Existing provisions of the California Constitution provide for a voter-nominated primary election for each congressional and state elective office in California, in which a voter may vote at the primary election for any candidate for a congressional or state elective office without regard to the political party preference disclosed by the candidate or the voter. Under the California Constitution, the candidates receiving the 2 highest vote totals for each voter-nominated office at a primary election, regardless of party preference, compete for the office at the ensuing general election. This measure would provide that, for a person whose name was written in upon the ballot for the voter-nominated primary election for a congressional or state elective office, and is one of the top two vote-getters, to appear as a candidate for that office in the ensuing general election, the write-in candidate must have received votes at the primary election equal in number to at least 1 percent of all votes cast for the office at the last preceding general election at which the office was filled.
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Existing law, on or before July 1, 2014, requires the governing board of each school district and each county board of education to adopt a local control and accountability plan and requires the governing board of each school district and each county board of education to update its local control and accountability plan on or before July 1 of each year. Existing law requires of charter schools something similar to a local control and accountability plan. Existing law establishes the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence for the purpose of advising and assisting school districts, county superintendents of schools, and charter schools in achieving the goals set forth in a local control and accountability plan. This bill would also require the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence to report to the State Board of Education by October 15, 2015, with recommendations for methods, study designs, and data needs for systematically evaluating the effectiveness of local control and accountability plans in closing the achievement gap and achieving specified state priorities, and with recommendations for methods for the statewide identification and dissemination of best practices in that regard. The bill would provide that certain moneys appropriated in the Budget Act of 2013 may be applied to the preparation of the report.
(1) Existing law establishes and imposes on state and local agencies various requirements relating to the acquisition, construction, and renovation of public buildings. This bill would require new construction or renovation, as specified, of a public building, as specified, that is owned by a state or a local agency, or a portion of a building that is owned by a state or local agency and includes at least one restroom that is open to the public, to provide on each floor level containing one or more restrooms that are accessible to the public at least one safe, sanitary, and convenient baby diaper changing station, as specified. The bill would require each station to be maintained, repaired, and replaced as necessary to ensure safety and ease of use, and to be cleaned with the same frequency as the restroom in which it is located. By imposing a higher level of service on local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for retail food facilities and provides for the enforcement of those standards by local health agencies and by the State Department of Public Health, as specified. Among other sanitation standards, the code requires a permanent food facility to provide clean toilet facilities in good repair for consumers, guests, or invitees if the food facility was constructed after July 1, 1984, and has more than 20,000 square feet of floor space. A violation of these provisions is a crime. This bill would require a permanent food facility, as specified, to provide a clean baby diaper changing station in good repair for consumers, guests, or invitees. By creating a new crime and by imposing a higher level of service on local health agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law also requires publicly and privately owned facilities where the public congregates to be equipped with sufficient restrooms to meet the needs of the public at peak hours. This bill would require various facilities, including a theater, sports arena, or library, to install and maintain at least one baby diaper changing station if the facility is open to the public, as specified. (4) The bill would set forth findings and declarations stating that ensuring that safe, sanitary, and convenient baby diaper changing stations are widely available throughout the state is a matter of statewide concern. (5) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
This measure would acknowledge the history of the Chinese in California, would recognize the contributions made to the State of California by Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants, would apologize for past discriminatory laws and constitutional provisions that resulted in the persecution of Chinese living in California, and would request Congress to adopt resolutions of apology to the Chinese American community for the enactment of the federal Chinese Exclusion Laws.
Existing law requires publicly and privately owned facilities where the public congregates to be equipped with sufficient restrooms to meet the needs of the public at peak hours. Existing law establishes the California Building Standards Commission to approve and adopt building standards adopted or proposed by state agencies. Existing law establishes the Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund in the State Treasury and makes moneys deposited in the fund available, upon appropriation, to the commission to carry out the duties of the commission, as specified. This bill would require the California Building Standards Commission to develop and adopt standards governing the installation of baby diaper changing accommodations for restroom facilities in a place of public accommodation, as specified. The bill would require the commission to require, when developing the building standards, that any place of public accommodation that installs a baby diaper changing accommodation ensures that the accommodation is equally available or provided regardless of the gender for which the restroom facilities are designed. This requirement would only apply under specified circumstances, including when there is construction of a new restroom or substantial renovation of a restroom, as specified. The bill would authorize the commission, in adopting this standard, to consult with the State Architect, the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, and other interested parties. The bill would also authorize the commission to expend funds from the Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund, upon appropriation as specified, for the development and adoption of these standards.
Existing law generally provides for the programming and allocation of state and federal transportation capital improvement funds pursuant to the state transportation improvement program process administered by the California Transportation Commission. Existing law additionally requires the Department of Transportation to prepare a state highway operation and protection program for the expenditure of funds for major capital improvements that are necessary to preserve and protect the state highway system but that do not add a new traffic lane to the system. The state highway operation and protection program is based on a 10-year rehabilitation plan and a 5-year maintenance plan prepared by the department. Existing law provides for the program to be submitted to the commission for approval in every even-numbered year. Existing law authorizes the commission to review the program relative to its overall adequacy, level of annual funding needed to implement the program, and impact of those expenditures on the state transportation improvement program, but does not provide for the commission to allocate funds to specific projects in the state highway operation and protection program. This bill would require the commission to allocate funding for all capital and support costs for a project in the state highway operation and protection program. For a project that experiences increases in capital or support costs above the amount originally allocated, the bill would require the department to submit a supplemental project allocation request for approval by the commission. The bill would authorize the commission to establish guidelines to provide exceptions to the requirements relating to these supplemental project allocation requests that it determines may be necessary to ensure projects are not unnecessarily delayed.
The Community Redevelopment Law authorizes the establishment of redevelopment agencies in communities to address the effects of blight, as defined. Existing law dissolved redevelopment agencies as of February 1, 2012, and provides for the designation successor agencies to act as successor entities to the dissolved redevelopment agencies. Existing law defines various terms for these purposes. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to the provision of law setting forth those definitions.
Existing law authorizes Security Housing Units for segregation of certain prisoners for disciplinary or security purposes, and because of gang membership or association. This bill would require specified due process procedures for determining if an inmate is a security threat group affiliate. The bill would require the Office of the Inspector General, commencing January 1, 2016, to review every security threat group validation and revalidation completed on or after July 1, 2015, in which confidential information was used. Any documents pertaining to the review of security threat group validations would not be subject to a public records request or discovery. The bill would require an inmate subject to an indeterminate Security Housing Unit term as a result of a security threat group validation to be placed in a multistep program with the ultimate goal of returning the inmate back into the general prison population as rapidly as possible. The bill would require the department to prepare a reentry plan for every offender who will parole directly out of the Security Housing Unit or Psychiatric Services Unit into the community. The bill would require an inmate subject to a determinate Security Housing Unit term or an offender in the multistep program to be provided with promising or evidence-based programming that promotes successful assimilation back into the general prison population. The bill would require the department to prepare a reentry plan for every offender who will parole directly out of the Security Housing Unit or Psychiatric Services Unit into the community. The bill would require the Office of the Inspector General to review the department's compliance with the above provisions and to issue reports, no less than annually, to the Governor and the Legislature summarizing its review. The bill would require an inmate in a Security Housing Unit or Psychiatric Services Unit to have access to educational programming, to have access to radio or television, and the opportunity to earn additional specified privileges. The bill would require the department to employ 2 ombudsmen to act as offender resource specialists for Security Housing Units and Psychiatric Services Units, to be responsible for, among other things, assisting an inmate with concerns about the inmate's responsibilities and rights during confinement in one of those units, and responding to an inmate's family member's inquiries. The bill would require the department, commencing July 1, 2015, to the extent the data is already being collected, to collect specified data regarding inmates subject to a term in a Security Housing Unit. The bill would require the Office of the Inspector General, commencing January 1, 2017, and biennially thereafter, to use the data to prepare reports for the Legislature on specified criteria pertaining to inmates in a Security Housing Unit and a Psychiatric Services Unit. Existing law provides that an inmate placed in a Security Housing Unit for specified crimes or because of gang association or membership, or placed in a Psychiatric Services Unit, is ineligible to earn credits towards reducing his or her sentence during the time the inmate is in the Security Housing Unit. This bill would permit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to establish regulations to allow specified inmates to earn credits, as specified. The bill would state findings and declarations by the Legislature relative to Security Housing Units. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
The Political Reform Act of 1974 provides for the comprehensive regulation of the lobbying industry and imposes various restrictions on public officials for the purpose of avoiding conflicts of interests. The act prohibits a lobbyist or lobbying firm from making gifts to any person aggregating more than $10 in a calendar month and prohibits an elected state officer, elected officer of a local government agency, or other designated individual from accepting gifts from any single source in any calendar year with a total value of more than $250. Existing law requires the Fair Political Practices Commission to adjust the gift limitation amount on January 1 of each odd-numbered year to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. This bill would prohibit a lobbyist or lobbying firm from making a gift of any amount. The bill would prohibit an elected state officer, elected officer of a local government agency, or other designated individual from accepting gifts from a single source in a calendar year with a total value of more than $200 and would authorize the Fair Political Practices Commission to increase the gift limitation amount each odd-numbered year based upon changes in the Consumer Price Index. The bill would further prohibit a candidate for elective state office, elected state officer, or legislative official from receiving a gift of tickets to specified venues and events or a gift comprised of specified recreational activities. The act prohibits a public official at any level of state or local government from making, participating in making, or in any way attempting to use the official's position to influence a governmental decision in which the official knows or has reason to know that he or she has a financial interest. The act provides that the public official has a financial interest in a decision if it is reasonably foreseeable that the decision will have a material financial effect on the official, the official's immediate family, or other prescribed persons, including a donor of a gift or gifts aggregating $250 or more in value within the 12 months preceding the decision. The act requires the Commission to adjust the gift value amount that creates a financial interest in the donor to equal the above-described limitation amount on the value of gifts from a single source in a calendar year. This bill would reduce to $200 the aggregate value of gifts that create a financial interest for a public official in the gift's donor. The bill would also require the Commission to adjust this amount to equal the amount of any adjustment made by the Commission to the above-described gift limitation on the value of gifts from a single source in a calendar year. Violation of the act is punishable as a misdemeanor. By creating additional crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. 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 and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.
Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to place a classified employee on a compulsory leave of absence in specified circumstances, including, among other circumstances, if the employee is charged by complaint, information, or indictment filed in a court of competent jurisdiction with the commission of a sex offense, as defined. This bill would require a school district or charter school to notify the State Department of Education when a classified employee of the school district or charter school is dismissed, is suspended, or is terminated from employment as a result of misconduct against a child, as specified, and to notify, in writing, the classified employee who is the subject of the notification, as specified, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the department, upon request by a school district or charter school, to provide that information only for purposes of verifying previous employment of a classified employee, as specified. The bill would require the information to be kept confidential and would require the department to remove that information if a person submits a certified copy of a court order of an acquittal or statement of factual innocence pertaining to the alleged misconduct against a child. The bill would make conforming and nonsubstantive changes. 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.