Existing law, until January 1, 2019, establishes the Revenue Recovery and Collaborative Enforcement Team as a pilot program consisting of a team of agencies charged with specified duties that include developing a plan to document, review, and evaluate data and complaints, evaluating the benefits of a processing center to receive and analyze data, share complaints, and research leads, and providing agencies with investigative leads, as specified, to combat criminal tax evasion associated with the underground economy. This bill would establish the Tax Recovery and Criminal Enforcement (TRaCE) Task Force in the Department of Justice to combat underground economic activities through a multiagency collaboration to, among other things, pool resources, collaborate and share data, including confidential tax and fee information, prosecute violations, and recover state revenue lost to the underground economy, as specified. This bill would require TRaCE Task Force investigative teams to be located in Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay area, and Fresno, under the direct oversight of the Department of Justice. The bill would establish a TRaCE Task Force executive board and TRaCE Task Force investigative team committees to ensure multiagency collaboration. The bill would require that information exchanged pursuant to these provisions retain its confidential status, as specified. The bill would require the TRaCE Task Force to develop a data analytics system that enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of the multiagency collaboration to the extent the Legislature appropriates funds for these purposes. The bill would require the Department of Justice, in consultation with the executive board of the TRaCE Task Force, to submit an annual report to the Legislature that includes specified information.
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Existing federal law, the federal Fair Housing Act, requires, among other things, certain federal executive departments and agencies to administer their programs relating to housing and urban development in a manner affirmatively to further the purposes of the federal act. Existing federal law requires specified state and local agencies that contract with, or receive funding from, specified federal agencies to certify that they will affirmatively further fair housing by completing an assessment of fair housing and submitting that assessment to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, generally prohibits housing discrimination with respect to the personal characteristics of race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry, familial status, source of income, disability, or genetic information. Existing law also prohibits the discrimination through public or private land use practices, decisions, and authorizations because of one of those personal characteristics. Existing law establishes the Department of Fair Employment and Housing in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, with the powers and duties to, among other things, receive, investigate, and conciliate complaints relating to housing discrimination. Existing law requires the Director of Fair Employment and Housing to investigate verified complaints that allege a violation of the act, subject to certain procedures and requirements, and requires the director, if attempts at mediation or other forms of dispute resolution do not eliminate a violation of the act, to file a civil action on behalf of the aggrieved person, as provided. This bill would require a public agency, as defined, to administer its programs and activities relating to housing and community development in a manner to affirmatively further fair housing, and to not take any action that is materially inconsistent with this obligation, as provided. The Planning and Zoning Law requires each city, county, and city and county to prepare and adopt a general plan that contains certain mandatory elements, including a housing element that is required to contain specified information and analysis, including a program setting forth a schedule of actions during the planning period that the local government is undertaking or intends to undertake to implement the policies and achieve the goals and objectives of the housing element, as provided. The bill would require the above-described program for achieving the goals and objectives of the housing element to affirmatively further fair housing pursuant to provisions added by this bill, and for revisions to the housing element that occur on and after January 1, 2021, would require the program to include an assessment of fair housing within the jurisdiction, as specified. Existing law requires the housing element to include an inventory of land suitable and available for development and requires that inventory to be used to identify sites that can be developed for housing within the planning period and that are sufficient to provide for the jurisdiction's share of the regional housing need for all income levels. This bill would require the inventory to be used to identify sites throughout the community, consistent with the provisions requiring the above-described program, within the housing element to affirmatively further fair housing. By increasing the duties of local officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65583 of the Government Code proposed by AB 2162 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2162 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65583.2 of the Government Code proposed by SB 1078 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1078 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law, the Legislative Employee Whistleblower Protection Act, imposes criminal and civil liability on a Member of the Legislature or legislative employee, as defined, who interferes with, or retaliates against, a legislative employee's exercise of the right to make a protected disclosure, which is defined as a good faith allegation made by a legislative employee to specified entities that a Member of the Legislature or a legislative employee has engaged in, or will engage in, activity that may constitute a violation of law or a violation of a legislative standard of conduct. This bill would define "protected disclosure" for purposes of that act to also include a complaint made at the request of a legislative employee and a complaint made against a nonemployee in specified circumstances. Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) , protects and safeguards the right and opportunity of all persons to generally seek, obtain, and hold employment without discrimination, abridgment, or harassment on account of enumerated protected categories. Existing law also precludes an employer, labor organization, employment agency, or person from discharging, expelling, or otherwise discriminating against any person because the person has opposed any practices forbidden under FEHA or because the person has filed a complaint, testified, or assisted in any FEHA proceeding. Existing law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, states that all people in California are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments, no matter their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status. Existing law establishes a cause of action for violations of that act. Existing law also separately establishes liability for sexual harassment if a plaintiff proves specified elements, including, among other things, that there is a business, service, or professional relationship between the plaintiff and defendant. This bill would declare that neither house of the Legislature may retaliate against a legislative advocate or employee, as defined, because that person has opposed any practices forbidden under the above provisions, or filed a complaint, testified, or assisted in any proceeding relating to a complaint of harassment under those provisions. This bill would impose civil liability for a violation of that prohibition. This bill would also require each house of the Legislature to maintain a record of each harassment complaint made to that house for a period of at least 12 years after the complaint is made. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law, the California Financing Law, generally provides for the licensure and regulation of finance lenders, brokers, and, beginning on January 1, 2019, program administrators, by the Commissioner of Business Oversight. The CFL makes a willful violation of specified provisions a crime. The CFL, until January 1, 2023, establishes the Pilot Program for Increased Access to Responsible Small Dollar Loans (pilot program) , which requires licensees and other entities that wish to participate in the pilot program to file an application and pay a specified fee to the commissioner to participate in the pilot program. The pilot program authorizes a licensee approved by the commissioner to participate in the pilot program to impose specified alternative interest rates and charges, including an administrative fee and delinquency fees, on unsecured loans of at least $300 and less than $2,500, subject to certain requirements. This bill would increase the upper limit on the amount of a permissible loan under the pilot program from $2,500 to $7,500 and make corresponding changes. (2) Under the pilot program, a licensee is prohibited from making a loan if that licensee determines, through its underwriting, that the borrower's total monthly debt service payments exceed 50% of the borrower's monthly gross income. This bill would instead prohibit a licensee from making a loan under these circumstances if the borrower's total monthly debt service payments exceed 50% of the borrower's gross monthly income for a loan of no more than $2,500, or exceed 36% of the borrower's gross monthly income for a loan in excess of $2,500. (3) The pilot program establishes that a loan with a principal balance, upon origination, of at least $1,500 is required to have a term of not less than 180 days. As an alternative to other authorized charges, a licensee approved by the commissioner to participate in the pilot program may contract for and receive charges at an annual simple interest rate not exceeding specified amounts. This bill would additionally require a loan under the pilot program that has a principal balance exceeding $2,500 to have a minimum term of one year and a maximum term of 5 years. The bill would also require licensees to reduce the interest rates on each subsequent loan to the same borrower by a minimum of one percentage point and subject to additional reductions, if specified conditions are satisfied. (4) Under the pilot program, licensees are required to develop and implement policies and procedures designed to respond to questions raised by applicants and borrowers regarding their loans, including those involving finders. Existing law describes a finder as an entity that brings a licensee and a prospective borrower together for the purpose of negotiating a loan contract. This bill would also require licensees to perform reasonable background checks on any finders associated with a licensee's participation in the pilot program. (5) The pilot program authorizes a licensee who is approved to participate in the program to use the services of one or more finders. Existing law defines a "finder" for these purposes as an entity that, at the finder's physical location for business, brings a licensee and a prospective borrower together for the purpose of negotiating a loan contract. This bill would authorize the commissioner to charge a licensee participating in the program an additional fee to offset the commissioner's costs to oversee and examine the activities of that licensee's finder or finders. (6) Existing law requires the Commissioner of Business Oversight to examine each licensee that is accepted into the program at least once every 24 months. This bill would require the commissioner also to examine each finder whose services were used by the licensee at least once every 24 months. (7) Existing law requires the Commissioner of Business Oversight to post reports containing specified information on his or her Internet Web site that summarize utilization of the Pilot Program for Increased Access to Responsible Small Dollar Loans. If more than one licensee is approved to participate in the program, existing law requires that information in the report to be stated in aggregate to avoid identifying data by specific licensee. This bill would require that these reports also contain specified information for each finder whose services were used by a licensee in connection with the loans or loan applications, along with the finder's identity. By increasing the scope of the program, the bill would expand the definition of a crime, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. (8) 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.
(1) Under existing law, the Department of Parks and Recreation controls the state park system, which is made up of units. Existing law requires the department to administer, protect, develop, and interpret the property under its jurisdiction for the use and enjoyment of the public. Under this bill, a person or entity that engages in any for-profit activity in connection with the reservation of any overnight accommodation in any unit of the state park system, including sales activity to reserve an overnight accommodation on behalf of a 3rd party, without permission of the department or the operator of that state park system unit, would be guilty of a misdemeanor or an infraction, punishable as specified. The bill would establish a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. The bill would express the intent of the Legislature that the department consult with experts in the public and private sectors, as specified, on the effective implementation of this provision, and provide an annual update to the Legislature on the implementation of this provision. (2) 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. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law provides for 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 provides for 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 for the State Department of Health Care Services, the California Mental 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 peer support specialist certification to support the ongoing provision of services to individuals experiencing mental health care needs, substance use disorder needs, or both by certified peer support specialists. The certification components would include, among others, curriculum and core competencies, training and continuing education requirements, a code of ethics, and a process for the investigation of complaints and corrective action. 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, among other things, the department to collaborate with OSHPD and interested stakeholders in implementing the certification. The bill would authorize the department to use funding provided through the MHSA to fund state administrative costs related to this article, subject to an express appropriation in the annual Budget Act, and to the extent authorized under the Mental Health Services Act. The bill would permit the department to claim federal financial participation under the Medicaid program, as specified. 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 activities associated with the ongoing administration of the peer support specialist certification. The bill would declare the intent of the Legislature that the certification fees charged by the department reasonably reflect the expenditures directly applicable to the ongoing administration of the certification. This bill would authorize the department to enter into exclusive or nonexclusive contracts on a bid or negotiated basis, as specified. This bill also would authorize the department to implement, interpret, or make specific its provisions by means of informational 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, 2019, would require the department to provide semiannual status reports to the Legislature until regulations have been adopted. The bill would provide that the department's implementation of the peer support specialist certification, with respect to Medi-Cal specialty mental health services and Drug Medi-Cal services, is contingent upon federal approval and federal matching funds. This bill would declare that it clarifies terms and procedures under the Mental Health Services Act.
Existing law establishes the Investment in Mental Health Wellness Act of 2013. Existing law provides that funds appropriated by the Legislature to the California Health Facilities Financing Authority and the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission for the purposes of the act be made available to selected counties or counties acting jointly, except as otherwise provided, and used to provide, among other things, a complete continuum of crisis services for children and youth 21 years of age and under regardless of where they live in the state. The act requires the commission to allocate funds to triage personnel, as specified. This bill would require the commission, when making these funds available on and after July 1, 2021, to allocate at least 12 of those funds to local educational agency and mental health partnerships, as specified. The bill would require this funding to be made available to support prevention, early intervention, and direct services, as determined by the commission. The bill would require the commission, in consultation with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to consider specified criteria when determining grant recipients. The bill would require the commission to provide a status report to the fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature, as specified, no later than March 1, 2022.
Existing law authorizes and regulates the formation and operation of a corporation, social purpose corporation, nonprofit public benefit corporation, nonprofit mutual benefit corporation, or nonprofit religious corporation, including, but not limited to, the adoption and contents of corporate articles of incorporation. This bill would also authorize, until January 1, 2022, a corporation or a social purpose corporation that does not have outstanding securities listed on specified securities exchanges to adopt provisions within its articles of incorporation authorizing records administered by or on behalf of the corporation in which the names of all of the corporation's stockholders of record, the address and number of shares registered in the name of each of those stockholders, and all issuances and transfers of stock of the corporation to be recorded and kept on or by means of blockchain technology, as specified.
Existing law regulates various businesses to, among other things, preserve and regulate competition, prohibit unfair trade practices, and regulate advertising. This bill would, with certain exceptions, make it unlawful for any person to use a bot to communicate or interact with another person in California online with the intent to mislead the other person about its artificial identity for the purpose of knowingly deceiving the person about the content of the communication in order to incentivize a purchase or sale of goods or services in a commercial transaction or to influence a vote in an election. The bill would define various terms for these purposes. The bill would make these provisions operative on July 1, 2019.
Existing law, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, specifies that a record or signature may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form and that a contract may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because an electronic record was used in its formation. Among other things, the act provides that if a law requires a record to be in writing, or if a law requires a signature, an electronic record or signature satisfies the law. Existing law specifies that there is, in the Government Operations Agency, the Department of General Services, which shall develop and enforce policy and procedures and institute or cause the institution of those investigations and proceedings as it deems proper to assure effective operation of all functions performed by the department and to conserve the rights and interests of the state. This bill, until January 1, 2022, would require the Secretary of the Government Operations Agency to appoint a blockchain working group on or before July 1, 2019. The bill would define blockchain. The bill, on or before July 1, 2020, would require the working group to report to the Legislature on the potential uses, risks, and benefits of the use of blockchain technology by state government and California-based businesses, as specified.