Sen. Patricia C. Bates

Existing law, the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, defines and regulates common interest developments. Existing law authorizes a homeowners association to place a lien on a property and to take specified enforcement actions to satisfy outstanding dues or assessments owed on a property in the development. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to these provisions.

Existing law, for the purpose of reducing and improving administrative regulations, establishes an Office of Administrative Law to review adopted regulations. This bill would make several nonsubstantive changes to that provision.

Existing law creates the California Transportation Commission, with specified powers and duties relative to programming of transportation capital improvement projects and other related matters. Existing law authorizes the commission to request and review reports of the Department of Transportation and other entities pertaining to transportation issues and concerns that the commission determines need special study. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to this provision.

Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires each city, county, and city and county to prepare and adopt a general plan that contains certain mandatory elements, including a housing element. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that law.

(1) Existing law, as amended by Proposition 83, the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act (Jessica's Law) , approved by the voters at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, makes a defendant punisable by imprisonment in the state prison for 25 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, oral copulation, continuous sexual abuse of a child, or rape, spousal rape, or sexual penetration in concert, if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, in the commission of that offense, any person kidnapped the victim, tortured the victim, or committed the offense during the commission of a burglary, as specified. Existing law also makes a defendant punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 15 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, oral copulation, continuous sexual abuse of a child, or rape, spousal rape, or sexual penetration in concert, if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, in the commission of that offense any person, except as specified in the provisions above, kidnapped the victim, committed the offense during the commission of a burglary, or used a dangerous or deadly weapon in the commission of the offense. Proposition 83 provides that the Legislature may amend the provisions of the act to expand the scope of their application or increase the punishment or penalties by a statute passed by a majority vote of each house of the Legislature. This bill would add the crimes of rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, and oral copulation, perpetrated against a person who is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving legal consent, to the above provisions, if the victim is developmentally disabled, as defined. By applying the above enhancements to these crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law makes a defendant punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 25 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, spousal rape or sexual penetration in concert, sexual penetration, sodomy, or oral copulation if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, in the commission of that offense any person kidnapped the victim, committed the offense during the commission of a burglary, or used a dangerous or deadly weapon in the commission of the offense, or under other specified circumstances, and the crime was committed against a minor 14 years of age or older. This bill would add the crimes of rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, and oral copulation, perpetrated against a person who is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving legal consent, to the above provisions, if the victim is developmentally disabled, as defined. By applying the above enhancements to these crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law requires that a person who commits certain enumerated crimes, including rape, sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration, against a person who is 65 years of age or older, or against a person who is blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, a paraplegic, or a quadriplegic, or against a person who is under 14 years of age, receive a one-year sentence enhancement and requires that any person having a prior conviction for any of the enumerated offenses receive a 2-year sentence enhancement. This bill would add to the enumerated list of crimes rape, sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration, perpetrated against a person who is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving legal consent. By applying the above enhancements to these crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (4) 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 authorizes a certified handgun safety instructor to charge a fee of $25 for the issuance of a handgun safety certificate, $15 of which is paid to the Department of Justice to cover the department's costs in carrying out and enforcing provisions of law relating to handgun safety certificates. This bill would reduce the fee for a handgun safety certificate to $15 for an honorably discharged member of the United States Armed Forces, the National Guard, the Air National Guard, or the active reserve components of the United States, $10 of which is to be paid to the Department of Justice to cover the above-described costs.

Existing law requires the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement to maintain minimum standards for the competency and training of electricians through a system of testing and certification. Existing law also sets forth requirements for the use of a skilled and trained workforce of all workers that are either skilled journeypersons or registered apprentices to perform specified work on state agency design-build projects, local agency design-build projects, and at certain stationary sources posing a regulated substances accident risk. This bill would deem a general electrician certified pursuant to those standards a skilled journeyperson for purposes of any law.

Existing law, as amended by Proposition 83, the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act (Jessica's Law) , approved by the voters at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, provides that a defendant shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for 25 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, oral copulation, continuous sexual abuse of a child, or rape, spousal rape, or sexual penetration in concert, if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, if the defendant has been previously convicted of a specified offense. Proposition 83 provides that the Legislature may amend the provisions of the act to expand the scope of their application or increase the punishment or penalties by a statute passed by a majority vote of each house. This bill would specify that the prison term of 25 years to life applies if the defendant has been convicted of more than one specified offense on charges brought and tried separately, irrespective of the order in which the offenses were committed or the convictions obtained.

Existing law, the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, establishes various procedures for the reporting, investigation, and prosecution of elder and dependent adult abuse, and provides that the purpose of the act is to, among other things, collect information on the number of abuse victims, circumstances surrounding the abuse, and other data. The act defines the term "abuse of an elder or a dependent adult" for its purposes. Existing law also makes it a crime for a person who knows or reasonably should know that a person is an elder or dependent adult to willfully cause or permit the person or health of the elder or dependent adult to be injured, or willfully cause or permit the elder or dependent adult to be placed in a situation in which his or her person or health is endangered. Existing law specifies penalties for a person who violates any law proscribing theft, embezzlement, forgery, or fraud, or specified identity theft laws, when the victim is an elder or a dependent adult. This bill would require a person who is convicted for a crime involving the abuse of an elder adult, as defined in the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, to register for the remainder of his or her life with all police departments and the sheriff in the county in which the person was convicted and in the county in which he or she resides. The bill would require the police department or county sheriff to forward the registration information to the Department of Justice. The bill would require the Department of Justice to maintain a publicly accessible Internet Web site containing certain information concerning persons who are required to register pursuant to these provisions. The bill would make it a crime to use information obtained from the Internet Web site to commit a crime, and would subject a person who uses information obtained from the Internet Web site for any other reason than to protect an at-risk person to civil liability, as specified. The bill would relieve a person from the duty to register pursuant to these provisions if he or she receives a certificate of rehabilitation and he or she is not in custody, on parole, or on probation. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for a person who is required to register pursuant to these provisions to willfully violate any requirements related to registration. By creating new crimes and imposing new duties on local police departments and county sheriffs related to registering individuals convicted of a crime involving the abuse of an elder adult, 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 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.