Sen. Monique Limón

This measure would recognize February 2020 as Black History Month, urge all citizens to join in celebrating the accomplishments of African Americans during Black History Month, encourage the people of California to recognize the many talents of African Americans and the achievements and contributions they make to their communities to create equity and equality for education, economics, and social justice, and recognize the significance in protecting citizens' right to vote and remedying racial discrimination in voting.

(1) Existing law prescribes various requirements to be satisfied before the exercise of a power of sale under a mortgage or deed of trust. In this regard, existing law requires that a notice of default and a notice of sale be recorded and that specified periods of time elapse between the recording and the sale. Existing law establishes certain requirements in connection with foreclosures on mortgages and deeds of trust, including restrictions on the actions mortgage servicers while a borrower is attempting to secure a loan modification or has submitted a loan modification application. Existing law also imposes requirements on loans secured by liens on motor vehicles. This bill would enact the COVID-19 Homeowner, Tenant, and Consumer Relief Law of 2020. The bill, with respect to residential mortgage loans, would prohibit a mortgage servicer, mortgagee, trustee, beneficiary, or authorized agent from taking specified actions during the covered period. The "covered period" would be defined as the 12 months following the operational date of the act. The bill would prohibit the above persons from commencing or continuing any judicial foreclosure action, recording a notice of default, or taking any action to evict a person following a foreclosure. The bill would also require the above persons to stay all foreclosure proceedings and time limits in a judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure on a property during the covered period. The bill would not apply these provisions to a mortgage secured by a dwelling that any of the above persons has determined, after exercising reasonable diligence, is vacant or abandoned. The bill, with respect to residential mortgage loans, would authorize a borrower experiencing a financial hardship during the covered period to request forbearance from any mortgage obligation by submitting a request to the borrower's mortgage servicer. The bill would require the mortgage servicer to provide the forbearance requested for the period requested by the borrower, up to an initial period of 180 days, the length of which would be required to be extended at the request of the borrower for a total forbearance period of up to 12 months. If the borrower requests a forbearance period greater than 90 days, the servicer would be required to provide an initial forbearance term of not less than 90 days, and automatically extend it for an additional 90 days, unless the servicer confirms the borrower does not want to renew the forbearance. The bill would prohibit a mortgage servicer from misleading or making misrepresentations to a borrower about forbearance and repayment options. The bill would require a borrower receiving a forbearance with respect to a mortgage secured by a dwelling that has a tenant, regardless of whether the borrower also lives in the dwelling, to provide the tenant with rent relief for not less than the forbearance period. The bill would require a mortgage servicer, upon placing a mortgage obligation in forbearance, to provide the borrower written notification of the forbearance terms, treatment of payments, and other options available to the borrower at the end of the forbearance period. The bill would require the servicer, no later than 30 days before the end of the forbearance, to notify the borrower of their options to modify their loan or reinstate their mortgage account to current status, as provided, and provide a written notice, within 30 days of the original notification, of their rights and obligations with regard to their loan modification or reinstatement, as provided. The bill would prohibit a mortgage servicer from assessing, accruing, or applying fees, penalties, or additional interest to the borrower's account beyond specified scheduled or calculated amounts. The bill would require a mortgage servicer that claims investor guidelines or applicable law prohibit implementation of postforbearance modification or reinstatement on the required terms, to notify the borrower and the Commissioner of Business Oversight, as specified, and to present documentation. The commissioner would be required to develop a procedure for reviewing and determining the validity of the grounds for the exception, and the determination would be subject to judicial review. The bill would require the mortgage servicer, if the borrower is unable to return to making regular mortgage payments, to evaluate all loss mitigation and foreclosure prevention options, and, if the borrower qualifies, to implement the option with no penalties, late fees, modification fees, or additional interest beyond specified scheduled amounts. The bill would also authorize a mortgage servicer, if a borrower does not qualify for loss mitigation or foreclosure prevention options to pursue foreclosure after expiration of the covered period. This bill would provide that a mortgage servicer that violates the above requirements is in violation of the laws governing the servicer's license and subject to enforcement actions by its licensing agency. The bill would authorize a borrower harmed by a violation of the above requirements to bring an action for injunctive relief, damages, restitution, and any other remedies available. The bill would require a court to award attorney's fees and costs to a prevailing borrower. The bill, with respect to multifamily mortgage loans, would authorize a borrower to submit a request for forbearance to the borrower's mortgage servicers, affirming that the multifamily borrower is experiencing hardship during the COVID-19 emergency. The bill would require a mortgage servicer, upon request from a multifamily borrower, to request documentation of the financial hardship, provide the forbearance for not less than 180 days, subject to extension. The bill would require a multifamily borrower, during the forbearance term, to provide rent relief to tenants living in the property secured by the mortgage and would prohibit eviction for a tenant's nonpayment of rent or application or accrual of fees or other penalties on renters for nonpayment of rent. The bill would require a multifamily borrower to bring a loan placed in forbearance under these provisions current within a specified timeframe. This bill, with respect to vehicle-secured credit obligations, would prohibit a servicer of vehicle-secured credit from taking any action to use self-help to repossess, as provided, a mobilehome or motor vehicle that secures a vehicle-secured credit obligation, until January 1, 2023, except as provided. The bill would authorize a consumer experiencing a financial hardship during the covered period to request forbearance from any vehicle-secured credit obligation by submitting a request to the servicer of vehicle-secured credit, affirming that the consumer is experiencing hardship. The bill would require a servicer of vehicle-secured credit to provide the forbearance requested for a period of at least 90 days, and to extend the forbearance period upon request, if the consumer affirms that they continue to experience hardship. The bill would authorize a servicer of vehicle-secured credit to assess, accrue, or apply to a consumer's account a rate of interest of up to 7% per annum, but would prohibit a servicer of vehicle-secured credit from assessing, accruing, or applying additional fees, penalties, or other interest to a consumer's account beyond the amounts scheduled or calculated, as specified. The bill would require the holder of a vehicle-secured credit obligation to evaluate a consumer's ability return to making regular payments before the completion of a forbearance period, and if the consumer is able to return to making regular payments, modify the consumer's vehicle-secured credit obligation to extend the term, modify the obligation, notify the borrower, and take other specified actions, including proceeding with a written notice of intent to repossess the vehicle only after January 1, 2023. The bill would provide that a repossession of a mobilehome or motor vehicle by a servicer of a vehicle-secured credit obligation that has failed to comply with all of these provisions constitutes an acceptance of the collateral in full satisfaction of the vehicle-secured credit obligation. (2) The California Deferred Deposit Transaction Law provides for the licensure and regulation by the Commissioner of Business Oversight of persons engaged in the business of making or arranging deferred deposit transactions. A knowing and willful violation of the provisions of this law is a crime. This bill, during the COVID-19 emergency and the 180-day period thereafter, would prohibit a fee for a deferred deposit transaction from exceeding 5% of the face amount of the check. The bill would require a licensee under that law to offer a customer the option to enter into a payment plan that provides an extension of time for repayment of an existing deferred deposit transaction in accordance with specified procedures. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also include related legislative findings. 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 Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to develop and implement a course of instruction and training for specified peace officers on the topic of hate crimes. Existing law requires that training to be implemented into the basic course and requires, as specified, all state and local law enforcement agencies to provide the training to all peace officers they employ. This bill would require POST to develop and periodically update an interactive refresher course on hate crimes for in-service peace officers, and require specified peace officers to take the course every 5 years.

This measure would proclaim March 15, 2020, to March 22, 2020, as California Down Syndrome Awareness Week and March 21, 2020, as California Down Syndrome Day, and would encourage all Californians to support and participate in related activities.

Under the Corporate Securities Law of 1968, the Commissioner of Business Oversight regulates the activities of a broker-dealer, which is defined as, among other things, any person engaged in the business of effecting securities transactions in California for the account of others or that person's own account. The law specifies persons or entities excluded from the definition. Among the excluded persons is a finder, as defined, which is a person that meets specified requirements including filing an initial statement of information and paying a filing fee. The law requires a finder to annually supplement the initial information in a renewal statement within 30 days of the anniversary of the first statement. This bill would change the required timing of the supplemental filing by requiring the renewal statement to be filed initially on or before December 31 following the anniversary of the filing of the initial statement and annually thereafter. The bill would also authorize the commissioner to, by rule or order, require additional information to be included in the supplemental renewal filing.

Existing law, the Gender Tax Repeal Act of 1995 (the act) , 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. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act protects and safeguards the right and opportunity of all persons to seek, obtain, and hold employment without discrimination, abridgment, or harassment on account of various personal characteristics. Under existing law, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing is responsible for receiving, investigating, conciliating, mediating, and prosecuting complaints alleging violations of specified civil rights. This bill would prohibit a business establishment from discriminating against a person because of a person's gender with respect to the price charged for any 2 consumer products from the same manufacturer that are substantially similar if those products are priced differently based on the gender of the individuals for whose use the products are intended or marketed, as specified. The bill would make the department responsible for receiving, investigating, conciliating, mediating, and prosecuting complaints alleging violations of these provisions.

(1) Existing law makes it a crime for a person to willfully and lewdly expose their private parts in a public place where there are other persons are present who may be offended or annoyed. This bill would make it a crime for a person to knowingly send an unsolicited image by electronic means depicting any person engaging in an act of sexual intercourse, sodomy, oral copulation, sexual penetration, or masturbation or depicting the exposed genitals or anus of any person. The bill would make the crime punishable as an infraction by a fine of $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for a 2nd or subsequent offense. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local crime. (2) 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 who knowingly sends an unsolicited image by electronic means depicting any person engaging in an act of sexual intercourse, sodomy, oral copulation, sexual penetration, or masturbation or depicting the exposed genitals or anus of any person. 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. 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 authorizes a county to establish a homeless adult and family multidisciplinary personnel team, as defined, with the goal of facilitating the expedited identification, assessment, and linkage of homeless individuals to housing and supportive services within that county and to allow provider agencies to share confidential information for the purpose of coordinating housing and supportive services to ensure continuity of care. Existing law requires this sharing of information to be governed by protocols developed in each county describing how and what information may be shared by the homeless adult and family multidisciplinary personnel team to ensure that confidential information gathered by the team is not disclosed in violation of state or federal law, and requires a copy of the protocols to be distributed to each participating agency and persons and the State Department of Social Services. This bill would authorize a county that has established a homeless adult and family multidisciplinary personnel team to enter into an agreement with surrounding counties that have also established a homeless adult and family multidisciplinary personnel team to share confidential information for the purpose of coordinating housing and supportive services to ensure continuity of care across county lines. The bill would similarly require the participating counties to jointly develop protocols and to distribute the protocols as described above.

Existing law authorizes a school district, county superintendent of schools, child development program, local agency, private school, parochial school, or any other agency that qualifies for federal aid under specified federal school meal programs, to apply to the State Department of Education for all available federal and state funds so that a nutritionally adequate breakfast or lunch, or both, may be provided to pupils each schoolday at each school, as provided. Existing law describes a nutritionally adequate breakfast or lunch for this purpose as one that qualifies for reimbursement under the most current meal pattern for the federal School Breakfast Program or the federal National School Lunch Program. This bill would revise the sodium, grain, and sugar requirements for a nutritionally adequate breakfast or lunch to be more stringent than federal requirements, as provided. The bill, commencing with the 2022–23 school year, would set a tiered structure for reducing the sodium amount in breakfasts and lunches for these purposes over time, as provided, and would require the final sodium requirements, commencing with the 2030–31 school year, to be determined by the department in alignment with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium. The bill, commencing with the 2022–23 school year, would require that the grains offered in a breakfast or lunch contain at least 50% whole grains and would require the remaining grain content to be enriched. The bill, commencing with the 2024–25 school year, would require that a breakfast or lunch meet, on average over the school week, requirements that the department develops that are consistent with the quantitative recommendations for limiting added sugars established pursuant to specified federal dietary guidelines.