Under existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, the State Department of Developmental Services is responsible for providing various services and supports to persons with developmental disabilities, and for ensuring the appropriateness and quality of those services and supports. Existing law authorizes the department to contract with regional centers to provide these services and supports. Existing law sets forth the department's and the regional center's authority to establish provider rates. Existing law prohibits certain provider rate increases, but authorizes increases to those rates as necessary to adjust employee wages to meet the state minimum wage law. Existing law further requires the department to adopt regulations that specify rates, calculated on the basis of a cost model, including, among other things, changes in the state or federal minimum wage, for community care facilities serving persons with developmental disabilities, as specified. Existing law authorizes the department to approve rate adjustments for a work activity program that demonstrates to the department that the adjustment is necessary, as specified. Existing law authorizes community-based day program and in-home respite services agency providers with temporary payment rates set by the department to seek unanticipated rate adjustments from the department, as specified. This bill would require the cost model described above to also include changes in local minimum wage. The bill would additionally authorize adjustment of prescribed provider rates if the adjustment is necessary in order to pay employees no less than the minimum wage required to comply with an ordinance that increases the minimum wage, as specified. The bill would provide that these provisions become operative on July 1, 2018.
Sponsored bills
Existing law provides for the formation of veterans memorial districts and provides for their powers and functions in constructing, acquiring, and operating halls, buildings, meeting places, and other facilities for the use of veterans and veterans' organizations and by persons and organizations other than veterans when their use does not interfere with the use of the facilities by veterans. Existing law authorizes, under specified conditions and to fund these purposes, the issuance of district bonds and the imposition of a memorial district tax. This bill would additionally authorize a veterans memorial district to provide funding to providers of supportive services that improve the quality of life for veterans and their families, including, but not limited to, counseling, case management, and employment training and placement, as provided.
Existing law, the Unclaimed Property Law, governs the disposition of unclaimed property, including the escheat of certain property to the state. Existing law requires the Controller, within one year of receiving unclaimed property, to cause a notice to be published in a newspaper of general circulation that the Controller determines is most likely to give notice to the owner of the property. Existing law requires that notice to have a specified title and to state that the owner of the property may obtain information regarding the property by inquiring with the Controller, as specified. This bill would instead authorize the Controller to cause notice to be published in a manner he or she determines to be reasonable. The bill would prohibit the Controller, in carrying out this duty, from using (1) money appropriated for the Controller's audit programs, (2) more than the amount appropriated by the Legislature for publishing this notice, (3) a photograph, or (4) an elected official's name.
This measure would designate a specified portion of State Highway 14 in the City of Palmdale in Los Angeles County as the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sergeant Steven C. Owen Memorial Highway. The measure would request that the Department of Transportation determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and the badge of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
Existing law prescribes the powers and duties of the city treasurer. This bill would revise those powers and duties by deleting gender-specific personal pronouns and by making other conforming changes. Existing law requires the city treasurer to comply with all laws governing the deposit and securing of public funds and the handling of trust funds in his or her possession. This bill would require the city treasurer, if the city has issued bonds, to use a system of accounting and auditing that adheres to generally accepted accounting principles.
Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) , it is an unlawful employment practice for an employer, unless based upon a bona fide occupational qualification or applicable security regulations established by the United States or the State of California, to refuse to hire or employ a person or to refuse to select a person for a training program leading to employment, or to bar or discharge a person from employment or a training program leading to employment, or to discriminate against a person in compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of the race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, or military and veteran status of that person. FEHA provides that nothing in that act relating to discrimination on account of sex affects the right of an employer to use veteran status as a factor in employee selection or to give special consideration to Vietnam-era veterans. This bill would enact the Voluntary Veterans' Preference Employment Policy Act to authorize a private employer to establish and maintain a written veterans' preference employment policy, to be applied uniformly to hiring decisions, to give a voluntary preference for hiring or retaining a veteran over another qualified applicant or employee. The bill would provide that the granting of a veterans' preference pursuant to the bill, in and of itself, shall be deemed not to violate any local or state equal employment opportunity law or regulation, including, but not limited to, the antidiscrimination provisions of FEHA. The bill would revise the existing veteran status provision in FEHA to remove references to discrimination on account of sex and to Vietnam-era veterans, and would, instead, provide that nothing in that act relating to discrimination affects the right of an employer to use veteran status as a factor in hiring decisions if the employer maintains a veterans' preference employment policy established in accordance with the Voluntary Veterans' Preference Employment Policy Act. The bill would prohibit a veterans' preference employment policy from being established or applied for the purpose of discriminating against an employment applicant on the basis of a protected classification, as specified.
Existing law, the California Beef Council Law, establishes the California Beef Council, comprised of 20 members and 20 alternate members appointed by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to perform various advisory and other duties relating to the California beef industry. The California Beef Council Law establishes a $1 fee per head on each sale of cattle and calves to administer the California Beef Council Law, and requires the fee to be collected from the seller by the operator of the stockyard, live auction market, slaughterhouse, or feedlot, or from the seller along with brand inspection fees by the Bureau of Livestock Identification. Existing law also provides that the fee from the sale of calves exempt from brand inspection that is not collected in the manner specified above is required to be collected by the purchaser, for payment to the secretary. This bill would instead require the fee from the sale of cattle or calves exempt from a brand inspection that is not collected from the seller in the manner specified above to be charged and collected from the seller in a manner determined by the Department of Food and Agriculture. This bill would also establish the California Beef Commission Law (the law) to augment and support the work of the California Beef Council. The bill would create the California Beef Commission, which would be comprised of 11 members and 11 alternate members appointed by the secretary who may be members of the California Beef Council. The bill would provide for reimbursement of traveling and other expenses incurred by commission members in the performance of their duties, unless the expenses are incurred for discharging similar duties reimbursed by the California Beef Council. The bill would set forth the powers and duties of the commission, including administering any governmental program related to the California cattle, beef, and beef products industry, except for administering funds and performing acts under the jurisdiction of the California Beef Council. The bill would exempt the commission or any person acting pursuant to the law's provisions from various consumer protection laws, including the Cartwright Act and the Unfair Practices Act. The bill would provide for an assessment of $1 per head of cattle to be paid on each sale of cattle and calves to carry out the law's provisions. The bill would authorize the commission to expend those funds for purposes of implementing the bill, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require the secretary to conduct an initial referendum of producers to approve a mandatory fee to implement the law's provisions and would make operation of the law's provisions contingent upon approval of producers by referendum, except as specified. The bill would require reapproval of the law's provisions by a referendum of producers every 5 years and would provide for suspension of the law if a majority of producers do not vote in favor of continuing the law's operation. 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.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law establishes community college districts throughout the state, and authorizes them to operate campuses and provide instruction to students. Existing law authorizes the governing board of a community college district to provide a counseling program. This bill would require the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges to ensure that each of its campuses provides a dedicated on-campus Veteran Resource Center that offers services to help student veterans transition successfully from military life to educational success through the core components of academics, wellness, and camaraderie and would require those Veteran Resource Centers, at a minimum, to be open for 25 hours a week, be staffed by veterans whenever possible, be 400 square feet and fully accessible, and provide enrolled student veterans with specified services, except as provided. By imposing additional duties on community college districts, the 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, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law regulates the procedure of civil actions and permits a party who has provided notice to appear by telephone at specified conferences, hearings, and proceedings, in a general civil case, defined as all civil cases except probate, guardianship, conservatorship, juvenile, and family law proceedings. This bill would permit a party who has provided notice to appear by electronic means that provide remote access to a conference, hearing, or proceeding in all civil cases, as specified. The bill would require the Judicial Council to adopt rules and establish fees effectuating the policies and provisions made by this act no later than July 1, 2019, and would also make conforming changes to other provisions of law.