Existing law, known as the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, contains provisions relating to employer-employee relations between the state and the employees of state institutions of higher education, including the University of California and the California State University, as well as the Hastings College of the Law. These provisions assign major responsibilities for implementation to the Public Employment Relations Board. Under the act, an "employee" or "higher education employee" is defined as any employee of the Regents of the University of California, the Directors of the Hastings College of the Law, or the Trustees of the California State University. The act authorizes the board to find that student employees whose employment is contingent on their status as students are employees only if the services they provide are unrelated to their educational objectives, or that those educational objectives are subordinate to the services they perform and that coverage under this act would further the purposes of the act. This bill would instead provide that student employees whose employment is contingent upon their status as students are employees and higher education employees for purposes of the act. The act excludes from the "scope of representation," for purposes of the University of California only, among other things, conditions for the award of certificates and degrees to students. This bill would specify that the requirements for students to achieve satisfactory progress toward their degrees is also outside of the scope of representation.
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Existing federal law provides for allocation of federal funds through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant program to eligible states. Existing law provides for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program for the allocation of federal funds received through the TANF program, under which each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families. Under existing law, for purposes of determining a family's maximum aid payment under the CalWORKs program, the number of needy persons in the same family is not increased for any child born into a family that has received aid under the CalWORKs program continuously for the 10 months prior to the birth of the child, with specified exceptions. This bill would repeal that exclusion for purposes of determining the family's maximum aid payment and would expressly prohibit the denial of aid or denial of an increase in the maximum aid payment if a child on whose behalf aid, or an increase in aid, is being requested was born into an applicant's or recipient's family while the applicant's or recipient's family was receiving aid under the CalWORKs program. The bill would specify that an applicant or recipient is not entitled to an increased benefit payment for months prior to January 1, 2014, as a result of the repeal of that exclusion or the enactment of that express prohibition. The bill would also prohibit the department from conditioning an applicant or recipient's eligibility for aid on the applicant or recipient's disclosure of specified information regarding rape, incest, or contraception, as specified. The bill would make related findings and declarations. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county aid grant costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would declare that no appropriation would be made for purposes of the bill. To the extent that this bill affects eligibility under the CalWORKs program, the bill would create 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 these statutory provisions.
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 specifies the duties of the board of governors, including, among other duties, establishing minimum standards for the formation of community colleges and districts. Under its existing regulatory authority, the board of governors requires each community college to be accredited and has designated the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges as the accrediting agency. This bill would require the board of governors, on or before January 1, 2016, to report to the Legislature (1) the feasibility of creating an independent accrediting agency to accredit the California Community Colleges and 2-year private postsecondary educational institutions for purposes of the federal Higher Education Act of 1965 and state-authorized financial aid, (2) based on a thorough examination of community college accreditation nationwide, a recommendation of whether the state would be best served by using a specified accrediting agency for all California public postsecondary educational institutions, and (3) the potential for using multiple accrediting agencies to ensure that the California Community Colleges are of the highest quality, as provided.
Existing law requires that health insurance policies provide coverage for the diagnosis and medically necessary treatment of severe mental illnesses of a person of any age and of serious emotional disturbances of a child, under the same terms and conditions applied to other medical conditions, as specified. Existing law requires health insurance policies to provide benefits for specified conditions, including coverage for behavioral health treatment, as defined, for pervasive developmental disorder or autism, as specified. This bill would give the Insurance Commissioner the authority to assess administrative penalties for any violations of the above provisions, including any rules or orders adopted or issued based on violations of those provisions. The bill would also give the commissioner authority to assess a penalty for each patient harmed by a violation of the above provisions, including any rules or orders adopted or issued based on violations of those provisions, as a separate and distinct violation. The penalties would not exceed $2,500 for each violation, or for an ongoing and continuous violation, the penalty would not exceed $2,500 per day for as long as the violation continues.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation. Existing law requires the Department of Finance, in consultation with the state board and any other relevant state agency, to develop, as specified, a 3-year investment plan for the moneys deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This bill would establish the Natural Resources Climate Improvement Program, which would be administered by the state board, in coordination with the Natural Resources Agency, to assist in the development and implementation of highly leveraged, regionally integrated natural resources projects that maximize greenhouse gas emissions reductions or sequestration. The bill would authorize moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the state board to implement the Natural Resources Climate Improvement Program.
(1) The Political Reform Act of 1974 provides for the comprehensive regulation of campaign financing and related matters, including the reporting of campaign contributions, as defined. Under existing law, a payment made at the behest of a candidate for elective office is considered a contribution unless the payment is made for purposes unrelated to the candidate's candidacy, and a payment is presumed to be unrelated to a candidate's candidacy if it is made principally for legislative, governmental, or charitable purposes. The bill would prohibit an elected officer from requesting that a payment be made, or a person from making a payment, at the behest of the elected officer to a nonprofit organization that is exempt from taxation under Section 501(c) (4) of the Internal Revenue Code and that the elected officer knows or has reason to know is owned or controlled by that officer or specified family members of the officer, except as specified. The bill would provide that an elected officer is deemed to have complied with that requirement if the Commission determines that the elected officer has made a reasonable effort to ascertain whether a nonprofit organization is owned or controlled by any of the specified persons. (2) The act prohibits specified officers from receiving gifts, as defined, in excess of $440 in value from a single source in a calendar year. The act exempts gift payments for the actual costs of specified types of travel that are reasonably related to a legislative or governmental purpose, or to an issue of state, national, or international public policy, from the annual limit on the value of gifts from a single source. This bill would require a nonprofit organization that pays for these types of travel for an elected state officer or local elected officeholder to disclose the names of donors responsible for funding the payments, as specified. The bill would require a person who receives a gift of a travel payment to report the travel destination on his or her statement of economic interests. (3) The act requires that contributions deposited into a campaign account be held in trust for expenses associated with the election of the candidate or for expenses associated with holding office. The act provides that an expenditure to seek office is within the lawful execution of this trust if it is reasonably related to a political purpose and an expenditure associated with holding office is within the lawful execution of this trust if it is reasonably related to a legislative or governmental purpose. Expenditures that confer a substantial personal benefit must be directly related to a political, legislative, or governmental purpose. The act authorizes the use of campaign funds to make donations or loans to bona fide charitable, educational, civic, religious, or similar tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. The act imposes additional limitations on certain expenditures, including those relating to automotive expenses, travel expenses, tickets for entertainment or sporting events, personal gifts, and real property expenses. The bill would prohibit an elected officer or a committee controlled by the elected officer from making an expenditure of campaign funds to a nonprofit organization that is exempt from taxation under Section 501(c) (4) of the Internal Revenue Code and that is owned or controlled by the officer or specified family members of the officer, as specified. This bill would also limit the expenditure of campaign funds for other purposes, as specified, including personal vacations, payments for membership dues for a country club, health club, or other recreational facility, specified tuition payments, utility payments, vehicle use that is not directly related to an election campaign, and certain gifts for specified family members of a candidate, elected officer, or other individuals with the authority to approve the expenditure of campaign funds held by a committee. (4) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 89513 of the Government Code, proposed by AB 1666 and AB 1692, that would become operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last. (5) A violation of the act's provisions is punishable as a misdemeanor. 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. (6) The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.
Existing law generally defines "public work" as construction, alteration, demolition, installation, or repair work done under contract and paid for in whole or in part out of public funds; work done for irrigation, utility, reclamation, and improvement districts, and other districts of this type; street, sewer, or other improvement work done under the direction and supervision or by the authority of any officer or public body of the state or of any political subdivision or district thereof, and public transportation demonstration projects, as specified. Existing law, the Public Works Project Peer Review Act of 2013, authorizes a public agency principally tasked with administering, planning, developing, and operating a public works project to establish a peer review group, as defined. If a peer review group is established, existing law requires the administering agency to draft a charter, published on the agency's Internet Web site, related to the duties of the peer review group. This bill would authorize these provisions, instead, to be known and cited as the Public Works Project Oversight Improvement Act. The bill would define a "megaproject" as a transportation project with total estimated development and construction costs exceeding $2,500,000,000. The bill would require the agency administering a megaproject to establish a peer review group and to take specified actions to manage the risks associated with a megaproject including establishing a comprehensive risk management plan, and regularly reassessing its reserves for potential claims and unknown risks. The bill would require the agency administering a megaproject to make available to the public via its Internet Web site a list of all engineers in responsible charge of work related to the megaproject. Because this bill would require local agencies to perform additional duties, 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, 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.
Existing law requires each county to provide cash assistance and other social services to needy families through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program using federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant program, state, and county funds. Under existing law, for purposes of determining a family's maximum aid payment under the CalWORKs program, the number of needy persons in the same family is not increased for any child born into a family that has received aid under the CalWORKs program continuously for the 10 months prior to the birth of the child, with specified exceptions. This bill would repeal that exclusion for purposes of determining the family's maximum aid payment and would expressly prohibit the denial of aid or denial of an increase in the maximum aid payment if a child, on whose behalf aid or an increase in aid is being requested, was born into an applicant's or recipient's family while the applicant's or recipient's family was receiving aid under the CalWORKs program. The bill would specify that an applicant or recipient is not entitled to an increased benefit payment for any month prior to January 1, 2015, as a result of the repeal of that exclusion or the enactment of that express prohibition. The bill would also prohibit the department from conditioning an applicant's or recipient's eligibility for aid on the applicant's or recipient's disclosure of information regarding rape, incest, or contraception, as specified, or the applicant's or recipient's use of contraception. The bill would make related findings and declarations. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county aid grant costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would declare that no appropriation would be made for purposes of the bill. To the extent that this bill affects eligibility under the CalWORKs program, the bill would create 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 these statutory provisions.
The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act requires the governing body of a local public agency to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with representatives of a recognized employee organization. The act requires, if a tentative agreement is reached and the governing body adopts the tentative agreement, that the parties prepare jointly a nonbinding written memorandum of understanding of the agreement. Under existing law, if representatives of the public employee agency and the recognized employee organization fail to reach agreement, the parties may agree together upon the appointment of a mutually agreeable mediator. This bill instead would permit either party to request mediation and would require the parties to agree upon a mediator, if either party has provided the other with a written notice of declaration of impasse. If the parties cannot agree upon a mediator, the bill would authorize either party to request the board to appoint a mediator. The bill would require the board to appoint a mediator within 5 days after receipt of the party's request, as prescribed. A public agency would not be required to proceed to mediation in its negotiations with respect to a bargaining unit under the above-described circumstances if the public agency has an impasse procedure that includes, at a minimum, a process for binding arbitration. The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act requires the Public Employment Relations Board to determine in disputed cases whether a particular item is within or without the scope of representation. Existing law requires the governing body of a local public agency, or those boards, commissions, administrative officers, or other representatives as may be properly designated by law or by a governing body, to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with representatives of recognized employee organizations. Existing law authorizes an employee organization to request that the parties' differences be submitted to a factfinding panel not sooner than 30 days or more than 45 days following the appointment or selection of a mediator pursuant to the parties' agreement to mediate or a mediation process required by a public agency's local rules. Existing law authorizes an employee organization, if the dispute was not submitted to a mediation, to request that the parties' differences be submitted to a factfinding panel not later than 30 days following the date that either party provided the other with a written notice of a declaration of impasse. Existing law prohibits an employee organization's procedural right to request a factfinding panel from being waived expressly or voluntarily. This bill would authorize differences under these provisions to include those differences that arise from any dispute over any matter within the scope of representation as to which an obligation to meet and confer exists, and are not limited to negotiations after impasse after collective bargaining for a new or successor memorandum of understanding. The bill would limit the criteria that the factfinders would be required to consider to those criteria that the factfinders deem relevant to the dispute. The bill would authorize an employee organization to voluntarily waive the right to request a factfinding panel, in writing. The bill would include legislative findings and declarations that certain of these amendments are clarifying and declaratory of existing law.
Under existing law, as amended by Proposition 21, an initiative statute approved by the voters at the March 7, 2000, statewide primary election, juvenile court hearings are closed to the public, except for juvenile court hearings alleging the commission of specified felonies. The Legislature may amend Proposition 21 by a statute passed in each house by a 23 vote. This bill would add to that list of felonies, to which the public may be admitted for the hearing, certain sex offenses accomplished because the person is prevented from resisting due to being rendered unconscious by any intoxicating, anesthetizing, or controlled substance, or when the victim is at the time incapable, because of a disability, of giving consent, and this is known or reasonably should be known to the person committing the offense. Existing law provides that when a minor is adjudged a ward of the court, as specified, the court may order any of certain types of treatment, and as an additional alternative, may commit the minor to a juvenile home, ranch, camp, or forestry camp, or the county juvenile hall, as specified. This bill would require a minor to complete a sex offender treatment program when a minor is adjudged or continued as a ward of the court for the commission of specified sex offenses, if the court determines, in consultation with the county probation officer, that suitable programs are available. The bill would require the court to consider certain factors, in addition to any other relevant information presented, in determining what type of sex offender treatment program is appropriate for the minor. The bill would require a minor completing a sex offender treatment program to pay all or a portion of the reasonable costs of the program, as specified. By increasing the duties on county officials in implementing the treatment program requirement, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law authorizes deferral of judgment for certain minors who have committed felony offenses if specified criteria are met. This bill would add to those criteria that the offense charged is not rape, sodomy, oral copulation, or an act of sexual penetration, as specified, when the victim was prevented from resisting due to being rendered unconscious by any intoxicating, anesthetizing, or controlled substance, or when the victim was at the time incapable, because of mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving consent, and that was known or reasonably should have been known to the minor at the time of the offense. Because this bill would amend Proposition 21, it would require a 23 vote. 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.