Sen. María Elena Durazo

Existing law, the Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, grants agricultural employees the right to form and join labor organizations and engage in collective bargaining with respect to wages, terms of employment, and other employment conditions, and authorizes employees to elect exclusive bargaining representatives for these purposes. Existing law requires the Agricultural Labor Relations Board to certify the results of an election conducted by secret ballot of employees in a collective bargaining unit to designate a collective bargaining representative, unless the board determines there are sufficient grounds to refuse to do so. Existing law further provides that if the board refuses to certify an election because of employer misconduct that would render slight the chances of a new election reflecting the free and fair choice of employees, the labor organization shall be certified as the bargaining representative for the bargaining unit. This bill would refer to the secret ballot election as a polling place election. This bill would also permit agricultural employees, as an alternative election procedure, to select their labor representatives through a representation ballot card election by submitting a petition to the board supported by representation ballot cards signed by a majority of employees in the bargaining unit. This bill would require the board to conduct an immediate investigation regarding the validity of the petition and the supporting representation ballot cards and, within 5 days after receiving a petition, to make an administrative decision as to whether the petition meets certain requirements and as to whether the labor organization submitted the requisite number of cards. The bill would require the board to certify the labor organization as the exclusive bargaining representative if the board determines that the labor organization has submitted the required number of representation ballot cards and the cards meet specified criteria. Existing law authorizes a person aggrieved by the final order of the board granting or denying in whole or in part the relief sought for an unfair labor practice, to obtain a review of the order in a specified court of appeal by filing in the court a written petition requesting that the order of the board be modified or set aside. This bill would require an employer who appeals or petitions for a writ of review of any order of the board involving make-whole, backpay, or other monetary awards to employees, to post an appeal bond in the amount of the entire economic value of the order, as specified, and would provide for the bond to be forfeited under specified conditions. This bill would state that its provisions are severable.

Existing law establishes the Displaced Janitor Opportunity Act, which requires contractors and subcontractors, as defined, that are awarded contracts or subcontracts to provide janitorial or building maintenance services at a particular jobsite or sites, to retain, for a period of 60 days, certain employees who were employed at that site by the previous contractor or subcontractor, and offered continued employment if their performance during that 60-day period is satisfactory. Existing law authorizes an employee who was not retained, or the employee's agent, to bring an enforcement action in a court of competent jurisdiction, as specified. Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner, as Chief of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, with enforcing these provisions. Existing law defines "awarding authority" to mean any person that awards or otherwise enters into contracts for janitorial or building maintenance services performed within the State of California, including any subcontracts for janitorial or building maintenance services. This bill would rename the act the Displaced Janitor and Hotel Worker Opportunity Act and would extend the provisions of the act to hotel workers. The bill would redefine "awarding authority" under the act to include any person that awards or otherwise enters into contracts for hotel services, which include guest service, as defined, food and beverage service, or cleaning service, performed within the state, as specified. The bill would also redefine "employee" to include a person employed as a service employee of a contractor or subcontractor who works at least 15 hours per week and whose primary place of employment is in the state under a contract to provide janitorial or building maintenance services or hotel services.

Existing law prescribes certain rights and limitations for landlords and tenants subject to eviction and certain procedures for civil actions involving evictions. Existing law, the State Bar Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of attorneys by the State Bar of California, a public corporation, governed by a board of trustees. Existing law requires an attorney to maintain short-term deposits of client funds in an Interest on Lawyers' Trust Account (IOLTA) and requires the interest and dividends earned on the account to be paid to the State Bar for the funding of certain programs that provide civil legal services without charge to indigent persons. Existing law requires the board of trustees to adopt regulations and procedures necessary to implement provisions, referred to as the Legal Services Trust Fund Program, that govern the funding of those programs. Existing administrative law establishes a Legal Services Trust Fund Commission to administer revenue from IOLTA and other funds remitted to the trust fund program. This bill would establish the Homelessness Prevention Fund to be administered by the commission. The bill would require the commission, subject to appropriation to the State Bar by the Legislature, to distribute moneys in the fund in the form of grants, awarded on a competitive basis, to fund prescribed legal services, education, and outreach for tenants relating to eviction or displacement. The bill would require the commission to develop guidelines for the grant process in accordance with specified requirements. The bill would establish eligibility requirements for grant applicants, including that the applicant agrees to provide all of the services funded by the grant without charge to recipients. The bill would require a grantee to report semiannually to the commission on certain activities and services funded by the grant and would prohibit a grantee from using more than 15% of the allocation received from the fund for administrative costs in the first year it receives a grant and 10% in every year thereafter. The bill would limit the State Bar expenditure of funds for administration to the actual costs of administration of these provisions, up to 5% of the funds provided.

Existing law, the Ralph C. Dills Act (Dills Act) , governs collective bargaining between the state and recognized state public employee organizations. Existing law excludes certain employees from coverage under the Dills Act, including, among others, managerial employees, supervisory employees, and confidential employees, as defined. Existing law creates the Public Employment Relations Board and authorizes it, among other things, to determine appropriate state employee bargaining units, as specified. This bill would enact the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act, to provide employees of the Legislature, including some supervisory and managerial employees, the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations. The bill would prescribe rights, duties, and prohibitions in this context that parallel those in the Dills Act. The bill would prohibit the Public Employment Relations Board from including employees of the Legislature in a bargaining unit that includes employees other than those of the Legislature. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for any person to willfully resist, prevent, impede, or interfere with any member of the board, or any of its agents, in the performance of duties pursuant to its provisions. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that the provisions of the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act are severable. 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 the service of documents in a civil action by electronic means pursuant to rules adopted by the Judicial Council. Existing law authorizes a court to electronically serve any document issued by the court that is not required to be personally served on a party that has agreed or consented to accept electronic service, with the same legal effect as service by mail, except as specified. This bill would, on and after July 1, 2023, instead require the court to electronically serve those documents on a party that has agreed or consented to accept electronic service.

Existing law establishes various environmental and economic policies and programs. This bill, upon appropriation by the Legislature, as provided, would establish the Nature and Parks Career Pathway and Community Resiliency and Equity Act of 2021, which would require state conservancies and the Wildlife Conservation Board to establish grant programs to fund climate mitigation, adaptation, or resilience, natural disaster, and other climate emergency projects, as specified.

Under existing law, murder in the first degree is punishable by death, imprisonment in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole, or imprisonment in the state prison for a term of 25 years to life. Existing law provides for various specified special circumstances, including the murder of a peace officer, firefighter, or witness, which, if found true as specified, require a defendant found guilty of murder in the first degree to be sentenced to death or imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole. Existing law authorizes a judge to, in furtherance of justice, order an action to be dismissed. Existing law, added by Proposition 115 of the June 5, 1990, statewide primary election, prohibits a judge from striking or dismissing any special circumstance admitted by plea or found true by a jury or court, as specified. Existing law provides for amendment of these provisions by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature. This bill would amend Proposition 115 by repealing the provision prohibiting a judge from striking a special circumstance. The bill would also authorize a judge, on the judge's own motion, upon the application of either party, or upon an application of a person who has been incarcerated 15 years or longer, and in the furtherance of justice, to order the dismissal of a special circumstance finding or admission in cases in which the sentence is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and in which the person was 25 years of age or younger at the time of the offense that was the basis of the special circumstance finding or admission, as specified. The bill would require a judge, when exercising this discretion, to consider and put great weight on specified factors. The bill would prohibit the court from striking or dismissing a special circumstance if it would result in a sentence that does not require a determination that the person does not pose an unreasonable risk to public safety by the Board of Parole Hearings prior to release and the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the person would pose an immediate threat to public safety. The bill would require the court, upon dismissal of a special circumstance, to offer the survivor or survivors and surviving family members information about services to address their needs as related to the crime and case process, as specified. This bill would state that its provisions are severable.

Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control, on or before January 1, 2018, to adopt regulations establishing or updating criteria used to issue a new, modified, or renewed hazardous waste facilities permit, which may include criteria for the denial or suspension of a permit. Existing law requires the department to consider for inclusion in the regulations specified criteria, including, but not limited to, the number and types of past violations that will result in a denial of a hazardous waste facilities permit. The department's regulations, known as the Violations Scoring Procedure, require the department to calculate an annual Facility Violations Scoring Procedure Score or Facility VSP Score for a permitted hazardous waste facility by adding the provisional or final inspection violation scores, as described, for each compliance inspection, as defined, conducted during the preceding 10-year period, divided by the number of compliance inspections that occurred during that 10-year period. Existing law requires the department to assign a hazardous waste facility to one of 3 compliance tiers, which consist of acceptable, conditionally acceptable, and unacceptable, based on the facility's Facility VSP Score and to take certain actions, including, but not limited to, taking steps to modify, deny, suspend, or revoke a hazardous waste facilities permit, if the facility falls within a conditionally unacceptable or unacceptable compliance tier. This bill would require the department, by January 1, 2023, to calculate the Facility VSP Score of a hazardous waste facility for the 2022 calendar year, and annually thereafter, by adding the provisional or final inspection violation scores for each compliance inspection conducted during the preceding 10-year period. The bill would prohibit the department from dividing the sum of the provisional and final inspection violation scores by the number of compliance inspections that occurred during that 10-year period. The bill would continue to require the department to assign a hazardous waste facility to a compliance tier based on the facility's Facility VSP Score, but would revise the numerical ranges for each compliance tier. The bill would require the department to revise its Violations Scoring Procedure regulations for consistency with those provisions by July 1, 2022.

The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law authorize various credits against the tax imposed by those laws. This bill would allow a credit under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2022, and before January 1, 2027, to a qualified taxpayer that employs an eligible individual during the taxable year, in an amount between $2,500 and $10,000 per eligible individual, not to exceed $30,000 per taxable year, depending on the amount of hours worked by the eligible individual, and subject to specified conditions and limitations. The bill would require the qualified taxpayer to request a credit reservation from the Franchise Tax Board, as provided, to be eligible for the credit. The bill would limit the total aggregate amount of the credit that may be allowed to all qualified taxpayers under both the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law to $30,000,000, plus the unallocated credit amount, if any, from the preceding calendar year. The bill would define various terms for purposes of the credit, including defining "eligible individual" as a person who is homeless. The bill would require an eligible employer to obtain an eligible employer certification from the Employment Development Department to receive the credit, and would require the Employment Development Department to issue a certification to eligible employers, as specified. The bill would require each continuum of care to issue certifications to eligible individuals that are homeless, as specified. By increasing the duties of local continuum of care, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would also include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. 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. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow a credit (CalCompetes tax credit) against the taxes imposed under those laws, for each taxable year beginning on and after January 1, 2014, and before January 1, 2030, in an amount as provided in a written agreement between the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development and the taxpayer, approved by the California Competes Tax Credit Committee, and based on specified factors, including the number of jobs the taxpayer will create or retain in the state and the amount of investment in the state by the taxpayer. Existing law establishes the continuously appropriated Tax Relief and Refund Account and provides that specified payments required to be made to taxpayers, including refunds, are to be paid from that account. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2022, would allow a qualified taxpayer, to the extent a CalCompetes tax credit amount exceeds a qualified taxpayer's tax liability for the taxable year, as specified, to elect to be paid a refund from the Tax Relief and Refund Account, not to exceed the amount of total taxes imposed by the state and paid by the qualified taxpayer during the taxable year. The bill would define a "qualified taxpayer" as a taxpayer that has created at least 5,000 prevailing wage, full-time or full-time equivalent jobs in the state each year for a period of 10 years. The bill would require a qualified taxpayer that receives a refund to reinvest the refund into immobile capital equipment that supports infrastructure improvements, expansion, or developments for media production facilities in the state, as provided. By authorizing new refund payments to be paid from the continuously appropriated Tax Relief and Refund Account, this bill would make an appropriation.