Existing law, the Legislative Employee Whistleblower Protection Act, imposes criminal and civil liability on a Member of the Legislature or legislative employee, as defined, who interferes with, or retaliates against, a legislative employee's exercise of the right to make a protected disclosure, which is defined as a good faith allegation made by a legislative employee to specified entities that a Member of the Legislature or a legislative employee has engaged in, or will engage in, activity that may constitute a violation of law or a violation of a legislative standard of conduct. This bill would define "protected disclosure" for purposes of that act to also include a complaint made at the request of a legislative employee and a complaint made against a nonemployee in specified circumstances. Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) , protects and safeguards the right and opportunity of all persons to generally seek, obtain, and hold employment without discrimination, abridgment, or harassment on account of enumerated protected categories. Existing law also precludes an employer, labor organization, employment agency, or person from discharging, expelling, or otherwise discriminating against any person because the person has opposed any practices forbidden under FEHA or because the person has filed a complaint, testified, or assisted in any FEHA proceeding. Existing law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, states that all people in California are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments, no matter their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status. Existing law establishes a cause of action for violations of that act. Existing law also separately establishes liability for sexual harassment if a plaintiff proves specified elements, including, among other things, that there is a business, service, or professional relationship between the plaintiff and defendant. This bill would declare that neither house of the Legislature may retaliate against a legislative advocate or employee, as defined, because that person has opposed any practices forbidden under the above provisions, or filed a complaint, testified, or assisted in any proceeding relating to a complaint of harassment under those provisions. This bill would impose civil liability for a violation of that prohibition. This bill would also require each house of the Legislature to maintain a record of each harassment complaint made to that house for a period of at least 12 years after the complaint is made. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Sponsored bills
(1) Under existing law, the Department of Parks and Recreation controls the state park system, which is made up of units. Existing law requires the department to administer, protect, develop, and interpret the property under its jurisdiction for the use and enjoyment of the public. Under this bill, a person or entity that engages in any for-profit activity in connection with the reservation of any overnight accommodation in any unit of the state park system, including sales activity to reserve an overnight accommodation on behalf of a 3rd party, without permission of the department or the operator of that state park system unit, would be guilty of a misdemeanor or an infraction, punishable as specified. The bill would establish a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. The bill would express the intent of the Legislature that the department consult with experts in the public and private sectors, as specified, on the effective implementation of this provision, and provide an annual update to the Legislature on the implementation of this provision. (2) 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. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law specifies the order of precedence of offices on the ballot, beginning with nominees for President and Vice President to be listed under the heading, PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT, and ending with directors or trustees for each district to be listed under the heading, DISTRICT. Measures submitted to the voters appear after district directors or trustees. Existing law authorizes a county elections official to vary the order for certain offices and measures submitted to the voters, in order to allow for the most efficient use of space on the ballot in counties that use a voting system, as defined. Existing law requires that the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction precede any school, county, or city office and that state measures precede local measures. This bill would require the county elections official for the County of Los Angeles to conduct elections using a specified alternate ballot order for elections conducted for three years after the date the county elections official declares that the Los Angeles County voting system modernization project underway in 2018 is complete and ready for operation. The bill would require the county elections official to prepare a report regarding the effect of using the alternate ballot order, as specified. The bill would require the county elections official, after the three-year period described above, to post the report on the Internet Web site of the county elections official and to submit the report to the Secretary of State and the Legislature. The bill would authorize the county elections official to continue to use the alternate ballot order for elections conducted on or after the three-year period described above. Due to the additional reporting requirements imposed on the County of Los Angeles, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Los Angeles. 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.
Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste discharge requirements for the discharge of stormwater in accordance with the federal national pollutant discharge elimination system permit program. Existing law requires the state board or the regional boards to issue waste discharge requirements that ensure compliance with the federal Clean Water Act and apply any more stringent effluent standards or limitations necessary to implement water quality control plans, or for the protection of beneficial uses, or to prevent nuisance. This bill would require the state board, by July 1, 2019, to establish financial capability assessment guidelines for municipal separate storm sewer system permittees that are adequate and consistent when considering the costs to local jurisdictions.
Existing law prohibits manufacturers and contract testing facilities from using traditional animal testing methods within this state when an appropriate alternative test method has been scientifically validated and recommended by the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) or other specified agencies. This bill would make it unlawful for a manufacturer to import for profit, sell, or offer for sale in this state, any cosmetic, as defined, if the cosmetic was developed or manufactured using an animal test that was conducted or contracted by the manufacturer, or any supplier of the manufacturer, on or after January 1, 2020, except as specified. The bill would specify that a violation of its provisions is punishable by an initial fine of $5,000 and an additional fine of $1,000 for each day the violation continues, and may be enforced by the district attorney or city attorney in the county or city in which the violation occurred, as specified. The bill would not apply to a cosmetic in its final form or to an ingredient, if the cosmetic or ingredient was sold in California or tested on animals before January 1, 2020, as specified. The bill would authorize cosmetic inventory in violation of the bill's provisions to be sold for a period of 180 days. The bill would prohibit a county or political subdivision of the state from establishing or continuing any prohibition on or relating to animal tests that is not identical to the prohibitions in the bill and that does not include the exemptions contained in the bill.
Existing law, known commonly as the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program, authorizes a public agency, by making specified findings, to authorize public agency officials and property owners to enter into voluntary contractual assessments to finance the installation of distributed generation renewable energy sources or energy or water efficiency improvements that are permanently fixed to real property. Existing law, the California Financing Law (CFL) , requires a program administrator who administers a PACE program on behalf of, and with the written consent of, a public agency to comply with specified requirements relating to the PACE program, including requiring, commencing on January 1, 2019, a program administrator to be licensed by the Commissioner of Business Oversight under the California Financing Law. The Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982 authorizes a community facilities district to finance the purchase, construction, expansion, improvement, or rehabilitation of certain facilities, including, among others, finance and refinance the acquisition, installation, and improvement of energy efficiency, water conservation, and renewable energy improvements to or on real property and in buildings, as specified. This bill would, until January 1, 2029, enact the Wildfire Safety Finance Act, which would expand these provisions to also authorize a legislative body that has accepted the designation of Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone to designate an area for contractual assessments to finance the installation of wildfire safety improvements that are permanently fixed to real property, in accordance with specified procedures and requirements that are similar to requirements that apply to the PACE program under existing law. The bill would define "public agency," for purposes of financing the installation of wildfire safety improvements, to mean a city, county, or city and county. The bill would make conforming changes in the CFL, the Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982, and other related laws to that effect. This bill would become operative only if 2 specified provisions of AB 2063 become operative on or before January 1, 2019. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 5913 of the Streets and Highways Code proposed by AB 2063 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2063 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
(1) Existing law establishes a procedure for the appointment of a conservator for a person who is determined to be gravely disabled as a result of a mental health disorder or an impairment by chronic alcoholism, as specified, pursuant to a petition to the superior court by an officer conducting an investigation and concurring with a recommendation of conservatorship. Existing law also establishes a procedure for the appointment of other types of conservatorship or a guardianship as ordered by the probate court. Existing law, the Assisted Outpatient Treatment Demonstration Project Act of 2002, known as Laura's Law, until January 1, 2022, grants each county the authority to offer certain assisted outpatient treatment services for a person who meets specified criteria, including, among others, that the person is suffering from a mental illness, that the person has a history of lack of compliance with treatment for the person's mental illness, and that the person is in need of assisted outpatient treatment, as specified. Laura's Law authorizes designated persons to request the county behavioral health director to file a petition in the superior court for an order for assisted outpatient treatment. This bill would establish a procedure, for the County of Los Angeles, the County of San Diego, and the City and County of San Francisco, if the board of supervisors of the respective county or city and county authorizes the application of these provisions subject to specified requirements, for the appointment of a conservator for a person who is incapable of caring for the person's own health and well-being due to a serious mental illness and substance use disorder, as specified, for the purpose of providing the least restrictive and most clinically appropriate alternative needed for the protection of the person. The bill would prohibit a conservatorship from being established under these provisions if a conservatorship or guardianship exists under the above-described provisions. This bill would make the establishment of a conservatorship pursuant to these provisions subject to, among other things, a finding by the court that the behavioral health director of the county or the city and county has previously attempted by petition to obtain a court order authorizing assisted outpatient treatment pursuant to Laura's Law for the person for whom conservatorship is sought, that the petition was denied or the assisted outpatient treatment was insufficient to treat the person's mental illness, and that assisted outpatient treatment would be insufficient to treat the person in the instant matter in lieu of a conservatorship. This bill would require a conservatorship initiated under these provisions to automatically terminate one year after the appointment of the conservator by the superior court, or shorter if ordered by the court, except as specified. This bill would authorize the Judicial Council to adopt rules, forms, and standards necessary to implement these provisions. (2) This bill would require the County of Los Angeles, the County of San Diego, and the City and County of San Francisco, subject to the county's or city and county's election to apply these provisions, to establish a working group, comprised of representatives of local agencies and disability rights advocacy groups, among others, to conduct an evaluation of the effectiveness of the implementation of the conservatorship provisions described above in addressing the needs of persons with serious mental illness and substance use disorders. The bill would require each working group to prepare and submit a preliminary report to the Legislature on its findings and recommendations no later than January 1, 2021, and a final report no later than January 1, 2023. (3) This bill would repeal, on January 1, 2024, all of the provisions relating to the new conservatorship procedure and the working group, as described above in paragraphs (1) and (2) . (4) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Los Angeles, the County of San Diego, and the City and County of San Francisco.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities serving adults by the State Department of Health Care Services, as prescribed. Existing law makes a violation of these provisions punishable by a civil penalty of not less than $25 or more than $50 per day for each violation, with additional penalties for repeat violations, as specified. This bill would make an initial license for a new facility issued by the department to a provider provisional for one year and revocable for good cause, as defined. The bill would require licensed services offered or provided by a licensed alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facility to be specified on the license and provided exclusively within either the licensed facility or any facility identified on a single license by street address. The bill would increase the penalties for a violation of the licensing and regulatory provisions to not less than $250 or more than $500 per day for each violation, except as specified, and increase the additional penalties for repeat violations, as specified. The bill would prohibit a person or entity found to be in violation of the licensing provisions described above from applying for initial licensure for 5 years, as specified. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations to implement specified provisions on or before July 1, 2022, and would authorize the department to issue provider bulletins, written guidelines, or similar instructions, as specified.
Existing law generally subjects any person under 18 years of age who commits a crime to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which may adjudge that person to be a ward of the court. Under existing law, juvenile court proceedings to declare a minor a ward of the court are commenced by the filing of a petition by the probation officer, the district attorney after consultation with the probation officer, or the prosecuting attorney, as specified. Existing law requires the juvenile court to order the petition of a minor who is subject to the jurisdiction of the court dismissed if the minor satisfactorily completes a term of probation or an informal program of supervision, as specified, and requires the court to seal all records pertaining to that dismissed petition in the custody of the juvenile court and in the custody of law enforcement agencies, the probation department, or the Department of Justice. Existing law requires the court to send a copy of the order to each agency and official named in the order, direct the agency or official to seal its records, and specify a date by which the sealed records are to be destroyed. Existing law prohibits a minor who has committed certain serious, violent, drug-related, or firearm-related offenses, as enumerated, from owning, or having in his or her possession, custody, or control, any firearm until he or she turns 30 years of age. This bill would prohibit the destruction of a sealed record of a ward who is subject to those firearm restrictions until the date upon which he or she turns 33 years of age. Existing law authorizes certain persons or entities to access, inspect, or utilize a sealed record under those provisions for limited purposes. This bill would further authorize a prosecuting attorney or the Department of Justice to access, inspect, or utilize those records for specified purposes relating to the enforcement of the firearm restrictions described above. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 786 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by AB 2952 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2952 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
Existing law, the Political Reform Act of 1974, requires specified disclosures in advertisements regarding the source of the advertisement. The act defines "advertisement" for this purpose as a general or public communication that is authorized and paid for by a committee for the purpose of supporting or opposing a candidate or candidates for elective office or a ballot measure or ballot measures. Among other things, the act requires an electronic media advertisement, other than an Internet Web site, paid for by a committee, other than a political party committee or a candidate controlled committee established for an elective office of the controlling candidate, to include the text "Who funded this ad?," unless including the text would be impracticable, and a hyperlink to an Internet Web site containing specified disclosures regarding who paid for the advertisement. For an Internet Web site paid for by a committee, other than a political party committee or a candidate controlled committee established for an elective office of the controlling candidate, the act requires the Internet Web site to include only specified disclosures regarding who paid for the advertisement, without exception. This bill would modify the disclosures required for electronic media advertisements. The bill would require an electronic media advertisement that is a graphic, image, animated graphic, or animated image that the online platform, as defined, hosting the advertisement allows to link to an Internet Web site, paid for by a committee, other than a political party committee or a candidate controlled committee established for an elective office of the controlling candidate, to meet the "Who funded this ad?" disclosure described above. The bill would modify the "Who funded this ad?" disclosure in various ways, including requiring the disclosure to be made for the duration of the advertisement and allowing the text to be replaced with the phrase "Paid for by" or "Ad Paid for by." The bill would require for an email message or Internet Web site the disclosures to be made at top or bottom of the email message, or at the top or bottom of every publicly accessible page of the Internet Web site, as applicable. The bill would require an electronic media advertisement that is disseminated as a video to comply with certain disclosure requirements, and if the video is longer than 30 seconds, the disclosures to be made at the beginning of the advertisement. The act requires that an advertisement made via a form of electronic media that allows users to engage in discourse and post content, or any other type of social media, only include specified disclosures in a contrasting color and in no less than 8 point font on the committee's profile, landing page, or similar location, and not on each individual post, comment, or other similar communication. This bill would require the disclosures on the committee's profile, landing page, or similar location to be on the cover or header photo of the committee's profile, landing page, or similar location and in no less than 10-point font. The bill would require the disclosures to be fully visible on the cover or header photo when the profile, landing page, or similar location is viewed from any electronic device that is commonly used to view this form of electronic media. If making the disclosures fully visible on a commonly used electronic device would be impracticable, the bill would require the cover or header photo of the profile, landing page, or similar location to include only a hyperlink, icon, button, or tab to an Internet Web site containing the disclosures. This bill would require a committee that disseminates an online platform disclosed advertisement, as defined, to expressly notify the online platform through which the advertisement would be disseminated that the advertisement is an advertisement under the act and provide the disclosure name, as defined, of the committee. The bill would require an online platform that disseminates a committee's online platform disclosed advertisement to display adjacent to any text stating that the advertisement is an advertisement or is promoted or sponsored, "Paid for by" or "Ad Paid for by" followed by the disclosure name provided by the committee, with certain exceptions. The bill would require an online platform that disseminates committees' online platform disclosed advertisements to maintain and make available a record of any advertisement disseminated on the online platform by a committee that purchased $500 or more in advertisements on the online platform during the preceding 12 months. The bill would require an online platform to display a prominent button, icon, tab, or hyperlink that links to a page clearly showing the records of the advertisements. The bill would make a person who intentionally violates these provisions for the purpose of avoiding disclosure liable in a civil or administrative action brought by the Fair Political Practices Commission or any person for a fine up to 3 times the cost of the advertisement, including placement costs. The act requires a radio or television advertisement that is paid for by a political party or a candidate controlled committee established for an elective office of the controlling candidate, and that does not support or oppose a ballot measure and is not paid for by an independent expenditure, to include a specified disclosure regarding who paid for the advertisement. This bill would require an advertisement that is made via a form of electronic media that allows users to engage in discourse and post content, or any other type of social media, that is paid for by a political party or a candidate controlled committee established for an elective office of the controlling candidate to include specified disclosures regarding who paid for the advertisement. Because a violation of the act is punishable as a misdemeanor, 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. The bill would become operative on January 1, 2020. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.