County of Riverside: separation of county offices: in-custody reports.

Section 24309(c) was simplified: the old version required the board to both (1) move medicolegal death investigation services to the coroner's office and (2) require use of an independent medical examiner model. The enrolled version replaces this with a single requirement to move those services directly to the office of medical examiner, eliminating the separate 'independent medical examiner model' mandate.

Section 24309(d) removed 'coroner' as an authorized signer of death certificates and postmortem examinations. Previously both the coroner or a medical examiner could sign; now only the medical examiner may sign, which is consistent with the bill's requirement to abolish the coroner's office.

New Section 1 adds legislative findings with specific statistics: Riverside accounts for about 10 percent of the state's in-custody deaths despite being only 6 percent of the population; Latinos represent at least 43 percent of those deaths from 2005 to 2024; 45 people died in county jails since January 1, 2021 per a CalMatters investigation; the New York Times called it the second deadliest jail system in the nation for 2020-2023; and nearly $100 million in settlements were paid by taxpayers from 2014 to 2024.

Subdivision (b) was expanded from a single requirement (separate sheriff and coroner offices) to three requirements: (1) separate the offices pursuant to Section 24301, (2) abolish the office of coroner and provide for a medical examiner pursuant to Section 24010, and (3) transfer each employee of the coroner's office including functions, duties, classification, and position to the medical examiner's office.

Subdivision (c) changed from requiring medicolegal death investigation services be moved to the coroner's office with an independent medical examiner model, to simply requiring those services be moved to the office of medical examiner. This eliminates the intermediate step of a coroner holding the services.

Sections were renumbered: the main operative provision moved from Section 1 to Section 2, the special statute finding moved from Section 2 to Section 3, and the state mandates reimbursement provision moved from Section 3 to Section 4.

New subsection (e) requires that employees represented by a recognized employee organization who are transferred, reassigned, reclassified, retitled, or moved to a different office or agency as a result of the sheriff-coroner separation must remain in the same bargaining unit and continue to be represented by their prior exclusive representative.

New subsection (e)(2) requires that transferred employees retain all rights, benefits, retirement status, seniority, compensation, and representation status applicable immediately prior to the transfer.

New subsection (e)(4) prohibits the transfer of functions, duties, classifications, positions, or employees under this section from constituting grounds for creating a new bargaining unit, modifying an existing bargaining unit, or removing an employee from a bargaining unit represented by the affected organization.

New subsection (e)(5) provides that implementation of the section shall not diminish, impair, alter, or affect the rights of a recognized employee organization or any memorandum of understanding in effect on the date the act adding this paragraph is enacted.

New subsection (e)(3) requires that an affected employee holding peace officer status under Penal Code Section 830.35(c) must retain or be placed in a classification qualifying for peace officer status until the expiration of the memorandum of understanding in effect on the date the act adding this paragraph is enacted.

A new definition of 'recognized employee organization' is added, giving it the same meaning as defined in Government Code Section 3501 (the public employees' bargaining statute).

Subsections formerly labeled (e) and (f) are renumbered to (f) and (g) respectively to accommodate the new subsection (e). A blank line appears where the old (e) label was, suggesting a drafting placeholder.

Assembly Member Sharp-Collins is added as a co-author of the bill.

Added a formal definition of 'in-custody death' covering four scenarios: detained or under arrest by the sheriff's office, en route to incarceration, incarcerated at a county jail, and at a medical facility while in sheriff's custody.

Added a requirement that the county publish any Department of Justice in-custody death reporting form submitted to DOJ on its internet website (new subsection (e)(5)).

Added a new subsection (f) requiring the county to notify the next of kin of the cause of death of an in-custody death within 72 hours of the cause of death being determined.

Expanded the serious incident notification list by adding that a person's medical request is ignored and that person is subsequently taken to the hospital, clarifying and broadening the existing item about repeatedly ignored medical requests.

All amendments to Section 8589.75 of the Government Code relating to the Alfred E. Alquist Seismic Safety Commission were removed. The previous version included nonsubstantive changes to provisions governing the commission's reporting, coordination with agencies on seismic safety, and its sunset date of January 1, 2030.

A new Section 2 was added containing legislative findings and declarations that a special statute is necessary for County of Riverside because of significantly higher rates of deaths in County of Riverside jails compared to the rest of the state. This satisfies the constitutional requirement (Article IV, Section 16) for bills that apply to only one county.

The state mandates reimbursement provision was renumbered from Section 2 to Section 3 to accommodate the new findings section. The bill title and digest were updated to remove references to the seismic safety commission.

The fiscal committee vote changed from 'no' to 'yes' and the state-mandated local program designation changed from 'no' to 'yes,' reflecting that the bill now clearly imposes a state-mandated local program requiring reimbursement analysis.

Entirely new Section 24309 added to the Government Code, specifically targeting only the County of Riverside (defined in the statute).

The bill's scope changed from a nonsubstantive amendment to a statewide seismic safety commission statute to a targeted local government reform bill affecting only Riverside County, with the original seismic changes moved to a secondary section.

Riverside County board of supervisors must separate the offices of sheriff and coroner by July 1, 2027.

The county must move medicolegal death investigation services to the coroner's office and require use of an independent medical examiner model.

The county must publish on its website: an initial in-custody death incident report within 24 hours, a preliminary report within 72 hours, a centralized public database with deaths by facility, cause of death, demographic data, and medical response times, and notice of serious incidents including suicide attempts, drug overdoses (including Narcan reversals), severe withdrawal symptoms, medical distress during restraint, and repeatedly ignored medical requests.

Prohibits any person other than the coroner or a medical examiner from signing a death certificate or any portion of a postmortem examination.

Includes a state mandate reimbursement provision requiring the state to reimburse the county for costs mandated by this act, as determined by the Commission on State Mandates.