Existing law provides for the administration of public health, as specified. Existing law also provides for the licensure and regulation by the State Department of Health Care Services of alcoholism and drug abuse recovery and treatment facilities for adults. Existing law prohibits specified persons, programs, or entities from giving or receiving remuneration or anything of value for the referral of a person who is seeking alcoholism or drug abuse recovery and treatment services. Existing law authorizes the department to investigate and impose specified sanctions for violations of that prohibition, including assessing a penalty or revoking a license. This bill would prohibit a recovery residence, as defined, or an owner, partner, officer, director, or shareholder of a recovery residence, from giving or receiving remuneration or anything of value for the referral of a person who is seeking alcoholism or drug abuse recovery and treatment services, and would authorize the department to assess a penalty upon a recovery residence, or an owner, partner, officer, director, or shareholder of a recovery residence, of no more than $10,000 for each violation.
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Existing law creates the State Department of Public Health and provides that the head of that department is the State Registrar of Vital Statistics. Existing law requires the state registrar to establish registration districts within the state for the purpose of registering births and deaths. Existing law requires that a death be registered with the local registrar of births and deaths in the district in which the death was officially pronounced or the body was found, within 8 calendar days after death. Existing law requires the department to implement an electronic death registration system for the creation, storage, and transfer of death registration information. Existing state and federal law define and regulate credit reporting agencies, which provide reports bearing on a consumer's creditworthiness. This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to negotiate with a credit reporting agency, as defined, that wishes to receive notices of death from the department. If the department and agency reach a mutually acceptable agreement in this regard, the bill would require the department, within 14 days of a death registration with the electronic death registration system, to provide notice of an individual's death to the credit reporting agency for the purpose of placing a warning in the decedent's credit report, as specified. The bill would require the department to furnish the necessary information in its possession to properly identify the individual. The bill would authorize the department to provide the notification in the manner it deems most economical and efficient, including electronically.
Existing law requires the Secretary of State and the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish the California New Motor Voter Program. Under the program, the Department of Motor Vehicles is required to provide to the Secretary of State specified information associated with each person who submits an application for a driver's license or identification card, and additionally to report to the Secretary of State that an applicant has attested that the applicant meets the voter preregistration requirements for a person who is at least 16 years of age and otherwise meets all voter eligibility requirements. The prescribed information submitted by the department to the Secretary of State constitutes a completed or submitted affidavit of registration, and the Secretary is required to register or preregister the person to vote, unless the person affirmatively declines to register to vote during a transaction with the department, the department does not represent to the Secretary of State that the person attested that the person meets all voter eligibility requirements, or the Secretary of State determines that the person is ineligible to vote. This bill would instead require a person to affirmatively agree to become registered or preregistered to vote during a transaction with the department before the Secretary registers or preregisters that person, and it would make other conforming changes.
Existing law, as established in the case of Dynamex Operations W. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903 (Dynamex) , creates a presumption that a worker who performs services for a hirer is an employee for purposes of claims for wages and benefits arising under wage orders issued by the Industrial Welfare Commission. Existing law requires a 3-part test, commonly known as the "ABC" test, to determine if workers are employees or independent contractors for those purposes. Existing law establishes that, for purposes of the Labor Code, the Unemployment Insurance Code, and the wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission, a person providing labor or services for remuneration is considered an employee rather than an independent contractor unless the hiring entity demonstrates that the person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, the person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business, and the person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business. This test is commonly known as the "ABC" test, as described above. Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner with the enforcement of labor laws, including worker classification. Existing law exempts specified occupations and business relationships from the application of Dynamex and the provisions described above. These exemptions include a temporary exemption for newspaper distributors or newspaper carriers, as defined, until January 1, 2021. This bill would delete the above inoperative date of January 1, 2021, applicable to newspaper distributors or newspaper carriers, thereby making the above exemption apply indefinitely.
Existing case law, as established in the case of Dynamex Operations W. Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903 (Dynamex) , creates a presumption that a worker who performs services for a hirer is an employee for purposes of claims for wages and benefits arising under wage orders issued by the Industrial Welfare Commission. Existing law requires a 3-part test, commonly known as the "ABC" test, to determine if workers are employees or independent contractors for those purposes. Existing statutory law establishes that, for purposes of the Labor Code, the Unemployment Insurance Code, and the wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission, a person providing labor or services for remuneration is considered an employee rather than an independent contractor unless the hiring entity demonstrates that the person is not an employee under the ABC test. Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner with the enforcement of labor laws, including worker classification. Existing law exempts specified occupations and business relationships from the application of the ABC test described above. Existing law, instead, provides that these exempt relationships are governed by the multifactor test previously adopted in the case of S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989) 48 Cal.3d 341. This bill would also exempt from the ABC test specified individuals working as interpreters and translators.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law establishes the California High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund, the California High-Cost Fund-B Administrative Committee Fund, the Universal Lifeline Telephone Service Trust Administrative Committee Fund, the Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program Administrative Committee Fund, the Payphone Service Providers Committee Fund, the California Teleconnect Fund Administrative Committee Fund, and the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) in the State Treasury and provides that moneys in the funds are held in trust and may be expended only to accomplish specified telecommunications universal service programs, upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act or upon supplemental appropriation. This bill would prohibit the commission from collecting, for deposit into any universal service fund, any revenues derived from charges upon the provision of a communications service that the Federal Communications Commission has determined is an information service, as specified. Existing law establishes the Public Utilities Commission Utilities Reimbursement Account and authorizes the commission to annually determine a utility reimbursement fee to be paid by every public utility providing service directly to customers or subscribers and subject to the jurisdiction of the commission, except for a railroad corporation. The commission is required to establish the fee, with the approval of the Department of Finance, to produce a total amount equal to that amount established in the authorized commission budget for the same year, and an appropriate reserve to regulate public utilities, less specified sources of funding. This bill would prohibit the commission from imposing a utility reimbursement fee that is applicable to the provision of a communications service that the Federal Communications Commission has determined is an information service, as specified.
(1) Existing law creates the Department of Human Resources, which succeeds to and is vested with all of the powers and duties exercised and performed by the Department of Personnel Administration. Existing law specifically grants the department the powers, duties, and authority necessary to operate the state civil service system in accordance with Article VII of the California Constitution, the Government Code, the merit principle, and applicable rules duly adopted by the State Personnel Board. Existing law requires the State Personnel Board to prescribe rules consistent with a merit-based civil service system to govern classifications, examinations, probationary periods, disciplinary actions, appointments, and other matters related to the board's authority under the California Constitution. Under existing state civil service law, the Department of Human Resources administers the Limited Examination and Appointment Program (LEAP) to provide an alternative to the traditional civil service examination and appointment process to facilitate the hiring of persons with disabilities. Until January 1, 2021, the program includes persons with a developmental disability, as defined. Existing law, until January 1, 2021, specifies that LEAP is a voluntary, additional method of applying for state employment and is not a mandate on any state agency employer or job applicant, except as specified. Existing law also, until January 1, 2021, requires the department to develop and create an internship program, in coordination with specified state entities, and establish several related requirements to that effect. This bill would extend all of the above described LEAP program provisions indefinitely. (2) Existing law requires the Department of Human Resources, when an appointing power seeks to fill a vacant position by using an employment list, to provide the appointing power with a certified list of the names and addresses of all eligible candidates whose scores at the time of certification represent the 3 highest ranks on the list and who have indicated a willingness to accept appointment. Under existing law, if there is more than one employment list or LEAP referral list, the department is required to provide a single certified list of eligible candidates that combines the names and addresses of all eligible candidates. This bill would authorize an appointing power to fill a vacancy by making an examination appointment of a candidate from a LEAP referral list. The bill would also require the department, upon request of the appointing power, to provide the appointing power the referral list without combining that list with any parallel employment list. The bill would also require the Department of Human Resources, by July 1, 2020, after consultation with specified state entities and organizations representing persons with disabilities, to develop and implement a plan for expansion of LEAP. The bill would require the plan to identify statewide classifications that are not currently in the LEAP program, as specified, and to ensure that all statewide classifications are designated as LEAP-certified classes by June 30, 2022. The bill would authorize an individual who is eligible for LEAP to request the Department of Human Resources to assess if that individual meets the minimum qualifications and various other criteria for the program, and would require the department, if it concludes the individual meets those qualifications and criteria, to place that individual on the applicable referral list, as provided. The bill would also require the department to post information concerning LEAP on its internet website. (3) Existing law requires each state agency to develop and implement an affirmative action employment plan for individuals with a disability, including goals and timetables. The bill, until December 31, 2027, would additionally require the department to identify 5 state agencies or departments which, as of June 2019, have at least 100 employees and have the lowest representation rate of persons with disabilities, averaged over the 5-year period from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2019, inclusive. The bill would require the department, by June 30, 2020, to confer with each appointing power and require it to adopt or revise its affirmative action employment plan to ensure that individuals with disabilities have access to positions in state service, and to set new goals and timetables for hiring persons with disabilities. The bill would require each appointing power to specify in that plan 2 or more of specified hiring strategies, and to agree to utilize those strategies by June 30, 2023. The bill would further require the department, by December 31, 2023, in consultation with specified state entities and organizations representing persons with disabilities, to report to the Legislature on the number of persons with disabilities hired by each appointing power, along with other specified information.
Existing law sets forth the duties and authority of a county coroner. Existing law authorizes a county board of supervisors, by ordinance, to abolish the office of coroner and provide instead for the office of medical examiner, to be appointed by the board and to exercise the powers and perform the duties of the coroner. Existing law requires a county coroner, or the coroner's appointed deputy, upon notification of a death involving a motor vehicle, as specified, to take blood and urine samples from the body of the deceased and make related chemical tests to determine the alcoholic contents, if any, of the body. Existing law authorizes the coroner to perform other chemical tests, as deemed appropriate. Existing law requires the detailed medical findings resulting from these examinations to be reduced to writing or otherwise permanently preserved, as specified. These requirements do not apply to testing of deceased persons under 15 years of age unless circumstances indicate the possibility of alcohol or specified drug consumption, and do not apply when the death has occurred more than 24 hours after the accident. This bill would additionally apply these provisions to a county medical examiner. The bill would require the coroner or medical examiner to perform screening and confirmatory tests of specified drugs, and to include blood alcohol content and blood drug concentrations in the detailed medical findings, when available. The bill would require a coroner or medical examiner to use antemortem samples, if available, if the decedent was hospitalized prior to death. The bill would revise the provisions applicable to a decedent under 15 years of age, including prohibiting application of the provisions if the period between the accident and death is more than 48 hours, rather than 24 hours. Existing law requires a county coroner, on or before the 10th day of each month, to report in writing to the Department of the California Highway Patrol the death of any person during the preceding calendar month as the result of an accident involving a motor vehicle and the circumstances of the accident. The bill would require a coroner or medical examiner under the above circumstances to report in writing chemical test results including blood alcohol content and blood drug concentrations, when available. By imposing new requirements on county coroners and medical examiners, 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, 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.
Existing law, the California Whistleblower Protection Act, prohibits an employee from interfering with a person's rights to disclose improper activity and be free from reprisal under the act. The act authorizes the California State Auditor to conduct an investigation upon receiving specific information that an employee or state agency has engaged in an improper governmental activity, as defined. The act applies to state agencies, as defined, and to the University of California, the California State University, and courts, as specified. The act requires the auditor to establish a means of submitting allegations of improper governmental activity, and generally requires the California State Auditor to keep confidential every investigation, including all investigative files and work product. Under the act, a person who intentionally engages in acts of reprisal, retaliation, threats, coercion, or similar acts against a state employee or an applicant for state employment for having made a protected disclosure is subject to civil liability and criminal penalties. The act defines a "protected disclosure" to mean, among other things, a good faith communication that discloses information that may evidence an improper governmental activity. The act specifically includes in "protected disclosure" a good faith communication to the California State Auditor's Office alleging an improper governmental activity and any evidence delivered to the California State Auditor's Office in support of the allegation. Under the act, "protected disclosure" also includes, but is not limited to, a complaint made to the Commission on Judicial Performance. This bill would expand the definition of the term "protected disclosure" to include a complaint made to a Member of the Legislature, the Legislature, or any subdivision thereof. Because this bill would expand the definition of a crime, it 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.
Existing law, the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, establishes an integrated waste management program. The act requires each city to submit to the county in which the city is located a source reduction and recycling element containing specified components, including a composting component. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to language concerning implementation of the composting component.