Existing law authorizes the Division of Occupational Safety and Health within the Department of Industrial Relations to enforce occupational safety and health standards, including evaluating, investigating, and monitoring environmental or health conditions that may be harmful to the health of employees. In so doing, it enforces the standards promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board within the department dealing with toxic materials and harmful physical agents and bloodborne pathogens. This bill would declare the findings of the Legislature regarding the rights of workers to be protected from exposure to hazardous substances and toxic materials in the workplace. This bill would require that the board, in promulgating standards dealing with certain toxic materials in the workplace, establish permissible exposure limits that meet specified criteria, with an emphasis on obtaining the highest degree of health and safety protection.
Sponsored bills
Existing law requires that child care be provided in 3 stages to recipients of benefits under the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. The first stage of child care begins upon the entry of a person into the CalWORKs program. The 2nd stage of child care begins when a county determines that the work or approved work activity of the recipient is stable or when a recipient is making the transition off of aid and child care is available through a local stage 2 program. The 3rd stage of child care, which is administered by programs contracting with the State Department of Education, begins when a funded child care space becomes available for the child or children of the eligible CalWORKs recipient. This bill would reappropriate $60,000,000 in unobligated balances appropriated in the Budget Act of 2009 to the State Department of Education for CalWORKs Stage 3 child care services. The bill would also require the State Department of Education to use those funds for families that were receiving, or would have been eligible to receive, CalWORKs Stage 3 child care services, before, on, or after October 31, 2010. The bill would declare that it makes appropriations for the usual and current expenses of the state, thereby taking immediate effect.
Existing law permits a court to award attorney's fees to a successful party in an action that has resulted in the enforcement of an important right affecting public interest, but does not allow an award of attorney's fees in favor of public entities, except in limited circumstances. Existing law requires the court to determine and award a successful plaintiff in an inverse condemnation proceeding certain costs, disbursements, expenses, and fees, as provided. Existing law permits a complainant to collect specified attorney's fees in a civil action to appeal or review an administrative proceeding where the proceeding was the result of arbitrary or capricious action or conduct by the public entity or officer. This bill would permit the award of attorney's fees and, in some cases, other litigation expenses, to a local governmental entity in an action brought by the owner of a mobilehome park to challenge the validity or application of a local ordinance, rule, regulation, or initiative measure that regulates space rent or is intended to benefit or protect residents in a mobilehome park, if the local governmental entity is determined to be the prevailing party. Existing law provides that a cause of action against a person arising from the person's right of petition or free speech is subject to a special motion to strike, unless the court determines there is a probability that the plaintiff will prevail on the claim. This bill would also subject certain causes of action against a local government regarding mobilehome parks to a special motion to strike. The motion would apply to a cause of action that challenges the validity or application of a local ordinance, rule, regulation, or initiative measure that regulates space rent, as specified, or a cause of action that challenges a local government's application or enforcement of any statute that is intended to benefit or protect residents in a mobilehome park, unless the court determines that the plaintiff has established that there is a probability that the plaintiff will prevail on the claim.
The Political Reform Act of 1974 regulates mass mailings, known as slate mailers, that support or oppose multiple candidates or ballot measures for an election. The act requires that each slate mailer identify the slate mailer organization or committee primarily formed to support or oppose one or more ballot measures that is sending the slate mailer, and to contain other specified information in specified formatting. The act requires that each candidate and each ballot measure that has paid to appear in the slate mailer be designated by an asterisk. This bill would instead require that a candidate or ballot measure appearing in the slate mailer be designated by an asterisk if the slate mailer organization or committee primarily formed to support or oppose one or more ballot measures that is sending the slate mailer has received payment to include the candidate or ballot measure in the slate mailer. The bill would also recast the language of the prescribed notice to voters that must be included on a slate mailer. The act also regulates advertisements, which are defined as any general or public advertisement that is authorized and paid for by a person or committee for the purpose supporting or opposing a candidate for elective office or a ballot measure or ballot measures. The act places certain disclosure requirements on advertisements for or against any ballot measure, including that the advertisement disclose any person who has made cumulative contributions of $50,000 or more, as prescribed. The act places more specific disclosure requirements on broadcast or mass mailing advertisements that are paid for by independent expenditures that support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure. This bill would repeal provisions relating to disclosures for advertisements paid for by an independent expenditure and required disclosures of persons who have made cumulative contributions of $50,000 or more. This bill would, instead, impose specified disclosure requirements on radio, television, and video advertisements, and certain mass mailing and print advertisements that support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure or solicit contributions in support of those purposes. The bill would require advertisements that are authorized by a candidate or agent of the candidate to include a statement in which the candidate identifies himself or herself and states that he or she approves the message. The bill would require advertisements that are not authorized by a candidate or an agent of the candidate to disclose, in a prescribed format, the 3 largest identifiable contributors, as defined, of the committee that paid for the advertisement. The bill would require mass mailings or print advertisements that are paid for by certain persons who are not committees to disclose the name of that person as the funder of the mass mailing or print advertisement. The bill would also require that certain committees establish and maintain a committee disclosure Internet Web site, as defined, which discloses the top 5 identifiable contributors and provides a link to the Internet Web site maintained by the Secretary of State for campaign finance disclosures of the committee. The bill would require these advertisements to identify the address for the committee disclosure Internet Web site. Existing law makes a knowing or willful violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974 a misdemeanor and subjects offenders to criminal penalties. This bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating additional crimes. 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 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 provides that expenses authorized and necessarily incurred in the preparation for and conduct of elections are to be paid from the county treasuries, except as specified. This bill would provide that expenses authorized and necessarily incurred on or after January 1, 2009, and before April 19, 2011, for elections proclaimed by the Governor to fill a vacancy in the office of Senator or Member of the Assembly, or to fill a vacancy in the office of United States Senator or Member of the United States House of Representatives, shall be paid by the state. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This bill would urge the United States Patent and Trademark Office to place a satellite office in California.
This measure would designate that January 16, 2012, be observed as the official memorial of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth, commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement in changing public policy in California and in the United States of America.
Under existing law, the Director of Pesticide Regulation, upon completion of an evaluation of a pesticide, is required to prepare a report on the health effects of any pesticide determined to be a toxic air contaminant which poses a present or potential hazard to human health due to airborne emission from its use, as specified. This report is required to be made available to the public, as specified. The director is also required to determine, in consultation with specified entities, the need for and appropriate degree of control measures for each pesticide listed as a toxic air contaminant. This bill would require that the written determination regarding control measures for each pesticide and all findings made by consulting agencies be made available to the public. Existing law provides that, for those pesticides for which a need for control measures has been determined, the director, in consultation with specified entities, is required to develop control measures designed to reduce emissions sufficiently so that the source will not expose the public to the levels of exposure which may cause or contribute to significant adverse health effects. Existing law provides that, after a public hearing, the director shall adopt, by regulation, control measures, including application of the best practicable control techniques for those pesticides for which a need has been determined. This bill would include pesticides identified by the director as toxic air contaminants within the list of pesticides for which the director is required to develop control measures, as specified above. The bill would specify that the director shall develop the control measures for each pesticide listed as a toxic air contaminant. This bill would further provide that the director shall follow specified consultation procedures and would require the director, within 2 years of the determination of the need for control measures or following a risk assessment of a pesticide identified as a toxic air contaminant, to adopt control measures to protect human health or report to the Legislature why control measures have not been adopted. The bill would provide, with respect to any pesticide for which a determination of the need for control measures was made prior to January 1, 2013, that the 2-year period described above commences on January 1, 2013.
Existing law, the Contractors' State License Law, provides for the licensing and regulation of contractors by the Contractors' State License Board within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law authorizes the board to appoint a registrar of contractors and requires a workers' compensation insurer to report to the registrar specified information regarding a licensee's workers' compensation policy. This bill would, additionally, require a workers' compensation insurer to report to the registrar a licensee whose workers' compensation insurance policy is canceled by the insurer if the insurer has completed a premium audit or investigation, a material misrepresentation has been made by the insured that results in financial harm to the insurer, and no reimbursement has been paid by the insured to the insurer. The bill would provide that that information is not subject to the California Public Records Act. The bill would also provide that a willful or deliberate disregard and violation of workers' compensation insurance laws constitutes a cause for disciplinary action by the registrar against the licensee. 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.
(1) Existing law contains various provisions that define sex as including gender and define gender as including a person's gender identity and gender-related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth. This bill would make technical changes to those provisions by refining the definition of gender to also mean a person's gender identity and gender expression and would define gender expression as meaning a person's gender-related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth. The bill would also replace cross-references to definitions of gender with the referenced definitions refined in the same manner as specified above. (2) Existing law contains various provisions that require equal rights and opportunities in various aspects, including education, housing, and employment, regardless of gender and prohibits discrimination based on specified characteristics, including sex and gender. Existing law also includes various statements of legislative intent and the policies of the state regarding the equal treatment and equal rights of people regardless of certain enumerated characteristics, including sex and gender. Existing law authorizes the Fair Employment and Housing Commission and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing to perform certain functions to eliminate discrimination in employment and housing on the basis of sex. Existing law requires the county counsel to determine whether certain documents contain an unlawful restrictive covenant based on sex and other characteristics. In these provisions, sex and gender are defined in the same manner described above. This bill would make technical changes to those provisions by including gender, gender identity, and gender expression among the enumerated characteristics. The bill would make related conforming changes. (3) Existing law prohibits public schools, including charter schools, from discriminating on the basis of specified characteristics, including gender, and specifies various statements of legislative intent and the policies of the state in that regard. Existing law also prohibits discrimination based on specified characteristics by any postsecondary educational institution that receives, or benefits from, state financial assistance. This bill would additionally include gender identity and gender expression among those characteristics. (4) Existing law requires an employer to allow an employee to appear or dress consistently with the employee's gender identity. This bill would additionally require an employer to allow an employee to appear or dress consistently with the employee's gender expression. (5) Existing law requires a county recorder who provides a copy of a declaration, governing document, or deed to any person to place a cover page or stamp on the first page of the previously recorded document stating that if the document contains any restriction based on certain characteristics, including sex, that the restriction violates state and federal fair housing laws and is void, and may be removed. This bill would require the specified language in the cover page or stamp to include the characteristics of gender, gender identity, and gender expression. By requiring the county recorder to change the cover page or stamp, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (6) Existing law prohibits certain property insurance policies from being canceled or refused renewal, and prohibits any premium from being excessive or unfairly discriminatory, solely on the basis that one or more claims has been made against the policy during the preceding 60 months for a loss that is the result of a hate crime committed against the person or property of the insured. That provision defines "hate crime" as specified acts done to a person because of any enumerated characteristics of that person, including gender. This bill would additionally include gender expression and gender identity among those characteristics. (7) Existing law requires the Healthy Families Program to be administered without regard to gender, race, creed, color, sexual orientation, health status, disability, or occupation. This bill would additionally require that program to be administered without regard to gender, gender identity, or gender expression. (8) Existing law prohibits a personal relationship or personal connection from being deemed to exist between an employee who is injured or killed by a 3rd party in the course of the employee's employment and that 3rd party based only on a determination that the 3rd party injured or killed the employee solely because of the 3rd party's perception of the employee's race, religious creed, color, national origin, age, gender, disability, sex, or sexual orientation, for purposes of determining whether to grant or deny a workers' compensation claim. This bill would include among those characteristics gender, gender identity, and gender expression. (9) Existing law requires the parole authority upon the release of any person who has been imprisoned for any felony offense committed against someone due to the victim's actual or perceived gender, among other characteristics, to order the defendant to refrain from further acts of violence, threats, stalking, or harassment of the victim as a condition of parole, as specified. Existing law also requires the court in any case when a person is convicted of an offense against someone due to the victim's actual or perceived gender, among other characteristics, to make an order protecting the victim, or known immediate family or domestic partner of the victim. This bill would additionally require the parole authority and the court to make those orders when the offense was due to a victim's actual or perceived gender identity or gender expression. (10) This bill would incorporate changes made by AB 440 and SB 559 that would become operative if AB 440, SB 559, or both bills are enacted and this bill is enacted after AB 440, SB 559, or both bills. (11) 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.