Existing law, as established in the case of Dynamex Operations W. Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903 (Dynamex) , creates a presumption that a worker who performs services for a hirer is an employee for purposes of claims for wages and benefits arising under wage orders issued by the Industrial Welfare Commission. Existing law requires a 3-part test, commonly known as the "ABC" test, to determine if workers are employees or independent contractors for purposes of specified wage orders. Existing law establishes that, for purposes of the Labor Code, the Unemployment Insurance Code, and the wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission, a person providing labor or services for remuneration is considered an employee rather than an independent contractor unless the hiring entity demonstrates that the person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, the person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business, and the person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business. This test is commonly known as the "ABC" test. Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner with the enforcement of labor laws, including worker classification. Existing law exempts specified occupations and business relationships from the application of Dynamex and these provisions. Existing law instead provides that these exempt relationships are governed by the test adopted in S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989) 48 Cal.3d 341. This bill would expand the above-described exemptions to also include licensed geologists, geophysicists, land surveyors, contractors, engineers, and pest control operators, when those persons are performing work on forested landscapes, as specified.
Sponsored bills
Existing law establishes the Department of Fish and Wildlife and prescribes the functions and responsibilities of the department with regard to the implementation, administration, and enforcement of laws regulating fish and wildlife in the state. Existing law also establishes the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and requires the department to implement and administer various fire prevention and suppression programs on lands under the jurisdiction of the department. This bill would require the Department of Fish and Wildlife, in consultation with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, on or before December 31, 2021, and by December 31 each year thereafter, to study, investigate, and report to the Legislature on the impacts on wildlife and wildlife habitat resulting from any catastrophic wildfire, as defined, that occurred within the Sierra Nevada region during that calendar year, including specified information on a catastrophic wildfire's impact on ecosystems, biodiversity, and protected species. For the report required to be submitted on or before December 31, 2021, the bill would also require the report to include information about catastrophic wildfires that occurred in the Sierra Nevada region during the calendar years 2017 to 2020, inclusive. Existing law, the California Endangered Species Act, among other things, requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, upon a specific appropriation of funds by the Legislature or if other funding is available, to review species listed as endangered or threatened every 5 years to determine if the conditions that led to the original listing are still present, and prescribes procedures to be followed by the department in making that determination. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.
(1) Existing law authorizes the owners of 12 or more of any body of swamp and overflowed lands, salt marsh, or tidelands, or other lands subject to flood or overflow, to petition the county board of supervisors to form a reclamation district for specified purposes. Existing law authorizes, among other things, a reclamation district to levy and collect assessments on parcels in the district under specified circumstances for purposes of raising funds for the maintenance, repair, and operation of district reclamation works. This bill would authorize the board of directors of a reclamation district to form an improvement district to incur a bonded indebtedness for the acquisition, construction, completion, or repair of improvements, works, or property to be payable from taxes levied upon less than all of the lands within the reclamation district. The bill would prescribe certain procedures for the creation of the improvement district and for the levying of improvement district assessments, including, respectively, specified notice, hearing, and election provisions. (2) Existing law, the Improvement Act of 1911, Municipal Improvement Act of 1913, and Improvement Bond Act of 1915 authorize and prescribe procedures for cities and counties, and, in some cases, other public entities, to issue bonds secured by assessments on real property in order to finance the cost of certain improvements to property within their boundaries, including, among other improvements, constructing or maintaining streets, drains, sewers, bridges, and levees. These acts also prescribe procedures for the redemption of bonds and payment of interest on the bonds. This bill would authorize a reclamation district to use, in its discretion, the provisions and procedures of these acts for the construction of any facilities that the reclamation district is otherwise authorized to construct under existing law.
Existing law establishes the CalHome Program, administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development, to enable low- and very low income households to become or remain homeowners. Existing law authorizes the department to use funds for specified expenses, among other things, incurred on home ownership development projects and permanent financing for mutual housing or cooperative developments. Existing law authorizes the department, upon completion of the project, to convert project loans into grants for assistance programs to individual homeowners. Existing law authorizes the department to provide financial assistance in the form of a secured forgivable loan to an individual household to rehabilitate, repair, or replace manufactured housing located in a mobilehome park when specified conditions are met. Existing law, the Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2018, deposits $300,000,000 to the Self-Help Housing Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, for purposes of the CalHome Program, as specified. This bill would additionally authorize the department to provide financial assistance in the form of a secured forgivable loan to an individual household to rehabilitate, repair, or replace housing in a community where 7.5% of the total housing stock was destroyed in a federally declared disaster. By expanding the uses of a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law defines the crime of burglary to include entering a vehicle when the doors are locked with the intent to commit grand or petit larceny or a felony. Existing law makes the burglary of a vehicle punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony. This bill would make forcibly entering a vehicle, as defined, with the intent to commit a theft therein a crime punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a period not to exceed one year or imprisonment in a county jail for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years. By creating a new 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.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law establishes, among other funds related to telecommunications, the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) in the State Treasury. Existing law requires the commission to develop, implement, and administer the CASF to encourage the deployment of high-quality advanced communications services to all Californians that will promote economic growth, job creation, and the substantial social benefits of advanced information and communications technologies. Existing law requires the commission to approve infrastructure projects supported by expenditures from the fund that provide last-mile broadband access to households that are unserved by an existing facilities-based broadband provider. This bill would establish the Rural Broadband and Emergency Infrastructure Grant Act of 2020 to ensure that all California fairgrounds are equipped with adequate broadband and telecommunications infrastructure to support local, regional, and state emergency and disaster response personnel and systems. The bill would, upon appropriation, require the Department of Technology, Department of Food and Agriculture, Public Utilities Commission, California Broadband Council, and Office of Emergency Services to jointly develop the Rural Broadband and Emergency Infrastructure Grant Program to provide each California fairground with grant moneys to support broadband and telecommunications infrastructure deployment.
This measure would designate the week of February 24, 2020, to March 1, 2020, as Eating Disorders Awareness Week.
Existing law allows a person who was arrested or convicted of a nonviolent offense while they were a victim of human trafficking to petition the court for vacatur relief. Existing law requires the petitioner to establish by clear and convincing evidence that the arrest and conviction was the direct result of being a victim of human trafficking. Existing law requires that a petition be made and heard within a reasonable time after the person has ceased to be a victim of human trafficking, or within a reasonable time after the petitioner has sought services, whichever is later. Existing law allows a petitioner, or the petitioner's attorney, to be excused from appearing in person at a hearing on the petition only if the court finds a compelling reason why the petitioner cannot attend, in which case existing law allows the petitioner to appear by electronic means. This bill would allow the petitioner to appear at all hearings on the petition by counsel if the petition is unopposed. The bill would allow a petition to be made and heard at any time after the person has ceased to be a victim of human trafficking, or at any time after the petitioner has sought services for being a victim of human trafficking. The bill would specify that the right to petition for relief pursuant to these provisions do not expire with the passage of time.
Existing law makes the State Department of Health Care Services the sole authority in state government to license adult alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities and prohibits a person, firm, corporation, or other specified entity from operating that type of facility without a valid license. Existing law also prohibits specified persons, programs, or entities from giving or receiving remuneration or anything of value for the referral of a person who is seeking alcoholism or drug abuse recovery and treatment services. Existing law authorizes the department to investigate allegations of violations of that prohibition and to impose sanctions for a violation, including assessing a penalty upon, or suspending or revoking the license or certification of, a facility. This bill would enact Brandon's Law, which would prohibit an operator of a licensed alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facility or a certified alcohol or other drug program from engaging in various acts, including making a false or misleading statement about the entity's products, goods, services, or geographical locations. The bill would also prohibit a picture, description, staff information, or the location of an entity from being included on an internet website along with false contact information that surreptitiously directs the reader to a business that does not have a contract with the entity. The bill would authorize the department to investigate allegations of a violation of these provisions and, upon finding a violation, to impose the sanctions available pursuant to existing law, as specified.
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. 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 upon appropriation. Existing law authorizes the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to administer various programs, including grant programs, relating to forest health and wildfire protection. Existing law states that a specified amount is to be annually appropriated, through the 2023–24 fiscal year, from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the department in the annual Budget Act for specified healthy forest and fire prevention programs and projects. Under existing law, the 2019–20 annual Budget Act appropriated $165,000,000 to the department, with at least $5,000,000 to be made available to the California Conservation Corps, as specified. This bill would appropriate $330,000,000 for the 2020–21 fiscal year from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, as specified, to the department for specified healthy forest and fire prevention programs and projects that improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by uncontrolled wildfires, with not less than $10,000,000 for the California Conservation Corps' fire prevention projects and activities in, or adjacent to, the state responsibility areas.