Sen. Catherine Blakespear

The False Advertising Law makes it a crime for a person or a firm, corporation, or association, or any employee thereof, to engage in specified false or misleading advertising practices. The Unfair Competition Law makes various unfair competition practices unlawful, including any unlawful, unfair, or fraudulent business act or practice and unfair, deceptive, untrue, or misleading advertising. The Consumers Legal Remedies Act makes unlawful certain unfair methods of competition and certain unfair or deceptive acts or practices undertaken by a person in a transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of goods or services to a consumer, including advertising goods or services with intent not to sell them as advertised. Existing law authorizes a consumer who suffers damage as a result of the use or employment by a person of a method, act, or practice declared to be unlawful by that provision to bring an action against that person to recover or obtain certain relief, including actual damages of at least $1,000. This bill would, beginning on July 1, 2024, with specified exceptions, additionally make unlawful advertising, displaying, or offering a price for a good or service that does not include all mandatory fees or charges other than taxes or fees imposed by a government on the transaction, as specified. The bill would provide that assessments made pursuant to the California Tourism Marketing Act and the Parking and Business Improvement Area Law of 1989, and business assessments made pursuant to the Property and Business Improvement District Law of 1994, are fees imposed by a government on the transaction for purposes of these provisions. Existing law authorizes vehicle rental companies, when providing a quote or imposing charges for a rental, to separately state specified rates and charges that a renter must pay to hire or lease the vehicle for the period of time to which the rental rate applies. Existing law prohibits a rental company from imposing charges or fees in addition to the rental rate unless specified conditions are met. Existing law requires the rate advertisements of vehicle rental companies to include a disclaimer providing that additional mandatory charges may be imposed, as specified. This bill would provide that a rental company is not in violation of unlawful advertising, displaying, or offering a price for a good or service for excluding from the advertised, displayed, or offered price of a rental vehicle charges that are disclosed to the consumer in compliance with the above-described provisions. Existing law requires any solicitation to enter into a lease contract that includes the amount of any payment, as specified, to also state, among other things, "Plus tax and license" or a substantially similar statement, if amounts due for use tax, license fees, and registration fees are not included in the payments. This bill would specify that a lessor is not in violation of this prohibition against unlawfully advertising, displaying, or offering a price for a good or service because it excludes from the advertised, displayed, or offered lease payment a fee or charge in accordance with the provision described above. Existing law imposes specified requirements on dealers of motor vehicles and motorcycles sold or leased in this state. Existing law prohibits a holder of a dealer's license from doing specified acts, including advertising the total price of a vehicle without including all costs to the purchaser at time of sale, except taxes, vehicle registration fees, the California tire fee, emission testing charges not exceeding $50, actual fees charged for certificates, finance charges, and any dealer document processing charge or charge to electronically register or transfer the vehicle. This bill would specify that a holder of a dealer's license is not in violation of unlawful advertising, displaying, or offering a price for a good or service for excluding from the advertised, displayed, or offered price of a vehicle a tax, a vehicle registration fee, the California tire fee, an emission testing charge not exceeding $50, an actual fee charged for a certificate, a finance charge, or a dealer document processing charge or charge to electronically register or transfer the vehicle. Existing law imposes specified requirements on manufacturers of motor vehicles and motorcycles and prohibits a person from acting as a motor vehicle manufacturer without having first been issued a license by the Department of Motor Vehicles, as specified. This bill would specify that a motor vehicle manufacturer, or any other person, that advertises a motor vehicle manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) set by an automobile manufacturer, or lease payments based upon an MSRP, does not, by doing so, violate the prohibition described above relating to unlawful advertising, displaying, or offering a price for a good or service.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the State Air Resources Board to adopt regulations to require the reporting and verification of statewide greenhouse gas emissions and to monitor and enforce compliance with the act. The act requires the state board to make available, and update at least annually, on its internet website the emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria pollutants, and toxic air contaminants for each facility that reports to the state board, as provided. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2026, and biennially thereafter, a covered entity, as defined, to prepare a climate-related financial risk report disclosing the entity's climate-related financial risk and measures adopted to reduce and adapt to climate-related financial risk. The bill would require the covered entity to make a copy of the report available to the public on its own internet website. The bill would require the state board to contract with a climate reporting organization, as defined, to biennially prepare a public report that contains specified information, including a review of the disclosure of climate-related financial risk contained in a subset of publicly available climate-related financial risk reports and an analysis of the systemic and sectorwide climate-related financial risks facing the state. The bill would require the state board to adopt regulations that authorize it to seek administrative penalties from covered entities for failing to make the report publicly available on its internet website or publishing an inadequate or insufficient report, as specified. The bill would require covered entities to pay an annual fee for the state board's actual and reasonable costs to administer and implement the bill. The bill would create the Climate-Related Financial Risk Disclosure Fund, require the proceeds of the fees to be deposited in the fund, and continuously appropriate the moneys in the fund to the state board for purposes of the bill. By creating a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.

Existing law, the Ralph C. Dills Act (Dills Act) , governs collective bargaining between the state and recognized state public employee organizations. Existing law excludes certain employees from coverage under the Dills Act, including, among others, managerial employees, supervisory employees, and confidential employees, as defined. Existing law creates the Public Employment Relations Board and authorizes it, among other things, to determine appropriate state employee bargaining units, as specified. This bill would enact the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act, to provide employees of the Legislature, except certain specified categories of excluded employees, the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations. The bill would prescribe rights, duties, and prohibitions in this context that parallel those in the Dills Act. For the purposes of bargaining or meeting and conferring in good faith, the bill would define "employer" to mean the Assembly Committee on Rules or the Senate Committee on Rules. The bill would require the employer to meet and confer with representatives of recognized employee organizations regarding matters within the scope of representation. The bill would exclude certain matters from the scope of representation, as specified. The bill would grant exclusive jurisdiction to the Public Employment Relations Board to make an initial determination as to whether charges of unfair practices are justified, and, if so, the necessary remedy, as specified. However, the bill would prohibit the board from issuing a decision or order that intrudes upon or interferes with the Legislature's core function of efficient and effective lawmaking or the essential operation of the Legislature. The bill would require the board to determine appropriate bargaining units, and would prohibit the board from including employees in a bargaining unit that includes employees other than those of the employer. The bill would prohibit the board from including within a bargaining unit employees from both the Assembly and Senate. This bill would make it a misdemeanor for any person to willfully resist, prevent, impede, or interfere with any member of the board, or any of its agents, in the performance of duties pursuant to its provisions. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that the provisions of the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act are severable. The bill would become operative on July 1, 2026. 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. This bill would additionally exempt from public inspection records related to activities governed by the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act that reveal the employer's deliberative processes, impressions, evaluations, opinions, recommendations, meeting minutes, research, work product, theories, or strategy, or that provide instruction, advice, or training to employees who do not have full collective bargaining and representation rights under the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

Existing law, the California Public Records Act, generally requires public records to be open for inspection by the public. Existing law provides numerous exceptions to this requirement. Under existing law, the personnel records of peace officers and custodial officers are confidential and not subject to public inspection. Existing law provides certain exemptions to this confidentiality, including the reports, investigations, and findings of certain incidents involving the use of force by a peace officer. This bill would, beginning on July 1, 2024, make records relating to an investigation conducted by a local detention facility into a death incident, as defined, available to public inspection, as specified. By increasing duties on local governments, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. Existing law establishes the Board of State and Community Corrections, with the mission of providing statewide leadership, coordination, and technical assistance to promote effective state and local efforts and partnerships in California's adult and juvenile criminal justice system. This bill would expand the board's mission to include the promotion of legal and safe conditions for youth, inmates, and staff in local detention facilities. The bill would create the position of Director of In-Custody Death Review (director) within the Board of State and Community Corrections. The bill would require the Governor to appoint, subject to confirmation by the Senate, the director to a 6-year term. The bill, beginning on July 1, 2024, would require the director to review investigations of any death incident occurring within a local detention facility, as specified. The bill would require, upon that review, the director to make specific recommendations to the sheriff or administrator of the local detention facility who operates the local detention facility regarding those incidents, including, among other things, changes to policies, procedures, and practices, as specified. The bill, within 90 days of receipt of the recommendations of the director, would require the sheriff or administrator of the local detention facility to identify the recommendations that will be implemented and provide a timeline for implementation and the anticipated cost of implementing those recommendations. The bill would require these recommendations and responses to be made available to the public, and would give the director and the sheriff or administrator of the local detention facility the discretion to redact these disclosures, as specified. The bill, beginning on July 1, 2024, would require the Board of State and Community Corrections to employ a sufficient number of licensed medical professionals and licensed behavioral health professionals to participate in the reviews, assist with establishing and implementing health and behavioral health standards for local detention facilities, and review the delivery of medical and behavioral health services within local detention facilities. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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 establishes and regulates the state prison for the confinement of persons convicted of certain felony offenses. Existing law also regulates county jails used for the confinement of persons awaiting trial and persons convicted of misdemeanors and certain felony offenses. Existing law establishes the Board of State and Community Corrections to provide statewide leadership, coordination, and technical assistance to promote effective state and local efforts and partnerships in California's adult and juvenile criminal justice system. The duties of the board, among others, include establishing standards for local correctional facilities and correctional officers. Under existing law, the board is composed of 13 members, as specified. This bill would, commencing July 1, 2024, add 2 additional members to the board, a licensed health care provider and a licensed mental or behavioral health care provider, appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by the Senate. The bill would also, commencing July 1, 2024, require the board to develop and adopt regulations pertaining to standards of care for incarcerated persons with mental health issues by local correctional facilities, including requirements for training of correctional staff, requirements for mental health screening, and requirements for safety checks of incarcerated persons.

Existing law authorizes any employer, whose employee has suffered unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence from any individual that can reasonably be construed to be carried out or to have been carried out at the workplace, to seek a temporary restraining order and an injunction on behalf of the employee and other employees of the employer. Existing law requires an employer seeking a temporary restraining order to show reasonable proof that an employee has suffered unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence and that a great or irreparable harm would result to an employee if the order is not issued. Existing law prohibits issuing such an order to the extent that the order would prohibit constitutionally protected speech, specified activities related to dispute resolution between employers and employee organizations, or other law. This bill would additionally authorize any employer whose employee has suffered harassment, as defined, to seek a temporary restraining order and an injunction on behalf of the employee and other employees upon a showing of clear and convincing evidence that an employee has suffered harassment, that great or irreparable harm would result to an employee, and that the respondent's course of conduct served no legitimate purpose. The bill would also require an employer seeking such a temporary restraining order to provide the employee whose protection is sought the opportunity to decline to be named in the order, before the filing of the petition. The bill would expressly prohibit a court from issuing such an order to the extent that the order would prohibit speech or activities protected by the federal National Labor Relations Act or specified provisions of law governing the communications of exclusive representatives of public employees. This bill's provisions would become operative on January 1, 2025. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 527.8 of the Code of Civil Procedure proposed by SB 553 to be operative only if this bill and SB 553 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

Existing law requires any sale or transfer of a firearm to be processed through a licensed dealer. Existing law requires each dealer to conspicuously post certain warnings and notices within their licensed premises, including safe storage requirements, requirements regarding the reporting of lost and stolen firearms, and information regarding the suicide prevention lifeline. This bill would revise this required posting, as specified.

Existing law regulates licensed firearms dealers and provides that a license is subject to forfeiture for a breach of specified prohibitions in existing law. Existing law authorizes the temporary transfer of a firearm without a firearms dealer's participation to a person who is 18 years of age or older for safekeeping to prevent it from being used to attempt suicide, as specified. This bill would require a licensed firearms dealer, as specified, to accept for storage a firearm transferred by an individual to prevent it from being accessed or used during periods of crisis or heightened risk to the owner of the firearm or members of their household. The bill would also authorize a licensed firearms dealer to accept for storage a firearm for a lawful purpose not otherwise stated in the law. The bill would make these provisions subject to certain conditions and would establish a procedure for the return of a firearm to the original transferor, including situations when a dealer cannot legally return a firearm. A violation of various provisions involving the transfer of firearms is a crime. By changing the scope of these offenses, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize a firearms dealer to charge a reasonable fee, as specified, for the storage of a firearm pursuant to these provisions. The bill would also state that it has no affect on the liability under existing law, if any, of a firearms dealer who returns a stored firearm to its owner, as specified. The California Constitution generally provides that the Legislature has no power to authorize lotteries and shall prohibit the sale of lottery tickets in the state, except for private, nonprofit, eligible organizations to conduct raffles as a funding mechanism to provide support for their own or another private, nonprofit, eligible organization's beneficial and charitable works, subject to certain conditions. This bill would prohibit a licensed firearms dealer from offering an opportunity to win an item of inventory in a game dominated by chance and would except from this prohibition nonprofit organizations under certain circumstances. Existing law, subject to exceptions, provides that any person who has been convicted of certain misdemeanors may not, within 10 years of the conviction, own, purchase, receive, possess, or have under their custody or control, any firearm and makes a violation of that prohibition a crime. Existing law authorizes a court in certain circumstances to reduce, eliminate, or condition that prohibition. This bill would, subject to exceptions, provide that any person convicted of a misdemeanor violation of the above-described prohibition on or after January 1, 2024, and who within 10 years of that conviction owns, purchases, receives, possesses, or has under their custody or control, any firearm guilty of a misdemeanor or a felony. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime, and because this bill would expand the application of the crime to a larger class of potential offenders, 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. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 11106 of the Penal Code proposed by AB 732 to be operative only if this bill and AB 732 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would also incorporate additional changes to Section 29805 of the Penal Code proposed by SB 2 to be operative only if this bill and SB 2 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

Existing law, subject to exceptions, generally makes it an offense to manufacture or sell an unsafe handgun, as defined, and requires the Department of Justice to compile a roster listing all of the handguns that have been tested and determined not to be unsafe handguns. Existing law establishes criteria for determining if a handgun is an unsafe handgun, including, for firearms manufactured after a certain date and not already listed on the roster, the lack of a chamber load indicator, magazine disconnect mechanism, and technology that transfers a microscopic array of characters from the firearm to the cartridge case when the firearm is fired, known as a microstamp. This bill would remove from the definition of an unsafe handgun a semiautomatic pistol without a microstamping component, as specified, and would prohibit, commencing on January 1, 2028, a licensed firearms dealer from selling, offering for sale, exchanging, giving, transferring, or delivering a semiautomatic pistol, as defined, unless the pistol has been verified as a microstamping-enabled pistol, if the department has determined that microstamping components or microstamping-enabled semi-automatic firearms are available, as specified. The bill would also prohibit a person from modifying a microstamping-enabled pistol or microstamping component with the intent to prevent the production of a microstamp. By creating new crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Department of Justice to provide written guidance concerning qualifying criteria and performance standards for microstamping components, as defined, if the department has determined that microstamping components are technologically viable, as specified, and would require the department to accept applications for licensure of entities in order to produce microstamping components, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law prohibits any person from selling, leasing, or transferring any firearm unless the person is licensed as a firearms dealer, as specified. Existing law prescribes certain requirements and prohibitions for licensed firearms dealers. A violation of any of these requirements or prohibitions is grounds for forfeiture of a firearms dealer's license. Commencing on July 1, 2026, this bill would require a licensee and any employees that handle firearms to annually complete specified training. The bill would require the Department of Justice, on or before February 1, 2026, to develop and implement a training course, as specified, including a testing certification component. The bill would authorize the department to adopt regulations to carry out the provisions of the bill.