Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law requires the commission, in consultation with the Office of Emergency Services, to identify the need for telecommunications service systems not on customers' premises to have backup electricity to enable telecommunications networks to function, and to enable customers to contact a public safety answering point operator during an electrical outage, to determine performance criteria for backup systems, and to determine whether specified best practices for backup systems have been implemented by telecommunications service providers operating in California. Existing law requires the commission to report certain information to the Legislature. This bill would require the commission to collect specified information from telecommunications service providers relating to the provider's efforts and resources used to restore telecommunications service outages caused by, and to repair or replace related network infrastructure or facilities that were damaged as a result of, certain emergencies or natural disasters. The bill would require the commission to annually prepare a report that summarizes the information collected and the service providers' plans for fully restoring telecommunication service outages caused by, or repairing or replacing related network infrastructure or facilities as necessitated by, the emergency or natural disaster. The bill would require the president of the commission to annually present a summary of the information collected to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature. The bill would authorize the commission to require telecommunications service providers to collect and forward to the commission any relevant information for these purposes. The bill would authorize the commission to make this information public and to withhold from the public information it deems would pose a security threat if publicly disclosed. Under existing law, a violation of any provision of the Public Utilities Act or of any of the rules or orders issued under the act is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill are within the act and require action by the commission to implement its requirements, a violation of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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.
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(1) Existing law, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, beginning on January 1, 2020, grants a consumer various rights with regard to personal information relating to that consumer that is held by a business, including the right to know what personal information is collected by a business and to have information held by that business deleted, as specified. The act specifically authorizes a consumer whose nonencrypted or nonredacted personal information, as defined, is subject to unauthorized access and exfiltration, theft, or disclosure as a result of the business's failure to maintain reasonable security procedures to institute a civil action for various damages. This bill would expand a consumer's rights to bring a civil action for damages to apply to other violations under the act. (2) Under existing law, a business or third party may seek the opinion of the Attorney General for guidance on how to comply with the act. This bill would instead specify that the Attorney General may publish materials that provide businesses and others with general guidance on how to comply with the act. (3) Under existing law, a business, service provider, or other person that violates the act is subject to an injunction and is liable for a civil penalty for each violation, which is assessed and recovered in a civil action by the Attorney General. Existing law specifies that a business is in violation of the act if it fails to cure an alleged violation within 30 days after being notified of alleged noncompliance. This bill would delete the 30-day period in which to cure after receiving notice of an alleged violation. The bill would also make related and conforming changes to those provisions.
Existing law requires a business that owns, licenses, or maintains personal information about a California resident to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the information, to protect the personal information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure. Existing federal law requires an operator of an internet website or online service directed to a child, as defined, or an operator of an internet website or online service that has actual knowledge that it is collecting personal information from a child to provide notice of what information is being collected and how that information is being used, and to give the parents of the child the opportunity to refuse to permit the operator's further collection of information from the child. Existing law prohibits an operator of an internet website, online service, online application, or mobile application, as specified, from marketing or advertising specified types of products or services to a minor. Existing law prohibits an operator from knowingly using, disclosing, compiling, or allowing a third party to use, disclose, or compile, the personal information of a minor for the purpose of marketing or advertising specified types of products or services. This bill would prohibit an operator of an internet website, online service, online application, or mobile application directed to minors, or an operator of an internet website, online service, online application, or mobile application that has actual knowledge that a minor is using its internet website, online service, online application, or mobile application, from using the personal information of a minor to direct content to the minor, or a group of individuals who are similar to the minor, based upon the minor's actual or perceived race, ethnicity, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, sex, or socioeconomic background, or any other factor used as a proxy for identifying any of those characteristics. Existing law, beginning on January 1, 2020, requires a manufacturer of a connected device, as those terms are defined, to equip the device with a reasonable security feature or features that are appropriate to the nature and function of the device, appropriate to the information it may collect, contain, or transmit, and designed to protect the device and any information contained therein from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure, as specified. This bill, beginning on January 1, 2021, would require a manufacturer of a connected device directed towards minors to prominently display on the packaging for the connected device a standardized and easy-to-understand privacy dashboard that details whether, what, and how personal information of a minor is collected, transmitted, retained, used, and protected, as specified.
(1) Existing law prohibits an employer with 50 or more employees in a 75-mile radius to refuse to grant an employee a request to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family care and medical leave if the employee worked 1,250 hours in the prior 12 months. Existing law includes within "family care and medical leave" the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child and the serious health condition of the employee's child, parent, or spouse. This bill would expand the scope of those provisions to instead prohibit an employer with 5 or more employees to refuse to grant an employee a request to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family care and medical leave if the employee had 180 days of service with the employer. The bill would expand the definition of "family care and medical leave" to include leave for reason of the birth or placement of a child if the employee has identified the child as their designated person, as defined, leave to care for a grandparent, grandchild, sibling, domestic partner, or designated person who has a serious health condition, and leave because of a qualifying exigency related to the covered active duty or call to covered active duty of an employee's spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent in the Armed Forces of the United States. The bill would delete a provision specifying that, if both parents are employed by the employer and are entitled to leave, the employer is not required to grant leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care of a child that is greater than 12 weeks. (2) Existing law, the New Parent Leave Act, prohibits an employer with 20 or more employees in a 75-mile radius to refuse to grant an employee a request to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to bond with a new child within one year of the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of the child if the employee worked 1,250 hours in the prior 12 months. This bill would repeal those provisions. (3) Existing law establishes within the state disability insurance program a family temporary disability insurance program, also known as the Paid Family Leave program, for the provision of wage replacement benefits to workers who take time off work to care for a seriously ill family member or to bond with a minor child within one year of birth or placement, as specified, and, on and after January 1, 2021, to take time off to participate in a qualifying exigency related to the covered active duty or call to covered active duty of the individuals' spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent in the Armed Forces of the United States. This bill would expand the scope of those provisions to include time off to care for a seriously ill designated person or child-in-law, as those terms are defined, or to bond with a designated person or child-in-law within one year of the birth or placement of the designated person or child-in-law. (4) Existing law makes an individual ineligible for family temporary disability insurance benefits on any day that another family member is ready, willing, able, and available to provide the required care or participate in the qualified exigency, as specified. Existing law authorizes an employer to require an employee to take up to 2 weeks of vacation leave before the employee receives the benefits. This bill would delete those provisions. (5) Under existing law, workers are required to pay contributions to the Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund, a special fund in the State Treasury, and those funds are continuously appropriated for the purpose of providing disability benefits and making payment of administrative expenses. By authorizing the expenditure of these funds for a new purpose, the bill would make an appropriation.
The California Emergency Services Act establishes the Office of Emergency Services in the office of the Governor and provides that the office is responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or manmade disasters and emergencies, including responsibility for activities necessary to prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of emergencies and disasters to people and property. Existing law authorizes each county, including a city and county, to enter into an agreement to access the contact information of resident accountholders through the records of a public utility or other agency responsible for water service, waste and recycling services, or other property-related services for the sole purpose of enrolling county residents in a county-operated public emergency warning system. Existing law requires any county that enters into such an agreement to include procedures to enable any resident to opt out of the warning system and a process to terminate the receiving agency's access to the resident's contact information. Existing law prohibits the use of the information gathered for any purpose other than for emergency notification. This bill would expand these provisions to authorize a city to enter into an agreement to access the contact information of resident accountholders through the records of a public utility, as specified. The bill would also expand the types of public utilities that can enter into these agreements by defining public utility to include, among others, a local publicly owned electric utility, mobile telephony services, a public water agency, and an agency responsible for solid waste or recycling services. The bill would require a local government that enters into an agreement to access information of resident accountholders to, upon receipt of that information, notify residents that they have been entered into the public emergency warning system. The bill would require a local government that enters into an agreement to access information to include procedures to enable any resident to opt out of the warning system and a process to terminate the receiving agency's access to the contact information of the resident from a public utility. The bill would also authorize the governing bodies of the California State University, the University of California, and each community college district to use their own enrollment, registration, and personnel records to access the contact information of students and employees for the sole purpose of enrolling students and employees in a university- or college-operated public emergency warning system. Existing law requires a county, upon the next update to its emergency plan, to integrate access and functional needs into its emergency plan by addressing, at a minimum, how the access and functional needs population is served by emergency communications, emergency evacuation for individuals who are dependent on public transportation, and accessible emergency sheltering. Existing law permits an authorized employee of a county social services department to disclose the name and residential address of elderly or disabled clients to police, fire, or paramedical personnel, or other designated emergency services personnel, in the event of a public safety emergency that necessitates the possible evacuation of the area in which those elderly or disabled clients reside. Existing law requires the Director of Social Services to seek any federal approval necessary to implement these provisions, and prohibits these provisions from being implemented unless the director executes a declaration stating that any required federal approval has been obtained, and only for the duration of that approval. Existing law defines "public safety emergency" for these purposes to include, but not be limited to, specified events that jeopardize the immediate physical safety of county residents. This bill would authorize a local government to enter into an agreement with a, or to use the records of its own, social services department to access the contact information of persons from the access and functional needs population, and the contact information of the designated emergency contacts of those persons, if any, for the sole purpose of enrolling those individuals, who are residents of that local government, in a city-operated, county-operated, or city-and-county-operated public emergency warning system, as specified. The bill would require a local government that enters into an agreement to access information of resident accountholders or designated emergency contacts to, upon receipt of that information, notify residents that they have been entered into the public emergency warning system. The bill would require a local government that enters into an agreement to access information to include procedures to enable any resident or designated emergency contact to opt out of the warning system and a process to terminate the receiving agency's access to the contact information of the resident or designated emergency contact from a county social services department. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law requires the commission, in consultation with the Office of Emergency Services, to identify the need for telecommunications service systems not on customers' premises to have backup electricity to enable the telecommunications networks to function, and to enable customers to contact a public safety answering point operator during an electrical outage, to determine performance criteria for backup systems, and to determine whether specified best practices for backup systems have been implemented by telecommunications service providers operating in California. Existing law requires the commission to report certain information to the Legislature. This bill would require the commission to collect specified information from telecommunications service providers relating to the performance of telecommunication-based city-operated, county-operated, or city-and-county-operated public emergency warning systems, including comprehensive reporting on messaging performance and the impact on messaging performance due to damage to telecommunications network infrastructure caused by an emergency or natural disaster. The bill would require the commission to annually prepare a report that summarizes the information collected. The bill would require the president of the commission to annually present a summary of the information collected to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature. The bill would authorize the commission to require telecommunications service providers to collect and forward to the commission any relevant information for these purposes. The bill would authorize the information to be disclosed to the public, except as specified. Under existing law, a violation of any provision of the Public Utilities Act or of any of the rules or orders issued under the act is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill are within the act and require implementing action by the commission, a violation of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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 Gender Tax Repeal Act of 1995, prohibits a business establishment from discriminating against a person because of the person's gender with respect to the price charged for services of similar or like kind and specifies that this prohibition does not apply to price differences based specifically upon the amount of time, difficulty, or cost of providing the services. This bill would also prohibit a business establishment from discriminating against a person because of a person's gender with respect to the price charged for goods of a substantially similar or like kind.
(1) Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas in the state as very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria and the severity of the fire hazard. Existing law requires that a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains an occupied dwelling or structure in, upon, or adjoining a mountainous area, forest-covered land, brush-covered land, grass-covered land, or land that is covered with flammable material that is within a very high fire hazard severity zone, as designated by a local agency, or a building or structure in, upon, or adjoining those areas or lands within a state responsibility area, to maintain a defensible space of 100 feet from each side and from the front and rear of the structure, as specified. A repeated violation within a specified timeframe of those requirements is a crime. This bill would require a person described above to utilize more intense fuel reductions between 5 and 30 feet around the structure, and to create an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of the structure, as provided. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime or expand the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require each local agency having jurisdiction of property upon which conditions that are regulated by the defensible space provisions described above apply and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to make reasonable efforts to provide notice to affected residents of the above requirements before imposing penalties for a violation of those requirements. By imposing additional duties on local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would authorize the department, subject to availability of funding, to make local fire prevention grants available to certain entities to improve compliance with defensible space requirements in very high fire hazard severity zones through the creation of defensible space assessment or inspection programs. This bill would require the director to establish a statewide program to allow qualified entities, as defined, to support and augment the department in its defensible space and home hardening assessment and education efforts and to establish a common reporting platform for participating qualified entities to report defensible space and home hardening assessment data to the department. The bill would require the department to develop and implement a training program to train individuals to support and augment the department in its defensible space and home hardening assessment and education efforts. The bill would require the department to issue to individuals who have successfully completed the training program a certification of completion. The bill would require the director, by January 1, 2024, to submit to the Legislature a report on the effectiveness of the statewide program. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2025. (2) Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to develop, periodically update, and post on its internet website a guidance document on fuels management for purposes of very high fire hazard severity zones, as designated by a local agency, and requires the guidance document to include, but not be limited to, regionally appropriate vegetation management suggestions that preserve and restore native species. This bill would limit these native species, for purposes of the guidance document, to those that are fire resistant or drought tolerant, or both. (3) Existing law requires a person that owns, controls, operates, or maintains an electrical transmission or distribution line upon mountainous land, or in forest-covered land, brush-covered land, or grass-covered land, to maintain certain clearances between all vegetation and all conductors that are carrying electric current during those times and in those areas determined to be necessary by the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection or the agency with primary responsibility for the fire protection of those areas. A violation of this provision and other specified provisions relating to fire prevention requirements is a crime. This bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission and any person who owns, controls, operates, or maintains any electrical transmission or distribution lines, on or before July 1, 2021, to develop, through a public process, an online guidebook of vegetation, including tree and shrub species, that, if planted in the vicinity of electrical transmission and distribution lines, cannot encroach within the vicinity of overhead conductors, as provided. For purposes of this provision, and other specified provisions related to firebreaks and vegetation clearance around electrical transmission or distribution lines, as provided, the bill would define person to mean, among other things, a county, city, district, or other local public agency. By expanding the duties of a local public agency, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the guidebook to include, but not be limited to, guidelines for planting underneath and to the side of conductors of varying voltages, as provided. The bill would require the department, the Public Utilities Commission, an electrical corporation, and a local publicly owned electric utility to make available on their respective internet websites the above-described guidebook. (4) Existing law sets forth findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to the benefits of the state's expertise in wildland fire prevention and vegetation management on forest, range, and watershed lands. This bill would revise those findings and declarations of the Legislature. (5) Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to assist local governments in preventing future wildland fire and vegetation management problems by making its wildland fire prevention and vegetation management expertise available to local governments to the extent possible within the department's budgetary limitations. This bill instead would require the department to assist local governments in preventing future high-intensity wildland fires and instituting appropriate fuels management by making its wildland fire prevention and vegetation management expertise available to local governments to the extent possible within the department's budgetary limitations. The bill would explicitly define, for these purposes, "local governments" to include cities, counties, and special districts. (6) Existing law authorizes a county, by resolution, to loan moneys to certain local and regional districts to enable those districts to perform their functions and meet their obligations. This bill would include a resource conservation district as a district eligible for a loan from a county. (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 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, including, but not limited to, property tax law, the Sales and Use Tax Law, the Personal Income Tax Law, the Corporation Tax Law, the Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law, the law governing the taxation of insurers, the Use Fuel Tax Law, and the Diesel Fuel Tax Law provide for tax expenditures, including exemptions, deductions, exclusions, and credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. This bill would establish in state government the California Tax Expenditure Review Board as an independent advisory body to comprehensively assess major tax expenditures, as defined, and make recommendations to the Legislature. The bill would require the board to be composed of 5 members, as specified, who would serve without compensation. This bill would request the University of California, through a new or existing research center, to perform a comprehensive assessment of the major tax expenditures and to present a comprehensive, peer-reviewed assessment to the board by July 1, 2021, at a public hearing of the board. The bill, to the extent that the University of California needs access to taxpayer data and information, would require the Franchise Tax Board or the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to ensure relevant taxpayer data is made available and ensure appropriate levels of data security and protections are in place for transferred and sensitive data. This bill would set forth the scope of the comprehensive assessment, which would include certain specified information, including a brief description of the beneficiaries of the tax expenditure, and would require the board to post the comprehensive assessment on its internet website after receipt. The bill would require the board to make recommendations to the Legislature regarding the major tax expenditures, and to provide a report to the Legislature that compiles all of its recommendations regarding those tax expenditures, after a vote of the members of the board, by January 1, 2022, as specified. The bill would also require the board to submit the report to the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance, the Assembly Committee on Budget, and the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation, and post it on its internet website. The bill would require the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance and the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation, after receipt of the report by the Legislature, to hold a joint public hearing on the report by August 15 of the second year of the legislative session.