(1) Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, is administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and regulates the granting of licenses for the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages within the state. The act requires the department to make and prescribe rules to carry out the purposes and intent of existing state constitutional provisions on the regulation of alcoholic beverages, and to enable the department to exercise the powers and perform the duties conferred upon it by the state constitution and the act, not inconsistent with any statute of this state. The act makes it unlawful for any person other than a licensee of the department to sell, manufacture, or import alcoholic beverages in this state, with exceptions. The department, pursuant to its powers and in furtherance of emergency declarations and orders of the Governor under the California Emergency Services Act regarding the spread of the COVID-19 virus, has established prescribed temporary relief measures to suspend certain legal restrictions relating to, among other things, the expansion of a licensed footprint, sales of alcoholic beverages to-go, and delivery privileges. This bill would authorize the department, for a period of 365 days following the end of the state of emergency proclaimed by the Governor on March 4, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to permit licensees to exercise license privileges in an expanded license area authorized pursuant to a COVID-19 Temporary Catering Authorization approved in accordance with the Fourth Notice of Regulatory Relief issued by the department, as specified. The bill would also authorize the department to extend the period of time during which the COVID-19 Temporary Catering Authorization is valid beyond 365 days if the licensee has filed a pending application with the department for the permanent expansion of their premises before the 365-day time period expires. The bill would make these provisions effective only until July 1, 2024, and repeal them as of that date. (2) The Planning and Zoning Law authorizes the legislative body of any city or county to adopt ordinances that regulate zoning within its jurisdiction, as specified. Under that law, variances and conditional use permits may be granted if provided for by the zoning ordinance. This bill would, to the extent that an outdoor expansion of a business to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on indoor dining interferes with, reduces, eliminates, or impacts required parking for existing uses, require a local jurisdiction that has not adopted an ordinance that provides relief from parking restrictions for expanded outdoor dining areas to reduce the number of required parking spaces for existing uses by the number of spaces that the local jurisdiction determines are needed to accommodate an expanded outdoor dining area. Because the bill would require local officials to perform additional duties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would make these provisions operative on January 1, 2022, and repeal them on July 1, 2024. (3) Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for, and provides for regulation by the State Department of Public Health of, retail food facilities. Existing law restricts satellite food service to limited food preparation in a fully enclosed permanent food facility that meets specified requirements. Existing law requires a permanent food facility, prior to conducting satellite food service, to submit to the enforcement agency written operating standards. This bill would, for a period of one year after the end of the state of emergency proclaimed by the Governor on March 4, 2020, related to the COVID-19 pandemic, or until January 1, 2024, whichever occurs first, authorize a permitted food facility within any local jurisdiction that is subject to retail food operation restrictions related to a COVID-19 public health response to prepare and serve food as a temporary satellite food service without obtaining a separate satellite food service permit or submitting written operating procedures. This bill would require the written operating procedures to be maintained onsite for review, upon request, by the local jurisdiction. (4) 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. (5) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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Under existing law, classified employees of school districts and community college districts subject to layoff as a result of the expiration of a specially funded program at the end of a school year are required to be given written notice on or before April 29 informing them of certain rights. Existing law also requires that notice be given not less than 60 days before the effective layoff date if the termination date of a specially funded program is other than June 30, or if classified employees are subject to layoff as a result of a bona fide reduction or elimination of a service performed by a department. This bill instead would revise and recast provisions relating to the layoff of classified employees of school districts and community college districts to require certain notices and opportunities for a hearing when a permanent classified employee's services will not be required for the ensuing year due to lack of work or lack of funds. The bill would, for the purposes of specified notice and hearing rights, define "permanent classified employee" to include both an employee who was permanent at the time the notice or right to a hearing was required and an employee who became permanent after the date of the required notice. The bill would express the intent of the Legislature in enacting the bill to provide permanent classified school employees and those who become permanent classified school employees with the same rights to notice and hearing with respect to layoffs as are provided to certificated employees of school districts, including teachers and administrators, and academic employees of community college districts. If classified positions must be eliminated as a result of the expiration of a specially funded program, the bill would require written notice of the layoff date and certain rights be given to the classified employees not less than 60 days before the effective layoff date. If, after January 1, 2021, the Legislature provides certificated or academic employees with any additional rights to notice or hearing as to layoffs, the bill would require the respective permanent classified employees, as described, to be afforded the same rights by the school district or community college district, as applicable. To the extent school districts and community college districts are required 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law defines a "hate crime" as a criminal act committed, in whole or in part, because of actual or perceived characteristics of the victim, including, among other things, race, religion, disability, and sexual orientation. Existing law requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to develop guidelines and a course of instruction and training for law enforcement officers addressing hate crimes. Existing law requires state law enforcement agencies to adopt a framework or other formal policy created by POST regarding hate crimes. Existing law requires any local law enforcement agency that adopts or updates a hate crime policy to include specified information in that policy, including information on bias motivation. This bill would include a statement of legislative findings and declarations and require the basic course curriculum on the topic of hate crimes to be developed in consultation with subject matter experts, as specified. The bill would, subject to an appropriation of funds for this purpose in the annual Budget Act or other statute, require POST to update the basic course to include the viewing of a specified video course developed by POST. The bill would also require POST to make the video available via the online learning portal, and would require all peace officers to complete specified training materials no later than one year after the commission makes the updated course available. The bill would require POST to develop and periodically update an interactive course on hate crimes for in-service peace officers, and require officers to take the course every 6 years. This bill would also require any local law enforcement agency that adopts or updates a hate crime policy to include specified information on recognizing religion-bias hate crimes, and would require those policies to include the discriminatory selection of victims as a form of bias motivation.
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 (EIR) 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 establishes a procedure by which a person may seek judicial review of the decision of the lead agency made pursuant to CEQA. This bill would, until January 1, 2025, establish specified procedures for the administrative and judicial review of the environmental review and approvals granted for an environmental leadership transit project, as defined, proposed by a public or private entity or its affiliates that is located wholly within the County of Los Angeles or connects to an existing transit project wholly located in that county and that is approved by the lead agency on or before January 1, 2024. The bill would require the project applicant of the environmental leadership transit project to take certain actions in order for those specified procedures to apply to the project. The bill would require the Judicial Council, on or before January 1, 2023, to adopt rules of court establishing procedures requiring actions or proceedings seeking judicial review of the certification of an environmental impact report for an environmental leadership transit project or the granting of any project approval, including any appeals to the court of appeal or the Supreme Court, to be resolved, to the extent feasible, within 365 calendar days of the filing of the certified record of proceedings with the court to an action or proceeding seeking judicial review of the lead agency's action related to an environmental leadership transit project. The bill would require the environmental leadership transit project to meet certain labor requirements. The bill would require the lead agency to prepare the EIR for an environmental leadership transit project in a specified manner and would require the concurrent preparation of the record of proceedings. The bill would specify that these requirements would only apply to the first 7 environmental leadership transit projects obtaining a certified environmental impact report. Because the bill would impose additional duties on the lead agency, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Los Angeles. 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.
Existing law, the Student Loan Servicing Act, provides for the licensure, regulation, and oversight of student loan servicers by the Commissioner of Financial Protection and Innovation, who is the head of the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. The act prohibits a person from engaging in the business of servicing a student loan in this state without a license, unless the person falls within certain exceptions. Existing law, the Student Borrower Bill of Rights, imposes requirements on a student loan servicer, including, among others, the timely posting, processing, and crediting of student loan payments, and applying overpayments consistent with the best financial interest of a student loan borrower. Existing law also prohibits a student loan servicer from engaging in unfair or deceptive practices, or abusive acts or practices in connection with the servicing of a student loan, and authorizes a person to bring an action for actual damages, injunctive relief, restitution, punitive damages, attorney's fees, and other relief, including treble damages in certain circumstances. This bill would enact the Private Student Loan Collections Reform Act, which would become operative July 1, 2022. The act would prohibit a private education lender or a private education loan collector, as defined, from making any written statement to a debtor in an attempt to collect a private education loan unless the private education lender or private education loan collector possesses certain information regarding the loan and provides this information to the debtor, as specified. The act would require all settlement agreements between a private education lender or private education loan collector and a debtor to be documented in open court or otherwise reduced to writing, as specified. The act would also require a private education lender or private education loan collector that accepts a payment as payment in full or as a full and final compromise of a private education loan, within 30 calendar days, to provide specified information to the debtor regarding the loan. The act would also prohibit a private education lender or private education loan collector from bringing suit or initiating an arbitration or other legal proceeding to collect a private education loan if the applicable statute of limitations on the claim has expired. The act would require a complaint, with respect to an action brought by a private education lender or private education loan collector to collect a private education loan, to contain specified information and would prohibit a default or other judgment from being entered against a defendant unless documents submitted to the court establish the facts alleged. The act would require a plaintiff seeking an exemption, as an exempt entity, from those requirements to attach to the complaint a declaration or affidavit, signed under penalty of perjury, stating certain information. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The act would also authorize a person to bring a cause of action against a creditor, private education lender, or private education loan collector for violating the act for actual damages, statutory damages, restitution, and other specified relief. 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.
Existing law requires a school district, county office of education, or charter school to ensure that a grade 12 pupil who has not opted out, as specified, completes and submits a Free Application for Federal Student Aid or, if the pupil is exempt from paying nonresident tuition under existing law, completes and submits a form for purposes of the California Dream Act. Existing law requires the Student Aid Commission, on or before July 1, 2022, to adopt regulations that include, but are not limited to, model opt-out forms and acceptable use policies for the purpose of providing guidance on applicable state laws. Existing law requires the school district, county office of education, or charter school to exempt a pupil or the pupil's parent or legal guardian from completing a form if the local educational agency determines the pupil is unable to complete the form, and prohibits a pupil's ability to graduate from being affected by a pupil's failure to fill out a form. This bill would require, on or before September 1, 2022, and each year thereafter, the commission and the State Department of Education to facilitate the completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and the form established for purposes of the California Dream Act, by requiring the department to share the current school year's roster of pupils with the commission, and requiring the commission to match data on pupil completion of financial aid forms, as specified.
Existing law creates, in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the Employment Development Department, which is vested with the duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction with respect to job creation activities. The department is authorized to study and make recommendations as to actions that might tend to do several things, including, but not limited to, promoting the prevention of unemployment and the stabilization of employment, reducing and preventing unemployment, and establishing the most effective methods of providing economic security through all forms of social insurance. This bill would require the department to develop and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, implement a recession plan to prepare for an increase in unemployment insurance compensation benefits claims due to an economic recession. The bill would require the plan to detail how to respond to economic downturns with a predetermined strategy that has considered the full effect on the department's operations, and include, but not be limited to, identifying the lessons learned from previous economic downturns, identifying ways to improve self-serve services to avoid long wait times to speak to staff, and enhancing claims processing tools to ensure that the department's identity verification processes are as robust as possible. The bill would require the department to provide a copy of the recession plan to specified legislative committees and the Department of Finance by March 1, 2022, and to update the recession plan and provide a copy to specified legislative committees and the Department of Finance every 2nd year thereafter.
Existing law, the End of Life Option Act, until January 1, 2026, authorizes an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by their attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for an aid-in-dying drug for the purpose of ending their life. Existing law establishes the procedures for making these requests, including that 2 oral requests be made a minimum of 15 days apart, specified forms to request an aid-in-dying drug be submitted, under specified circumstances, and a final attestation be completed. Existing law requires specified information to be documented in the individual's medical record, including, among other things, all oral and written requests for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would allow for an individual to qualify for aid-in-dying medication by making 2 oral requests a minimum of 48 hours apart. The bill would eliminate the requirement that an individual who is prescribed and ingests aid-in-dying medication make a final attestation. The bill would require that the date of all oral and written requests be documented in an individual's medical record and would require that upon a transfer of care, that record be provided to the qualified individual. The bill would extend the operation of the act until January 1, 2031, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program by extending the operation of crimes for specified violations of the act. Existing law makes participation in activities authorized pursuant to the act voluntary, and makes individual health care providers immune from liability for refusing to engage in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions, including providing information about the act or referring an individual to a provider who prescribes aid-in-dying medication. This bill would require a health care provider who is unable or unwilling to participate under the act to inform the individual seeking an aid-in-dying medication that they do not participate, document the date of the individual's request and the provider's notice of their objection, and transfer their relevant medical record upon request. Existing law authorizes a health care provider to prohibit its employees, independent contractors, or other persons or entities, including other health care providers, from participating under the act, including acting as a consulting physician, while on the premises owned or under the management or direct control of that prohibiting health care provider, or while acting within the course and scope of any employment by, or contract with, the prohibiting health care provider. This bill would instead authorize a health care entity to prohibit employees and contractors, as specified, from participating under the act while on the entity's premises or in the course of their employment. The bill would prohibit a health care provider or health care entity from engaging in false, misleading, or deceptive practices relating to their willingness to qualify an individual or provide a prescription for an aid-in-dying medication to a qualified individual. The bill would require a health care entity to post its current policy regarding medical aid in dying on its internet website. 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.
Existing law provides for the procedure of approving and accepting bail, and issuing an order for the appearance and release of an arrested person. Existing law generally regulates the undertaking of bail and the licensing of bail agents and bail solicitors by the Insurance Commissioner. This bill would, on and after January 1, 2022, prohibit an insurer, bail agent, or other bail licensee from entering into a contract, agreement, or undertaking of bail that requires the payment of more than one premium for the duration of the agreement, and would require the duration of the agreement to be until bail is exonerated. The bill would additionally prohibit an insurer, bail agent, or other bail licensee from charging, collecting, or receiving a renewal premium in connection with a contract, agreement, or undertaking of bail after that date. The bill would also make these prohibitions apply to an insurer or insurance licensee with regard to immigration bonds on and after July 1, 2022. The bill would additionally make an insurer, insurance licensee, bail agent, or other bail licensee liable to the person affected by a violation of these provisions for all damages that person sustains plus $3,000 in statutory damages, and court costs and reasonable attorney's fees, as specified. The bill would state that its provisions are severable.
The California Constitution generally limits the maximum rate of ad valorem tax on real property to 1% of the full cash value of the property and defines "full cash value" for these purposes as the appraised value of real property when purchased, newly constructed, or a change in ownership has occurred after the 1975 assessment. Pursuant to constitutional authorization, existing property tax law excludes from the definition of "newly constructed" for these purposes the construction or addition of any active solar energy system, as defined, through the 2023–24 fiscal year. Under existing property tax law, this exclusion remains in effect only until there is a subsequent change in ownership, but an active solar energy system that qualifies for the exclusion before January 1, 2025, will continue to receive the exclusion until there is a subsequent change in ownership. This bill would provide that for a legal entity that owns an active solar energy system pursuant to a partnership flip transaction, as defined, neither an initial transfer of a capital and profits interest in the legal entity, nor any subsequent change in the allocation of the capital and profits of the legal entity among the members, shall be deemed to constitute a transfer of control of, or of a majority interest in, the legal entity. The bill would provide that if the parties to a partnership flip transaction sell or exchange ownership of the partnership or limited liability company in a transaction or series of transactions, that are separate and apart from the partnership flip transaction conducted pursuant to the bill's provisions, in such a manner that a change in ownership of the partnership or limited liability company occurs, as specified, then the bill's provisions do not apply to that transaction or transactions. The bill would make related findings and declarations. By adding to the duties of county assessors in applying this exclusion, 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. Existing law requires the state to reimburse local agencies annually for certain property tax revenues lost as a result of any exemption or classification of property for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding those provisions, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.