Existing law establishes 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 using federal, state, and county funds. Existing law requires a recipient of CalWORKs to participate in welfare-to-work activities as a condition of eligibility. Existing law authorizes a student who, at the time they are required to participate in the program, is enrolled in any undergraduate degree or certificate program that leads to employment to continue in that program if they are making satisfactory progress in that program, the county determines that continuing in the program is likely to lead to self-supporting employment for that recipient, and the welfare-to-work plan reflects that determination. A person may meet their welfare-to-work requirements by taking part in a self-initiated education or training program, but if a recipient does not complete a specified number of hours of classroom, laboratory, or internship activities, the county human services agency is required to have the recipient participate in concurrent work activities, as specified. Existing law requires that necessary supportive services, including childcare and transportation costs, be available to every welfare-to-work participant in order to participate in the program activity to which they are assigned. This bill would require that specified CalWORKs eligible individuals participating in a full time or part time educational activity at a publicly funded postsecondary educational institution and making satisfactory progress, as specified, receive a standard payment of $175 to $500 per semester or quarter, which may be provided, in whole or in part, in the form of a book voucher, or reimbursement for verified actual expenses for the purpose of paying costs associated with attending the postsecondary educational institution. The bill would exempt an applicant or recipient who is enrolled in a specified educational plan or program and making satisfactory progress from participating in specified work activities, would revise applicable assessment requirements, and would entitle an applicant to the payment or reimbursement and other necessary supportive services. The bill would define "full time" and "making satisfactory progress" for purposes of these provisions. By imposing a higher level of service on county employees, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would authorize the State Department of Social Services to implement these provisions by all-county letter or similar instruction until regulations are adopted and would require emergency regulations to be adopted by January 1, 2023. The bill would authorize the initial adoption and one readoption of emergency regulations and would require final regulations to be adopted on or before the expiration of the emergency regulations. 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 continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would instead provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill.
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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. As part of the program, existing law 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. As a condition of receiving funds, existing law requires a program to develop and implement a foster youth services plan that includes, among other things, a description of how the local program will facilitate coordination with local postsecondary educational institutions to ensure foster youth pupils meet admission requirements and access programs that support their matriculation needs. This bill would require the plan to also describe how the program will coordinate efforts to ensure, to the extent possible, the completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or the California Dream Act Application for foster youth pupils who are in grade 12. Existing law requires the Superintendent, by July 1 of each even-numbered year, to report to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature and the Governor on the Foster Youth Services Coordinating Program. Existing law requires the report to include aggregate educational outcome data for each county in which there were at least 15 pupils in foster care who attended school in the county with information on, among other things, the number of participating foster youth pupils who successfully transition to postsecondary education. This bill would require the report to also include the number and percentage of pupils in foster care who successfully complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid or California Dream Act Application while in grade 12.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of disability insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law, known as the California Mental Health Parity Act, requires every health care service plan contract or disability insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after July 1, 2000, that provides hospital, medical, or surgical coverage to provide coverage for the diagnosis and medically necessary treatment of severe mental illnesses of a person of any age, and of serious emotional disturbances of a child under the same terms and conditions applied to other medical conditions, as specified. Existing law requires those benefits to include, among other things, outpatient services, inpatient hospital services, partial hospital services, and prescription drugs, if the plan contract or policy includes coverage for prescription drugs. This bill would revise and recast those provisions, and would instead require a health care service plan contract or disability insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2021, to provide coverage for medically necessary treatment of mental health and substance use disorders, as defined, under the same terms and conditions applied to other medical conditions. The bill would prohibit a health care service plan or disability insurer from limiting benefits or coverage for mental health and substance use disorders to short-term or acute treatment. The bill would revise the covered benefits to include basic health care services, as defined, intermediate services, and prescription drugs. This bill would require a health care service plan or disability insurer that provides hospital, medical, or surgical coverage to base medical necessity determinations and the utilization review criteria the plan or insurer, and any entity acting on the plan's or insurer's behalf, applies to determine the medical necessity of health care services and benefits for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders, on current generally accepted standards of mental health and substance use disorder care. The bill would require the health care service plan or insurer to apply specified clinical criteria and guidelines in conducting utilization review of the covered health care services and benefits and would prohibit the plan or insurer from applying different, additional, or conflicting criteria than the criteria and guidelines in the specified sources. The bill would authorize the Director of the Department of Managed Health Care or the Insurance Commissioner, as applicable, to assess administrative or civil penalties, as specified, for violation of the requirements relating to utilization review. The bill would make any provision in a health care service plan issued, delivered, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2021, that reserves discretionary authority to the plan, or an agent of the plan, to determine eligibility for benefits or coverage, interprets the terms of the contract, or provides standards of interpretation or review that are inconsistent with California law, void and unenforceable, as specified. The bill would declare that its provisions are severable. Because a willful violation of these requirements with respect to health care service plans 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 existing federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 provides for the negotiation and execution of tribal-state gaming compacts for the purpose of authorizing certain types of gaming on Indian lands within a state. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to negotiate and conclude tribal-state gaming compacts, subject to ratification by the Legislature. Existing law expressly ratifies a number of tribal-state gaming compacts, and amendments of tribal-state gaming compacts, between the State of California and specified Indian tribes. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project, as defined, that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, as defined, or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. This bill would ratify the tribal-state gaming compacts entered into between the State of California and the following Indian tribes: the Ione Band of Miwok Indians, the Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California, the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians, the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation, and the Tule River Indian Tribe of California. The bill would provide that, in deference to tribal sovereignty, certain actions related to these compacts and amended compacts are not projects for purposes of CEQA. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) , an initiative measure approved as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, authorizes a person who obtains a state license under AUMA to engage in commercial adult-use cannabis activity pursuant to that license and applicable local ordinances. The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) , among other things, consolidates the licensure and regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis activities. MAUCRSA generally divides responsibility for the state licensure and regulation of commercial cannabis activity among the Bureau of Cannabis Control in the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Department of Food and Agriculture, and the State Department of Public Health. This bill would require the powers and duties of the bureau to be subject to review by the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature and would require the review to be performed as if MAUCRSA were scheduled to be repealed as of January 1, 2023. Existing law establishes the Joint Sunset Review Committee, a legislative committee comprised of 10 Members of the Legislature, to identify and eliminate waste, duplication, and inefficiency in government agencies and to conduct a comprehensive analysis of an eligible agency, as defined, for which a date for repeal has been established, to determine if the agency is still necessary and cost effective. Existing law requires each eligible agency scheduled for repeal to submit a report to the committee containing specified information. Existing law requires the committee to take public testimony and evaluate the eligible agency prior to the date the agency is scheduled to be repealed, and requires that an eligible agency be eliminated unless the Legislature enacts a law to extend, consolidate, or reorganize the agency. Existing law specifies that these provisions do not apply to the Bureau of Cannabis Control. This bill would delete the provision that specifies that these provisions do not apply to the Bureau of Cannabis Control.
This measure would rename the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel the Representative Ellen O'Kane Tauscher Memorial Bore. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of erecting appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving sufficient donations from nonstate sources to cover that cost, to erect those signs.
Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a city or a county to make, by ordinance, any violation of an ordinance subject to an administrative fine or penalty and limits the maximum fine or penalty amounts for infractions, to $100 for the first violation, $200 for a 2nd violation of the same ordinance within one year of the first violation, and $500 for each additional violation of the same ordinance within one year of the first violation. Existing law also sets specific monetary limits on the fines that may be imposed by city or county authorities for any violation of local building and safety codes that is an infraction, as prescribed. Existing law requires a city or county levying fines pursuant to these provisions to establish a process for granting a hardship waiver in certain cases. This bill would authorize the legislative body of a city or county, for the violation of a short term rental ordinance that is an infraction, to impose a fine not exceeding $1,500 for a first violation, $3,000 for a 2nd violation of the same ordinance within one year, and $5,000 for each additional violation of the same ordinance within one year of the first violation. The bill would define "short term rental" for purposes of these provisions to mean a residential dwelling, or any portion of a residential dwelling, that is rented to a visitor for 30 consecutive days or less, and would not include a commercially operated hotel, motel, bed and breakfast inn, or timeshare property. The bill would also make these violations subject to the process for granting a hardship waiver.
Existing law, the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) Act, prohibits a person from selling or otherwise furnishing tobacco products, as defined, to a person under 21 years of age. Existing law also prohibits the use of tobacco products in county offices of education, on charter school or school district property, or near a playground or youth sports event, as specified. This bill would prohibit a tobacco retailer, or any of the tobacco retailer's agents or employees, from selling, offering for sale, or possessing with the intent to sell or offer for sale, a flavored tobacco product or a tobacco product flavor enhancer, as those terms are defined, except as specified. The bill would make a violation of this prohibition an infraction punishable by a fine of $250 for each violation. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that these provisions do not preempt or prohibit the adoption and implementation of local ordinances that impose greater restrictions on the access to tobacco products than the restrictions imposed by the bill, as specified. The bill would state that its provisions are severable. 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 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 requires the commission to develop and implement performance reliability standards for backup power systems installed on the property of residential and small commercial customers by a facilities-based provider of telephony services upon determining that the benefits of the standards exceed the costs. This bill would require the commission, in consultation with the Office of Emergency Services and the telecommunications industry, by July 1, 2021, to develop and implement backup electrical supply rules, as specified, for telecommunications service, as defined, that is provided within a commission-designated Tier 2 or Tier 3 High Fire Threat District. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of a commission action implementing the bill's requirements would be a 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA establishes a procedure by which a person may seek judicial review of the decision of the lead agency made pursuant to CEQA. This bill would, until January 1, 2025, establish specified procedures for the administrative and judicial review of the environmental review and approvals granted for projects located in specified counties that are funded, in whole or in part, by specified public funds or public agencies and that meet certain requirements. Because a public agency would be required to comply with those new procedures, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Judicial Council, by March 31, 2021, to adopt rules of court applicable to an action or proceeding brought to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul the certification or adoption of an environmental review document or the granting of project approvals, including any appeals therefrom, to be resolved, to the extent feasible, within 270 days of the filing of the certified record of proceedings with the court to an action or proceeding seeking judicial review of the lead agency's action related to those projects. The bill would require a party seeking to file an action or proceeding pursuant to CEQA to provide the lead agency and the real party in interest a notice of intent to sue within 10 days of the posting of a certain notice and would prohibit a court from accepting the filing of an action or proceeding from a party that fails to provide the notice of intent to sue. The bill would also require a qualified opportunity fund that finances, in whole or in part, a qualified project to provide, to the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development and upon initial application for a qualified project and every 6 months thereafter, specified information regarding the fund and the qualified opportunity zone in which the project is located. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Counties of Fresno, Madera, Merced, Monterey, San Benito, and Stanislaus. 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.