representing that the person is trained, experienced, or an expert in the field of acupuncture, Asian medicine, or Chinese medicine. This bill would instead make it a misdemeanor for a person who does not hold a current and valid acupuncturist's license to advertise or otherwise represent that he or she is practicing or engaging in the practice of acupuncture and would describe what constitutes advertising or representing that a person is practicing or engaging in the practice of acupuncture to include, among other things, representing that the person is trained, experienced, an expert, or otherwise qualified to practice in the field of acupuncture, Asian medicine, oriental medicine, or any other complementary or integrative medicine that involves acupuncture and is associated with an Asian subgroup. Because the bill would expand the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law provides that unprofessional conduct includes the knowing failure to protect patients by failing to follow infection control guidelines, as specified, and requires the board to consult, as necessary, with the Medical Board of California and certain other healing arts boards to encourage appropriate consistency in implementing that provision. This bill would instead require the board to consult, as necessary, with any healing arts board, as specified. The bill would make other technical changes. 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.