Sen. Tim Grayson

Existing law, the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, makes unlawful various specified methods, acts, or practices undertaken in a transaction intended to result or that result in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer, and provides for civil actions by persons who suffer damage as a result of the use or employment of these methods, acts, or practices. The bill would include, as an unlawful act under the act, the sale of a consumer's personal information, as defined, to a person for purposes of making or arranging a loan, as defined, unless the person buying the information is licensed by a state agency or chartered by a federal agency to make those loans.

The California Credit Union Law (CCUL) provides for the licensure and regulation of credit unions by the Commissioner of Business Oversight and makes a willful violation of that law a crime. The law prohibits a member of the board of directors, supervisory committee, or credit committee from receiving compensation for services as a member of the board of directors or those committees, subject to an exception for reasonable health, accident, and similar insurance and specified expense reimbursement. This bill would prohibit a member of the audit committee from receiving compensation for services as a member of those committees. The Nonprofit Mutual Benefit Corporation Law prohibits a credit union from expelling a member without providing that member a fair and reasonable process, as specified. The CCUL authorizes the board of directors of a credit union to expel a member for specified causes, including conviction for a criminal offense involving moral turpitude, unless the bylaws of the credit union expressly reserve that duty to members and entitles an expelled member to appeal the expulsion to the members, as specified. This bill would authorize the board of directors to expel a member for abusive, threatening, or harassing behavior toward credit union staff, volunteers, or members, or the abuse of credit union systems or property and would authorize that expulsion to take effect immediately and without advance notice or an opportunity to be heard, if the board of directors or its designee determines that immediate expulsion is reasonably necessary for the protection of the credit union or its staff, volunteers, or members. The bill would require a member expelled in that manner be provided written notice within 5 days after the effective date of that expulsion and would entitle the member, and a member expelled by the board of directors for any of the other specified causes, to appeal that expulsion to the board of directors pursuant to reasonable procedures adopted by the board that meet a certain minimum standard. The bill would provide that this process is fair and reasonable for purposes of the Nonprofit Mutual Benefit Corporation Law. The CCUL authorizes a credit union to purchase a promissory note upon which a member is the primary obligor, authorizes a credit union to issue shares to specified entities, and prohibits a credit union from entering into any loan or approved line of credit, including both used and unused portions, on which the official is a borrower, coborrower, cosigner, endorser, or guarantor with an official, as defined, of the credit union. This bill would revise and recast those provisions, including by repealing the authorization to purchase a promissory note upon which a member is the primary obligor and would authorize a credit union to issue shares to a member or nonmember state or federal credit union. The CCUL authorizes a member to withdraw from membership in the credit union at any time, as specified, and authorizes a credit union to transfer a member who has no outstanding obligations with the credit union and whose share account is below the amount established by the bylaws to inactive status. This bill would authorize a credit union to deem an inactive member to have withdrawn from membership, subject to specified notice and other conditions. By expanding the scope of the crime of willfully violating the provisions of the CCUL, this bill would create 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.

This measure would designate the week of February 24, 2020, to March 1, 2020, as Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

Existing law establishes, among other housing programs, the Multifamily Housing Program, pursuant to which the Department of Housing and Community Development provides financial assistance in the form of deferred payment loans to pay for the eligible costs of development for specified types of housing projects. Existing law, the Mitigation Fee Act, establishes procedures and limitations with respect to the establishment, increase, or imposition of fees, as defined, as a condition of approval of a development project by a local agency, including requiring the local agency to determine the reasonable relationship between the fee's use and the type of development project on which the fee is imposed. This bill would establish the Housing Cost Reduction Incentive Program, to be administered by the department, for the purpose of reimbursing cities, counties, and cities and counties for development impact fee waivers or reductions provided to qualified rental housing developments. Upon appropriation, the bill would require the department to provide grants to applicants in an amount equal to 50% of the amount of development impact fee waived or reduced for a qualified rental housing development by issuing a Notice of Funding Availability for each calendar year in which funds are made available for the program, as provided. The bill would require an applicant that receives a grant under the program to use those funds solely for those purposes for which the development impact fee that was waived or reduced would have been used. The bill would require the department to adopt guidelines to implement the program and exempt those guidelines from the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act.

The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries that includes, among other things, a housing element. That law requires the planning agency of a city or county to provide by April 1 of each year an annual report to, among other entities, the Department of Housing and Community Development that includes, among other specified information, the number of net new units of housing that have been issued a completed entitlement, a building permit, or a certificate of occupancy, thus far in the housing element cycle, as provided. This bill would require a planning agency to include in that annual report specified additional information regarding housing development projects located within the jurisdiction, and information related to local requirements or incentives for proposed housing development projects, as provided, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize the department to assess the accuracy of the information submitted as part of the annual report and, if it determines that any report submitted to it by a planning agency contains inaccurate information, require that the planning agency correct that inaccuracy. The bill would require the department to post a report submitted pursuant to these provisions on its internet website within a reasonable time of receiving the report. 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.

The California Public Records Act requires state and local agencies to make public records available for inspection by the public, subject to specified criteria and with specified exceptions. Existing law exempts from disclosure any investigatory or security file compiled by any other state or local police agency, or any investigatory or security files compiled by any other state or local agency for correctional, law enforcement, or licensing purposes. Existing law requires, however, that state and local law enforcement agencies make public specified information, including names of victims, relating to the circumstances surrounding all complaints or requests for assistance, among other things, except to the extent that disclosure of a particular item of information would endanger the safety of a person involved in the investigation. Existing law allows victims of specified crimes, including human trafficking, to request that their names be withheld from any public records request, and upon that request prohibits law enforcement agencies from disclosing those names except under specified circumstances. Existing law additionally prohibits law enforcement agencies from disclosing the addresses of victims of specified crimes, including human trafficking. This bill would exempt from disclosure the name and address of the victim of any crime who is less than 18 years of age. The bill would require a law enforcement officer receiving a report in which a minor is a victim to indicate on the report that the alleged victim is a minor and inform the person making the report that the minor's name and address will remain confidential. The bill would prohibit, except as otherwise specified, the disclosure of the minor's name and address. Existing law authorizes a court, upon the request of a victim who has requested confidentiality, to refer to the victim to as Jane Doe or John Doe. This bill would require the victim of any crime who less than 18 years of age to be referred to in all records and proceedings by a pseudonym, including John Doe or Jane Doe. By creating additional duties for local law enforcement officers and prosecutors, 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, 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 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.

Existing law governing unemployment insurance defines "employment" for those purposes, and exempts from this definition the services performed by certain persons, including various types of brokers or salespersons meeting specified conditions, including that the sale or demonstration of the product takes place in the buyer's home. Existing law limits the exemption to sales that take place in other than a retail or wholesale establishment. This bill would also exempt from the definition of employment, a seller that sells or demonstrates products in the buyer's business. The bill would also specify that certain types of vehicles used to sell specified tools do not qualify as a retail or wholesale establishment for purposes of these provisions.

The California Constitution authorizes cities and counties to make and enforce within their limits all local, police, sanitary, and other ordinances and regulations not in conflict with general laws, and further authorizes cities organized under a charter to make and enforce all ordinances and regulations in respect to municipal affairs, which supersede inconsistent general laws. Existing law provides that a city or a county may, in the exercise of their police powers, license and regulate businesses operating within their jurisdiction and may fix the rate of the license fee and provide for its collection. Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a city and the board of supervisors of a county to license, for revenue and regulation, and fix a license tax upon, every kind of lawful business transacted in the city or county, as specified. Existing law requires a legislative body of a city or a board of supervisors of a county imposing a license tax upon a business operating both within and outside the legislative body's or board's taxing jurisdiction to levy the tax so that the measure of tax fairly reflects that proportion of the taxed activity actually carried on within the taxing jurisdiction. Existing law, the Quimby Act, which is within the Subdivision Map Act, authorizes the legislative body of a city or county to require the dedication of land or to impose fees for park or recreational purposes as a condition to the approval of a tentative map or parcel subdivision map if specified requirements are met. Existing law, the Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982, after a community facilities district has been created and authorized to levy specified special taxes, authorizes the legislative body, by ordinance, to levy the special taxes at the rate and apportion them in the manner specified in the resolution forming the community facilities district. Existing law, the Mitigation Fee Act, requires a local agency that establishes, increases, or imposes a fee as a condition of approval of a development project to, among other things, determine a reasonable relationship between the fee's use and the type of development project on which the fee is imposed. The Mitigation Fee Act also prohibits specified fees from exceeding the estimated reasonable cost of providing the service for which the fee is charged, unless a question regarding the amount of the fee in excess of that cost is submitted to, and approved by a popular vote of two-thirds of those electors voting on the issue. This bill would prohibit a city or county from imposing a specified fee or exaction if the total dollar amount of the fees and exactions that a city or county would impose on a proposed housing development is greater than 12 percent of the city's or county's median home price unless approved by the Department of Housing and Community Development. The bill would authorize a city or county to seek approval from the department to impose a fee or an exaction that would result in the total dollar amount of fees and exactions exceeding that limitation by making a specified finding and submitting a completed application for a waiver. The bill would require the department to develop a standard form application for a waiver in conjunction with the Governor's Office of Planning and Research. The bill would also require the department to develop standards to determine whether to grant a waiver and the total dollar amount limitation to which a city or county granted a waiver is subject. The bill would require the department to conduct and post on its internet website an analysis that, for purposes of these provisions, determines the median home price in each city and county of the state. Existing law requires the department to notify a city or county, and authorizes the department to notify the Attorney General, that the city or county has taken an action that violates specified provisions relating to local government regulation of housing development. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General to bring a suit for specified housing element violations under certain circumstances and to request that a court issue an order or judgment directing the city or county to comply with those housing element provisions. Under existing law, the court retains jurisdiction to ensure that its order or judgment is carried out and is authorized to impose specified fines under certain circumstances. This bill would require the department to notify a city or county, and authorize the department to notify the Attorney General, that the city or county has imposed a fee or exaction in violation of the provisions of the bill. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to bring suit for a violation under certain circumstances and to request that a court issue an order or judgment directing the city or county to comply with the provisions of the bill. Under the bill, the court would retain jurisdiction to ensure that its order or judgment is carried out and would be authorized to impose specified fines under certain circumstances. The bill would establish the Housing Development Fine and Exaction Cap Account Fund, and would make the moneys in the fund available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law, the Permit Streamlining Act, which is part of the Planning and Zoning Law, requires a specified city, county, or special district to maintain on its internet website a current schedule of fees and exactions imposed by the city, county, or special district applicable to a proposed housing development project. The act requires this information to be presented in a manner that clearly identifies the fees and exactions that apply to each parcel. This bill would revise and recast that provision to additionally require the city, county, or special district to include on its internet website the total dollar amount of those fees and exactions as a percentage of the median home price in the city or county. 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.

This measure would declare March 5, 2020, as Family Justice Center Day in California and would recognize the lifesaving and hope-giving work of the California Family Justice Center Network and its member Family Justice Centers as they work with rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, human trafficking agencies, prosecutors' offices, law enforcement agencies, and other professionals and community-based organizations to ensure that adult and child survivors of trauma can access all of their services in one setting.