(1) Existing law creates the Department of Human Resources, which succeeds to and is vested with all of the powers and duties exercised and performed by the Department of Personnel Administration. Existing law specifically grants the department the powers, duties, and authority necessary to operate the state civil service system in accordance with Article VII of the California Constitution, the Government Code, the merit principle, and applicable rules duly adopted by the State Personnel Board. Existing law requires the State Personnel Board to prescribe rules consistent with a merit-based civil service system to govern classifications, examinations, probationary periods, disciplinary actions, appointments, and other matters related to the board's authority under the California Constitution. Under existing state civil service law, the Department of Human Resources administers the Limited Examination and Appointment Program (LEAP) to provide an alternative to the traditional civil service examination and appointment process to facilitate the hiring of persons with disabilities. Until January 1, 2021, the program includes persons with a developmental disability, as defined. Existing law, until January 1, 2021, specifies that LEAP is a voluntary, additional method of applying for state employment and is not a mandate on any state agency employer or job applicant, except as specified. Existing law also, until January 1, 2021, requires the department to develop and create an internship program, in coordination with specified state entities, and establish several related requirements to that effect. This bill would extend all of the above described LEAP program provisions indefinitely. (2) Existing law requires the Department of Human Resources, when an appointing power seeks to fill a vacant position by using an employment list, to provide the appointing power with a certified list of the names and addresses of all eligible candidates whose scores at the time of certification represent the 3 highest ranks on the list and who have indicated a willingness to accept appointment. Under existing law, if there is more than one employment list or LEAP referral list, the department is required to provide a single certified list of eligible candidates that combines the names and addresses of all eligible candidates. This bill would authorize an appointing power to fill a vacancy by making an examination appointment of a candidate from a LEAP referral list. The bill would also require the department, upon request of the appointing power, to provide the appointing power the referral list without combining that list with any parallel employment list. The bill would also require the Department of Human Resources, by July 1, 2020, after consultation with specified state entities and organizations representing persons with disabilities, to develop and implement a plan for expansion of LEAP. The bill would require the plan to identify statewide classifications that are not currently in the LEAP program, as specified, and to ensure that all statewide classifications are designated as LEAP-certified classes by June 30, 2022. The bill would authorize an individual who is eligible for LEAP to request the Department of Human Resources to assess if that individual meets the minimum qualifications and various other criteria for the program, and would require the department, if it concludes the individual meets those qualifications and criteria, to place that individual on the applicable referral list, as provided. The bill would also require the department to post information concerning LEAP on its internet website. (3) Existing law requires each state agency to develop and implement an affirmative action employment plan for individuals with a disability, including goals and timetables. The bill, until December 31, 2027, would additionally require the department to identify 5 state agencies or departments which, as of June 2019, have at least 100 employees and have the lowest representation rate of persons with disabilities, averaged over the 5-year period from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2019, inclusive. The bill would require the department, by June 30, 2020, to confer with each appointing power and require it to adopt or revise its affirmative action employment plan to ensure that individuals with disabilities have access to positions in state service, and to set new goals and timetables for hiring persons with disabilities. The bill would require each appointing power to specify in that plan 2 or more of specified hiring strategies, and to agree to utilize those strategies by June 30, 2023. The bill would further require the department, by December 31, 2023, in consultation with specified state entities and organizations representing persons with disabilities, to report to the Legislature on the number of persons with disabilities hired by each appointing power, along with other specified information.
Sponsored bills
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law establishes a schedule of benefits under the Medi-Cal program and provides for various services, including various behavioral and mental health services. Existing law, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) , an initiative measure enacted by the voters as Proposition 63 at the November 2, 2004, statewide general election, establishes the continuously appropriated Mental Health Services Fund to fund various county mental health programs. The act also requires funds to be reserved for the costs of the State Department of Health Care Services, the California Behavioral Health Planning Council, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) , the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, the State Department of Public Health, and any other state agency to implement all duties pursuant to certain programs provided for by the act, subject to appropriation in the annual Budget Act. The act provides that it may be amended by the Legislature by a 23 vote of each house as long as the amendment is consistent with, and furthers the intent of, the act, and that the Legislature may also clarify procedures and terms of the act by majority vote. This bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to establish, no later than July 1, 2020, a statewide peer support specialist certification program, as a part of the state's comprehensive mental health and substance use disorder delivery system and the Medi-Cal program. The certification program's components would include, among others, defining responsibilities, practice guidelines, and supervision standards, determining curriculum and core competencies, specifying training and continuing education requirements, establishing a code of ethics, and determining a certification revocation process. The bill would require an applicant for the certification as a peer support specialist to meet specified requirements, including successful completion of the curriculum and training requirements. This bill would require the department to consult with OSHPD and other stakeholders in implementing the certification program, including requiring quarterly stakeholder meetings. The bill would authorize the department to use funding provided through the MHSA, upon appropriation, to develop and administer the certification program, and would authorize the use of these MHSA funds to serve as the state's share of funding to claim federal financial participation under the Medicaid program. This bill would authorize the department to establish a certification fee schedule and to require remittance of fees as contained in the schedule, for the purpose of supporting the department's activities associated with the ongoing administration of the certification program. This bill would require the department to amend the Medicaid state plan to include a certified peer support specialist as a provider type for purposes of the Medi-Cal program and to include peer support specialist services as a distinct service type for purposes of the Medi-Cal program. The bill would require Medi-Cal reimbursement for peer support specialist services to be implemented only if, and to the extent that, federal financial participation is available and the department obtains all necessary federal approvals. The bill also would authorize the department to implement, interpret, or make specific its provisions by means of informal notices, plan letters, plan or provider bulletins, or similar instructions, without taking regulatory action, until regulations are adopted. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations by July 1, 2022, and, commencing July 1, 2020, would require the department to provide semiannual status reports to the Legislature until regulations have been adopted. This bill would declare that it clarifies terms and procedures under the Mental Health Services Act.
Existing law requires that the ballots used when voting upon a measure proposed by a local governing body or submitted to the voters as an initiative or referendum measure, including a measure authorizing the issuance of bonds or the incurrence of debt, have printed on them a true and impartial statement describing the purpose of the measure. If the proposed measure imposes a tax or raises the rate of a tax, existing law requires the ballot to include in the statement of the measure the amount of money to be raised annually and the rate and duration of the tax to be levied. This bill would exempt from this requirement a measure that imposes or increases a tax with more than one rate or authorizes the issuance of bonds. The bill would instead permit for these types of measures the statement of the measure to include the words "See voter guide for tax rate information." Existing law requires local governments, when submitting for voter approval a bond measure that will be secured by an ad valorem tax, to provide the voters with a statement that includes estimates of the tax rates required to fund the measure. This bill would additionally require for a measure that imposes or increases a tax with more than one rate or authorizes the issuance of bonds, that voters be provided with a statement that includes specified information relating to the tax that will be imposed or increased as a result of the measure. By imposing new duties on local elections officials, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law requires the governing board of any school district to give diligent care to the health and physical development of pupils and authorizes the governing board of a school district to employ properly certified persons for the work. Existing law requires a school of a school district or county office of education and a charter school to notify pupils and parents or guardians of pupils no less than twice during the school year on how to initiate access to available pupil mental health services on campus or in the community, or both, as provided. This bill, contingent on an appropriation made for these purposes, would require the State Department of Education to identify an evidence-based training program for a local educational agency to use to train classified and certificated school employees having direct contact with pupils on youth mental and behavioral health, as specified. The bill would define a local educational agency for purposes of these provisions to mean a county office of education, school district, state special school, or charter school that serves pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive. The bill would require a local educational agency, on or before January 1, 2023, to certify to the department that at least 10% of its classified employees and at least 10% of its certificated employees having direct contact with pupils at each schoolsite, or at least 2 classified employees and at least 2 certificated employees having direct contact with pupils at each schoolsite, whichever is greater, have received the youth mental and behavioral health training identified by the department. To the extent this bill, if implemented, would impose additional duties on local educational agencies, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Under existing law, the California Transportation Commission allocates various state and federal transportation funds through specified state programs to local and regional transportation agencies to implement projects consistent with the requirements of those programs. Existing law continuously appropriates $200,000,000 annually from the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account for allocation by the commission for a program commonly known as the Local Partnership Program to local or regional transportation agencies that have sought and received voter approval of taxes or that have imposed certain fees, which taxes or fees are dedicated solely for road maintenance and rehabilitation and other transportation improvement projects. Existing law requires the commission, in cooperation with the Department of Transportation, transportation planning agencies, county transportation commissions, and other local agencies, to develop guidelines for the allocation of those moneys. This bill would require the commission to annually deposit 85% of these funds into the Local Partnership Formula Subaccount, which the bill would create, and 15% of these funds into the Small Counties and Uniform Developer Fees Competitive Subaccount, which the bill would create. The bill would require the commission to distribute the funds in the Local Partnership Formula Subaccount pursuant to a specified formula to local or regional transportation agencies that meet certain eligibility requirements. The bill would require the commission to allocate funds in the Small Counties and Uniform Developer Fees Competitive Subaccount through a competitive grant program to local or regional transportation agencies that meet other eligibility requirements. The bill would require the commission, in consultation with transportation planning agencies, county transportation commissions, and other local agencies, to develop separate guidelines for the distribution or allocation of the funds in each subaccount that, among other things, establish the types of eligible projects consistent with specified requirements. In order to receive a distribution of funds from the Local Partnership Formula Subaccount from the commission in a funding cycle, the bill would require an eligible entity to submit to the commission a description of a project nominated to be funded with the funds, including the project's status and the amount of eligible local matching funds the eligible entity is committing to the project. The bill would require the commission to review the accompanying documentation for nominated projects to ensure that each nominated project meets certain requirements, and would require that projects determined to meet those requirements be deemed eligible for funding.
Existing law generally requires a county from which a person is committed to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Justice, to pay to the state an annual rate of $24,000 while the person remains under the direct supervision of the division or remains cared for and supported at the expense of the division. This bill would increase that annual rate to $125,000 if the offense on which the commitment is based, had it been filed in a court of criminal jurisdiction at the time of adjudication, had a maximum aggregate sentence of fewer than 7 years or if the offense on which the commitment is based occurred when the person was 15 years of age or younger.
Existing property tax law requires the county auditor, in each fiscal year, to allocate property tax revenue to local jurisdictions in accordance with specified formulas and procedures, subject to certain modifications. Existing law requires an annual reallocation of property tax revenue from local agencies in each county to the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF) in that county for allocation to specified educational entities. Existing law authorizes certain local agencies to form an enhanced infrastructure financing district, affordable housing authority, transit village development district, or community revitalization and investment authority for purposes of, among other things, infrastructure, affordable housing, and economic revitalization. This bill would establish in state government the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Program, which would be administered by the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee. The bill would authorize a city, county, city and county, joint powers agency, enhanced infrastructure financing district, affordable housing authority, community revitalization and investment authority, transit village development district, or a combination of those entities, to apply to the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee to participate in the program and would authorize the committee to approve or deny plans for projects meeting specific criteria. The bill would also authorize certain local agencies to establish an affordable housing and community development investment agency and authorize an agency to apply for funding under the program and issue bonds, as provided, to carry out a project under the program. The bill would require the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee to adopt guidelines for plans. Subject to the Legislature enacting a budget bill for the applicable fiscal year that specifies the amount for the committee to allocate pursuant to the program, the bill would require the committee to approve no more than $200,000,000 per year from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2026, and $250,000,000 per year from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2030, in transfers from a county's ERAF for applicants for plans approved pursuant to this program. This bill would provide that eligible projects include, among other things, the predevelopment, development, acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation of workforce and affordable housing, certain transit-oriented development, and projects promoting strong neighborhoods. The bill would require the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee, upon approval of a plan and subject to specified conditions, to issue an order directing the county auditor to transfer an amount of ad valorem property tax revenue that is equal to the affordable housing and community development investment amount approved by the committee, except as provided, from the county's ERAF. The bill would require the county auditor to either deposit that amount into the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Fund, which this bill would create in the treasury of each county, or, if the applicant is a specified type of authority or special district to transfer to the city or county that created the authority or district an amount of property tax revenue equal to the amount approved by the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee for that authority or district. The bill would require the city or county that created the district to, upon receipt, transfer those funds to the authority or district in an amount equal to the affordable housing and community development investment amount for that authority or district. By imposing additional duties on local officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize applicants to use approved amounts to incur debt or issue bonds or other financing to support an approved project. The bill also would require each applicant that has received funding to submit annual reports, as specified, and would require the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee to provide a report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, if it approves funding under the program, that includes certain project information. Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution sets forth a formula for computing the minimum amount of revenues that the state is required to appropriate for the support of school districts and community college districts for each fiscal year. This bill would require the Director of Finance to adjust the percentage of General Fund revenues appropriated for school districts and community college districts for these purposes in a manner that ensures that the transfers from a county's ERAF pursuant to the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Program have no net fiscal impact upon the total amount of the General Fund revenue and local property tax revenue allocated to school districts and community college districts pursuant to Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution, as specified. 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.
This measure would urge specified state departments and the Attorney General to use their authority to ensure that health care service plans and health insurers subject to their authority comply with the federal Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.
(1) Existing federal law governing immigration authorizes the importation of an alien as a nonimmigrant agricultural worker, known as an H-2A worker, if specified requirements are met, including that the employer furnish housing, as provided. Existing state law establishes various housing programs administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development, including the Joe Serna, Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant Program, pursuant to which the department provides, subject to availability of funds, grants and loans to specified entities for the construction or rehabilitation of housing for agricultural employees and their families or for the acquisition of manufactured housing, as provided. Existing state law, the California Community Services Block Grant Program, requires the Department of Community Services and Development to administer the federal Community Services Block Grant funds to provide financial assistance for activities designed to have a measurable and potentially major impact on causes of poverty in a community or areas of a community where poverty is a particularly acute problem. Existing law authorizes this funding to assist programs that, among other things, meet the needs of migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families, such as improved housing and sanitation, including the provision and maintenance of emergency and temporary housing and sanitation facilities. This bill would prohibit the provision of state funding, as defined, for the purposes of funding predevelopment of, developing, or operating any housing used to comply with the federal law requirement to furnish housing to H-2A workers and would require an employer, as defined, or other recipient of state funding who utilizes state funding for these purposes to reimburse the state or state agency that provided the funding in an amount equal to the amount of that state funding expended for those purposes. The bill would exempt from these provisions any contract or other enforceable agreement pursuant to which the state or a state agency provides funding that was entered into prior to January 1, 2020. The bill would also make various conforming changes to other laws. (2) The Planning and Zoning Law requires that the housing element of a city's or county's general plan include, among other things, that the housing element of a city's or county's general plan include, among other things, an analysis of any special housing needs, including the needs of, among others, farmworkers. Existing law exempts certain housing developments from conditional use permits and requires those developments to be subject to certain streamlined approval processes, as specified. Existing law, the Employee Housing Act, requires a person operating employee housing, as defined, to obtain a permit to operate that housing from the agency that enforces the act, which may either be the Department of Housing and Community Development or a city, county, or city and county that assumes responsibility for enforcing the act. The act generally reserves local use zone requirements to local governments except as provided, including requiring a specified streamlined approval process for certain improvements related to employee housing for agricultural employees. A violation of the act is a misdemeanor. This bill would provide that a tenant residing in agricultural employee housing, as defined, has all rights applicable to a person residing in employee housing under existing provisions, including the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and specified provisions relating to tenant rights. The bill would require the department to establish and administer, as specified, an application and review process for certifying that a person is an affordable housing organization qualified to operate specified agricultural employee housing. The bill also would require the department to establish and maintain a roster of all certified affordable housing organizations. The bill would, as an exception to the provision reserving local use zone requirements to local governments, authorize a development proponent to submit an application for an agricultural employee housing development that is subject to a streamlined, ministerial approval process, as specified, and that is not subject to a conditional use permit if certain requirements are met, including that the agricultural employee housing will be maintained and operated by a qualified affordable housing organization that has been certified by the department, as specified. The bill would require a local government to notify the development proponent in writing if the local government determines that the development does not meet those requirements by a specified time; otherwise, the development would be deemed to comply with the requirement that the development not be located on certain types of hazardous or conservation sites, as specified. The bill would authorize a specified local government entity to conduct a development review or public oversight of the development, as provided. The bill would provide that agricultural employee housing approved pursuant to the provision providing for a streamlined, ministerial approval process is not subject to the density limitations otherwise required to be considered an agricultural land use and exempt from local approval, taxes, and fees, as described above. The bill would also require, as a condition of that approval process, the qualified affordable housing organization and the landowner to obligate themselves and any successors in interest to maintain the affordability of the proposed agricultural employee housing, as specified, for not less than 35 years. If that organization does not continue to operate and maintain the housing for the time period agreed to satisfy that condition, the bill would require the landowner who obtained approval of the housing to select an alternative certified person within 90 days, and would subject the landowner to an unspecified administrative penalty if the landowner fails to do so. By increasing the duties of local officials with respect to the Employee Housing Act, and by expanding the scope of an existing crime with respect to violations of the Employee Housing Act, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would make related findings and declarations, and would include findings that the changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. The bill would make various conforming changes. The Employee Housing Act deems employee housing consisting of no more than 36 beds in a group quarters or 12 units or spaces designed for use by a single family or household to be an agricultural land use for purposes of specified provisions of the act. The act provides that, for the purpose of all local ordinances, employee housing is prohibited from being deemed a use that implies that the employee housing is an activity that differs in any other way from an agricultural use. The act prohibits a local government from requiring a conditional use permit, zoning variance, or other zoning clearance for the employee housing, or from subjecting the employee housing to certain taxes or fees that are not required for other agricultural activities in that zone. The act, for the purposes of any contract, deed, or covenant for the transfer of real property, requires employee housing consisting of no more than 36 beds in a group quarters or 12 units or spaces designed for use by a single family or household to be considered an agricultural use of property. This bill, for purposes of the above-described provisions of the act, would deem employee housing that is approved pursuant to the above-described provisions of the bill providing for a streamlined, ministerial approval process, an agricultural land use. The bill would modify the prohibition on a local government requiring a zoning clearance for the employee housing to, instead, prohibit a local government from requiring a zoning clearance that is discretionary for the employee housing. The bill, as an exception to the requirement that employee housing be deemed an agricultural use for purposes of all local ordinances, would authorize a local government to subject an agricultural employee housing development, approved pursuant to the above-described provisions of the bill providing for a streamlined, ministerial approval process, to specified written objective development standards. The bill, as an exemption to the prohibition on a local government subjecting employee housing to certain taxes or fees that are not required for other agricultural activity in that zone, would authorize a local government to impose fees and other exactions otherwise authorized by law that are essential to provide necessary public services and facilities to an agricultural employee housing development. The bill, for the purposes of any contract, deed, or covenant for the transfer of real property, would require employee housing, approved pursuant to the provisions of the bill providing for a streamlined, ministerial approval process, to be considered an agricultural use of property. The bill would provide that if any owner, who invokes the above-described provisions or the provisions of the bill providing for a streamlined, ministerial approval process, fails to maintain a permit to operate throughout the first 10 consecutive years following the issuance of the original certificate of occupancy, the public agency that has waived any taxes, fees, assessments, or charges, as specified, is authorized to recover certain amounts of those taxes, fees, assessments, or charges. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA does not apply to the approval of ministerial projects. Because the approval process established by the bill is streamlined and ministerial in nature, the approval of projects subject to this process are exempt from CEQA. The bill, additionally, would prohibit the approval of a development and the application of development standards pursuant to specified provisions of the bill from being deemed a discretionary act within the meaning of CEQA. 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 specified reasons.