Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for, and provides for regulation by the State Department of Public Health of, retail food facilities and various types of food. Among other things, the code requires nonpermanent food facilities that handle nonprepackaged food to protect the food from contamination and limit the display and handling of nonprepackaged food. The code also establishes specified food safety and sanitation requirements for certified farmers' markets governing food preparation, storage, and sampling, among other things. Under existing law, local health agencies are primarily responsible for enforcing the code. A person who violates any provision of the code is guilty of a misdemeanor, except as otherwise provided. This bill would create a new type of nonpermanent food facility, defined as a "fishermen's market," that would be a food facility operated by a licensed commercial fisherman or an entity representing two or more California-licensed commercial fishermen or California-licensed commercial fishermen and California-registered aquaculturists, that sells only raw edible aquatic plants, raw fresh fish, or fresh frozen fish, caught by California-licensed commercial fishermen or harvested by California-registered aquaculturists, directly to consumers. The bill would establish and impose food safety and sanitation requirements upon a fishermen's market. The bill would authorize only a licensed commercial fisherman or an entity representing two or more California-licensed commercial fishermen or California-licensed commercial fishermen and California-registered aquaculturists to act as the responsible person and sole permitholder for a fishermen's market, and would require that fisherman or entity to submit a permit application and site plan, including specified information, to the enforcement agency at least 2 weeks prior to the operation of the fishermen's market. The bill would define terms for its purposes and make conforming changes. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 113789 of the Health and Safety Code, proposed by AB 143 and AB 234, that would become operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are chaptered and become effective January 1, 2016, and this bill is chaptered last. By imposing new enforcement requirements on local health agencies, and by creating a new crime, 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 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.
Sponsored bills
Existing law establishes the system of public elementary and secondary schools in this state, and provides for the establishment of local educational agencies to operate these schools and provide instruction to pupils. Existing law states the policy of the State of California to afford all persons in public schools, regardless of their disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other specified characteristic, equal rights and opportunities in the educational institutions of the state. Existing law, the Safe Place to Learn Act, requires the State Department of Education, as part of its regular monitoring and review of a local educational agency, to assess whether the local educational agency has, among other things, adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying, as specified, and has publicized that policy to pupils, parents, employees, agents of the governing board, and the general public. This bill would require the department to also assess whether the local educational agency has provided to certificated schoolsite employees who serve pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, information on existing schoolsite and community resources related to the support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning pupils, as specified.
Existing law authorizes an adult to give an individual health care instruction and to appoint an attorney to make health care decisions for that individual in the event of his or her incapacity pursuant to a power of attorney for health care. This bill, until January 1, 2026, would enact the End of Life Option Act authorizing an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for a drug prescribed pursuant to these provisions for the purpose of ending his or her life. The bill would establish the procedures for making these requests. The bill would also establish specified forms to request an aid-in-dying drug, under specified circumstances, an interpreter declaration to be signed subject to penalty of perjury, thereby creating a crime and imposing a state-mandated local program, and a final attestation for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would require specified information to be documented in the individual's medical record, including, among other things, all oral and written requests for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would prohibit a provision in a contract, will, or other agreement from being conditioned upon, or affected by, a person making or rescinding a request for the above-described drug. The bill would prohibit the sale, procurement, or issuance of any life, health, or annuity policy, health care service plan contract, or health benefit plan, or the rate charged for any policy or plan contract, from being conditioned upon or affected by the request. The bill would prohibit an insurance carrier from providing any information in communications made to an individual about the availability of an aid-in-dying drug absent a request by the individual or his or her attending physician at the behest of the individual. The bill would also prohibit any communication from containing both the denial of treatment and information as to the availability of aid-in-dying drug coverage. This bill would provide a person, except as provided, immunity from civil or criminal liability solely because the person was present when the qualified individual self-administered the drug, or the person assisted the qualified individual by preparing the aid-in-dying drug so long as the person did not assist with the ingestion of the drug, and would specify that the immunities and prohibitions on sanctions of a health care provider are solely reserved for conduct of a health care provider provided for by the bill. The bill would make participation in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions voluntary, and would make health care providers immune from liability for refusing to engage in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions. The bill would also authorize a health care provider to prohibit its employees, independent contractors, or other persons or entities, including other health care providers, from participating in activities under the act while on the premises owned or under the management or direct control of that prohibiting health care provider, or while acting within the course and scope of any employment by, or contract with, the prohibiting health care provider. This bill would make it a felony to knowingly alter or forge a request for drugs to end an individual's life without his or her authorization or to conceal or destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request for a drug, if it is done with the intent or effect of causing the individual's death. The bill would make it a felony to knowingly coerce or exert undue influence on an individual to request a drug for the purpose of ending his or her life, to destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request, or to administer an aid-in-dying drug to an individual without their knowledge or consent. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that nothing in its provisions is to be construed to authorize ending a patient's life by lethal injection, mercy killing, or active euthanasia, and would provide that action taken in accordance with the act shall not constitute, among other things, suicide or homicide. This bill would require physicians to submit specified forms and information to the State Department of Public Health after writing a prescription for an aid-in-dying drug and after the death of an individual who requested an aid-in-dying drug. The bill would authorize the Medical Board of California to update those forms and would require the State Department of Public Health to publish the forms on its Internet Web site. The bill would require the department to annually review a sample of certain information and records, make a statistical report of the information collected, and post that report to its Internet Web site. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law, the California Finance Lenders Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of finance lenders by the Commissioner of Business Oversight and makes a willful violation of its provisions a crime. Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2018, the Pilot Program for Increased Access to Responsible Small Dollar Loans for the purpose of allowing greater access for responsible installment loans in principal amounts of at least $300 and less than $2,500 administered by the commissioner. Existing law authorizes a licensee in the program to use the services of finders, as defined, to bring licensees and prospective borrowers together, at the finder's place of business, for the purpose of negotiating loan contracts, subject to a written agreement meeting specified requirements. This bill would expand the services that a finder, licensed or regulated under prescribed provisions of law, is authorized to perform to include, among other things, disbursement of loan proceeds to, and receipt of loan payments from, the borrower. This bill would require the licensee to develop and implement policies and procedures designed to respond to questions raised by applicants and borrowers regarding their loans, including those involving finders. Existing law establishes a maximum finder's fee of $45 per loan for the first 40 loans originated at the finder's location per month, and $40 per loan for loans thereafter during that month. This bill would delete those maximums and would authorize payment of finder compensation for certain services pursuant to a schedule that is mutually agreed to by the licensee and the finder, not to exceed $65 per loan, plus $2 per payment received by the finder on behalf of the licensee for the duration of the loan when the finder receives borrower loan payments on the licensee's behalf, as specified. The bill would require, if a loan applicant has questions that the finder is not permitted to answer, the finder to assist an applicant in making direct contact with the lender before the loan is consummated, and would require the licensee to ensure that a loan is not consummated until the licensee completes a 2-way communication, as defined, with the applicant. The bill would require a licensee to provide the commissioner with prescribed information relating to each finder, including, but not limited to, the finder's delinquency rate and default rate, and would authorize the commissioner to take prescribed action against a finder upon determination that it would be warranted by reported data, including, but not limited to, disqualifying the finder from providing services under the pilot program. Because a willful violation of these provisions would be a 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 Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor Act authorizes the Governor to annually award and present in the name of the State of California a Medal of Valor to one or more public safety officers, as defined, who are cited by the Attorney General, upon the recommendation of the Medal of Valor Review Board, for extraordinary valor above and beyond the call of duty. The act also establishes the Medal of Valor Review Board that recommends candidates to the Attorney General for the Medal of Valor from among the applications received by the board. This bill would add ocean lifeguards to the list of public safety officers eligible to receive the award and authorize the United States Lifesaving Association to represent ocean lifeguards on the review board.
This measure would proclaim April 12 through April 19, 2015, as California Holocaust Memorial Week and would urge Californians to observe these days of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.
This measure would recognize the California Association of County Veterans Service Officers for helping veterans secure their federal and state benefits over the past 70 years.
This measure would proclaim August 4, 2015, as National Night Out in California and would urge the people of California to observe and participate in National Night Out.