Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law, with specified exceptions, directs the commission to require any call identification service offered by a telephone corporation, or by any other person or corporation that makes use of the facilities of a telephone corporation, to allow the caller to withhold, on an individual basis, the display of the caller's telephone number from the telephone instrument of the individual receiving the call. However, existing law prohibits a caller from withholding the display of the caller's business telephone number when that number is being used for telemarketing purposes. Existing federal law, with certain exceptions, makes it unlawful for any person within the United States, in connection with any telecommunications service or internet protocol enabled voice service, to cause any caller identification service to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value and authorizes the chief legal officer of a state, or any other state officer authorized by law to bring actions on behalf of the residents of a state, to bring a civil action on behalf of the residents of the state in an appropriate district court of the United States to enforce this prohibition. This bill would require a telecommunications service provider, on or before January 1, 2021, to implement specified technological protocols or alternative technology that provides comparable or superior capability to verify and authenticate caller identification for calls carried over an internet protocol network. The bill would authorize the commission and the Attorney General to bring an action pursuant to the above-described federal law and would authorize the commission, at the request of the Attorney General, to work with the Attorney General for the purpose of enforcing specified parts of that law.
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The Personal Income Tax Law provides for various exclusions from gross income, including an exclusion for the amount of student loan indebtedness repaid or canceled pursuant to a specified federal law. This bill would exclude from gross income the amount of student loan indebtedness discharged on or after January 1, 2019, and before January 1, 2024, for an eligible individual who is granted a discharge under specified conditions, as provided, including that the individual attended a Brightwood College school or a location of The Art Institute of California. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law authorizes the legislative body of an incorporated city and the county board of supervisors, in the exercise of its police power, to license any kind of business not prohibited by law that is transacted and carried on within its jurisdiction, and to impose license fees. Existing law imposes various requirements on cities and counties prior to issuing specified business licenses, including verifying that a person applying for a business license to conduct business as a contractor is licensed by the Contractors' State License Board. Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste discharge requirements for the discharge of stormwater by municipalities and industries in accordance with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. Existing law requires regulated municipalities and industries to obtain a stormwater permit. This bill would require, when applying to a city or a county for an initial business license or business license renewal, a person who conducts a business operation that is a regulated industry to demonstrate enrollment with the NPDES permit program by providing specified information, under penalty of perjury, on the application, including, among other things, the Standard Industrial Classification Code for the business. The bill would apply to all applications for initial business licenses and business license renewals submitted on and after January 1, 2020. The bill would permit a city or county to develop a provisional license procedure for business license renewals that provides businesses 3 months to comply with these provisions. By requiring that the information be submitted under penalty of perjury, this bill would expand the crime of perjury and impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the city or county to determine, as specified, the applicability of any Standard Industrial Classification Code and, if applicable, to confirm that the information submitted to demonstrate enrollment corresponds to the business requesting the initial business license or business license renewal, and would require the city or county to transfer that information to the State Water Resources Control Board upon request, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the State Water Resources Control Board, on or before April 1, 2020, to post on its internet website a list of applicable Standard Industrial Classification Codes for the purpose of the determinations made by cities or counties, and would require the state board to update that list, as specified. This bill would also find and declare that the provisions of the bill address the health and safety of drinking water sources throughout the state, a matter of statewide concern, and that these provisions therefore apply to charter cities, charter counties, and charter cities and counties. 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.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Under existing law, a public utility has a duty to serve, including furnishing and maintaining adequate, efficient, just, and reasonable service, instrumentalities, equipment, and facilities as are necessary to promote the safety, health, comfort, and convenience of its patrons and the public. This bill would provide that the electrical corporation is the provider of last resort, as defined, in its service territory unless provided otherwise in a service territory boundary agreement approved by the commission pursuant to existing law or unless the commission designates a load-serving entity, as defined, other than the electrical corporation to serve as the provider of last resort for all or a portion of that service territory pursuant to a joint application of the electrical corporation and the load-serving entity. The bill would establish requirements for the application and for a load-serving entity other than the electrical corporation to serve as the provider of last resort. The bill would require the commission to ensure that each provider of last resort receives reasonable cost recovery for being designated and serving as the provider of last resort. The bill would require the commission to supervise and regulate each provider of last resort, as necessary, as a public utility for the services it provides as a provider of last resort to ensure the provision of electrical service to customers without disruption, and would provide that each provider of last resort is a public utility subject to the jurisdiction, control, and regulation of the commission, as specified. The bill would require the commission to develop a process that facilitates a joint application from load-serving entities that are not electrical corporations to request to transfer the responsibilities of the provider of last resort, in instances when one load-serving entity that is not an electrical corporation has already been designated as a provider of last resort. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of a commission action implementing its requirements would be a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law, as established in the case of Dynamex Operations W. Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903 (Dynamex) , creates a presumption that a worker who performs services for a hirer is an employee for purposes of claims for wages and benefits arising under wage orders issued by the Industrial Welfare Commission. Existing law requires a 3-part test, commonly known as the "ABC" test, to establish that a worker is an independent contractor for those purposes. AB 5 of the 2019–20 Regular Session states the intent of the Legislature to codify the decision in the Dynamex case and clarify its application. AB 5 provides that for purposes of the provisions of the Labor Code, the Unemployment Insurance Code, and the wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission, a person providing labor or services for remuneration shall be considered an employee rather than an independent contractor unless the hiring entity demonstrates that the person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, the person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business, and the person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business. AB 5 also exempts specified occupations from the application of Dynamex, and would instead provide that these occupations are governed by the test adopted in S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989) 48 Cal.3d 341 (Borello) . This bill would, until January 1, 2021, also exempt a newspaper distributor working under contract with a newspaper publisher and a newspaper carrier working under contract, either with a newspaper publisher or newspaper distributor, from the Dynamex provisions proposed to be added by AB 5 described above. This bill would make its operation contingent on the enactment of AB 5 of the 2019–20 Regular Session.
Existing law, the Warren-911-Emergency Assistance Act, requires every local public agency to establish within its jurisdiction a basic emergency telephone system that includes, at a minimum, police, firefighting, and emergency medical and ambulance services. Existing law authorizes a public agency to incorporate private ambulance service into the system. This bill would prohibit a public agency from delegating, assigning, or contracting for "911" emergency call processing services for the dispatch of emergency response resources unless the delegation or assignment is to, or the contract or agreement is with, another public agency. The bill would exempt from that prohibition a public agency that is a joint powers authority that delegated, assigned, or contracted for "911" call processing services on or before January 1, 2019, under certain conditions. The bill would also authorize a public agency that delegated, assigned, or contracted for "911" call processing services on or before January 1, 2019, to continue to do so with the concurrence of the public safety agencies that provide prehospital emergency medical services. If a public safety agency does not concur with the public agency to continue to delegate, assign, or contract for those services, the bill would authorize the public agency to continue to delegate, assign, or contract for those services for the remaining concurring public safety agencies. The bill would state the Legislature's intent to affirm and clarify a public agency's duty and authority to develop emergency communication procedures and respond quickly to a person seeking emergency services through the "911" emergency telephone system. Existing law, the Emergency Medical Services System and the Prehospital Emergency Medical Care Personnel Act, authorizes each county to develop an emergency medical services (EMS) program and designate a local EMS agency. Existing law delegates responsibility over the medical direction and management of an EMS system to the medical director of the local EMS agency, and requires the local EMS agency to maintain medical control over the EMS system in accordance with minimum standards established by the Emergency Medical Services Authority. This bill would require a public safety agency that provides "911" call processing services for medical response to make a connection available from the public safety agency dispatch center to an EMS provider's dispatch center, as specified. The bill would provide that the public safety agency is entitled to recover from an EMS provider the actual costs incurred in establishing and maintaining the connection. The bill would require the local EMS-agency-authorized EMS providers and the EMS system providers within the jurisdiction of the incident, to be simultaneously notified and dispatched at the same response mode. The bill would require a local EMS agency to review and approve or deny a public safety agency's plan to implement an emergency medical dispatcher or advanced life support program within 90 days of submission of the plan. This bill would provide that medical control by a local EMS agency medical director, or medical direction and management of an EMS system, may not be construed to, among other things, limit the authority of a public safety agency to directly receive and process "911" emergency requests originating within the agency's territorial jurisdiction or authorize a local EMS agency to unilaterally reduce a public safety agency's response mode below that of the EMS transport provider, prevent a public safety response, or alter the deployment of emergency response resources within the agency's territorial jurisdiction. The bill would also clarify that a public safety agency does not transfer its authority to administer emergency medical services to a local EMS agency by adhering to the policies, procedures, and protocols adopted by a local EMS agency.
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. This bill would, until January 1, 2025, exempt from the requirements of CEQA certain activities approved or carried out by the City of Los Angeles and other eligible public agencies, as defined, related to supportive housing and emergency shelters, as defined. The bill would require the lead agency, if it determines that an activity is not subject to CEQA and approves or carries out that activity, to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Planning and Research and the county clerk for the County of Los Angeles. Because the bill would impose additional duties on the City of Los Angeles, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would exempt from the requirements of CEQA the adoption of Ordinance Nos. 185,489 and 185,492 by the City of Los Angeles in 2018. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would proclaim September 29, 2019, as Gold Star Mothers' and Families' Day.
Existing law, the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) Act, prohibits the sale, distribution, or nonsale distribution of tobacco products, as defined, directly or indirectly to any person under 21 years of age through the United States Postal Service or through any other public or private postal or package delivery service. Existing law requires a person selling or distributing tobacco products directly to a consumer through the United States Postal Service or by another postal or package delivery service to comply with specified age-verification policies and deliver only to the consumer's verified mailing or billing address, as applicable. Existing law authorizes enforcing agencies to assess civil penalties for violations of the STAKE Act. This bill would additionally require sellers, distributors, and nonsale distributors to deliver tobacco products only in conspicuously marked containers, as specified, and to obtain the signature of a person 21 years of age or older before delivering a tobacco product. The bill would allow a person to designate an address for delivery that is different from the person's mailing or billing address, if the person's mailing or billing address has been verified in accordance with specified provisions.
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 provides that federally qualified health center (FQHC) services and rural health clinic (RHC) services, as defined, are covered benefits under the Medi-Cal program, to be reimbursed, to the extent that federal financial participation is obtained, to providers on a per-visit basis. "Visit" is defined as a face-to-face encounter between a patient of an FQHC or RHC and specified health care professionals, including a physician and marriage and family therapist. Under existing law, "physician," for these purposes, includes, but is not limited to, a physician and surgeon, an osteopath, and a podiatrist. This bill would authorize reimbursement for a maximum of 2 visits taking place on the same day at a single location if after the first visit the patient suffers illness or injury requiring additional diagnosis or treatment, or if the patient has a medical visit and a mental health visit or a dental visit, as defined. The bill would authorize an FQHC or RHC that currently includes the cost of a medical visit and a mental health visit that take place on the same day at a single location as a single visit for purposes of establishing the FQHC's or RHC's rate to apply for an adjustment to its per-visit rate, and after the department has approved that rate adjustment, to bill a medical visit and a mental health visit that take place on the same day at a single location as separate visits, in accordance with the bill. This bill would also include a licensed acupuncturist within those health care professionals covered under the definition of "visit." The bill would require the department, by July 1, 2020, to submit a state plan amendment to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reflect certain changes described in the bill, and to seek necessary federal approvals. The bill would also make conforming and technical changes.