Sen. Ricardo Lara

This measure would urge the federal government to expeditiously ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer to improve the certainty of the marketplace for our businesses and demonstrate support for this international effort to address climate change.

Under existing law, several agencies have prescribed responsibilities relating to homeless persons. Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to administer California's Emergency Solutions Grants Program and make grants under the program to qualifying recipients to implement activities that address the needs of homeless individuals and families and assist them to regain stability in permanent housing as quickly as possible. This bill would establish the Local Homelessness Solutions Program and create the Local Homelessness Solutions Account for the purpose of providing funding to cities, as defined, to create innovative and immediate solutions to the problems caused by homelessness, as specified. The bill would appropriate an unspecified sum from the General Fund to the Local Homelessness Solutions Account and direct the Controller to apportion those funds to cities in proportion to each city's most recent homeless population, as specified. The bill would require cities to match any funds received from the program. The bill would authorize these funds to be expended for, among other things, shelter diversion, rapid rehousing, and permanent supportive housing.

This measure would recognize the importance that viral load suppression plays in improving health outcomes and reducing HIV transmission in the state, and would encourage stakeholders in the HIV/AIDS community, and all Californians, to carefully examine the Office of AIDS findings and conclusions relating to a specified program on HIV when the office completes its findings and generates data related to that program.

The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, an initiative measure approved by the voters as Proposition 65 at the November 4, 1986, statewide general election (Proposition 65) , prohibits a person, in the course of doing business, from knowingly and intentionally exposing any individual to a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity without giving a specified warning, or from knowingly discharging or releasing such a chemical into water, or into or onto land and passing into any source of drinking water, except as specified. Proposition 65 requires the Governor to cause to be published a list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity within the meaning of the act, and to cause the list to be revised and republished in light of additional knowledge at least once per year. Proposition 65 requires that the list include, at a minimum, the substances identified in specified law, including substances listed as human or animal carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. This measure would provide that the Legislature resolves that the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment expeditiously review the International Agency for Research on Cancer monograph relating to processed meat and add "processed meat for consumption" to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.

This measure would designate February 21, 2018, and the 3rd Wednesday in February of each year thereafter, as California Ports Day.

Existing provisions of the California Constitution provide that the University of California constitutes a public trust and require the university to be administered by the Regents of the University of California (regents) , a corporation in the form of a board, with full powers of organization and government, subject to legislative control only for specified purposes, including any competitive bidding procedures as may be applicable to the university by statute for the letting of construction contracts, sales of real property, and purchasing of materials, goods, and services. Existing law requires the regents, except as provided, to let all contracts involving an expenditure of $100,000 or more annually for goods and materials or services, excepting personal or professional services, to the lowest responsible bidder meeting certain specifications, or to reject all bids. This bill, beginning January 1, 2019, would, for these purposes, require contracts for services involving an expenditure of $100,000 or more annually to include any amendments, renewals, or extensions of the contract that would result in an expenditure of $100,000 or more annually. The bill would prohibit amendment, renewal, or extension of an existing contract unless specified conditions are met. The bill, beginning January 1, 2019, would, with certain exceptions, require a lowest responsible bidder or best value awardee on contracts for specified services to, among other requirements, certify in writing to the University of California (UC) that the bid includes, for all employees who work for more than 10 days at the university in any 12-month period under the contract, a total employee compensation package, including any fringe benefits and the compensation provided to employees of any of the bidder's intermediaries or subcontractors, that is valued on a per-employee basis at a level sufficient that it does not materially undercut the average per-employee value of total compensation for UC employees who perform comparable work at the relevant campus, medical center, or laboratory at which the bidder proposes to perform the work. The bill would require any contractor providing specified services pursuant to one or more contracts totaling more than $100,000 annually, that has not already done so, to also provide this certification on or before January 1, 2022. The bill would make violation of this requirement subject to civil enforcement. The bill would require the UC to include in its request for proposals or other contract solicitations a calculation of the average per-employee value of total compensation for UC employees who perform comparable work at the relevant location, as prescribed. The bill, beginning January 1, 2019, would require the bidder to provide written certification that it has not been found liable under specified criminal statutes or wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission, as specified.