Sen. Connie M. Leyva

Existing law establishes the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. The California State University system comprises 23 institutions of higher education. Existing law requires the trustees to provide by rule for the government of their appointees and employees, as specified. This bill would require the California State University to implement a merit 9-step salary system for all California State University nonfaculty staff employees that runs for 15 years, as provided.

(1) Existing law provides for the establishment of various special districts that may support and finance housing development, including affordable housing special beneficiary districts that are authorized to promote affordable housing development with certain property tax revenues that a city or county would otherwise be entitled to receive. Existing law, the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Housing Finance Act, establishes the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority to raise, administer, and allocate funding for affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay area, as defined, and provide technical assistance at a regional level for tenant protection, affordable housing preservation, and new affordable housing production. This bill, the Los Angeles County Regional Housing Finance Act, would establish the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency and would state that the agency's purpose is to increase the supply of affordable housing in Los Angeles County by providing for significantly enhanced funding and technical assistance at a regional level for renter protections, affordable housing preservation, and new affordable housing production, as specified. The bill would require a board composed of 21 voting members and one nonvoting member from Los Angeles County, as specified, to govern the agency. This bill would permit the board to determine its organizational structure and to delegate specified powers. The bill would require the board to form an oversight committee composed of 11 members and one nonvoting member to assist in the development of funding guidelines, implementation of agency programs, and approval of an expenditure plan, as specified. The bill would require the board to provide for annual audits of the agency's general administration, accounts, and records, including an independent financial and performance audit for bonds secured by ad valorem property taxes, and provide for financial reports. The bill would include findings that the provisions proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities within Los Angeles County, including charter cities. This bill would authorize the agency to, among other things, raise and allocate new revenue, incur and issue bonds and other indebtedness, and place on the ballot in Los Angeles County, including all of its incorporated cities, funding measures, in accordance with applicable constitutional and statutory requirements, to raise and allocate funds to the county, the cities in the county, and other public agencies and affordable housing projects within its jurisdiction for purposes of preserving and enhancing existing housing, funding renter protection programs, and financing new construction of housing developments, as specified. In this regard, the bill would authorize the entity, among other things, to impose various special taxes, including a parcel tax and a documentary transfer tax, within its jurisdiction, and to issue bonds secured by the levy of ad valorem property taxes, in accordance with applicable constitutional requirements, and revenue bonds payable from the revenues of the agency, other than revenues generated from ad valorem property taxes. The bill would require that revenue generated by the agency pursuant to these provisions be used for specified housing purposes and would require the agency to distribute those funds in accordance with specified requirements, including the adoption of an annual plan by the board. This bill would require that revenue be allocated according to a geographic distribution schedule, as specified. Existing law defines "public works," for the purposes of regulating public works contracts, as, among other things, construction, alteration, demolition, installation, or repair work done under contract and paid for, in whole or in part, out of public funds. Existing law further requires that, except as specified, not less than the general prevailing rate of per diem wages be paid to workers employed on public works and imposes misdemeanor penalties for a willful violation of this requirement. Under this bill, a construction or rehabilitation project receiving certain funding associated with the agency, as described, would constitute a public work for which prevailing wages are required to be paid. The bill would also provide that certain projects with 40 units or greater are eligible to receive funding or financing from the agency only if all construction and rehabilitation is subject to the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works PLA, as defined and specified, except that if a specific countywide project labor agreement, as defined, is negotiated, then the bill would provide that those projects are eligible for funding or financing from the agency only if all construction and rehabilitation is subject to that labor agreement rather than the Department of Public Works PLA, as specified. Because the willful violation of prevailing wage requirements when engaged in these public works projects would result in the imposition of misdemeanor penalties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA includes exemptions from its environmental review requirements for numerous categories of projects. This bill would exempt from the CEQA requirements certain actions taken by the agency. (3) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for Los Angeles County. (4) By adding to the duties of local officials with respect to elections procedures for revenue measures on behalf of the agency, 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 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 establishes the Civil Rights Department within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency to enforce civil rights laws with respect to housing and employment and to protect and safeguard the right of all persons to obtain and hold employment without discrimination based on specified characteristics or status. Existing law requires a private employer that has 100 or more employees and is required to file an annual Employer Information Report (EEO-1) pursuant to federal law to submit a pay data report to the department that contains specified employee information on or before March 31, 2021, and on or before March 31 each year thereafter. Existing law prescribes the information that must be included in the pay data report, including the number of employees by race, ethnicity, and sex in specified job categories. Existing law requires employers with multiple establishments to submit a report for each establishment and a consolidated report that includes all employees. Existing law permits the department to develop, publish on an annual basis, and publicize aggregate reports, provided that the aggregate reports are reasonably calculated to prevent the association of any data with any individual business or person. Existing law provides that an employer is in compliance with the requirement that it submit a pay data report if it submits an EEO-1 to the department containing the same or substantially similar pay data information. Existing law permits the department to seek an order requiring an employer to comply with these provisions and permits it to recover the costs associated with seeking the order for compliance. This bill would, instead, require a private employer that has 100 or more employees to submit a pay data report to the department. This bill would revise the timeframe in which a private employer is required to submit this information to require that it be provided on or before the second Wednesday of May 2023, and for each year thereafter on or before the second Wednesday of May. This bill would also require a private employer that has 100 or more employees hired through labor contractors, as defined, to also submit a separate pay data report to the department for those employees in accordance with the above timeframe, as specified. This bill would require the pay data reports to include the median and mean hourly rate for each combination of race, ethnicity, and sex within each job category. This bill would delete a provision requiring employers with multiple establishments to submit a consolidated report. This bill would delete the provision authorizing an employer to submit an EEO-1 in lieu of a pay data report. This bill would permit a court to impose a civil penalty not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100) per employee upon any employer who fails to file the required report and not to exceed two hundred dollars ($200) per employee upon any employer for a subsequent failure to file the required report. The bill would require those penalties to be deposited in the Civil Rights Enforcement and Litigation Fund. Existing law creates the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, under the direction of the Labor Commissioner, within the Department of Industrial Relations to enforce labor laws. Existing law requires an employer, upon reasonable request, to provide the pay scale for a position to an applicant applying for employment. Existing law defines pay scale for these purposes to mean salary or hourly wage range. This bill would also require an employer, upon request, to provide to an employee the pay scale for the position in which the employee is currently employed. The bill would require an employer with 15 or more employees to include the pay scale for a position in any job posting. The bill would require an employer to maintain records of a job title and wage rate history for each employee for a specified timeframe, to be open to inspection by the Labor Commissioner. The bill would create a rebuttable presumption in favor of an employee's claim if an employer fails to keep records in violation of these provisions. The bill would require an employer with 15 or more employees that engages a third party to announce, post, publish, or otherwise make known a job posting to provide the pay scale to the third party and would require the third party to include the pay scale in the job posting. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to investigate complaints alleging violations of these requirements and would authorize the commissioner to order an employer to pay a civil penalty upon finding an employer has violated these provisions. The bill would also authorize a person aggrieved by a violation of these provisions to bring a civil action for injunctive and any other appropriate relief. This bill would require deposit of the civil penalties collected pursuant to these provisions into the Labor Enforcement and Compliance Fund, and would authorize these funds to be used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for administration and enforcement of these provisions.

(1) Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law establishes health care coverage requirements for contraceptives, including, but not limited to, requiring a health care service plan, including a Medi-Cal managed care plan, or a health insurance policy issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on or after January 1, 2017, to cover up to a 12-month supply of federal Food and Drug Administration approved, self-administered hormonal contraceptives when dispensed at one time for an enrollee or insured by a provider or pharmacist, or at a location licensed or authorized to dispense drugs or supplies. This bill, the Contraceptive Equity Act of 2022, would make various changes to expand coverage of contraceptives by a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on and after January 1, 2024, including requiring a health care service plan or health insurer to provide point-of-sale coverage for over-the-counter FDA-approved contraceptive drugs, devices, and products at in-network pharmacies without cost sharing or medical management restrictions. The bill would require health care service plans and insurance policies offered by public or private institutions of higher learning that directly provide health care services only to its students, faculty, staff, administration, and their respective dependents, issued, amended, renewed, or delivered, on or after January 1, 2024, to comply with these contraceptive coverage requirements. The bill would also require coverage for clinical services related to the provision or use of contraception, as specified. The bill would revise provisions applicable when a covered, therapeutic equivalent of a drug, device, or product is deemed medically inadvisable by deferring to the provider, as specified. This bill would also prohibit a health care service plan contract or disability insurance policy issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on or after January 1, 2024, with certain exceptions, from imposing a deductible, coinsurance, copayment, or any other cost-sharing requirement on vasectomy services and procedures, as specified, under conditions similar to those applicable to other contraceptive coverage. This bill would require a health benefit plan or contract with the Board of Public Relations of the Public Employees' Retirement System to provide coverage for contraceptives and vasectomies consistent with the bill's requirements, commencing January 1, 2024. The bill would prohibit the California State University and the University of California from approving a health benefit plan that does not comply with the contraceptive coverage requirements of the bill on and after January 1, 2024. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) , establishes the Civil Rights Department within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, under the direction of the Director of Civil Rights, to enforce civil rights laws with respect to housing and employment and to protect and safeguard the right of all persons to obtain and hold employment without discrimination based on specified characteristics or status, including, but not limited to, race, age, sex, or medical condition. The FEHA makes certain discriminatory employment and housing practices unlawful, and authorizes a person claiming to be aggrieved by an alleged unlawful practice to file a verified complaint with the Civil Rights Department. The FEHA requires the department to make an investigation in connection with a filed complaint alleging facts sufficient to constitute a violation of the FEHA, and requires the department to endeavor to eliminate the unlawful practice by conference, conciliation, mediation, and persuasion. With regard to unlawful employment practices, if conference, conciliation, mediation, or persuasion fails and the department has required all parties to participate in a mandatory dispute resolution, as specified, the FEHA authorizes the director, in their discretion, to bring a civil action in the name of the department on behalf of the person claiming to be aggrieved. This bill would revise the FEHA to include protection for reproductive health decisionmaking, as defined, with respect to the opportunity to seek, obtain, and hold employment without discrimination. Among other provisions, the bill would prohibit specified discriminatory practices, based on reproductive health decisionmaking, by employers, labor organizations, apprenticeships and training programs, and licensing boards. The bill also would make it unlawful for an employer to require, as a condition of employment, continued employment, or a benefit of employment, the disclosure of information relating to an applicant's or employee's reproductive health decisionmaking. (3) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 12926 of the Government Code proposed by AB 1766 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1766 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (4) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 12931 of the Government Code proposed by AB 2960 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2960 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (5) 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 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. Existing law also requires specified business establishments to disclose in writing the pricing for each standard service, as defined, to display, in a specified manner, a sign stating that it is illegal to base pricing on gender and that a complete price list is available upon request, and to display, in a specified manner, a price list, and to provide the customer with a copy of the complete price list upon request. This bill would prohibit a person, firm, partnership, company, corporation, or business from charging a different price for any 2 goods that are substantially similar, as defined, if those goods are priced differently based on the gender of the individuals for whom the goods are marketed and intended. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to seek an injunction to enjoin and restrain the continuance of those violations, and would authorize the court, in addition to granting the injunction, to impose a civil penalty, as specified.

Existing law establishes the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, as one of the segments of postsecondary education in this state. The University of California comprises 10 institutions of higher education, which are located in the Cities of Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. This bill would require certain moneys appropriated by the Legislature during the 2022–23 to 2024–25, inclusive, fiscal years to directly support campus expansion projects or University of California climate initiatives, or both, at the University of California, Riverside, and the University of California, Merced, to supplement and not supplant any current or future funding, as provided. The bill would place certain wage and workforce requirements on projects that receive this funding. The bill would, commencing July 1, 2023, require the University of California to submit an annual report to the Legislature and the Department of Finance regarding these funds, as provided.

Existing law creates a private cause of action against a person who intentionally distributes material that exposes an intimate body part of another person or shows that other person engaging in sexual conduct if the person knew that the other person had a reasonable expectation that the material would remain private. This bill would create a private cause of action against a person 18 years of age or older who knowingly sends an unsolicited image, as specified, by electronic means depicting obscene material, as defined. The bill would entitle the plaintiff to recover economic and noneconomic damages or statutory damages of a sum not less than $1,500 but not more than $30,000, as well as punitive damages, reasonable attorney's fees and costs, and other available relief, including injunctive relief, as specified.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The act requires the state board to prepare and approve a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and to update the scoping plan at least once every 5 years. This bill, the California Climate Crisis Act, would declare the policy of the state both to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, but no later than 2045, and achieve and maintain net negative greenhouse gas emissions thereafter, and to ensure that by 2045, statewide anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 85% below the 1990 levels. The bill would require the state board to work with relevant state agencies to ensure that updates to the scoping plan identify and recommend measures to achieve these policy goals and to identify and implement a variety of policies and strategies that enable carbon dioxide removal solutions and carbon capture, utilization, and storage technologies in California, as specified. The bill would require the state board to submit an annual report, as specified. This bill would make its operation contingent on the enactment of SB 905 of the 2021–22 Regular Session, as provided.

Existing law establishes an Office of Health Equity in the State Department of Public Health for purposes of aligning state resources, decisionmaking, and programs to accomplish certain goals related to health equity and protecting vulnerable communities. Existing law requires the office to develop department-wide plans to close the gaps in health status and access to care among the state's diverse racial and ethnic communities, women, persons with disabilities, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning communities, as specified. Existing law requires the office to work with the Health in All Policies Task Force to assist state agencies and departments in developing policies, systems, programs, and environmental change strategies that have population health impacts by, among other things, prioritizing building cross-sectoral partnerships within and across departments and agencies to change policies and practices to advance health equity. Existing law establishes the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, with a Special Consideration for African Americans Who are Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States to, among other things, identify, compile, and synthesize the relevant corpus of evidentiary documentation of the institution of slavery that existed within the United States and the colonies. Existing law requires the task force to submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the Legislature. This bill, until January 1, 2030, would establish in state government a Racial Equity Commission. The bill would require the commission to be staffed by the Office of Planning and Research. The bill would require the commission to develop resources, best practices, and tools for advancing racial equity by, among other things, developing a statewide Racial Equity Framework that includes methodologies and tools that can be employed to advance racial equity and address structural racism in California. The bill would require the commission to prepare an annual report that summarizes feedback from public engagement with communities of color, provides data on racial inequities and disparities in the state, and recommends best practices on tools, methodologies, and opportunities to advance racial equity and to submit that report, on or after December 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, to the Governor and the Legislature, as specified.

(1) Existing law provides for the compensation of victims and derivative victims of specified types of crimes by the California Victim Compensation Board from the Restitution Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, for specified losses suffered as a result of those crimes. Existing law defines various terms for purposes of these provisions. This bill would define "law enforcement officer" consistently with specified provisions. The bill would define "victim services provider" to mean an individual, whether paid or serving as a volunteer, who provides services to victims under the supervision of either an agency or organization that has a documented record of providing services to victims, or a law enforcement or prosecution agency. (2) Existing law requires that a person be ineligible for compensation under specified conditions, including, among other things, if the board determines that denial of the claim for compensation is appropriate because of the nature of the victim's involvement in the events leading to the crime or the involvement of the person whose injury or death gives rise to the application. Existing law requires the board to deny an application if it finds that the victim failed to cooperate reasonably with a law enforcement agency in the apprehension and conviction of a criminal committing the crime. This bill, in the case of a claim based on a victim's serious bodily injury or death that resulted from a law enforcement officer's use of force, would prohibit the board from denying an application based on the victim's or other applicant's involvement in the crime, except as specified, or the victim's failure to cooperate. The bill would require the board, solely for the purposes of eligibility for compensation, to accept as sufficient evidence forms of documentation, as described, that describe or demonstrate a person suffered serious bodily injury or death as a result of a law enforcement officer's use of force. The bill, in the case of a claim based on a victim's death as a result of a crime, would prohibit the board from denying an application based on the deceased victim's involvement in the crime or the victim's or derivative victim's failure to cooperate, except as provided. By expanding the types of crime for which compensation can be paid from a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. (3) Existing law requires that the California Victim Compensation Board be subrogated to the rights of the recipient to the extent of any compensation granted by the board. This bill would specify that the above-described subrogation of the board applies to compensation by the board for a claim based on serious bodily injury or death that resulted from a law enforcement officer's use of force, as specified.