Existing law requires a person proposing to construct a thermal powerplant, which is defined as a electrical generating facility using a source of thermal energy, with a generating capacity of 50 megawatts or more to obtain a certification from the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission. This bill would exclude from the definition of a thermal powerplant subject to the jurisdiction of the commission an emergency backup or standby generator that is not connected to the electrical grid and that is constructed, operated, or modified to provide immediate electrical power to maintain the operations of a data center in the event of an outage of electricity from the electrical grid. 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. This bill would designate the local land use authority with jurisdiction to approve emergency backup or standby generators described above as the lead agency for purposes of CEQA. By designating local land use authorities as lead agencies, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
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Existing law establishes a system of public elementary and secondary schools in this state and authorizes local educational agencies throughout the state to operate schools and provide instruction to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law prohibits a person who has been convicted of a violent or serious felony from being hired by a school district in a position requiring certification qualifications or supervising positions requiring certification qualifications. Existing law also prohibits a school district from employing or retaining in employment a person who has been convicted, or who has been convicted following a plea of nolo contendere, of any sex offense, as defined. This bill would, on or after January 1, 2021, prohibit local educational agencies, and officers and employees of local educational agencies, from entering into, or extending or renewing, confidentiality agreements, as defined, with child predators. The bill would also prohibit those officers and employees from favorably recommending, or otherwise facilitating or promoting, the employment of a child predator by another local educational agency. The bill would define child predators for its purposes as persons who have been convicted of child abuse or neglect, as described, convicted of a sex offense, as defined, perpetrated upon a person under 18 years of age at the time of the offense, or suspended or terminated from employment by the local educational agency because the agency has determined that the person's behavior was inappropriate in its effect on a pupil or pupils. The bill would provide that an officer or employee of a local educational agency who knowingly or negligently fails to comply with provisions of the bill would be liable for damages determined by a court of competent jurisdiction to have been proximately caused by that knowing or negligent failure to comply. The bill would also authorize the court to award appropriate attorney's fees to a prevailing party in the action.
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 also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law requires a health care service plan contract or a health insurance policy that provides coverage for outpatient prescription drugs to cover medically necessary prescription drugs, including nonformulary drugs determined to be medically necessary, and authorizes a health care service plan or health insurer to utilize formulary, prior authorization, step therapy, or other reasonable medical management practices in the provision of outpatient prescription drug coverage. With respect to a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2021, that provides coverage for biological products or their respective biosimilars, as defined, this bill would prohibit a health care service plan or health insurer from determining which manufacturer's biological products or their respective biosimilars are to be used when medically necessary biological products or their respective biosimilars are prescribed. The bill would prohibit a health care service plan or health insurer that is subject to this provision from requiring prior authorization or step therapy to limit which manufacturer's biological products or their respective biosimilars are to be administered by a physician or clinician to an enrollee or insured. By imposing new requirements on a health care service plan, the willful violation of which is a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law, as established in the case of Dynamex Operations W. Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903 (Dynamex) , creates a presumption that a worker who performs services for a hirer is an employee for purposes of claims for wages and benefits arising under wage orders issued by the Industrial Welfare Commission. Existing law requires a 3-part test, commonly known as the "ABC" test, to determine if workers are employees or independent contractors for purposes of specified wage orders. Existing law establishes that, for purposes of the Labor Code, the Unemployment Insurance Code, and the wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission, a person providing labor or services for remuneration is considered an employee rather than an independent contractor unless the hiring entity demonstrates that the person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, the person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business, and the person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business. This test is commonly known as the "ABC" test. Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner with the enforcement of labor laws, including worker classification. Existing law exempts specified occupations and business relationships from the application of Dynamex and these provisions. Existing law instead provides that these exempt relationships are governed by the test adopted in S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989) 48 Cal.3d 341. This bill would expand the above-described exemptions to also include licensed geologists, geophysicists, land surveyors, contractors, engineers, and pest control operators, when those persons are performing work on forested landscapes, as specified.
The California Healthy Youth Act requires school districts, defined to include county boards of education, county superintendents of schools, the California School for the Deaf, the California School for the Blind, and, commencing with the 2019–20 school year, charter schools, to ensure that all pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, receive comprehensive sexual health education and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention education, as specified. The act authorizes a school district to provide that education earlier than grade 7 with age-appropriate and medically accurate information. The act requires each school district to notify parents and guardians of pupils about its plan to provide sexual health education and HIV prevention instruction for the upcoming school year and to inform them, among other things, that the written and audiovisual educational materials used in comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education are available for inspection. This bill would require the above-described notice to parents and guardians of pupils and the written and audiovisual educational materials used in comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education to be translated if certain conditions are met, as specified. The bill would require the governing board of a school district to adopt a policy at a publicly noticed meeting specifying how parents and guardians of pupils may inspect the written and audiovisual educational materials used in comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education, including that the materials, including applicable translations and updates or changes to the materials, are made available, within prescribed timeframes, at each schoolsite and, except as provided, publicly posted on the school district's internet website or, if applicable, on a school district's parent or guardian portal, as specified. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, 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 makes it a misdemeanor for an individual to solicit, agree to engage in, or engage in, an act of prostitution with an adult or a minor in exchange for the individual providing compensation, money, or anything of value to the other person, as specified. Under existing law, if the defendant knew, or should have known, that the person who was solicited was a minor at the time of the offense, the violation is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not less than 2 days, except as specified, and not more than one year, or by a fine not exceeding $10,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment. This bill would make it a felony, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years, to agree to engage in, or engage in, an act of prostitution with a minor who is a victim of human trafficking, and would require the defendant to register as a tier one sex offender. If the defendant knew the minor was a human trafficking victim, the bill would make the crime punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 5, 8, or 12 years and would require the defendant to register as a sex offender for life. By increasing the punishment for a crime and by increasing the duties of local law enforcement agencies in regard to sex offender registration, 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 defines the crimes of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated as the unlawful killing of a human being without malice aforethought, in the driving of a vehicle, where the driving was in violation of specified laws, if the killing resulted from an unlawful or negligent act, as specified. This bill would expand the crimes of gross vehicular manslaughter and vehicular manslaughter to include the unlawful killing of a fetus, as specified. By expanding the definition of a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law prohibits a person from carrying a concealed firearm. Existing law authorizes the sheriff of a county, or the chief or other head of a municipal police department, if good cause exists for the issuance, and subject to certain other criteria, to issue a license to carry a concealed firearm. This bill would authorize a city council or county board of supervisors to declare that city or county to be a jurisdiction in which persons may carry a concealed firearm in compliance with a valid license to carry a concealed firearm that was issued by another state, as specified. The bill would exempt a person from the prohibition on carrying a concealed firearm if they are carrying a concealed firearm in a jurisdiction that has made the declaration above and they are carrying that firearm in compliance with a valid license to carry a concealed firearm that was issued by another state.
Existing law requires a 3-part test, commonly known as the "ABC" test, to determine if workers are employees or independent contractors for purposes of the Labor Code, the Unemployment Insurance Code, and the wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission. Under the ABC test, a person providing labor or services for remuneration is considered an employee rather than an independent contractor unless the hiring entity demonstrates that the person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, the person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business, and the person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business. Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner with the enforcement of labor laws, including worker classification. Existing law exempts specified occupations and business relationships from the application of the ABC test described above. Existing law, instead, provides that these exempt relationships are governed by the multifactor test previously established in the case of S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989) 48 Cal.3d 341. This bill would, until January 1, 2021, prohibit the application of the ABC test to determine the liability of a hiring entity for damages, injunctive relief, or civil penalties based upon the classification of workers as independent contractors, and instead would require that employer liability to be based upon the multifactor test set forth in the case of Borello. The bill would provide that its provisions apply retroactively, as specified.
Existing law, the Sex Offender Registration Act, as amended by Proposition 35 as approved by the voters at the November 6, 2012, statewide general election, requires a person convicted of a specified sex offense, or an attempt to commit a specified sex offense, to register with local law enforcement agencies while residing in the state or while attending school or working in the state. Existing law requires a person who has more than one residence address at which the person regularly resides to register in each of the jurisdictions in which they regularly reside, as specified. Existing law authorizes the Legislature to amend Proposition 35 in furtherance of its purposes by a statute passed in each house by a majority vote. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to a provision of that act.