Sen. Melissa Hurtado

Existing law, the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, requires each California regional water quality control board to adopt water quality control plans and to establish water quality objectives in those plans, considering certain factors, to ensure the reasonable protection of beneficial uses and the prevention of nuisance. The act authorizes a regional board to order the provision of sewer service by a special district, city, or county to a disadvantaged community, as defined, under specified circumstances and with certain exceptions. The act authorizes the property owner of an affected residence to opt out of an order for the provision of sewer service for a maximum of 5 years for the residence from the date of the issuance of the order by demonstrating to a regional board that the residence is served by an onsite sewage treatment system that is not inadequate and was installed no more than 10 years prior to the issuance of the order. This bill would authorize the property owner of an affected residence to opt out of such an order for a maximum of 5 years if the adequate onsite sewage treatment system was installed no more than 5 years prior to the issuance of the order.

Existing law provides for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, under which each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families. Each county is required to pay a share of the cost of both aid grant and administrative costs for the CalWORKs program. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to develop 3-year pilot projects in Counties of Alameda, San Bernardino, and Ventura, at the option of each county, to create an integrated and coordinated case management system for the delivery of services to families receiving CalWORKs benefits through the use of multidisciplinary service teams, as defined. Existing law required the department to submit a report to the Legislature by April 1, 2002, on the outcomes of these pilot programs and other specified factors. This bill would require the department to submit a new report to the Legislature by April 1, 2020, that considers all relevant pilot program data from 2002 to 2019, inclusive. The bill would repeal these provisions on April 1, 2024.

The Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act, among other things, generally requires every state agency, as defined, directly involved in certain activities involving contact with a substantial number of non-English-speaking people, and every local agency, as defined, serving a substantial number of non-English-speaking people, to employ a sufficient number of qualified bilingual persons in public contact positions. For specified provisions of the act, the act defines a "substantial number of non-English-speaking people" as members of a group who either do not speak English, or who are unable to effectively communicate in English because it is not their native language, and who comprise 5% or more of the people served by the statewide or any local office or facility of a state agency. This bill would modify the definition of "substantial number of non-English-speaking people" to reduce that percentage from 5% to 3%.

Under existing law, various measures provide funds for water facilities and programs. Existing law authorizes the State Water Resources Control Board to establish the Water and Wastewater Loan and Grant Program, to the extent funding is made available, to provide funding to eligible applicants for specified purposes relating to drinking water and wastewater treatment. This bill would appropriate $20,000,000 from the General Fund to the board for the purpose of improving water treatment. The bill would require the board to grant $20,000,000 to a specified joint powers authority for a water treatment facility to be operated by the joint powers authority.

The California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Outdoor Access For All Act of 2018, approved by the voters as Proposition 68 at the June 5, 2018, statewide primary direct election, authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $4,100,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance a drought, water, parks, climate, coastal protection, and outdoor access for all program. This bill would enact the Wildfire Prevention, Safe Drinking Water, Drought Preparation, and Flood Protection Bond Act of 2020, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $5,510,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance projects for a wildfire prevention, safe drinking water, drought preparation, and flood protection program. This bill would provide for the submission of these provisions to the voters at the November 3, 2020, statewide general election. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and charges it with certain duties and powers, including, among other things, the operation of prisons and other specified institutions. This bill would require the department to establish a Peace Officer Peer Support Labor Management Committee tasked with crafting, updating, and monitoring the implementation of a standardized statewide peace officer policy for the department's peer support program to provide substantive assistance to the peace officers employed by the department. The bill would require the committee to be composed of an equal number of representatives of the employer and peace officer employees, and would require the members of the committee to be selected and hold their first meeting on or before July 1, 2020. The bill would require the policy to address, among other things, the selection process and training for peer support team members, and guidelines for the types of communication that would remain confidential within the peer support program. The bill would require the policy to be fully implemented by January 1, 2022. The bill would require the department to submit, beginning July 1, 2020, an annual report to the Legislature that contains data pertaining to the utilization rates of the peace officer peer support program statewide.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the department to implement managed mental health care for Medi-Cal beneficiaries through contracts with mental health plans, and requires mental health plans to be governed by various guidelines, including a requirement that a mental health plan assess the cultural competency needs of the program. Existing law requires mental health plan reviews to be conducted by an external quality review organization (EQRO) on an annual basis, and requires those reviews to include specific data for Medi-Cal eligible minor and nonminor dependents in foster care, such as the number of Medi-Cal eligible minor and nonminor dependents in foster care served each year. This bill would require each mental health plan to prepare a cultural competence plan to address specified matters, including mental health disparities in access, utilization, and outcomes by various categories, such as race, ethnicity, and immigration status. The bill would require a mental health plan to convene a committee for the purpose of reviewing and approving the cultural competence plan, to annually update its cultural competence plan and progress, to post this material on its internet website, and to submit its cultural competence plan to the department every 3 years for technical assistance and implementation feedback. The bill would require the department to develop at least 8 statewide mental health disparities reduction targets, to post the cultural competence plan submitted by each mental health plan to its internet website, and to consult with the Office of Health Equity to review and implement county assessments and statewide performance on mental health disparities reductions. The bill would require the department to direct the EQRO to develop a protocol for monitoring performance of each mental health plan, and to report on identified matters, including statewide progress related to the mental health disparities reduction targets. The bill would require the EQRO to publish specified information in the annual detailed technical report, such as recommendations for statewide strategies to reduce mental health disparities. The bill would require the mental health plan to meet specified mental health disparities reduction targets or make year-over-year improvements toward meeting the targets.

(1) Existing law establishes the Office of California-Mexico Affairs and provides that the office succeeds to, and is vested with, all the duties, powers, purposes, and responsibilities vested in the previously established Commission of the Californias. Existing law generally sets forth the duties and authority of that office with respect to California-Mexico relations. This bill would establish the Commission on California-Mexico Affairs, consisting of 9 voting and 2 nonvoting members, as specified. The bill would require the commission to, among other things, develop policy proposals and provide recommendations as to issues pertaining to the border between California and Mexico and to advise the Legislature and the Governor on matters of particular concern to this state in relation to border issues and matters with Mexico. The bill would expressly authorize the commission to develop and inform the Legislature of its position on pending legislative proposals, to make other legislative recommendations, and to state its position and viewpoint on issues developed in the performance of its duties and responsibilities. The bill would establish the California-Mexico Border Relations Account in the Special Deposit Fund within the State Treasury to receive specified moneys received by the commission and, upon appropriation, make the moneys in the account available to the commission for these purposes. The bill would also authorize the Governor to enter into an agreement with the governments of the State of Baja California and the State of Baja California Sur to establish the authority of a binational commission to support the coordination of activities between all three states that are related to cross-border programs, initiatives, projects, and partnerships of mutual interest to the governments and civil societies of the 3 states. (2) Existing law establishes the California-Mexico Border Relations Council and requires the council to, among other things, coordinate activities of state agencies that are related to cross-border programs, initiatives, projects, and partnerships that exist within state government, and to improve the effectiveness of state and local efforts that are of concern to California and Mexico. Beginning January 1, 2008, existing law requires the council to submit a report to the Legislature on its activities annually. Existing law also requires the State Department of Health Care Services to establish a permanent Office of Binational Border Health to facilitate cooperation between health officials and health professionals in California and Mexico, as specified, and requires that office to convene a voluntary community advisory group of representatives of border community-based stakeholders to develop a strategic plan with short-term, intermediate, and long-range goals and implementation actions, as provided. Existing law also requires the office to prepare an annual border health status report and submit it to the Director of Health Care Services, the Legislature, and the Governor. This bill, beginning on January 1, 2020, would require the California-Mexico Border Relations Council to provide a copy of the report submitted to the Legislature to the Commission on California-Mexico Affairs at the same time that it submits that report to the Legislature. The bill would also require the Office of Binational Border Health to provide a copy of the above-described strategic plan to the commission and to submit the above-described annual border health status report to the commission.