Sen. John M. W. Moorlach

Existing law authorizes to local educational agencies employ teachers and other personnel to provide instruction and other services to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law authorizes teachers to suspend a pupil from class for, among other things, disrupting school activities or otherwise willfully defying the authority of school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would provide appropriate resources for educators when a pupil disrupts school activities or otherwise willfully defies the authority of school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties.

Existing law establishes a hearsay rule that evidence of a statement that was made other than by a witness while testifying at the hearing and that is offered to prove the truth of the matter stated is inadmissible, except as specified. This bill would allow a party in a proceeding for dissolution of marriage or for legal separation to rely on hearsay evidence in establishing the character and value of separate and community property in certain circumstances, including when a hearsay statement is relied upon by an expert in forming the expert's opinion if the hearsay statement is of the type routinely relied upon by the expert and the statement has been evaluated by the expert and determined to be trustworthy. Existing law authorizes the court, in a contested proceeding involving child custody or visitation rights, to appoint a child custody evaluator to conduct a child custody evaluation in cases in which the court determines it is in the best interests of the child. Existing law requires the Judicial Council to adopt standards for full and partial court-connected evaluations, investigations, and assessments related to child custody. This bill would require the Judicial Council, by January 1, 2021, to include within those standards, standards for recommendations made by private child custody recommending counseling (CCRC) professionals appointed by the court to make recommendations relating to child custody and visitation rights. Under the bill, a report based on a court-ordered evaluation, private CCRC recommendation, investigation, or assessment prepared in compliance with those standards and any hearsay evidence contained in the report, would be admissible in court and constitute competent evidence if the report is provided to the court and to all parties or their counsel at least 10 days prior to the custody hearing. The bill would require the Judicial Council, on or before January 1, 2021, to promulgate a statewide rule of court requiring a person conducting an evaluation, investigation, or assessment in a child custody case to make and maintain a detailed record of all interviews conducted during the evaluation, investigation, or assessment process and to maintain the interview records until the case is resolved by final order. Existing law requires the child custody evaluator to file a written confidential report of their evaluation with the court and allows the report to be received in evidence on stipulation of the parties. This bill would allow the report to be received in evidence without regard to the stipulation of the parties. Existing law requires the Judicial Council to establish judicial training programs for individuals who perform duties in domestic violence matters. This bill would require the Judicial Council to promulgate a rule of court requiring training for individuals who conduct court evaluations, investigations, and assessments in child custody cases, as specified.

Under the California New Motor Voter 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. The person's motor vehicle records then constitute a completed affidavit of registration and the person is registered 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 they meet all voter eligibility requirements, or the Secretary of State determines that the person is ineligible to vote. Existing law requires the Secretary of State to adopt regulations to implement the program, as specified. This bill would also require the establishment of a committee including representatives of the Secretary of State's office, the Department of Motor Vehicles, and counties, for the purpose of facilitating the sharing of information necessary to implement the program. This bill would further require the Department of Motor Vehicles to train its employees on voter registration practices implementing the program.

Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, provides for the involuntary commitment and treatment of a person who is a danger to themself or others or who is gravely disabled. Existing law also provides for a conservator of the person or estate to be appointed for a person who is gravely disabled. Existing law, for the purposes of involuntary commitment and conservatorship, defines "gravely disabled," among other things, as a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is unable to provide for the basic personal needs of food, clothing, or shelter. This bill would change the definition of "gravely disabled" for these purposes to read, in part, a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is incapable of making informed decisions about, or providing for, the person's own basic personal needs for food, clothing, shelter, or medical care without significant supervision and assistance from another person and, as a result of being incapable of making these informed decisions, the person is at risk of substantial bodily harm, dangerous worsening of a concomitant serious physical illness, significant psychiatric deterioration, or mismanagement of essential needs that could result in bodily harm. By increasing the level of service required of county mental health departments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill, until January 1, 2025, would appropriate $20,000,000 to the State Department of Health Care Services to establish a 4-year grant program to assist local jurisdictions to maintain appropriate caseloads for individuals who manage conservatorship cases. The bill would require the department, in consultation with the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, the California State Association of Public Administrators, Public Guardians, and Public Conservators, and the California Behavioral Health Directors Association, to establish guidelines for appropriate caseloads for case managers in public guardian and public conservator offices. The bill would specify requirements for applying for grants, including establishing a 4-year plan to meet and maintain the appropriate caseload goals. The bill would require the department to submit a report, as specified, on or before September 30, 2021, and each following year, to the Governor and the Legislature, as specified. 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 vests the Department of Transportation with full possession and control of all state highways and all property and rights on property acquired for state highway purposes. Various provisions of existing law specifically provide for the acquisition, transfer, and use of property owned by the department. This bill would require the department, if requested by the City of Orange, to transfer two parcels, which are currently leased to the city for use as public parks, to the city, subject to certain requirements, including a requirement that the property be used solely for recreation and open-space purposes.

Existing law vests the Department of Transportation with full possession and control of the state highway system. Existing law prohibits a person from driving a vehicle upon a highway with a speed limit established pursuant to specified provisions at a speed greater than that speed limit. Existing law prohibits a person from driving a vehicle upon a state highway at a speed greater than 65 miles per hour. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2021, to submit a report that includes policy recommendations to the Legislature and the California Transportation Commission on any potential advantages of the German autobahn system compared to California's state highway system and on the feasibility of implementing those potential advantages in California, as specified.

Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to authorize certain entities to apply to the department to provide hypodermic needle and syringe exchange services in any location where the department determines that the conditions exist for the rapid spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) , viral hepatitis, or any other potentially deadly or disabling infections that are spread through the sharing of used hypodermic needles and syringes, and requires the department to provide for a period of public comment, as specified, at least 45 days before approval of the application. This bill would instead allow the department to authorize an entity pursuant to these provisions only if the city, county, or city and county in which the entity will be operating has adopted an ordinance or resolution approving that authorization or reauthorization.

Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, provides for the involuntary commitment and treatment of a person who is a danger to themselves or others or who is gravely disabled. Existing law also provides for a conservator of the person or estate to be appointed for a person who is gravely disabled. Existing law, for the purposes of involuntary commitment and conservatorship, defines "gravely disabled," among other things, as a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is unable to provide for the person's basic personal needs for food, clothing, or shelter. This bill would authorize a county to instead use a definition of "gravely disabled" for these purposes that would read, in part, a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is incapable of making informed decisions about, or providing for, the person's own basic personal needs for food, clothing, or shelter without significant supervision and assistance from another person and, as a result of being incapable of making these informed decisions, the person is at risk of substantial bodily harm, dangerous worsening of a concomitant serious physical illness, significant psychiatric deterioration, or mismanagement of the person's essential needs that could result in bodily harm. The bill would authorize this condition to be demonstrated by the person's treatment history and recent acts or omissions.

Existing law authorizes the Director of General Services, with the consent of the State Department of Developmental Services, to let to certain persons and entities, for a period not to exceed 55 years, specified amounts of real property located within the grounds of the Fairview State Hospital, which is also known as the Fairview Developmental Center, for specified purposes and subject to certain conditions. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that will decide the future of the state-owned property where the Fairview Developmental Center currently operates and would make various findings and declarations in this regard.

(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Under its existing authority, the commission requires electrical corporations to implement the California Overhead Conversion Program, Rule 20A, to provide financial assistance in the form of credits to local governments to facilitate projects that are in the public interest and that remove overhead infrastructure, replacing it with infrastructure in underground trenches. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. This bill would require the commission to require electrical corporations, by July 1, 2020, to develop and administer programs to provide matching funds to local jurisdictions for conversion projects to replace overhead electrical infrastructure with underground electrical infrastructure in Tier 3 High Fire Threat Districts. The bill would require the commission to direct electrical corporations to reallocate credits provided to a jurisdiction under the Rule 20A program for purposes of those conversion projects, as specified. The bill would authorize the commission to require electrical corporations to replace overhead electrical infrastructure in a Tier 3 High Fire Threat District that is destroyed as a result of a fire caused by overhead electrical infrastructure with underground electrical infrastructure if the commission makes specified determinations. Because certain of the above provisions would be in the act, and a violation of an action by the commission implementing the above provisions would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms in regulating those emissions. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available for appropriation. This bill would, beginning with the 2019–20 fiscal year and ending with the 2023–24 fiscal year, appropriate an unspecified amount annually from the fund to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to provide grants to local jurisdictions undertaking conversion projects in Tier 3 High Fire Threat Districts to move electrical infrastructure underground, as described above, thereby making an appropriation. (3) 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. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.