Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson

Existing law grants a person sentenced to imprisonment the right to purchase, receive, and read any and all newspapers, periodicals, and books, as specified, subject to restrictions reasonably related to legitimate penological interests. Existing law authorizes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to prescribe and amend rules and regulations for the administration of state prisons, including determining which materials are a threat to legitimate penological interests. Existing law creates the Office of the Inspector General and grants the Inspector General responsibility for oversight of the department, as specified. This bill would require the Office of the Inspector General to post the Centralized List of Disapproved Publications maintained by the department on the office's internet website and would require the department to notify the office each time a change is made to that list. The bill would authorize the office, upon request, to review publications on the list to determine if it concurs with the department's determination that the publication violates department regulations. The bill would require the office to notify the department if it does not concur with the department's determination. The bill would also require the office to include information relating to those notifications in an annual report the Inspector General provides to the Governor and Legislature.

Former law established, until July 1, 2023, the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, with a Special Consideration for African Americans Who are Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States. Former law required the Task Force to, among other things, identify, compile, and synthesize the relevant corpus of evidentiary documentation of the institution of slavery that existed within the United States and the colonies that became the United States, and to recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Task Force's findings, as specified. Former law required the Task Force to submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the Legislature, as specified. This bill would provide that the State of California recognizes and accepts responsibility for all of the harms and atrocities committed by the state, its representatives thereof, and entities under its jurisdiction who promoted, facilitated, enforced, and permitted the institution of chattel slavery and the enduring legacy of ongoing badges and incidents from which the systemic structures of discrimination have come to exist. The bill would further provide that the State of California apologizes for perpetuating the harms African Americans have faced and affirms its role in protecting the descendants of enslaved people and all Black Californians. The bill would require a plaque memorializing this apology to be publicly and conspicuously installed and maintained in the State Capitol Building. The bill would impose various duties on the Department of General Services and the Joint Rules Committee relating to the installation and maintenance of the plaque. The bill would authorize the Department of General Services and the Joint Rules Committee to receive money from grants and private donations and would continuously appropriate those funds for this purpose, as specified. The bill would require the Legislature to prepare the formal apology and would request it be signed by specified state leaders. The bill would require the Secretary of State to submit a final copy of this formal apology to the State Archives, where it would be available for viewing by the general public in perpetuity. The bill would include related legislative findings.

(1) Existing law regulates the employment of workers in grocery establishments, as defined, including requiring an incumbent grocery employer, as defined, where there is a change of control, as defined, to post a public notice of the change in control at the location of the affected grocery establishment within 5 business days following the execution of the transfer document, as specified. Existing law requires the notice to include, among other specified information, the name of the incumbent grocery employer, and to be posted in a conspicuous place at the grocery establishment in a manner where it can be readily viewed by specified persons, including eligible grocery workers. Existing law, the Pharmacy Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of pharmacies by the California State Board of Pharmacy. Existing law authorizes a pharmacy to furnish prescription drugs only to certain entities, including specific health care entities, and individual patients or another pharmacy either pursuant to prescription or as otherwise authorized by law. Existing law defines a pharmacy as an area, place, or premises licensed by the board in which the profession of pharmacy is practiced and where prescriptions are compounded. This bill would require a covered establishment, defined to include a grocery establishment or a pharmacy establishment, to satisfy specified requirements no later than 45 days before its closure, as defined, takes effect, including providing written notice of the closure to specified entities, including the employees of the covered establishment affected by the closure and their authorized representatives if the covered establishment employs more than 5 employees, and the Employment Development Department. The bill would require, notwithstanding that provision, a covered establishment that employs 5 or fewer employees to, no later than 30 days before a closure of the covered establishment takes effect, provide written notice of the closure to the employees of the covered establishment affected by the closure. The bill would exempt, notwithstanding the same provision, specified covered establishments, including a covered establishment that, among other things, is a pharmacy and is owned by a person or entity who owns 15 or fewer pharmacies nationwide, from providing written notice to specified persons and entities, including the Employment Development Department. The bill would exempt a covered establishment from these requirements if specified circumstances apply, including that the closure is necessitated by a physical calamity or an act of war, except as specified. (2) Existing law authorizes an aggrieved employee of a grocery establishment or their representative, as described, to bring an action, as specified, for violations of the above-described change of control provisions to recover, among other awards, reasonable attorney's fees and costs, if specified requirements are met, including that the employee provided written notice to the employer of the violations, as specified. Existing law also authorizes a civil penalty not to exceed $100 against, among other specified entities, the grocery employer for each employee whose rights are violated under those provisions. Existing law also authorizes an additional amount of $100 per employee payable as liquidated damages for each day of the violation until the violation is cured, as specified, and authorizes that amount to be recovered by the Labor Commissioner, as specified, and paid to the employee as compensatory damages. This bill would authorize a civil penalty not to exceed $10,000 for each closure to be assessed and collected in a civil action against a covered establishment that violates the above-described written notice provisions brought by specified persons or entities, including any person injured by the violation, except as specified. The bill would require the court, in assessing the amount of the civil penalty, to consider relevant circumstances, including the nature and severity of the misconduct, and require the court to award a prevailing plaintiff reasonable attorney's fees and costs. The bill would require, if the action is pursued by specified entities, including the Attorney General, that specified portions of the civil penalty collected be paid to, among other specified sources, the treasurer of the county in which the judgment was entered. The bill would entitle an employee that does not receive the written notice to recover in a civil action an additional sum of $100 payable as liquidated damages per employee for each day of the violation until the violation is cured, as specified. The bill would specify that these provisions do not preempt or alter any other rights or remedies, including any causes of action, available under any other federal or state law, except as specified. (3) Existing law, the California Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, establishes local workforce development boards to perform duties related to the planning, oversight, and evaluation of local workforce investment, including identifying workforce training programs. This bill would require a county, after receiving a written notice described above from any covered establishment, to provide the local workforce development board of the county in which the covered establishment is located with information about safety net programs, including the CalWORKs program, and would require a local workforce development board to provide the covered establishment with information about safety net programs and the availability of local workforce training services. The bill would require a covered establishment that receives information from a county or a local workforce development board as described above, no later than 30 days before its closure, to provide any of that information it receives to each of its employees. By increasing the duties of a county and a local workforce development board, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (4) Existing law provides for various public social services programs in the state, which are administered by the State Department of Social Services, including the CalFresh program, under which supplemental nutrition assistance benefits allocated to the state by the federal government are distributed to eligible individuals by each county, and the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, under which each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families and individuals. This bill would require the department, after receiving a written notice described above from a grocery establishment, to transmit to the Food and Nutrition Service of the United States Department of Agriculture information stating that the grocery establishment will be closing and the closing date. (5) This bill would make findings and declarations relating to these provisions. (6) 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 requires the State Department of Public Health to maintain a program of maternal and child health, which may include, among other things, facilitating services directed toward reducing infant mortality and improving the health of mothers and children. Existing law requires the Office of Health Equity within the department to serve as a resource for ensuring that programs collect and keep data and information regarding ethnic and racial health statistics, and strategies and programs that address multicultural health issues, including, but not limited to, infant and maternal mortality. Existing law makes legislative findings relating to implicit bias and racial disparities in maternal mortality rates. Existing law requires a hospital that provides perinatal care, and an alternative birth center or a primary clinic that provides services as an alternative birth center, to implement an evidence-based implicit bias program, as specified, for all health care providers involved in perinatal care of patients within those facilities. Existing law requires the health care provider to complete initial basic training through the program and a refresher course every 2 years thereafter, or on a more frequent basis if deemed necessary by the facility. Existing law requires the facility to provide a certificate of training completion upon request, to accept certificates of completion from other facilities, and to offer training to physicians not directly employed by the facility. Existing law requires the department to track and publish data on pregnancy-related death and severe maternal morbidity, as specified. This bill would make a legislative finding that the Legislature recognizes all birthing people, including nonbinary persons and persons of transgender experience. The bill would extend the evidence-based implicit bias training requirements to specified health care providers at hospitals that provide perinatal care, alternative birth centers, or primary care clinics, as specified. The bill would require an implicit bias program to include recognition of intersecting identities and the potential associated biases. The bill would require initial basic training for the implicit bias program to be completed by June 1, 2025, for current health care providers, and within 6 months of their start date for new health care providers, unless exempted. The bill would require specified facilities to, by February 1 of each year, commencing in 2026, provide the Attorney General with proof of compliance with these provisions, as specified. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to pursue civil penalties for violations of these provisions, as specified. The bill would require that Attorney General be awarded all attorney's fees and costs in any civil action in which a court imposes any of those civil penalties. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to post on its internet website a list of facilities that did not timely submit proof of compliance or were assessed penalties under these provisions, as specified. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to post any other compliance data they deem necessary and would authorize the Attorney General to biennially publish a report outlining compliance data related to these provisions. The bill would make the provisions of the act severable.

Existing law vests the Department of Transportation with possession and control of the state highway system and associated property. Existing law prohibits each state agency that has responsibility for roadside vegetation control operations on, or along, a roadway, including a state highway, from conducting a roadside vegetation control operation on a portion of the roadway for which a property owner has made a request for information related to the roadside vegetation control operation until certain conditions are satisfied, as specified. This bill would require the Department of Transportation to adopt, on or before January 1, 2026, a statewide policy to use integrated pest management, as defined, on state roads and highways, as specified, and to implement the statewide policy in cities or counties that have adopted integrated pest management approaches to roadside vegetation management. The bill would require the Department of Transportation, in developing the statewide policy, to consult with the Department of Pesticide Regulation and the University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program. The bill would require the Department of Transportation, when operating in a city or a county that has adopted an integrated pest management policy that is more restrictive than the statewide policy, to the extent feasible, to operate in a manner consistent with the city's or county's integrated pest management policy, as specified. The bill would require the Department of Transportation, on or before December 31, 2026, and annually thereafter, to make publicly available on its internet website the amount, location, and type of pesticides, and the pesticide formulation, by city and county, it uses, and, at least 24 hours before applying a pesticide, would require the Department of Transportation to provide on its internet website and mobile application, and through any other means of communication deemed appropriate by the applicable state transportation district, information on when and where it plans to apply the pesticide. Under existing law, a violation of certain provisions and regulations related to pesticides is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $5,000 and not more than $50,000, or by imprisonment of not more than 6 months, or by both the fine and imprisonment. Because a violation of this bill's requirements would be a crime subject to the provision above, the 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.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the department to establish the Medically Tailored Meals Pilot Program and the Short-Term Medically Tailored Meals Intervention Services Program, to operate in specified counties and during limited periods for the purpose of providing medically tailored meal intervention services to eligible Medi-Cal beneficiaries with certain health conditions, including congestive heart failure, cancer, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or renal disease. Existing law, subject to implementation of the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative, authorizes a Medi-Cal managed care plan to elect to cover community supports approved by the department as cost effective and medically appropriate in a comprehensive risk contract that are in lieu of applicable Medi-Cal state plan services. Under existing law, community supports that the department is authorized to approve include, among other things, medically supportive food and nutrition services, including medically tailored meals. This bill would make medically supportive food and nutrition interventions a covered benefit under the Medi-Cal program, through both the fee-for-service and managed care delivery systems, no sooner than July 1, 2026, upon appropriation and subject to federal approval and the issuance of final guidance by the department. The bill would require those interventions to be covered if determined to be medically necessary by a health care provider or health care plan, as specified. The bill would require the provision of interventions for 12 weeks, or longer if deemed medically necessary. The bill would require the department to define the qualifying medical conditions for covered interventions and delineate the services included in the definition of a medically supportive food and nutrition intervention. The bill would require a health care provider, to the extent possible, to match the acuity of a patient's condition to the intensity and duration of the covered intervention and to include culturally appropriate foods. The bill would require the department, upon appropriation, to establish a medically supportive food and nutrition benefit stakeholder group, with a specified composition, to advise the department on certain related items, such as the scope of the benefit, among others.

Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2030, the Racial Equity Commission within the Office of Planning and Research and requires the commission to develop resources, best practices, and tools for advancing racial equity by, among other things, developing a statewide Racial Equity Framework that includes methodologies and tools that can be employed to advance racial equity and address structural racism in California. This bill would require the Office of Legal Affairs, which would be established within the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency as provided by SB 1403 of the 2023–24 Regular Session, to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, review, investigate, and make certain determinations regarding applications from persons who claim they are the dispossessed owner, as defined, of property taken as a result of racially motivated eminent domain. The bill would define "racially motivated eminent domain" to mean when the state, county, city, city and county, district, or other political subdivision of the state acquires private property for public use and does not distribute just compensation to the owner at the time of the taking, and the taking, or the failure to provide just compensation, was due, in whole or in part, to the owner's ethnicity or race. Upon a determination that providing property or just compensation is warranted, as provided, the bill would require the Office of Legal Affairs to certify that the dispossessed owner is entitled to the return of the taken property, as specified, or other publicly held property, as defined, of equal value, or financial compensation, as specified. Upon a determination that the dispossessed owner is entitled to other publicly held property of equal value, the bill would require the Office of Legal Affairs to solicit and select, as specified, a list of recommendations of publicly held properties that are suitable as compensation, as provided. Upon a rejection of the determination of the Office of Legal Affairs by the state or local agency that took property by racially motivated eminent domain, the bill would authorize the dispossessed owner, as specified, to bring an action to challenge the taking or the amount of compensation, as provided. Upon a determination that an applicant is not a dispossessed owner or issuing property or just compensation is not warranted, the bill would require the Office of Legal Affairs to notify the applicant of its finding and provide an appeal process, as specified. The bill would make every finding, decision, determination, or other official act of the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency subject to judicial review. Existing law generally prohibits state agencies from employing in-house counsel to act on behalf of the agency or its employees in judicial or administrative adjudicative proceedings, but exempts specified agencies from this provision. This bill would exempt the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency from that provision. This bill would make related findings and declarations, including those related to a gift of public funds.

Existing law makes it a crime to intimidate a voter or to interfere with the conduct of an election, as specified. Existing law makes it a crime for a person in possession of a firearm or a uniformed peace officer, private guard, or security personnel to be stationed in the immediate vicinity of, or posted at, a polling place without written authorization of the appropriate elections official, except as specified. Existing law also makes it a crime to hire a person to conduct these prohibited acts. This bill would prohibit a person from intimidating, threatening, or coercing, or attempting to intimidate, threaten, or coerce, any other person for engaging in specified election-related activities. The bill would authorize an aggrieved person, an officer holding an election or conducting a canvass, or the Attorney General to file a civil action to enforce this prohibition. The bill would create a presumption that a person who openly carries a firearm or imitation firearm while interacting with or observing the specified election-related activities would be presumed to have engaged in prohibited intimidation, in the absence of an affirmative showing to the contrary by a preponderance of the evidence. The bill would provide that an aggrieved person who prevails in such an action will recover reasonable attorney's fees, reasonable expert fees, and reasonable litigation expenses, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law establishes the Foster Youth Services Coordinating Program, under the administration of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to provide supplemental funding to county offices of education, or a consortium of county offices of education, to coordinate and ensure that local educational agencies within its jurisdiction are providing services to foster youth pupils pursuant to a foster youth services coordinating plan with the purpose of ensuring positive educational outcomes. The program authorizes a county office of education, or a consortium of county offices of education, to apply to the Superintendent for grant funding to operate an education-based foster youth services coordinating program. If sufficient funds are available, existing law requires each foster youth services coordinating program to identify at least one person as the foster youth educational services coordinator, who is responsible for facilitating educational support, as specified, to any pupil in foster care residing or attending school in the county or consortium of counties. As a condition of receiving funds, existing law requires a foster youth services coordinating program to develop and implement a foster youth services plan that includes, among other things, authorization of a school district, when specified conditions apply, to enter into a temporary agreement with the foster youth services coordinating program to provide tutoring, mentoring, and counseling services to pupils, as provided. This bill instead would authorize a foster youth services coordinating program to provide tutoring, mentoring, and counseling services to a foster youth pupil, if a foster youth educational services coordinator determines, as specified, that the foster youth services coordinator is unable to secure those services provided by the foster youth pupil's school district and if those services are established as needed and identified by the foster youth educational services coordinator. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 42921 of the Education Code proposed by AB 3223 to be operative only if this bill and AB 3223 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law establishes community college districts throughout the state, under the administration of community college district governing boards, and authorizes these districts to provide instruction at the community college campuses they operate. This bill would authorize a community college allied health program, as defined, if, after using an approved diagnostic assessment tool, it determines that the number of applicants to the program exceeds its capacity, to use additional multicriteria screening measures. The bill would authorize a community college allied health program to use any diagnostic assessment tool that is commonly used in allied health programs and is approved by the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. The bill would prohibit a community college district from excluding an applicant to an allied health program on the basis that the applicant is not a resident of that district or has not completed prerequisite courses in that district, and from implementing policies, procedures, and systems that have the effect of excluding an applicant or student who is not a resident of that district from the district's allied health program. This bill would authorize a community college allied health program that determines the number of applicants exceeds its capacity to admit students in accordance with the administration of a multicriteria screening process, a random selection process, or a blended combination of random selection and a multicriteria screening process. The bill would require a community college allied health program that elects to use a multicriteria screening process, including a blended combination of random selection and a multicriteria screening process, to evaluate applicants for admission using specified criteria relating to the applicant's academic performance, work or volunteer experience, foreign language skills, life experiences, and special circumstances, among other criteria. The bill would authorize a community college allied health program using a multicriteria screening process to use an approved diagnostic assessment tool before, during, or after the multicriteria screening process. The bill would require a community college allied health program that uses a multicriteria screening process to report its allied health program admissions policies to the chancellor annually, in writing. The bill would require the chancellor to submit a report, on or before March 1, 2026, and each March 1 thereafter, to the Legislature and the Governor that examines and includes certain information, including the participation, retention, and completion rates in community college allied health programs of students admitted through a multicriteria screening process, as specified. This bill would repeal its provisions on January 1, 2030.