Sen. Jim Nielsen

Existing law provides for the licensure of narcotic treatment programs that use narcotic replacement therapy in the treatment of drug-addicted persons. Existing law provides for the regulation of licensed narcotic treatment programs, as specified. Existing law authorizes licensed narcotic treatment programs to use methadone in narcotic replacement therapy. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation relating to licensed narcotic treatment programs and those that provide methadone treatment as a narcotic replacement therapy.

Existing law, the Public Cemetery District Law, specifies the procedures for the formation of public cemetery districts, procedures for the selection of the district board of trustees and officers, and the powers and duties of the board. Existing law limits interments in public cemetery district cemeteries to residents of the district and nonresidents who meet specified criteria. This bill would authorize a district that serves at least one county with a population of fewer than 10,000 residents or that has a population not exceeding 20,000 and is contained in a nonmetropolitan area, to inter a person who is not a resident of the district in a cemetery owned by the district if specified criteria are met, including that the district requires the payment of a nonresident fee and the board of trustee determines that the cemetery has adequate space for the foreseeable future.

Existing law, the Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Bond Act of 2014, authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $600,000,000, as specified, for expenditure by the California Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide multifamily housing to veterans pursuant to the Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Act of 2014 (VHHPA) . Existing law requires the departments to establish and implement programs that focus on veterans at risk for homelessness or experiencing temporary or chronic homelessness, as specified. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.

Existing federal law authorizes any authorized immigration officer to issue an immigration detainer that serves to advise another law enforcement agency that the federal department seeks custody of an alien presently in the custody of that agency, for the purpose of arresting and removing the alien. Existing federal law provides that the detainer is a request that the agency advise the department, prior to release of the alien, in order for the department to arrange to assume custody in situations when gaining immediate physical custody is either impracticable or impossible. Existing state law prohibits a law enforcement official, as defined, from detaining an individual on the basis of a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold after that individual becomes eligible for release from custody, unless, at the time that the individual becomes eligible for release from custody, certain conditions are met, including, among other things, that the individual has been convicted at any time of a felony for specified offenses and the continued detention of the individual on the basis of the immigration hold would not violate any federal, state, or local law, or any local policy. This bill would expand the list of prior felony convictions to include the conviction of a felony which formed the basis upon which the individual was previously deported, thereby allowing a law enforcement official, if the continued detention of the individual on the basis of the immigration hold would not violate any federal, state, or local law, or any local policy, to detain an individual with that felony conviction on the basis of a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold after that individual becomes eligible for release from custody.

(1) Existing law, as amended by Proposition 83, the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act (Jessica's Law) , approved by the voters at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, makes a defendant punisable by imprisonment in the state prison for 25 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, oral copulation, continuous sexual abuse of a child, or rape, spousal rape, or sexual penetration in concert, if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, in the commission of that offense, any person kidnapped the victim, tortured the victim, or committed the offense during the commission of a burglary, as specified. Existing law also makes a defendant punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 15 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, oral copulation, continuous sexual abuse of a child, or rape, spousal rape, or sexual penetration in concert, if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, in the commission of that offense any person, except as specified in the provisions above, kidnapped the victim, committed the offense during the commission of a burglary, or used a dangerous or deadly weapon in the commission of the offense. Proposition 83 provides that the Legislature may amend the provisions of the act to expand the scope of their application or increase the punishment or penalties by a statute passed by a majority vote of each house of the Legislature. This bill would add the crimes of rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, and oral copulation, perpetrated against a person who is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving legal consent, to the above provisions, if the victim is developmentally disabled, as defined. By applying the above enhancements to these crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law makes a defendant punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 25 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, spousal rape or sexual penetration in concert, sexual penetration, sodomy, or oral copulation if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, in the commission of that offense any person kidnapped the victim, committed the offense during the commission of a burglary, or used a dangerous or deadly weapon in the commission of the offense, or under other specified circumstances, and the crime was committed against a minor 14 years of age or older. This bill would add the crimes of rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, and oral copulation, perpetrated against a person who is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving legal consent, to the above provisions, if the victim is developmentally disabled, as defined. By applying the above enhancements to these crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law requires that a person who commits certain enumerated crimes, including rape, sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration, against a person who is 65 years of age or older, or against a person who is blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, a paraplegic, or a quadriplegic, or against a person who is under 14 years of age, receive a one-year sentence enhancement and requires that any person having a prior conviction for any of the enumerated offenses receive a 2-year sentence enhancement. This bill would add to the enumerated list of crimes rape, sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration, perpetrated against a person who is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving legal consent. By applying the above enhancements to these crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (4) 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 requires the state to have the primary financial responsibility for preventing and suppressing fires in areas that the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has determined are state responsibility areas, as defined. Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, by September 1, 2011, to adopt emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee in an amount not to exceed $150 to be charged on each habitable structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area. Existing law authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, on July 1, 2013, and annually thereafter, to adjust the fire prevention fee, as specified. Existing law requires the fire prevention fee to be collected annually by the State Board of Equalization, in accordance with specified procedures, and specifies that the annual fee shall be due and payable 30 days from the date of assessment by the state board. Existing law authorizes a petition for redetermination of the fee to be filed within 30 days after service of a notice of determination, as specified. This bill would require the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, by July 1, 2016, to amend those emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee in an amount not to exceed $152.33 and would authorize the board, on July 1, 2017, and annually thereafter, to adjust the fire prevention fee, as specified. The bill would extend the time when the fire prevention fee is due and payable from 30 to 60 days from the date of assessment by the State Board of Equalization and would authorize the petition for redetermination to be filed within 60 days after service of the notice of determination, as specified.

Existing law, inoperative due to a pending referendum election, would, as of July 1, 2015, prohibit stores that have a specified amount of sales in dollars or retail floor space from providing a single-use carryout bag to a customer and prohibit those stores from selling or distributing a recycled paper bag at the point of sale unless the store makes that bag available for purchase for not less than $0.10. This same law would, on and after July 1, 2016, impose these prohibitions and requirements on convenience food stores, foodmarts, and other specified entities. This bill would repeal the requirement that a store that distributes recycled paper bags make those bags available for purchase for not less than $0.10. This bill would become operative only if the referendum on single-use plastic bags is approved by the voters.

In a fiscal year immediately after a fiscal year in which a transfer is made into the Public School System Stabilization Account, existing law prohibits a school district's adopted or revised budget from containing a combined assigned or unassigned ending fund balance that is in excess of either 2 or 3 times the minimum recommended reserve for economic uncertainties adopted by the State Board of Education, depending on the school district's units of average daily attendance. Existing law authorizes the county superintendent of schools to waive the prohibition, pursuant to specified conditions, for up to 2 consecutive fiscal years within a 3-year period if the school district provides documentation indicating that extraordinary fiscal circumstances substantiate the need for the balance. This bill would repeal those provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law provides that a law enforcement official has discretion to cooperate with federal immigration officials by detaining an individual on the basis of an immigration hold after that individual becomes eligible for release from custody only if the continued detention of the individual on the basis of the immigration hold would not violate any federal, state, or local law, or any local policy, and only under other specified circumstances. This bill would prohibit a local law enforcement agency from seeking custody of a previously convicted felon who is being detained or incarcerated by another law enforcement agency if the felon is scheduled for deportation or transfer to federal authorities for deportation proceedings unless there is an outstanding felony warrant, and the agency has confirmed that the prosecutorial authority with jurisdiction to prosecute the felony has a current intent to prosecute that felony. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law requires the Attorney General to provide a ballot label and a ballot title for each measure to be submitted to the voters at a statewide election. Existing law requires the Attorney General to prepare a summary of the chief purposes and points of each statewide ballot measure as part of the ballot title. Existing law, including provisions of the Political Reform Act of 1974, requires that the ballot pamphlet contain, among other things, the official summary prepared by the Attorney General. This bill would require the Legislative Analyst, instead of the Attorney General, to prepare the ballot label and the ballot title and summary for all measures submitted to the voters of the state. The bill would also make conforming changes. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.