Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson

Existing law authorizes, except as otherwise provided, the court to direct the trial of an issue of fact joined in a family law proceeding to be private, and to exclude all persons except the officers of the court, the parties, their witnesses, and counsel, when the court considers it necessary in the interests of justice. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to that provision.

Existing law, with certain exceptions, establishes 8 hours as a day's work and a 40-hour workweek, and requires payment of prescribed overtime compensation for additional hours worked. Existing law establishes the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in the Department of Industrial Relations for the enforcement of labor laws, including wage claims. Existing federal law provides for the allocation of federal funds through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant program to eligible states, with California's version of this program known as the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. Under the CalWORKs program, each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families and individuals, and is prohibited from applying sanctions upon a recipient of CalWORKs for a failure or refusal to comply with program requirements for reasons related to employment, an offer of employment, an activity, or other training for employment for specified reasons, including, but not limited to, that the employment, offer of employment, or work activity does not provide workers' compensation insurance. Existing law establishes a statewide program to enable eligible low-income persons to receive food stamps under the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , known in California as CalFresh, and requires counties to implement the program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to work hour scheduling for employees of food and general retail establishments. The bill would require a food and general retail establishment, as defined, to provide its employees with at least 2 weeks' notice of their schedules. The bill would require a food and general retail establishment to pay those employees additional pay, as specified, for each previously scheduled shift that the food and general retail establishment moves to another date or time or cancels and each previously unscheduled shift that the food and general retail establishment requires an employee to work, and would also require a food and general retail establishment to pay those employees a specified amount for each on-call shift for which the employee is required to be available but is not called in to work. The bill would specify that these provisions do not apply in certain circumstances, including, but not limited to, when operations cannot begin or continue due to causes not within the food and general retail establishment's control. The bill would also require a food and general retail establishment to allow an employee to, upon request, be absent from work without pay for up to 8 hours twice a year to attend any required appointments at the county human services agency, provided that the employee gives reasonable advance notice to the employer of his or her intention to take time off, unless advance notice is not feasible. The bill would prohibit an employer from taking any action against an employee when an unscheduled absence occurs due to a required appointment at the county human services agency if that employee provides specified documentation from the county human services agency. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to promulgate all regulations and rules of practice and procedure necessary to carry out these provisions. The bill would also prohibit sanctions from being applied upon a recipient of CalWORKs for failure or refusal to comply with CalWORKs program requirements if the employment or offer of employment fails to comply with these provisions. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would instead provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill.

Title IX of the federal Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) prohibits discrimination based on sex, including sexual harassment, rape, and sexual assault, in an educational institution's programs or activities. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to post on its Internet Web site, in both English and Spanish and at a reading level that may be comprehended by pupils in high school, the information set forth in the federal regulations implementing Title IX. This bill, to the extent that one-time funding is made available in the Budget Act of 2016, would require the State Department of Education to apportion funds to a designated county office of education, selected from applicant county offices of education, that would be the fiduciary agent for, and responsible for the creation of, an instructional video to train school administrators, designated Title IX coordinators, and other school personnel on comprehensive Title IX compliance and a Title IX pupils' rights video designed for pupils and parents. The bill would require that these 2 videos be available on the department's Internet Web site and available for download to individual schoolsite and school district Internet Web sites. The bill would also require the department to analyze the relevant data on the success of the comprehensive Title IX compliance instructional video at the state level, as specified.

Under existing law, various measures have been approved by the voters to provide funds for park, river, and coastal protections and programs. This bill would enact the Safe Neighborhood Parks, Rivers, and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2016, which, if adopted by the voters at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the total amount of $2,450,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance a safe neighborhood parks, rivers, and coastal protection program. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

(1) Under existing law, the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources in the Department of Conservation regulates the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of oil and gas wells in the state. Existing law requires the State Oil and Gas Supervisor to supervise the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of wells and the operation, maintenance, and removal or abandonment of tanks and facilities related to oil and gas production within an oil and gas field, so as to prevent damage to life, health, property, and natural resources, as provided; to permit owners and operators of wells to utilize all known methods and practices to increase the ultimate recovery of hydrocarbons; and to perform the supervisor's duties in a manner that encourages the wise development of oil and gas resources to best meet oil and gas needs in this state. This bill would no longer require the supervisor to perform his or her duties in that manner. The bill would instead require the supervisor to supervise the exploration and production of hydrocarbons, including, among other things, the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of wells, use of enhanced oil recovery methods, as defined, and stimulation, as provided, and would authorize the supervisor to allow an owner or operator of a well to drill, operate, maintain, and abandon wells utilizing all known methods and practices to increase the ultimate recovery of hydrocarbons if the supervisor finds that those methods and practices are consistent with existing law. (2) Existing law requires the operator of a well to file a written notice of intention to commence drilling with, and prohibits any drilling until approval is given by, the supervisor or district deputy. Under existing law, the notice is deemed approved if the supervisor or district deputy fails to respond to the notice in writing within 10 working days from receipt and is deemed canceled if operations have not commenced within one year of receipt. This bill would require an owner or operator of a well to file an application for approval to commence drilling, containing specified information, and would prohibit any drilling until written approval is given by the supervisor or the district deputy containing specified findings. The bill would authorize the supervisor, upon request, to grant a one-year extension if operations have not commenced within one year of the approval. The bill would require the applications and approvals by the supervisor or the district deputy to be posted on the division's Internet Web site within 10 working days. (3) The Permit Streamlining Act requires any public agency that is the lead agency for a development project to approve or disapprove of a project, as specified. Under that act, if the lead agency or responsible agency is required to provide public notice of the development project or to hold a public hearing on the development project, or both, and the agency has not provided the public notice or held the hearing, or both, at least 60 days prior to the expirations of specified time periods, the applicant may file an action to compel the agency to provide the public notice or hold the hearing, or both, as specified. This bill would require the supervisor to perform his or her duties in conformance with that act. (4) Existing law generally provides that well records filed by owners or operators with the supervisor are public records. However, existing law authorizes the supervisor, upon written request of an owner or operator, to maintain well records of exploratory wells, or other wells if the supervisor determines that there are extenuating circumstances, as confidential information. Under existing law, the confidential period for an onshore or offshore well is up to 2 or 5 years, respectively, from the cessation of drilling operations, as defined. Existing law authorizes the supervisor to extend the period of confidentiality of a well for 6 months upon written request documenting extenuating circumstances and requires that the total period of confidentiality, including all extensions, for onshore and offshore wells not exceed 4 or 7 years, respectively, from the cessation of drilling operations. This bill would limit the authorization to maintain the confidentiality of well records to exploratory wells and only if the owner or operator includes specified information in the written request. The bill would deem both the request for, and the granting of, confidential well status to be public records and would require that information to be accessible on the division's Internet Web site. The bill would require all well records of a confidential well, as defined, to be posted on the division's Internet Web site within 10 working days once the confidential well period has ended. The bill would require that the confidential period for an offshore well not exceed 3 years from the cessation of drilling operations and would authorize the supervisor to extend the period of confidentiality for confidential wells for only 6 months, upon receiving a written request documenting extenuating circumstances. (5) Existing law requires an owner or operator of a well to keep a log, core record, and history of the drilling of wells to be provided to the district deputy within 60 days after the date of cessation of drilling, rework, or abandonment operations or the date of suspension of operation. Under existing law, a person who fails to comply with this and other requirements relating to the regulation of oil or gas operations is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would in addition require an owner or operator of a well to report specified information to the applicable regional water quality control board within 5 days of any loss of well and well casing integrity. Because a violation of this requirement would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (6) Existing law recognizes the Conservation Committee of California Oil and Gas Producers and authorizes it or any other committee of oil producers to make voluntary recommendations to the supervisor regarding, among other things, maximum efficient rates of production, as defined, if specified conditions are satisfied. This bill would instead authorize any committee of oil producers to make recommendations to the supervisor regarding oil and gas exploration and production, as specified, and would require the division to post any recommendations received by the supervisor on the division's Internet Web site. (7) 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 makes it a misdemeanor to engage in disorderly conduct that delays or prevents a fire from being timely extinguished or to resist or interfere with the lawful efforts of a firefighter in the discharge of an official duty. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to impede police officers, firefighters, emergency personnel, or military personnel, in the performance of their duties in coping with an emergency. This bill would make it unlawful to knowingly, intentionally, or recklessly operate an unmanned aircraft or unmanned aircraft system, as defined, in a manner that prevents or delays the extinguishment of a fire, or in any way interferes with the efforts of firefighters to control, contain, or extinguish a fire. The bill would make a violation of this prohibition punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed 6 months, by a fine not to exceed $5,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment. By creating a new crime, this 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

(1) Existing law prohibits an employer who employs 25 or more employees working at the same location from discharging or discriminating against an employee who is a parent, guardian, or grandparent having custody of a child in a licensed child day care facility or in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive, for taking off up to 40 hours each year for the purpose of participating in school activities, subject to specified conditions. Existing law requires an employee to provide documentation regarding these activities upon request by an employer and provides remedies to employees discharged, demoted, or in any other manner discriminated against as a result of his or her exercise of this right to take time off. This bill would revise references to a child day care facility to instead refer to a child care provider. The bill would include the addressing of a child care provider emergency or a school emergency, as defined, and the finding, enrolling, or reenrolling of a child in a school or with a child care provider as activities for which a parent having custody of a child shall not be discriminated against or discharged, as described above. The bill would define "parent" for these purposes as a parent, guardian, stepparent, foster parent, or grandparent of, or a person who stands in loco parentis to, a child, thereby extending these protections to an employee who is a stepparent or foster parent or who stands in loco parentis to a child. (2) Existing law requires an employer who provides sick leave for employees to permit an employee to use the employee's accrued and available sick leave entitlement to attend to the illness of a child, parent, spouse, or domestic partner and prohibits an employer from denying an employee the right to use sick leave or taking specific discriminatory action against an employee for using, or attempting to exercise the right to use, sick leave to attend to such an illness. Existing law defines "sick leave" for these purposes as leave provided for use by the employee during an absence from employment for specified reasons, including, but not limited to, an employee's inability to perform his or her duties due to illness, injury, or a medical condition of the employee. The Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 requires an employer, upon the request of an employee, to provide paid sick days for a victim of domestic violence or the diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing health condition of, or preventive care for, the employee or the employee's family member, which is defined as including, in addition to the above-described relatives, grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings. This bill would instead require an employer to permit an employee to use sick leave for the purposes specified in the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, would redefine "sick leave" as leave provided for use by the employee during an absence from employment for these purposes, and would prohibit an employer from denying an employee the right to use sick leave or taking specific discriminatory action against an employee for using, or attempting to exercise the right to use, sick leave for these purposes.

Existing law prescribes the general workweek policy for state employees, subject to specified exceptions, and the terms and conditions for accrual of vacation and sick leave. Existing law generally provides that a state officer or employee who is employed full time accrues one day of credit for sick leave for each calendar month of service. Existing law requires that if these provisions conflict with an adopted memorandum of understanding, the memorandum of understanding controls, as specified. This bill would enact the California Wounded Warriors Transitional Leave Act. The bill would grant a state officer or employee who is a military veteran hired on or after January 1, 2016, with a military service-connected disability rated at 30% or more by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs an additional credit for sick leave with pay of up to 96 hours for the purpose of undergoing medical treatment for his or her military service-related disability. The bill would require that the sick leave be credited to a qualifying officer or employee on the first day of employment and remain available for use for the following 12 months of employment. The bill would prohibit this sick leave from being carried over after the 12-month period and would permit submission of satisfactory proof that the sick leave is being used for treatment of a military service-connected disability to be required, as specified.

Existing law, the Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1995, subject to exceptions, prohibits a person from possessing a firearm in a place that the person knows, or reasonably should know, is a school zone, unless with the written permission of certain school district officials. Existing law defines a school zone as an area on the grounds of a school providing instruction in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive, or within a distance of 1,000 feet of that school. Existing law prohibits a person from bringing or possessing a firearm upon the grounds of a campus of a public or private university or college, or buildings owned or operated for student housing, teaching, research, or administration by a public or private university or college, that are contiguous or are clearly marked university property, as specified, unless with the written permission of specified university or college officials. Under existing law, a violation of these provisions is a felony, or, under specified circumstances, a misdemeanor. Under existing law, certain persons are exempt from both the school zone and the university prohibitions, including, among others, a person holding a valid license to carry a concealed firearm and a retired peace officer authorized to carry a concealed or loaded firearm. This bill would recast the provisions relating to a person holding a valid license to carry a concealed firearm to allow that person to carry a firearm in an area that is within 1,000 feet of, but not on the grounds of, a public or private school providing instruction in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive. The bill would also delete the exemption that allows a person holding a valid license to carry a concealed firearm to bring or possess a firearm on the campus of a university or college. The bill would create an additional exemption from those prohibitions for certain appointed peace officers who are authorized to carry a firearm by their appointing agency, and an exemption for certain retired reserve peace officers who are authorized to carry a concealed or loaded firearm. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. Existing law, subject to exceptions, prohibits carrying ammunition or reloaded ammunition onto school grounds unless it is with the written permission of the school district superintendent, the superintendent's designee, or equivalent school authority. This bill would reorganize those exceptions. The bill would delete the exemption that allows a person to carry ammunition or reloaded ammunition onto school grounds if the person is licensed to carry a concealed firearm. The bill would also create an additional exception to that prohibition by authorizing a person to carry ammunition or reloaded ammunition onto school grounds if it is in a motor vehicle at all times and is within a locked container or within the locked trunk of the vehicle. 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 Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act requires owners or operators of various facilities, including pipelines, while operating in the waters of the state or where a spill from the pipelines could impact state waters, to have an oil spill contingency plan submitted to, and approved by, the administrator for oil spill response to ensure prompt and adequate response and removal action in case of a spill. The act requires the operator to maintain a level of readiness that will allow effective implementation of the applicable contingency plan. The Elder California Pipeline Safety Act of 1981, among other things, requires the State Fire Marshal to adopt hazardous liquid pipeline safety regulations in compliance with the federal law relating to hazardous liquid pipeline safety. The act requires any new pipeline constructed after January 1, 1984, and which normally operates under conditions of constant flow and pressure, to be designed and constructed in accordance with specified federal regulations, and have a means of leak detection and cathodic protection that the State Fire Marshal determines is acceptable. A violation of the act is a crime. Except as provided, the act defines "pipeline" as including every intrastate pipeline used to transport hazardous liquid substances or highly volatile liquid substances, as provided. This bill would require, by January 1, 2018, any new or replacement pipeline near environmentally and ecologically sensitive areas in the coastal zone to use best available technologies to reduce the amount of oil released in an oil spill to protect state waters and wildlife. The bill would require, by July 1, 2018, an operator of an existing pipeline near these sensitive areas to submit a plan to retrofit the pipeline, by January 1, 2020, as provided. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the State Fire Marshal to adopt regulations relating to the above provisions by July 1, 2017. 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.