Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of residential care facilities for the elderly by the State Department of Social Services. Violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor. Existing law authorizes the department to deny an application for a license or suspend or revoke a license issued by the department under specified circumstances. This bill would authorize the department to order a suspension of new admissions prohibiting a residential care facility for the elderly from admitting new residents if the facility has failed to pay a fine assessed by the department or if the department finds that the facility has violated applicable laws or regulations and the violation presents a direct or immediate risk to the health, safety, or personal rights of a resident or residents of the facility and is not corrected immediately. The bill would authorize a licensee to appeal the suspension and would require the department to adopt regulations that specify the appeal procedure. 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.
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Existing law requires the governing boards of each community college district, the Trustees of the California State University, the Regents of the University of California, and the governing boards of independent postsecondary institutions to adopt and implement written procedures or protocols to ensure that students, faculty, and staff who are victims of sexual assault on the grounds or facilities of their institutions receive treatment and information, including a description of on-campus and off-campus resources. This bill would require the governing boards of each community college district, the Trustees of the California State University, the Regents of the University of California, and the governing boards of independent postsecondary institutions, in order to receive state funds for student financial assistance, to adopt policies concerning sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking that include certain elements, including an affirmative consent standard in the determination of whether consent was given by a complainant. The bill would require these governing boards to adopt certain sexual assault policies and protocols, as specified, and would require the governing boards, to the extent feasible, to enter into memoranda of understanding or other agreements or collaborative partnerships with on-campus and community-based organizations to refer students for assistance or make services available to students. The bill would also require the governing boards to implement comprehensive prevention and outreach programs addressing sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. By requiring community college districts to adopt or modify certain policies and protocols, 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 these statutory provisions.
(1) Under existing law, the text of a proposed initiative measure is required to be submitted to the Attorney General for preparation of a circulating title and summary before the petition may be circulated for signatures. Existing law requires the Department of Finance and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee to jointly develop an estimate of the fiscal impact of the initiative measure and to deliver that fiscal estimate to the Attorney General within 25 working days, except as specified, for inclusion in the circulating title and summary. Existing law further requires the Secretary of State, upon request of the proponents of an initiative measure, to review the provisions of the initiative measure and to comment on the provisions of the measure with respect to form and language clarity. This bill would require the Attorney General, upon receipt of a request to prepare the circulating title and summary, to initiate a 30-day public review process for the proposed initiative measure, as specified. The bill would require that the fiscal estimate be prepared jointly by the Department of Finance and the Legislative Analyst. The bill would require the estimate to be delivered to the Attorney General within 50 days of the date of receipt of the proposed initiative measure by the Attorney General instead of 25 working days from the receipt of the final version of the proposed initiative measure. (2) Existing law prohibits a petition for a proposed initiative or referendum measure from being circulated prior to the official summary date, and prohibits a petition with signatures on a proposed initiative measure from being filed with the county elections official later than 150 days from the official summary date. This bill would extend the date that a petition with signatures on a proposed initiative measure is required to be filed with the county elections official to not later than 180 days from the official summary date. (3) Existing law requires the Secretary of State to notify the proponents, and immediately transmit to the elections official or registrar of voters of every county or city and county in the state a certificate, when the Secretary of State has received from one or more elections officials or registrars a petition certified to have been signed by the requisite number of qualified voters. This bill would instead require the Secretary of State to issue a notice directing that signature verification be terminated. The bill would require the Secretary of State to identify the date of the next statewide election and, on the 131st day prior to that election, to issue a certificate of qualification certifying that the initiative measure is qualified for the ballot at that election. The bill would provide that, upon the issuance of that certification, the initiative measure would be deemed qualified for the ballot for purposes of specified provisions of the California Constitution. (4) Under existing law, the Secretary of State is required to transmit copies of an initiative measure and its circulating title and summary to the Senate and the Assembly after the measure is certified to appear on the ballot for consideration by the voters. Existing law requires that each house of the Legislature assign the initiative measure to its appropriate committees, and that the committees hold joint public hearings on the subject of the proposed measure prior to the date of the election at which the measure is to be voted upon, as specified. This bill would require the Secretary of State to transmit copies of the initiative measure and circulating title and summary to the Legislature after receiving a certification from the initiative proponents, signed under penalty of perjury, that they have collected 25% of the number of signatures needed to qualify the initiative measure for the ballot. The bill would require the appropriate committees of the Senate and Assembly to hold the joint public hearing on the subject of the measure not later than 131 days prior to the date of the election at which the measure is to be voted upon. (5) Existing law requires the Secretary of State to disseminate the complete state ballot pamphlet over the Internet and to establish a process to enable a voter to opt out of receiving the state ballot pamphlet by mail. Existing law requires the Secretary of State to develop a program to utilize modern communications and information processing technology to enhance the availability and accessibility of information on statewide candidates and ballot initiatives, including making information available online as well as through other information processing technology. This bill would require the Secretary of State to establish processes to enable a voter to receive the state ballot pamphlet in an electronic format instead of by mail. The bill would also require the Secretary of State to create an Internet Web site, or use other available technology, to consolidate information about each ballot measure in a manner that is easy for voters to access and understand. The Internet Web site would be required to include a summary of each ballot measure and to identify the donors and other sources of funding for the campaigns for and against each ballot measure. (6) Existing law authorizes the proponents of a statewide initiative or referendum measure to withdraw the measure at any time before filing the petition with the appropriate elections official. Existing law also requires that state initiative petitions circulated for signature include a prescribed notice to the public. This bill would authorize the proponents of a statewide initiative or referendum measure to have the measure withdrawn from the ballot at any time before the measure qualifies for the ballot. The bill would require a petition for a statewide initiative measure to contain additional prescribed language in its notice to the public describing the right of proponents to withdraw the measure from the ballot, as specified. (7) Existing law makes certain activities relating to the circulation of an initiative, referendum, or recall petition a criminal offense. This bill would make it a crime for a proponent of a statewide initiative measure to seek, solicit, bargain for, or obtain any money or thing of value of or from any person, firm, or corporation for the purpose of withdrawing an initiative petition after filing it with the appropriate elections official. By establishing a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (8) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 9031 of the Elections Code proposed by AB 2219 that would become operative if this bill and AB 2219 are both enacted and this bill is enacted last. The bill would also incorporate additional changes in Section 9082.7 of the Elections Code proposed by SB 844 that would become operative only if SB 844 and this bill are both enacted and this bill is enacted last. The bill would also incorporate additional changes to Section 18621 of the Elections Code proposed by SB 1043 that would become operative if this bill and SB 1043 are both enacted and this bill is enacted last. (9) 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 provides for the establishment and operation of the Veterans Home of California at various sites for aged and disabled veterans who meet certain eligibility requirements. Existing law requires members of the homes to pay fees and charges as determined by the department, but prohibits the total of the member's fees and charges for specified types of care for any fiscal year to be greater than a certain percentage of the member's annual income. Existing law also requires nonveteran spouses who become members of the home on or after July 1, 2009, to pay fees and charges based on the level of care, as specified, or an amount equal to the annual amount of federal per diem received for a veteran member in domiciliary care, whichever is greater, as provided. This bill would instead require nonveteran spouses to pay the same fees and charges as paid by the veteran members of the home, as determined by the department and subject to the same prohibitions. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 1012.3 of the Military and Veterans Code proposed by AB 614 that would become operative if this bill and AB 614 are both chaptered and this bill is chaptered last.
(1) The Public Utilities Act requires the Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the Independent System Operator, to establish resource adequacy requirements for all load‑serving entities, as defined, in accordance with specified objectives. The definition of a "load-serving entity" excludes a local publicly owned electric utility. The act requires each load‑serving entity to maintain physical generating capacity adequate to meet its load requirements to provide reliable electric service. The act requires the Public Utilities Commission to determine the most efficient and equitable means for achieving prescribed objectives. The Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Act establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and requires it to undertake a continuing assessment of trends in the consumption of electricity and other forms of energy, to analyze the social, economic, and environmental consequences of those trends and to collect from electric utilities, gas utilities, and fuel producers and wholesalers, and other sources, forecasts of future supplies and consumption of all forms of energy. That act requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, beginning November 1, 2003, and every 2 years thereafter, to adopt an integrated energy policy report that includes an overview of major energy trends and issues facing the state. This bill would include, as an objective for the resource adequacy requirements referenced above, establishing new or maintaining existing demand response products and tariffs that facilitate the economic dispatch and use of demand response that can either meet or reduce an electrical corporation's resource adequacy requirements, as determined by the Public Utilities Commission. The bill would additionally require each load-serving entity to maintain both electrical demand response and physical generating capacity adequate to meet its load requirements. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to determine the most efficient and equitable means to ensure that investments are made in new and existing demand response resources that are cost effective and help to achieve electrical grid reliability and the state's goals for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to ensure appropriate valuation of both supply and load modifying demand response resources and to establish a mechanism to value load modifying demand response resources, including, but not limited to, the ability of demand response resources to help meet distribution needs, transmission system needs, and to help reduce a load-serving entity's resource adequacy obligation. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission, State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, and the Independent System Operator to ensure that changes in demand caused by load modifying demand response are expeditiously and comprehensively reflected in the integrated energy policy report forecast, as well as planning proceedings and associated analyses, and encourage reflection of these changes in demand in the operation of the grid. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission, in establishing a demand response program, to take certain actions. (2) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or an order or direction of the Public Utilities Commission is a crime. This bill would be part of the Public Utilities Act and an order or other action of the Public Utilities Commission would be required to implement the bill. Because a violation of this bill or an order or other action of the Public Utilities Commission implementing those provisions would be a crime, and because the bill would make certain violations by a load‑serving entity a crime, this bill would thereby impose a state-mandated local program by creating new crimes and by expanding the definition of existing crimes. (3) 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.
(1) Existing law grants to the City of Martinez all right, title, and interest of the state to 3 specified parcels of land in the Straits of Carquinez, to be held in trust for specified uses. The Kapiloff Land Bank Act creates the Land Bank Fund and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund, subject to a statutory trust, to the State Lands Commission, acting as the Land Bank Trustee, to acquire real property or any interest in real property for the purposes of public trust title settlements. This bill would repeal that grant of trust lands to the City of Martinez and would instead provide for a new grant of trust lands to the City of Martinez that would include an additional 4th parcel. The bill would require the trust lands to be held by the city, as trustee, for the benefit of all the people of the state for purposes consistent with the public trust doctrine, including the protection of maritime or water-dependent commerce, navigation, and fisheries, the preservation of the lands in their natural state for scientific study, open space, wildlife habitat, and water-oriented recreation. The bill would authorize the city to lease trust lands under specified conditions for purposes consistent with the grant. The bill would require the City of Martinez to submit to the commission by January 1, 2020, for its approval, a trust lands use plan, as prescribed. The bill would require the city to file with the commission by September 30, 2025, and every 5 years thereafter, a detailed report of its trust lands uses and, an annual statement of trust revenues and expenditures that meets specified requirements. The bill would require the city to file a specific document with the commission before expending trust revenues for any single capital improvement on the trust lands greater than $250,000 and would prohibit that expenditure of funds if the commission determines it is not authorized. The bill would require, commencing June 30, 2015, and at the end of every fiscal year thereafter, and subject to an exception, that 20% of all gross revenues generated from the trust lands be transmitted to the commission, for allocation by the Treasurer, of which 80% would be deposited in the General Fund and 20% in the Land Bank Fund, thereby making an appropriation. By imposing new duties on the City of Martinez with respect to the trust lands, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (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.
Existing law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , enacts various reforms to the health insurance market. Among other things, PPACA requires a nongrandfathered group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual insurance coverage to provide coverage, without imposing cost-sharing requirements, for certain preventive services, including those preventive care and screenings for women provided in specified guidelines. PPACA requires those plans and issuers to provide coverage without cost sharing for all federal Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity, as prescribed by a provider, except as specified. 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 Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy that provides coverage for outpatient prescription drug benefits to provide coverage for a variety of federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved prescription contraceptive methods designated by the plan or insurer, except as specified. Existing law authorizes a religious employer, as defined, to request a contract or policy without coverage of FDA-approved contraceptive methods that are contrary to the employer's religious tenets and, if so requested, requires a contract or policy to be provided without that coverage. Existing law requires an individual or small group health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2014, to cover essential health benefits, which are defined to include the health benefits covered by particular benchmark plans. Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive specified health care services, including family planning services, subject to certain utilization controls. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Under existing law, one of the methods by which Medi-Cal services are provided is pursuant to contracts with various types of managed care plans. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2016, to provide coverage for women for all prescribed and FDA-approved female contraceptive drugs, devices, and products, as well as voluntary sterilization procedures, contraceptive education and counseling, and related followup services. The bill would prohibit a nongrandfathered plan contract or health insurance policy from imposing any cost-sharing requirements or other restrictions or delays with respect to this coverage, as specified. The bill would include Medi-Cal managed plans, as specified, in the definition of a health care service plan for purposes of these provisions. The bill would retain the provision authorizing a religious employer to request a contract or policy without coverage of FDA-approved contraceptive methods that are contrary to the employer's religious tenets. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require utilization controls for family planning services for Medi-Cal managed care plans to be subject to the cost-sharing requirements described above. 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 provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care benefits, including hospice benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid provisions. One of the methods by which Medi-Cal services are provided is pursuant to contracts with various types of managed health care plans. Existing law requires the department to develop, as a pilot project, a pediatric palliative care benefit to evaluate whether, and to what extent, such a benefit should be offered under the Medi-Cal program. Existing law requires that the pilot project be implemented only to the extent that federal financial participation is available, and requires the department to submit a waiver application for federal approval. Existing law requires that beneficiaries eligible to receive the pediatric palliative care benefit be under 21 years of age, and allows the department to further limit the population served by the project to make the above evaluation. Existing law requires that the services available under the project include those types of services that are available through the Medi-Cal hospice benefit, and certain other services. This bill would require the department to establish standards and provide technical assistance for Medi-Cal managed care plans to ensure delivery of palliative care services, which would include specified hospice services and any other services determined appropriate by the department. The bill would require that authorized providers include licensed hospice agencies and home health agencies licensed to provide hospice care that are contracted with Medi-Cal managed care plans to provide palliative care services. This bill would require the department, to the extent practicable, to ensure that the delivery of palliative care services under these provisions is provided in a manner that is cost neutral to the General Fund on an ongoing basis. This bill would authorize the department to implement these provisions through all plan letters or similar instructions.
Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health licenses and regulates health facilities, including hospice facilities, and the provision of hospice services. Existing law establishes the Medical Practice Act, which provides for the regulation and licensure of physicians and surgeons by the Medical Board of California. When a health care provider, as defined, makes a diagnosis that a patient has a terminal illness, existing law requires the health care provider to provide the patient, upon the patient's request, with comprehensive information and counseling regarding legal end-of-life options, as specified, and provide for the referral or transfer of a patient, as provided, if the patient's health care provider does not wish to comply with the patient's request for information on end-of-life options. This bill would apply these provisions to another person authorized to make health care decisions, as defined, for a patient with a terminal illness diagnosis. The bill would additionally require the health care provider to notify, except as specified, the patient or, when applicable, the other person authorized to make health care decisions, when the health care provider makes a diagnosis that a patient has a terminal illness, of the patient's and the other authorized person's right to comprehensive information and counseling regarding legal end-of-life care options.
Existing law, the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, establishes a program of cooperative federalism for the regulation of telecommunications to attain the goal of local competition, while implementing specific, predictable, and sufficient federal and state mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service, consistent with certain universal service principles. The universal service principles include the principle that consumers in all regions of the nation, including low-income consumers and those in rural, insular, and high-cost areas, should have access to telecommunications and information services, including interexchange services and advanced telecommunications and information services, that are reasonably comparable to those services provided in urban areas and that are available at rates that are reasonably comparable to rates charged for similar services in urban areas. Existing law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to supervise and regulate every public utility in the state, including telephone corporations, and to fix just and reasonable rates and charges for the public utility. Existing law establishes the state's 6 universal service funds in the State Treasury, including the California High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund and the California High-Cost Fund-B Administrative Committee Fund, and provides that moneys in each of the state's universal service funds are the proceeds of rates and are held in trust for the benefit of ratepayers and to compensate telephone corporations for their costs of providing universal service. Moneys in the funds may only be expended to accomplish specified telecommunications universal service programs, upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act or upon supplemental appropriation. Existing law, until January 1, 2015, requires the commission to develop, implement, and maintain a suitable program to establish a fair and equitable local rate structure aided by universal service rate support to small independent telephone corporations that serve rural areas and are subject to rate-of-return regulation by the commission (the CHCF-A program) . Existing law, until January 1, 2015, requires the commission to develop, implement, and maintain a suitable, competitively neutral, and broad-based program to establish a fair and equitable local rate support structure aided by universal service rate support to telephone corporations serving areas where the cost of providing services exceeds rates charged by providers, as determined by the commission (the CHCF-B program) . This bill would delete the provision stating that moneys in each of the state's universal service funds are the proceeds of rates and are held in trust for the benefit of ratepayers and to compensate telephone corporations for their cost of providing universal service and would instead provide that moneys in the funds are held in trust. The bill would encourage the commission, in administering the universal service program funds, and in administering state participation in federal universal service programs, to maximize the amount of federal funding to California participants in the federal programs. The bill would extend the repeal date of the CHCF-A program and CHCF-B program requirements until January 1, 2019. The bill would renumber the statute establishing the programmatic requirements for the CHCF-B program so that it is located in the code adjacent to the statute establishing the California High-Cost Fund-B Administrative Committee Fund, would delete outdated language, and would make other conforming changes. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or an order or direction of the commission is a crime. Because the CHCF-A program and CHCF-B program, that are extended under the provisions of this bill, are within the act and a decision or order of the commission implements the programs' requirements, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the definition of a crime. 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.