Existing law establishes various public social services programs to provide protection, care, and assistance to the people of the state in need of those services, by providing appropriate aid and services to the needy and distressed. Existing law establishes homeless youth emergency service pilot projects in the Counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Clara, and San Francisco. This bill would require, from moneys appropriated by the Legislature, as specified, for the purposes of the program, the State Department of Social Services to establish and operate a Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs Assistance Program for homeless youth in California. The bill would require the department to solicit proposals from, and contract with, nonprofit organizations for the purpose of providing basic material needs assistance to homeless youth as directed by the department. The bill would require contracted nonprofit organizations to, among other things, provide a minimum of 100% matching funds, as specified. The bill would require each contracted nonprofit organization to prepare a report for the department including, among other information, the number of homeless youth assisted. The bill would require, after the program has been operating for 3 years, each contracted nonprofit organization to issue and provide to the department, and the department to collect and issue, a report including, among other information, the number of homeless youth assisted each year, and a description of the assistance provided.
Sponsored bills
Existing law provides for the regulation of long-term care insurance by the Insurance Commissioner and prescribes various requirements and conditions governing the delivery of individual or group long-term care insurance in the state. Existing law establishes the California Partnership for Long-Term Care Program to link private long-term care insurance and health care service plan contracts that cover long-term care with the In-Home Supportive Services program and Medi-Cal and to provide Medi-Cal benefits to certain individuals who have income and resources above the eligibility levels for receipt of medical assistance, but who have purchased certified private long-term care insurance policies. This bill would establish the Long Term Care Insurance Task Force in the Department of Insurance, chaired by the Insurance Commissioner or his or her designee, and composed of specified stakeholders and representatives of government agencies to examine the components necessary to design and implement a statewide long-term care insurance program, as specified. The bill would require the task force to recommend options for establishing this program and to comment on their respective degrees of feasibility in a report submitted to the commissioner, the Governor, and the Legislature by July 1, 2017. The bill would require the department to produce, no later than July 1, 2018, an actuarial report of those recommendations, to be shared with and approved by the task force. If approved, the bill would require the report to be submitted to the Legislature, as specified.
Existing law authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to offer a program under which female inmates who are committed to state prison may be allowed to participate in a voluntary alternative custody program in lieu of confinement in state prison. Existing law defines an alternative custody program to include confinement to a residential home, a residential drug or treatment program, or a transitional care facility that offers appropriate services. Existing law provides that female inmates sentenced to determinate sentences shall be eligible for participation in the program, subject to certain disqualifying criteria. Except as specified, existing law requires the suspension of certain Medi-Cal benefits to an individual who is an inmate of a public institution. Existing law requires the state to retain responsibility for the medical, dental, and mental health needs of individuals participating in the alternative custody program. This bill would provide that an inmate's existing psychiatric or medical condition that requires ongoing care is not a basis for excluding the inmate from eligibility for the program. The bill would also prescribe specific timeframes for, among other things, the review of an application to participate in the program, notifying an applicant when a determination has been made on that application, the development of an individualized treatment and rehabilitation plan, and release of the inmate into the program. The bill would require a notice of denial to specify the reasons the inmate has been denied participation in the program, and authorize an inmate to reapply for participation in the program or appeal a denial, as specified. The bill would also require the secretary or his or her designee to assist an individual participating in the alternative custody program in obtaining health care coverage, including, but not limited to, assistance with having suspended Medi-Cal benefits reinstated, applying for Medi-Cal benefits, or obtaining health care coverage under a private health plan or policy. The bill would require that, to the extent not covered by a participant's health care coverage, the state would retain responsibility for the medical, dental, and mental health needs of individuals participating in the alternative custody program.
(1) Existing law requires the California Transportation Commission to adopt and submit to the Legislature, by December 15 of each year, an annual report summarizing the commission's prior-year decisions in allocating transportation capital outlay appropriations, and identifying timely and relevant transportation issues facing the state. Existing law provides that the annual report may also include a discussion of any significant upcoming transportation issues anticipated to be of concern to the public and the Legislature. This bill would require that the annual report also include specific, action-oriented, and pragmatic recommendations for legislation to improve the transportation system. (2) Existing law requires various transportation planning activities by state and regional agencies. Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to prepare the California Transportation Plan and to update the plan by December 31, 2015, and every 5 years thereafter. Existing law specifies certain subject areas for the movement of people and freight to be considered in the plan. Existing law requires the plan to address how the state will achieve maximum feasible emissions reductions in order to attain a statewide reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 and identify the statewide integrated multimodal transportation system needed to achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions. Existing law requires the department to consult with and coordinate its planning activities with specified entities, including the California Transportation Commission, and to provide an opportunity for public input. Existing law authorizes the California Transportation Commission to present the results of its review and comment to the Legislature and the Governor. This bill would require the California Transportation Commission to review recommendations in the update to the California Transportation Plan prepared by the department in 2015, and every 5 years thereafter, to prepare specific, action-oriented, and pragmatic recommendations for transportation system improvements, and to submit a report in that regard to the Legislature and the Governor by December 31, 2016, and every 5 years thereafter.
The County Sanitation District Act authorizes a sanitation district to acquire, construct, and complete certain works, property, or structures necessary or convenient for sewage collection, treatment, and disposal. This bill would authorize specified sanitation districts in the County of Los Angeles to acquire, construct, operate, maintain, and furnish facilities for the diversion, management, and treatment of stormwater and dry weather runoff, the discharge of the water to the stormwater drainage system, and the beneficial use of the water. The bill would require a district to consult with the Los Angeles County Flood Control District and the relevant watermaster or water replenishment district prior to initiating a stormwater or dry weather runoff program within the boundaries of an adjudicated groundwater basin or within the service area of a water replenishment district, as applicable. The bill would make related changes. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Los Angeles.
Existing law authorizes the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to impose, in addition to any other tax that it is authorized to impose, a transactions and use tax at a rate of 0.5% for the funding of specified transportation-related projects and programs, subject to various requirements, including the adoption of an expenditure plan and voter approval. Existing law authorizes the MTA to seek voter approval to extend the transactions and use tax pursuant to an amended ordinance, subject to various requirements, including adoption of an amended expenditure plan that, among other things, updates certain cost estimates and identifies expected completion dates for projects and programs under the previous expenditure plan, and also requires the amended expenditure plan to be included in an updated long range transportation plan, as specified. This bill would delete the above-referenced provisions relative to extension of the transactions and use tax and an amended ordinance and expenditure plan, The bill would instead authorize the MTA to impose an additional transportation transactions and use tax at a maximum rate of 0.5% as long as a specified existing 0.5% transactions and use tax is in effect, and at a maximum rate of 1% thereafter, as specified, for a period of time determined by the MTA, if certain conditions exist and subject to various requirements, including the adoption of an expenditure plan and voter approval, as specified. The Transactions and Use Tax Law limits to 2% the combined rate of all transactions and use taxes imposed in any county, with certain exceptions. This bill would exempt the transactions and use tax authorized by the bill from this limitation.
Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to develop a high school exit examination in English language arts and mathematics in accordance with state academic content standards. Existing law requires, commencing with the 2003–04 school year and each school year thereafter, each pupil completing grade 12 to successfully pass the high school exit examination as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation or a condition of graduation from high school. This bill would suspend the administration of the high school exit examination and would remove the high school exit examination as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation or a condition of graduation from high school for each pupil completing grade 12, for the 2015–16, 2016–17, and 2017–18 school years. The bill would, until July 31, 2018, require the governing board or body of a local educational agency, as defined, and the State Department of Education on behalf of state special schools, to grant a diploma of graduation from high school to any pupil who completed grade 12 in the 2003–04 school year or a subsequent school year and has met all applicable graduation requirements other than the passage of the high school exit examination. Existing law establishes the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress as the statewide system of pupil assessments, under which various assessments are required or authorized to be administered in public schools, as specified. Existing law requires the Superintendent, on or before March 1, 2016, to submit to the state board recommendations on expanding the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress to include additional assessments, for consideration at a regularly scheduled public meeting, and to also submit those recommendations to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature and to the Director of Finance in accordance with specified requirements. This bill would add a new requirement, that the Superintendent convene an advisory panel consisting of specified individuals to provide recommendations to the Superintendent on the continuation of the high school exit examination and on alternative pathways to satisfy specified high school graduation requirements, to those recommendations to be submitted by the Superintendent.
Existing law creates within the state government the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls that consists of 17 members, and specifies that one member is the Chief of the Division of Industrial Welfare in the Department of Industrial Relations. Existing law abolished the Division of Industrial Welfare and transferred the duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction of the Chief of the Division of Industrial Welfare to the Labor Commissioner, who is the Chief of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. This bill would specify that the Labor Commissioner instead of the Chief of the Division of Industrial Welfare is a member of the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls. Existing law also provides the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls with the powers and authority necessary to carry out its duties imposed by law, including, but not limited to, to accept any gifts, donations, grants, or bequests for all or any of the purposes of that law. Existing law creates the Women and Girls Fund in the State Treasury to carry out the law in support of the commission upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Bagley-Keene Act) , generally requires, with specified exceptions for authorized closed sessions, that the meetings of state bodies be open and public and that all persons be permitted to attend. This bill would specify that the commission may also conduct fundraising activities that may require a payment or purchase to attend, and would exempt from the Bagley-Keene Act the commission at a fundraising event held or organized by the commission, provided that a majority of members do not discuss among themselves any item of business of a specific nature that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission, and any meetings conducted solely for purposes of raising funds for the Women and Girls Fund, provided that no other item of business that is within the subject matter of the commission is discussed, deliberated, or acted upon.
Existing law provides for the regulation of long-term care insurance by the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law prohibits an insurer from delivering or issuing for delivery a long-term care policy unless the insurer offers at the time of application an option to purchase a shortened benefit period nonforfeiture benefit. Under existing law, the commissioner may require the administration by an insurer of the contingent benefit upon lapse as a condition of approval or acknowledgment of a rate adjustment for a block of business for which the contingent benefit upon lapse is not otherwise available. Under existing law, the insurer is required to notify policyholders and certificate holders of the contingent benefit upon lapse when required by the commissioner, as specified. This bill, when a shortened benefit period nonforfeiture benefit or contingent benefit upon lapse is conferred, would require the insurer to annually notify the policyholder or certificate holder and, if elected, at least one individual designated by the policyholder or certificate holder of (a) the availability of the shortened benefit period nonforfeiture benefit or contingent benefit upon lapse, (b) the dollar amount of the shortened benefit period nonforfeiture benefit or contingent benefit upon lapse calculated up to 60 days prior to the date of the annual notice, and (c) the name, address, and telephone number of the insurer for questions about the benefit. The bill would also require the insurer to mail to and receive from each policyholder or certificate holder a form that allows the policyholder or certificate holder to submit one of the following: (1) a written designation of the name, address, and telephone number of at least one person, in addition to the policyholder or certificate holder who is to receive the annual notice described above, (2) a confirmation that the policyholder or certificate holder designates the same person previously designated to receive that notice, or (3) a waiver signed and dated by the policyholder or certificate holder electing not to designate additional persons to receive the annual notice.
Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to license and regulate health facilities, defined to mean a facility, place, or building that is organized, maintained, and operated for the diagnosis, care, prevention, and treatment of human illness, as specified. Existing law requires hospitals, among other things, to have a written discharge planning policy and process that requires appropriate arrangements to be made for posthospital care. A violation of those provisions is a crime. This bill would require a hospital to take specified actions relating to family caregivers, including, among others, notifying the family caregiver of the patient's discharge or transfer to another facility and providing information and counseling regarding the posthospital care needs of the patient, if the patient has consented to the disclosure of this information. By expanding the scope of 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.