The Political Reform Act of 1974 imposes various limitations on contributions that may be made to, or accepted by, candidates for elective office and campaign committees that support or oppose candidates and ballot measures. The act prohibits a foreign government or principal, as defined, from making a contribution or expenditure in connection with a ballot measure. The act also prohibits a person or committee from soliciting or accepting a contribution from a foreign government or principal for this purpose. This bill would expand the scope of these prohibitions by also prohibiting a government, principal, or national from making a contribution or expenditure, and a person or committee from soliciting or accepting this type of contribution, in connection with an election. A violation of the act's provisions is punishable as a misdemeanor. By expanding the scope of an existing 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. 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 of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.
Sponsored bills
Existing law provides animals that are wild by nature may be the subject of ownership while those animals are living only in specified circumstances. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that section of law.
(1) Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law prohibits the use by any person, including a student, of any electronic listening or recording device in any classroom without the prior consent of the instructor, except as specified. Existing law provides that any person, other than a student, who willfully violates this provision is guilty of a misdemeanor, and requires that any student violating this provision be subject to appropriate disciplinary action. This bill would provide that it is not a violation of that provision if the person, including a student, reasonably believed that he or she was recording activities in the classroom that violate state or federal law or regulation, or applicable local agency policy. The bill would prohibit a community college district or campus from prohibiting or limiting the use of a recording that is subject to specified exceptions in a disciplinary action against an instructor. (2) Under existing law, the segments of postsecondary education in this state are the University of California, the California State University, the California Community Colleges, independent institutions of higher education, and private postsecondary educational institutions. This bill would prohibit an administrator, professor, teacher or other faculty member, or any other person acting on behalf of a higher education institution, from, among other things, preventing a student from providing information to, or testifying before, any public body conducting an investigation, hearing, or inquiry, if the student has reasonable cause to believe that the information discloses a violation of a law.
The California Constitution requires the Governor to submit a budget for the ensuing fiscal year to the Legislature within the first 10 days of each regular session. Existing law requires that budget to contain a complete plan and itemized statement of all proposed expenditures of the state provided by existing law or recommended by the Governor, and of all estimated revenues, as specified. Existing law requires the budget to be prepared in a specified manner. This bill would require the budget to be made available, on or before July 1, 2019, on the Department of Finance Internet Web site in a prescribed downloadable spreadsheet format. The bill would require the budget for each budget year to be posted and maintained on the site for a period of at least 10 years following the release of that budget.
Existing law, with certain exceptions, establishes 8 hours as a day's work and a 40-hour workweek, and requires payment of prescribed overtime compensation for additional hours worked. Existing law authorizes the adoption by 23 of employees in a work unit of alternative workweek schedules providing for workdays no longer than 10 hours within a 40-hour workweek. This bill would establish an overtime exemption for an employee-selected holiday season flexible work schedule. The exemption would allow during the holiday season, as defined, at the request of an individual nonexempt employee working in the retail industry, and upon employer approval, an employee-selected flexible work schedule providing for workdays up to 10 hours per day within a 40-hour workweek. The employer would be obligated to pay overtime based on the employee's regular rate of pay, as prescribed, for all hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek or over 10 hours in a workday, whichever is greater. The bill would establish requirements for the termination of an agreed-upon schedule. The bill would except from its provisions employees covered by collective bargaining and public employees, as specified. The bill would require the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in the Department of Industrial Relations to enforce this provision and adopt or revise regulations as necessary.
The Public Employees' Medical and Hospital Care Act (PEMHCA) , which is administered by the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System, prescribes methods for calculating the state employer contribution for postemployment health care benefits for eligible retired public employees and their families and for the vesting of these benefits. PEMHCA requires the employer contribution for an employee or annuitant who is employed by the state or retired from state service to be adjusted by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act, as specified. PEMHCA prescribes different ways of calculating the employer contributions for employees and annuitants depending on date of hire, years of service, and bargaining unit. This bill, for state employees who are first employed and become members of the retirement system on or after January 1, 2018, would limit the employer contribution for annuitants to 80% of the weighted average of the health benefit plan premiums for an active employee enrolled for self alone, during the benefit year to which the formula is applied, for the 4 health benefit plans with the largest state civil service enrollment, as specified. The bill would similarly limit the employer contribution for an enrolled family member of an annuitant to 80% of the weighted average of the additional premiums required for enrollment of those family members during the benefit year to which the formula is applied and would provide the same limit on employer contributions for annuitants enrolled in Medicare health benefit plans. The bill would provide that if its provisions are in conflict with regard to an employee covered by a memorandum of understanding, the memorandum of understanding would control until it expires. The bill would prescribe the percentage of the employer contribution payable for postemployment health benefits based on the number of completed years of credited state service at retirement, with 50% after 15 credited years of service and 100% after 25 or more years of service, for an employee of the state, the California State University, and the Legislature, who is employed by the state for the first time and who becomes a state member of the Public Employees' Retirement System on or after January 1, 2018. PEMHCA establishes the Public Employees' Contingency Reserve Fund for the purpose of funding health benefits and funding administrative expenses. PEMHCA establishes the Annuitants' Health Care Coverage Fund, which is continuously appropriated, for the purpose of prefunding health care coverage for annuitants, including administrative costs. PEMHCA defines "prefunding" for these purposes. Existing law requires the state and employees of State Bargaining Unit 2, 7, 9, 10, or 12 to prefund retiree health care with the goal of reaching a 50% cost sharing of normal costs by July 1, 2019, and prescribes schedules of contribution percentages in this regard. For the state and employees of State Bargaining Unit 6, the date for reaching the goal is July 1, 2018. This bill would require the state, on and after January 1, 2018, to assume all responsibility for prefunding retiree health care. The bill would require the state to prefund retiree health care for state employees, annuitants, and their beneficiaries with the goal of paying 100% of the actuarially determined normal costs by July 1, 2019. The bill would require the state to pay unfunded liabilities that have accrued for retiree health care for state employees, annuitants, and their beneficiaries, as reported by the Controller, as specified, with the goal of paying 50% of the actuarially determined cost of these liabilities by January 1, 2022, and 100% of the actuarially determined cost of these liabilities by January 1, 2026. The bill would require the Controller, by January 10 of each year, to provide a report to specified committees of the Legislature that shows, for that year, the actuarially determined normal cost and the unfunded liability of retiree health care for state employees, annuitants, and their beneficiaries and a calculation of the amounts necessary to meet the goals described above.
(1) Existing law, the Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists and Hearing Aid Dispensers Licensure Act, makes it unlawful for an individual to engage in the practice of fitting or selling hearing aids, or to display a sign or in any other way to advertise or hold himself or herself out as being so engaged without having first obtained a license from the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Board. This bill would repeal this license requirement. (2) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of locksmiths and the registration of employees of locksmiths by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services. Existing law prohibits a person from engaging within this state in the activities of a locksmith unless the person holds a valid locksmith license, is registered as an employee, or is exempt from these provisions. Existing law requires a licensee who maintains or proposes to maintain a branch office, as defined, to apply and qualify for a branch office registration. This bill would repeal these license and registration requirements as well as related crimes. (3) Existing law, the Contractors' State License Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of contractors by the Contractors' State License Board. Existing law requires licensed contractors to be classified and authorizes them to be classified as, among other things, a C-27 landscaping contractor and a D-49 tree service contractor. A landscape contractor constructs, maintains, repairs, installs, or subcontracts the development of landscape systems and facilities for public and private gardens and other areas that are designed to aesthetically, architecturally, horticulturally, or functionally improve the grounds within or surrounding a structure or a tract or plot of land. A tree service contractor prunes trees, removes trees, limbs or stumps, including grinding, and engages in tree or limb guying. Existing law provides that the law does not apply to any work or operation on one undertaking or project by one or more contracts, the aggregate contract price which for labor, materials, and all other items is less than $500, that work or those operations being considered of casual, minor, or inconsequential nature. This bill would additionally provide that the law does not apply to any work or operation by a C-27 landscaping contractor or D-49 tree service contractor on one undertaking or project by one or more contracts, the aggregate contract price which for labor, materials, and all other items, is less than $5,000. (4) Existing Law, the Barbering and Cosmetology Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of the practice of barbering and cosmetology by the State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology. The practice of barbering is all or any combination of shaving or trimming the beard or cutting the hair, giving facial and scalp massages or treatments with oils, creams, lotions, or other preparations either by hand or mechanical appliances, singeing, shampooing, arranging, dressing, curling, waving, chemical waving, hair relaxing, or dyeing the hair or applying hair tonics, applying cosmetic preparations, antiseptics, powders, oils, clays, or lotions to scalp, face, or neck, and hairstyling of all textures of hair by standard methods that are current at the time of the hairstyling. Within the practice of cosmetology, there is the specialty branch of skin care, which includes the application of makeup. This bill would remove the application of makeup from the specialty branch of skin care and would also eliminate the license requirement for the practice of barbering. (5) Existing law, the Private Investigator Act, prohibits a person from engaging in a business regulated by the act, acting or assuming to act as, or representing himself or herself to be, a licensee unless he or she is licensed under this act by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services. Existing law requires each licensee to file with the bureau the complete address of his or her principal place of business, including the name and number of the street, or, if the street where the business is located is not numbered, the number of the post office box. The director may require the filing of other information for the purpose of identifying the principal place of business. This bill would specify that no California office is required. (6) Existing law, the Cemetery and Funeral Act, prohibits a person from disposing of or offering to dispose of any cremated human remains unless registered as a cremated remains disposer by the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau. This bill would repeal this registration requirement. (7) Existing law, the Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation Act, requires every custom upholsterer, unless he or she holds a furniture and bedding manufacturer's license, to hold a custom upholsterer's license. This bill would repeal this license requirement. (8) Existing law requires every auctioneer and auction company to maintain a specified bond issued by a surety company admitted to do business in this state. This bill would repeal that bond requirement and related provisions. (9) Existing law prohibits a city, county, or city and county from prohibiting a person or group of persons, authorized by one of the agencies in the Department of Consumer Affairs with a license, certificate, or other means to engage in a particular business, from engaging in that business, occupation, or profession or any portion of that business, occupation, or profession. Existing law prohibits a city, county, or city and county from prohibiting a healing arts licensee from engaging in any act or performing any procedure that falls within the professionally recognized scope of practice of that licensee. However, existing law does not prevent a city, county, or city and county from adopting or enforcing any local ordinance governing zoning, business licensing, or reasonable health and safety requirements for establishments or businesses of a licensee. This bill, on or after January 1, 2018, would prohibit a city, county, or city and county from imposing any licensing requirement or fee on any profession or vocation if that profession or vocation is not already subject to a city, county, or city and county licensing requirement or fee on January 1, 2018, but the bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to continue to regulate any profession or vocation that is subject to its licensing requirement or fee on January 1, 2018. The bill would declare the intention of the Legislature to occupy the whole field of the licensure and regulation of professions and vocations. (10) This bill would make various nonsubstantive and conforming changes in order to carry out the provisions of this bill.
The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act requires the governing body of a local public agency to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with representatives of a recognized employee organization. This bill would prohibit an individual who will be affected, directly or indirectly, by a memorandum of understanding between a local public agency and a recognized public employee organization from representing the public agency in negotiations with the recognized employee organization. The bill would define the phrases "indirectly affected" and "represent the public agency" for those purposes.
In a fiscal year immediately after a fiscal year in which a transfer is made into the Public School System Stabilization Account, existing law prohibits a school district's adopted or revised budget from containing a combined assigned or unassigned ending fund balance that is in excess of either 2 or 3 times the minimum recommended reserve for economic uncertainties adopted by the State Board of Education, depending on the school district's units of average daily attendance. Existing law authorizes the county superintendent of schools to waive the prohibition, pursuant to specified conditions, for up to 2 consecutive fiscal years within a 3-year period if the school district provides documentation indicating that extraordinary fiscal circumstances substantiate the need for the balance. This bill would repeal those provisions.
Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district or community college district to order an election and submit to the electors of the school district or community college district, as applicable, the question whether the bonds of the district should be issued and sold for the purpose of raising money for specified purposes, including, among other things, the supplying of school buildings and grounds with furniture, equipment, or necessary apparatus of a permanent nature. Existing law authorizes any one or more of those specified purposes, except that of refunding any outstanding valid indebtedness of the school district or community college district evidenced by bonds, by order of the governing board of the school district or community college district, as applicable, that is entered in its minutes, to be united and voted upon as one single proposition. This bill would additionally require the governing board of a school district or community college district to support those specified purposes with a facilities master plan with cost estimates. In order for any one or more of those specified purposes to be united and voted upon as a single proposition, the bill would additionally require each planned project and the named school or college campus to be specified.