Existing law, the State Bar Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of attorneys by the State Bar of California, a public corporation. Existing law requires an attorney or law firm that receives or disburses trust funds to establish an interest-bearing demand trust account and to deposit in the account all client deposits that are nominal in amount or are on deposit for a short period of time. Existing law creates the Public Interest Attorney Loan Repayment Program, which is administered by the Student Aid Commission, to provide loan repayment assistance for licensed attorneys who practice or agree to practice in public interest areas of the law in California. Existing law provides for the escheat of property to the state. Existing law requires all property that escheats to the state to be deposited into the Abandoned Property Account in the Unclaimed Property Fund, which is continuously appropriated for specified purposes. Existing law establishes procedures for submitting a claim for property that has escheated. This bill would require funds in Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts (IOLTA) that escheat to the state to be deposited into the Abandoned IOLTA Property Account, which would be established within the Unclaimed Property Fund. The bill would establish the IOLTA Claims Reserve Subaccount within the account and would require that 25% of IOLTA escheated funds be deposited into the subaccount to be used by the Controller, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of paying refunds, claims, and costs associated with escheated IOLTA funds. The bill would require the balance of the escheated IOLTA funds to be transferred annually into the Public Interest Attorney Loan Repayment Account to be established by this bill within the State Treasury for the purposes of providing, upon appropriation by the Legislature, additional funding to the Student Aid Commission for the administration of, and provision of loan assistance pursuant to, the Public Interest Attorney Loan Repayment Program.
Sponsored bills
The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA) governs the establishment, enforcement, and modification of interstate child and spousal support orders by providing jurisdictional standards and rules for determining which state's order is a controlling order and whether a tribunal of this state may exercise continuing, exclusive jurisdiction over a support proceeding. Existing law requires the Department of Child Support Services to administer services relating to the collection and distribution of child support throughout the state. Existing law also requires each county to maintain a local child support agency that is responsible for establishing, modifying, and enforcing child support obligations. This bill would revise and recast UIFSA to provide guidelines for the registration, recognition, enforcement, and modification of foreign support orders from countries that are parties to the Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. The bill would identify the Department of Child Support Services as the agency designated by the United States central authority, as defined, to perform specific functions under the convention. Because the bill would impose new duties on local child support agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Among other things, the bill would clarify how a tribunal retains continuing, exclusive jurisdiction and would revise the procedures for determining which order is the controlling order in an interstate or international support proceeding. Existing law sets forth provisions to implement amendments to UIFSA that were promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 2001, but makes those provisions inoperative until Congress amends federal law to authorize or require the adoption of the 2001 version of UIFSA or the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement or the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services approves a waiver, exemption, finding, or other indicia of regulatory approval of the 2001 version of UIFSA, whichever occurs first. This bill would delete those provisions. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.
(1) Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to establish programs for and regulate hazardous waste source reduction. Existing law requires the department to prepare, adopt, and revise, when appropriate, a listing of the wastes that are determined to be hazardous, and a listing of the wastes that are determined to be extremely hazardous. Existing law requires the department to develop, and adopt by regulation, criteria and guidelines for the identification of hazardous wastes and extremely hazardous wastes and requires that any waste that conforms to the criteria be managed in accordance with permits, orders, and regulations issued by the department. Existing law requires the department to adopt, and revise when appropriate, standards and regulations for the management of hazardous wastes to protect against hazards to the public health, to domestic livestock, to wildlife, or to the environment. Pursuant to this authority, the department has adopted regulations establishing standards for generators of hazardous wastes and establishing standards for owners and operators of hazardous waste transfer, treatment, storage, and disposal facilities. This bill would require that a generator of hazardous waste include all hazardous waste that it has generated in any month, except for universal wastes, as defined, when computing whether it is required to comply with specified regulatory requirements. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations by December 1, 2016, incorporating instructions to hazardous waste generators implementing this requirement. (2) Existing law requires the Secretary for Environmental Protection to implement a unified hazardous waste and hazardous materials management regulatory program. Existing law requires every county to apply to the secretary to be certified to implement the unified program and allows a city or local agency to implement the unified program as a unified program agency, or UPA. Existing law requires the Office of Emergency Services to adopt, after public hearing and consultation with the Office of the State Fire Marshal and other appropriate public entities, regulations for minimum standards for business plans and area plans, and requires all business plans and area plans to meet the standards adopted by the Office of Emergency Services. Existing law requires a business handling hazardous materials, as specified, to establish and implement a business plan for emergency response to a release or threatened release of a hazardous material in accordance with the standards prescribed in the regulations adopted by the Office of Emergency Services. The business plan is required to contain specified information, including a site map that contains north orientation, loading areas, internal roads, adjacent streets, storm and sewer drains, access and exit points, emergency shutoffs, evacuation staging areas, hazardous material handling and storage areas, and emergency response equipment. This bill would additionally require the site map to include additional map requirements required by the UPA pursuant to an ordinance. Existing law makes the knowing violation of the business plan requirements a crime. This bill, by expanding the requirements for a business plan, would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the application of a crime. This bill would make additional legislative findings and declarations relative to the unified program. (3) The Aboveground Petroleum Storage Act defines, for purposes of the act, an "aboveground storage tank" as a tank that has the capacity to store 55 gallons or more of petroleum and that is substantially or totally above the surface of the ground and a tank in an underground area, as defined, except for certain types of tanks and vessels, as specified. This bill would exclude from the definition of "aboveground storage tank" a tank or tank facility located on and operated by a farm that is exempt from specified federal spill prevention, control, and countermeasure requirements. The bill would revise the definition of a "tank in an underground area." This bill would provide that a tank in an underground area that is subject to aboveground tank regulation, as specified, is not subject to regulation pursuant to laws specific to underground storage tanks. Existing law requires the unified program agencies (UPAs) to implement the Aboveground Petroleum Storage Act in accordance with regulations adopted by the Office of the State Fire Marshal and authorizes the Office of the State Fire Marshal to adopt these regulations. This bill would require the Office of the State Fire Marshal to adopt these regulations. Except for certain tank facilities located on farms, nurseries, logging sites, or construction sites, the Aboveground Petroleum Storage Act requires each owner or operator of a storage tank at a tank facility to prepare a spill prevention control and countermeasure plan and to conduct periodic inspections of the storage tank. This bill would revise the above-described exception to the plan and inspection requirements to additionally require that the tank facility be operated by the farm, nursery, logging site, or construction site. The bill would require that the plan apply good engineering practices to prevent petroleum releases, as specified. (4) Existing law generally regulates the storage of hazardous substances in underground storage tanks and requires underground storage tanks that are used to store hazardous substances and that are installed after January 1, 1984, to meet certain requirements and obtain a permit from the UPA. This bill would revise the definition of "storage" and "store" for purposes of the regulation of the storage of hazardous substances in underground storage tanks, to exempt storage that is in compliance with specified alternative laws for the regulation of hazardous materials. This bill would make other changes to the hazardous materials laws. (5) The existing Medical Waste Management Act regulates the disposal of medical waste. Existing law authorizes a local agency to adopt a medical waste management program and be designated by the State Department of Public Health to, among other things, issue medical waste registrations and permits and inspect medical waste generators and treatment facilities, and requires the local agency, if it elects to adopt such a program, to notify that department. Under existing law, if the local agency chooses not to adopt a medical waste management program or if the State Department of Public Health withdraws its designation, the State Department of Public Health is the enforcement agency. Under existing law, whenever the enforcement agency determines that a violation or threatened violation of the act has resulted, or is likely to result, in a release of medical waste into the environment, the agency is authorized to issue an order to the responsible person specifying a schedule for compliance or imposing an administrative penalty of not more than $1,000 per violation. This bill would authorize the imposition of an administrative penalty of up to $5,000. The bill would also establish a process, not applicable to the State Department of Public Health, for the enforcement agency to set the amount of the administrative penalty and would establish a process for a person who is assessed the administrative penalty to challenge the facts of the order and the amount of the penalty, including a hearing and appeal. The bill would apply certain other procedures regarding the issuance of an order or the imposition of an administrative penalty if the State Department of Public Health is the enforcement agency. The bill would require that a provision of an order, except the imposition of an administrative penalty, take effect upon issuance by the enforcement agency if the enforcement agency finds that the violation or violations of law associated with that provision may pose an imminent and substantial danger to the public health or safety or the environment. (6) 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 the Instructional Quality Commission, during the next revision of the publication "Health Framework for California Public Schools," to consider including a distinct category on sexual abuse and sex trafficking prevention education, as specified. This bill would require the commission to consider including comprehensive information for grades 9 to 12, inclusive, on sexual harassment and violence, as specified, when that health framework is next revised after January 1, 2016. The bill would require the commission, if the commission includes comprehensive information on sexual harassment and violence in the health framework, to comply with specified conditions. Existing law requires each pupil completing grade 12 to satisfy certain requirements as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation from high school. These requirements include the completion of designated coursework in grades 9 to 12, inclusive. Existing law authorizes a governing board of a school district to adopt other coursework requirements. This bill would require the governing board of a school district that has elected to require its pupils to complete a course in health education for graduation from high school to include instruction in sexual harassment and violence, as specified, and ensure that teachers consult information related to sexual harassment and violence in the health framework when delivering health instruction.
Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, authorizes local government entities to create disaster councils by ordinance and in turn develop disaster plans specific to their jurisdictions. Existing law, the Radiation Protection Act of 1999, requires local governments to develop and maintain radiological emergency preparedness and response plans to safeguard the public in the emergency planning zone around a nuclear powerplant, and generally makes the Office of Emergency Services responsible for the coordination and integration of all emergency planning programs and response plans created pursuant to the Radiation Protection Act of 1999. The California Emergency Services Act, until July 1, 2019, prescribes a method for funding state and local costs for carrying out these activities that are not reimbursed by federal funds, with the costs borne by utilities operating nuclear powerplants with a generating capacity of 50 megawatts or more. This bill, operative July 1, 2019, would extend, until August 26, 2025, the method for funding state and local costs for emergency service activities associated with a nuclear powerplant, as described above, with respect to a utility operating a nuclear powerplant with a generating capacity of 50 megawatts or more, thereby extending an amount, as specified, available for disbursement for local costs for the Diablo Canyon site. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law requires the commission, for purposes of establishing rates for any electrical corporation, to disallow expenses reflecting the direct or indirect costs resulting from any unreasonable error or omission relating to the planning, construction, or operation of any portion of the corporation's plant which cost, or is estimated to have cost, more than $50,000,000, including any expenses resulting from delays caused by any unreasonable error or omission. For these purposes, "planning" includes activities related to the initial and subsequent assessments of the need for a plant construction project and includes investigation and interpretation of environmental factors such as seismic conditions. This bill would require the commission to convene, or continue, until August 26, 2025, an independent peer review panel to conduct an independent review of enhanced seismic studies and surveys of the Diablo Canyon Units 1 and 2 powerplant, including the surrounding areas of the facility and areas of nuclear waste storage. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Under existing law, a disabled individual is eligible to receive disability benefits equal to 17 of his or her weekly benefit amount for each full day during which he or she is unemployed due to a disability if the Director of Employment Development makes specified findings, including that the individual has been unemployed and disabled for a waiting period of 7 consecutive days during each disability benefit period. Existing law provides that during this 7-day waiting period, no disability benefits are payable. This bill, beginning July 1, 2016, would waive the 7-day waiting period for an individual who has already served the 7-day waiting period for the initial claim when that person files a subsequent claim for disability benefits for the same or a related condition within 60 days after the initial disability benefit period. The bill would also require the director to submit a report regarding the effect of the modified waiting period to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2020, as specified. (2) Existing law provides that if an individual receives 2 consecutive periods of disability benefits due to the same or a related cause or condition and separated by not more than 14 days, they are considered as one disability benefit period. This bill, beginning July 1, 2016, would extend to 60 days the time between claims for the same or related cause or condition to be considered one disability benefit period.
This measure would proclaim April 12 through April 19, 2015, as California Holocaust Memorial Week and would urge Californians to observe these days of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.
This measure would recognize August 26, 2015, as Women's Equality Day and its historic importance to women's rights, including the battle to attain those rights in the past, present, and future.