Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and sets forth its powers and duties regarding the administration of correctional facilities and the care and custody of inmates and wards. Existing law requires the department to establish a statewide policy on operational procedures for the handling of threats made by inmates or wards, and threats made by family members of inmates or wards, against department staff that includes methods to ensure that department staff members are advised of those threats, as specified, and requires those threats to be thoroughly investigated. This bill would require the department to make a report regarding assaults, as defined, against employees, quarterly to all bargaining units at the department, and annually to the Legislature and the chairs of the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review and the Assembly Committee on Budget. The bill would require the reports to appropriately protect the confidentiality of patients, inmates, and employees and to include certain information, including the date of the assault and the name of the facility where the incident occurred.
Existing law establishes the Agricultural Biomass Utilization Account in the Department of Food and Agricultural Fund, which is administered by the Department of Food and Agriculture, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board and the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, for purposes of providing grants to persons that use agricultural biomass as a means for avoiding landfill use, preventing air pollution, and enhancing environmental quality. This bill would require the Department of Conservation, on or before December 1, 2025, to establish and administer the Biomass Technology Transition Program to support the conversion of biomass generation facilities using traditional combustion technologies to newer advanced bioenergy technology facilities, as defined. The bill would require the Department of Conservation, on or before December 1, 2025, to identify generation facilities with a generation capacity of 10 megawatts or greater that use, or are in the process of recommissioning or redeveloping those facilities to use, forest biomass waste or agricultural biomass waste, as defined, and the operators of those facilities have demonstrated to the Department of Conservation their intent to convert the facilities to advanced bioenergy technology facilities. The bill would require the Department of Conservation to request the relevant local air pollution control district or air quality management district to provide information for each identified generation facility about best available control technologies, and other potential advanced emission control technologies applicable to the district, that would be required if the generation facility requests a permit, as provided. The bill would require the Department of Conservation, on or before January 1, 2030, to establish a grant program to support the conversion of the generation facilities identified pursuant to the above-described provisions to advanced bioenergy technology facilities and would require an operator of a generation facility, in order to receive a grant, to develop and submit to the Department of Conservation business plans meeting specified guidelines. The bill would prohibit actions taken by the Department of Conservation and by operators of generation facilities pursuant to the above-described provisions from being funded by ratepayers.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, in collaboration with certain electrical corporations and gas corporations, to develop and administer the School Reopening Ventilation and Energy Efficiency Verification and Repair Program to award grants to local educational agencies to reopen schools with functional ventilation systems that are tested, adjusted, and, if necessary or cost effective, repaired, upgraded, or replaced to increase efficiency and performance. Existing law requires the commission to ensure that moneys from each electrical or gas corporation for the program are used for projects located in the service territory of the electrical or gas corporation from which the moneys are received, as specified. Existing law repeals these provisions on January 1, 2027. This bill would require the commission, on or before January 1, 2026, to submit a report to the Legislature regarding the impacts and effects of inefficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems at schools serving pupils in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, as provided.
The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (act) designates the State Water Resources Control Board and the California regional water quality control boards as the principal state agencies with authority over matters relating to water quality. The act requires the state board and the regional boards to, among other things, coordinate their respective activities to achieve a unified and effective water quality control program in the state. Under existing law, the state board and the 9 California regional water quality control boards regulate water quality and prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the federal National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program established by the federal Clean Water Act and the act. This bill would require the regional water board, defined to mean the regional water board with geographic boundaries for the San Francisco Bay region, to, by July 1, 2025, initiate modifications to its waste discharge requirements, as specified. The bill would require these modifications to be completed within 6 months of initiation. Before finalizing the modifications, the bill would require the regional water board to make specified findings, including, among other things, that concerns regarding the potential impacts of the draft NPDES permit requirements on the development of housing on infill sites have been adequately addressed. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2028, and would repeal them on January 1, 2029. This bill would require, before modification, reissuance, or issuance of NPDES permits for stormwater discharges, the regional water board to consult with, and fully consider input from, the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission on any draft NPDES permit provision for a new development and redevelopment that may impact infill housing or implementation of infill proposals established in the sustainable communities strategy for the San Francisco Bay area. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the San Francisco Bay area.
Existing law vests the Department of Transportation with full possession and control of all state highways. Existing law authorizes the department to do any act necessary, convenient, or proper for the construction, improvement, maintenance, or use of all highways that are under its jurisdiction, possession, or control. This bill would establish the Memorial Highway Signage Fund in the State Treasury and would make moneys in the fund available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for the department's costs in erecting signage for memorial highway designations previously approved by the Legislature that memorialize individuals who have promoted racial and gender equity.
Existing law makes it a crime to, among other things, possess any matter, representation of information, data, or image, including, but not limited to, any film, filmstrip, photograph, negative, slide, photocopy, videotape, video laser disc, computer hardware, computer software, computer floppy disc, data storage media, CD-ROM, or computer-generated equipment or any other computer-generated image that contains or incorporates in any manner, any film or filmstrip, the production of which involves the use of a person under 18 years of age, knowing that the matter depicts a person under 18 years of age personally engaging in or simulating sexual conduct. This bill would, for the purposes of those provisions, include an image generated through the use of artificial intelligence, as defined, as a computer-generated image. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law imposes specified duties on the Department of Justice relating to the collection and analysis of criminal statistical data, including, among other things, a requirement to make information relating to criminal justice statistics available to the public through the department's OpenJustice internet portal. This bill would require the Department of Justice to include in its collection and analysis of criminal statistical data violations based on materials generated through the use of artificial intelligence. 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 Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009 provides, among other things, for student protections and regulatory oversight of private postsecondary institutions in the state. The act is enforced by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education within the Department of Consumer Affairs. The act authorizes an independent institution of higher education that is exempt from the act based on accreditation, as specified, to execute a contract with the bureau for the bureau to review and, as appropriate, act on complaints concerning the institution, and requires the executed contract to, among other things, require the institution to cooperate with the bureau to resolve complaints received. The act is repealed on January 1, 2027. This bill would also authorize a law school that is exempt from the act because it is accredited by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association, or a law school or law study program that is exempt from the act because it is subject to the approval, regulation, and oversight of the Committee of Bar Examiners, to execute a contract with the bureau as described above, to be operative until no later than December 31, 2029, if certain requirements are met.
Existing law establishes the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, who serves as the director of the State Department of Education and has numerous other duties. Existing law requires the Superintendent to develop specified information, and to submit that information to the State Board of Education for its approval, for distribution to school districts and, to the extent feasible, for posting on the department's internet website, to strengthen and promote the opportunity for quality involvement by parents and guardians in schoolsite councils, as specified. This bill would require the department, on or before January 31, 2025, to publicly post on its internet website the membership of all advisory councils, committees, workgroups, and other similar bodies established by the Superintendent, including, but not limited to, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction's Parent Advisory Council, as specified, and to update the membership list on its internet website within 30 days of a membership change. Existing law, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, requires, with specified exceptions, that all meetings of a state body be open and public and all persons be permitted to attend any meeting of a state body. This bill would require meetings of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction's Parent Advisory Council to be conducted pursuant to that act.
Existing law provides that the Office of Planning and Research serves the Governor and the Governor's Cabinet as staff for long-range planning and research, and constitute the comprehensive state planning agency. In that capacity, existing law requires the office to, among other things, assist local governments in land use planning. Existing law, the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, establishes the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to administer an integrated waste management program. Existing law establishes a goal that statewide landfill disposal of organic waste be reduced from the 2014 level by 75% by 2025. This bill, on or before June 1, 2026, would require the Office of Planning and Research, in consultation with the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, to develop and post on the office's internet website, a technical advisory, as provided, reflecting best practices to facilitate the siting of composting facilities to meet the organic waste reduction goals. The bill would require the office to consult with specified entities throughout the development of the technical advisory. The Planning and Zoning Law requires each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for its physical development, and the development of certain lands outside its boundaries, that includes, among other mandatory elements, a land use element that designates the proposed general distribution and general location and extent of the uses of the land for housing, business, solid and liquid waste disposal facilities, and other categories of public and private uses of land, as prescribed. This bill, upon a substantive revision of the land use element, as specified, on or after January 1, 2028, would require a city, county, or city and county to consider, among other things, the best practices reflected in the technical advisory and to consider updating the land use element to identify areas where composting facilities may be appropriate as an allowable use. By increasing duties on a city, county, or city and county, 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.
(1) Existing law allows a defendant to be released under their own recognizance pending trial if a defendant files with the clerk of the court, or other person authorized to accept bail, a signed release agreement that includes various stipulations by the defendant. The bill would, for a defendant released from custody under a court's order for pretrial supervision, prohibit a defendant from being charged a fee for pretrial supervision, maintain information obtained in pretrial supervision services apart from law enforcement and criminal justice records, and make confidential information in the course of performing pretrial supervision subject to specified exceptions, including that the court may order the disclosure of information if the information is material, exonerating on the issue of guilt, and would not otherwise be available. The bill would authorize the disclosure of information to specified entities, including to the court to determine bail, release, and conditions of release, detention, compliance with release conditions, or sentencing, and to a law enforcement agency upon a reasonable belief that the information is necessary to assist in apprehending an individual. The bill would prohibit the admissibility of this information on the issue of guilt in a criminal proceeding except when the crime was committed while on pretrial supervision or a defendant failed to appear in a criminal proceeding while on pretrial supervision, or if that information is relevant evidence that is admissible under specified standards in the California Constitution. (2) Existing law allows a court to employ an investigative staff to make a recommendation on whether a defendant should be released on their own recognizance pending trial. Existing law requires an investigative report be prepared in all cases involving specified felonies with a recommendation on whether a defendant should be released on their own recognizance. Existing law requires the report to be submitted to the court prior to a specified hearing. The bill would authorize an investigative report for every investigation by a court-employed investigative staff or a county pretrial agency staff from specified counties. If a report is issued, the bill would require the staff only to include information relevant to the release of a defendant and would prohibit the staff from soliciting from a defendant information regarding the circumstances of the alleged offense and information likely to reveal circumstances of any potential offenses. The bill would require the report to be kept confidential, as specified. (3) Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain state summary criminal history information, as defined, and to furnish this information to various state and local government officers, officials, and agencies, a public utility, or any other entity, if needed in the course of their duties, including the courts, district attorneys, and probation and parole officers. Existing law allows the department to furnish federal-level criminal history information upon a showing, as specified, to various state and local government officers, officials, and agencies, a public utility, and any other entity. Under existing law, the disclosure of state summary criminal history information to an unauthorized person is a crime. The bill would also require the Attorney General to furnish state summary criminal history information to county staff performing pretrial investigation and release services, as specified, and if needed in the course of their duties, and allow the Attorney General to furnish federal-level criminal history information to a treatment or services provider, community health worker, or case manager, as specified, with the consent of the subject of the state summary criminal history and for purposes of furthering the subject's treatment needs and ability to comply with pretrial release or diversion. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (4) Existing law requires a local criminal justice agency to furnish local summary criminal history information, as defined, to various state and local government officers, officials, and agencies, a public utility, or any entity, when the information is needed in the course of their duties. Under existing law, the disclosure of local summary criminal history information to an unauthorized person is a crime. The bill would also require a local criminal justice agency to furnish local summary criminal history information to a county staff performing pretrial investigation and release services, as defined, and would allow a local criminal justice agency to furnish local summary criminal history information to a treatment or services provider, community health worker, or case manager, as specified, with the consent of the subject of the local summary criminal history and for purposes of furthering the subject's compliance with pretrial release or diversion. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) Existing law defines "criminal justice agencies" as agencies that perform activities that relate to the apprehension, prosecution, adjudication, incarceration, or correction of criminal offenders. Under existing law, a criminal justice agency, among other things, compiles records and data for the purpose of identifying criminal offenders and maintaining specified information pertaining to each offender, including a summary of arrests and pretrial proceedings. The bill would include pretrial investigation and release within the definition of an activity of a criminal justice agency. By imposing a new duty on local government, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. (6) 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. (7) 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law authorizes state agencies to enter into contracts for the acquisition of goods or services upon approval by the Department of General Services. Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board (board) to develop a comprehensive strategy for the state's cement sector to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases associated with cement used within the state, as specified. Existing law also requires the board to develop a framework for measuring the average carbon intensity of the materials used in the construction of new buildings and a comprehensive strategy for the state's building sector to achieve a 40% net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of building materials, as specified. Existing law, the California Climate Crisis Act, sets forth the policy of the state, including, among other things, to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions, as soon as possible, but no later than 2045, and to achieve and maintain net negative greenhouse gas emissions thereafter. This bill would authorize a state agency to enter into forward contracts to purchase low-carbon cement or concrete products up to 10 years in advance to facilitate the commercialization of concrete, cement, and supplementary cementitious materials and in furtherance of the policy, comprehensive strategy, or framework relating to greenhouse gas emissions, as described above. The bill would make a related statement of legislative findings and declarations.
Existing law sets forth various programs relating to opioid overdose prevention and treatment, including, among others, standing orders for the distribution of an opioid antagonist, a naloxone grant program, and a grant program to reduce fentanyl overdoses and use throughout the state. Existing law prohibits a person from possessing for sale or purchasing for purposes of sale, specified controlled substances, including fentanyl. This bill would enact the Fighting Fentanyl Bond Act of 2024, which, if adopted, would authorize the issuance, pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law, of bonds in the amount of $____, for purposes of financing, among other things, substance use treatment, harm reduction programs, supportive services for students, programs targeting drug trafficking, substance use treatment programs in prisons and juvenile facilities, and recovery housing and transitional housing for previously incarcerated individuals, as specified. The bill would provide for submission of the bond act to the voters at the November 5, 2024, statewide general election in accordance with specified law. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
