Existing law establishes the California Conservation Corps in the Natural Resources Agency and requires the corps to implement and administer the conservation corps program. Existing law authorizes the Director of the California Conservation Corps to establish the Education and Employment Reentry Program within the corps to develop, partner with, and create opportunities for certain forestry corps program objectives, collaborate with the Employment Development Department to provide access to workforce services, collaborate with nongovernmental organizations dedicated to providing access to counseling, mentorship, supportive housing, health care, and educational opportunities, and employ collaborations and partnerships available to the corps, as specified. This bill would require the director, upon appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute, in partnership with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, to establish a forestry training center in northern California to provide enhanced training, education, work experience, and job readiness for entry-level forestry and vegetation management jobs. The bill would require the training center to include counseling, mentorship, supportive housing, health care, and educational services and authorize the training center to provide training modules on specified activities. The bill would require the director to enroll at the training center formerly incarcerated individuals and to prioritize enrollment for those formerly incarcerated individuals who have either successfully served on a California Conservation Camp program crew and were recommended by the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, as provided, or successfully served on a hand crew at the county level and were recommended for participation by the county probation and county fire departments. The bill would provide that successful completion of a training program at the training center constitutes qualifying experience for an entry-level forestry or vegetation management position at a state agency. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for northern California.
Sponsored bills
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of contractors by the Contractors State License Board. Under existing law, willful or deliberate disregard by a licensed contractor of various state building, labor, and safety laws constitutes a cause for disciplinary action by the board. Existing law provides for related disciplinary proceedings, requires the board to promulgate regulations covering the assessment of civil penalties under those disciplinary provisions, and authorizes a civil penalty not to exceed $30,000 for specified violations. This bill would provide that the list of violations that constitute cause for a disciplinary action by the board includes a willful or deliberate disregard of any state or local law relating to the issuance of building permits, and would authorize a civil penalty not to exceed $30,000 for any violation included on that above-specified list.
The Mercury Thermostat Collection Act of 2021, as part of the hazardous waste control laws, requires, until January 1, 2030, each manufacturer of mercury-added thermostats, or group of manufacturers, on or before March 1, 2022, to contract with or retain a qualified third party to develop and implement a convenient, cost-effective, and efficient program for the collection, transportation, recycling, and disposal of out-of-service mercury-added thermostats. The act requires, on or before June 1, 2022, the qualified third party, as defined, to provide to the Department of Toxic Substances Control for review and approval the plan to carry out the program. The act requires each manufacturer, or group of manufacturers, on or before March 30, 2022, and on or before March 30 of each year thereafter until March 30, 2028, to pay to the department an aggregate total of $400,000, as provided, which shall not exceed the department's actual and reasonable regulatory costs to administer, implement, and enforce the act. The act subjects the thermostats of a manufacturer that fails to have a plan submitted by the qualified third party approved by the department, or fails to make a payment required pursuant to the act, to a sales ban, as provided. The act requires, with the exception of the foregoing violations, the department to determine whether a manufacturer, or group of manufacturers, has made a good faith effort, as defined, to comply with the act. The act requires manufacturers, on and after July 1, 2022, to provide collection bins to wholesalers that request them for out-of-service mercury-added thermostats. A violation of the hazardous waste control laws is a crime. This bill would impose the sales ban on the thermostats of every manufacturer not in compliance with the act, notwithstanding good faith effort. The bill would require manufacturers to provide, without a request, collection bins to wholesalers for out-of-service mercury-added thermostats. Because this bill would expand the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill also would make other technical and nonsubstantive changes to the act. 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 vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires every electric utility, defined to include electrical corporations, local publicly owned electric utilities, and electrical cooperatives, to develop a standard contract or tariff for net energy metering, as defined, for generation by a renewable electrical generation facility, as defined, and to make this contract or tariff available to eligible customer-generators, as defined, upon request on a first-come-first-served basis until the time that the total rated generating capacity used by eligible customer generators exceeds 5% of the electric utility's aggregate customer peak demand. For a large electrical corporation, as defined, existing law requires the commission to have developed a 2nd standard contract or tariff to provide net energy metering to additional eligible customer-generators in the electrical corporation's service territory and imposes no limitation on the number of new eligible customer-generators entitled to receive service pursuant to this 2nd standard contract or tariff. Existing law requires the commission to ensure that the 2nd standard contract or tariff made available to eligible customer-generators by large electrical corporations ensures that customer-sited renewable distributed generation continues to grow sustainably. Existing law requires the commission, in developing this standard contract or tariff, to include specific alternatives designed for growth among residential customers in disadvantaged communities. Existing law imposes various requirements on public works projects, as defined, including a requirement that, at minimum, all workers employed on a public works project be paid the general prevailing rate of per diem wages for work of a similar character in the locality in which a public work is performed, as specified. This bill would apply those public works project requirements to the construction of any renewable electrical generation facility, and any associated battery storage, after December 31, 2023, that receives service pursuant to the 2nd standard contract or tariff, except (1) a residential facility that will have a maximum generating capacity of 15 kilowatts or less of electricity or that will be installed on a single-family home, (2) a project that is already a public work under existing law, or (3) a facility that serves only a modular home, a modular home community, or multiunit housing that has 2 or fewer stories. The bill would require a contractor who enters into a contract to perform work on the renewable electrical generation facility or associated battery storage to pay each construction worker employed in the execution of the work, at minimum, the general prevailing rate of per diem wages and each apprentice, at minimum, the applicable apprentice prevailing rate, as specified. The bill would authorize specified mechanisms to be used to enforce those wage requirements. The bill would provide that, if a willful violation of the bill's requirements has been enforced against a contractor for the construction of a renewable electrical generation facility using those mechanisms, the facility is not eligible to receive service pursuant to those standard contracts and tariffs. Existing law requires the commission to submit various reports to the Legislature, as specified. This bill would require the commission to annually publish on its internet website and submit to the Legislature a report on the progress made to grow the use of distributed energy resources among residential customers in disadvantaged communities and in low-income households, and an aggregated list of all renewable electrical generation facilities that began to receive service pursuant to a net energy metering contract or tariff during the preceding calendar year, as specified. 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 above-described provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and 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.
Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to license and regulate gamete banks, defined as tissue banks that collect, process, store, or distribute gametes, including facilities that provide professional reproductive services. This bill would, on and after January 1, 2024, require a gamete bank licensed in this state to provide specified information regarding, among other things, the limitations of donor screening and that some donor-conceived persons are or may be interested in contact with the donor whose gametes were used for their conception, to individuals obtaining donor gametes or donor embryos in order to conceive children. The bill would also, on and after January 1, 2024, require gamete banks licensed in this state to inform prospective gamete donors of specified information, including, among other things, the potential of direct-to-consumer genetic testing to reveal the identity of the donor to persons born as a result of using the donor's gametes, even if the donor has chosen not to disclose their identity. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to develop the information and guidance to be provided in consultation with specified stakeholders and to provide that information and guidance on their internet website. The bill would authorize the department to suspend or revoke the license of a gamete bank for a violation of these provisions, as specified.
Existing regulation requires that a state prison provide a prisoner with use of a telephone consistent with their assigned privilege group. Existing law provides that the sheriff of each county may maintain an inmate welfare fund to be kept in the treasury of the county into which, among other funds, any rebates or commissions received from a telephone company attributable to the use of pay telephones that are primarily used by inmates, is required to be deposited. Existing law contains numerous provisions governing the incarceration and detention of juveniles, including the right to maintain and continue frequent contacts with family members through telephone calls for those confined in a facility of the Division of Juvenile Facilities. This bill would require that a state prison, or a state, county, or city youth residential placement or detention center provide voice communication services to incarcerated persons free of charge to the person initiating and the person receiving the communication, subject to the operational discretion of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in a state-operated facility, as specified. The bill would prohibit a county, city, or state agency from receiving revenue for the provision of communication services to persons in its custody. To the extent this bill would mandate that a local government provide a new program or higher level of service, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law requires the commission to require telephone corporations to provide customer service to telecommunication customers that includes, but is not limited to, reasonable statewide service quality standards. This bill would require the commission to establish service quality standards for incarcerated persons calling services, as defined, to be adhered to by communication service providers rendering services to state or local correctional or detention facilities. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because a violation of a commission action implementing this 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons. 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, the Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, grants agricultural employees the right to form and join labor organizations and engage in collective bargaining with respect to wages, terms of employment, and other employment conditions, and authorizes employees to elect exclusive bargaining representatives for these purposes. Existing law creates the Agricultural Labor Relations Board and prescribes its composition, duties, and powers. Existing law authorizes the board to hold hearings and conduct investigations and requires that certain procedures be the exclusive method of redressing unfair labor practices. Under existing law, any person who willfully resists, prevents, or interferes with a member of the board or its agents or agencies in the performance of their duties is guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law requires the board to certify the results of an election conducted by secret ballot of employees in a collective bargaining unit to designate a collective bargaining representative, unless the board determines there are sufficient grounds to refuse to do so. Existing law further provides that if the board refuses to certify an election because of employer misconduct that would render slight the chances of a new election reflecting the free and fair choice of employees, the labor organization shall be certified as the bargaining representative for the bargaining unit. This bill would refer to the election by secret ballot process as a polling place election. The bill would establish alternative procedures to the polling place election and authorize a labor organization to be certified as the exclusive bargaining representative of a bargaining unit through either a labor peace election or a non-labor peace election, as prescribed, dependent on whether an employer enrolls and agrees to a labor peace election for labor organization representation campaigns. The bill would provide that a labor peace election or a non-labor peace election permits a bargaining unit to summarily select a labor organization as its representative for collective bargaining purposes without using the existing polling place process. Under the bill, a labor peace election would be a mail ballot election and a non-labor peace election would establish a process for the submission of a petition with proof of majority support, subject to certification by the board. Among other provisions, the bill would require for both alternative procedures that an employer respond to the board with regard to a petition, including providing a specified list of employees to the board. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would establish a schedule for agricultural employers to indicate to the board whether they agree to a labor peace compact, defined to mean an agreement by the employer to, among other things, make no statements for or against union representation to its employees or publicly, in any written or oral form, at any time during employee hire, rehire, or orientation, or after certain documents regarding organization are filed with the board. The bill would prohibit a labor peace compact from prohibiting an employer from communicating truthful statements to employees regarding workplace policies or benefits, as specified. The bill would require the board to develop an online web-based labor peace election process that will allow employers to indicate their labor peace choice online, and that will allow labor organizations to see whether a specific agricultural employer has agreed to a labor peace election campaign. This bill would repeal the above provisions on January 1, 2028. This bill would prescribe civil penalties to be imposed upon an agricultural employer who commits an unfair labor practice in an amount not to exceed $10,000 for each violation, and would increase that sum to an amount not to exceed $25,000 for specified violations. The bill would require the board to consider specified factors in determining the amount of a civil penalty pursuant to these provisions. The bill would also authorize the board to impose personal liability for these penalties upon a director or officer of an employer in certain circumstances. Existing law authorizes a person aggrieved by the final order of the board granting or denying in whole or in part the relief sought for an unfair labor practice, to obtain a review of the order in a specified court of appeal by filing in the court a written petition requesting that the order of the board be modified or set aside. This bill would require an employer who appeals or petitions for a writ of review of any order of the board involving make-whole, backpay, or other monetary awards to employees, to post an appeal bond in the amount of the entire economic value of the order, as specified, and would provide for the bond to be forfeited under specified conditions. This bill would state that its provisions are severable. 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 an owner or operator of a motor vehicle, or an owner of a vehicle used to transport passengers for hire not regulated by the Public Utilities Commission, to maintain liability insurance coverage for the named insured and any other person using the vehicle with permission in the amount of $15,000 for the bodily injury or death of any one person, $30,000 for the bodily injury or death of all persons, and $5,000 for damage to the property of others resulting from any one accident. Existing law defines "proof of financial responsibility" for purposes of the provisions requiring an owner or operator of a motor vehicle to maintain proof of financial responsibility in these amounts, as specified, or to deposit $35,000 with the Department of Motor Vehicles. Under existing law, a violation of the Vehicle Code is a crime. This bill would, commencing on January 1, 2025, increase the amount of liability insurance coverage an owner or operator of a motor vehicle, and an owner of a vehicle used to transport passengers for hire not regulated by the Public Utilities Commission, is required to maintain to $30,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $60,000 for bodily injury or death of all persons, and $15,000 for damage to the property of others as a result of any one accident. The bill would also increase the deposit to $75,000. The bill would, by February 1, 2023, require the Insurance Commissioner to distribute a bulletin to solicit rate applications. The bill would require the rate applications due by July 1, 2023, and a rate change would be effective on or after January 1, 2025. The bill, on January 1, 2035, would increase the minimum amounts of required liability insurance coverage by $20,000 and $40,000 for bodily injury or death of one person and all persons, respectively, and by $10,000 for property damage, and increase the minimum cash deposit by $50,000. The bill would, by July 1, 2033, require the commissioner to distribute a bulletin to solicit rate applications to effectuate the January 1, 2035 increases. Because the bill would expand the application of an existing crime, it 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. This bill would become operative only if SB 1155 of the 2021–22 Regular Session is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2023.
Existing law establishes the Board of State and Community Corrections, which, among other things, is responsible for providing statewide leadership, coordination, and technical assistance to promote effective state and local efforts and partnerships in California's adult and juvenile criminal justice system. Existing law provides for the confinement of persons in county jails sentenced to imprisonment therein. Existing law authorizes a sheriff or other official in charge of a county correctional facility to provide for the vocational training and rehabilitation of inmates, as specified. This bill would require the sheriff in each county to compile and submit specified data to the Board of State and Community Corrections on their educational opportunities, rehabilitative opportunities, exercise opportunities, the number of participants and the cost of administering those programs, and success rates in reducing recidivism, as defined. The bill would require the board to compile a report based upon those findings and submit the report to the Legislature by a specified date. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2027 and would repeal it as of January 1, 2028. By imposing new duties on local entities, 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, 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.
(1) Existing property tax law, in accordance with the California Constitution, provides for a "welfare exemption" for property used exclusively for religious, hospital, scientific, or charitable purposes and that is owned or operated by certain types of nonprofit entities, if certain qualifying criteria are met. Under existing property tax law, property that meets these requirements that is used exclusively for rental housing and related facilities is entitled to a partial exemption, equal to that percentage of the value of the property that is equal to the percentage that the number of units serving lower income households represents of the total number of residential units, in any year that any of certain criteria apply, including that the property be subject to a legal restriction that provides that units designated for use by lower income households are continuously available to or occupied by lower income households, at rents not exceeding specified limits. For the 2018–19 fiscal year through the 2027–28 fiscal year, in the case of an owner of property receiving a low-income housing tax credit under specified federal law, existing property tax law requires that a unit continue to be treated as occupied by a lower income household for these purposes if the occupants were lower income households on the lien date in the fiscal year in which their occupancy of the unit commenced and the unit continues to be rent restricted, notwithstanding an increase in the income of the occupants of the unit to 140% of area median income, adjusted for family size. This bill, for the 2022–23 fiscal year through the 2027–28 fiscal year, would require that a unit continue to be treated as occupied by a lower income household, as described above, if the owner is a community land trust whose land is leased to low-income households, subject to a contract that complies with specified requirements. This bill would require a claim for a welfare exemption pursuant to this requirement to be accompanied by an affidavit containing specified information regarding the units for which the exemption is claimed and would provide that the affidavit is not subject to public disclosure. (2) Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure in the Sales and Use Tax Law, Personal Income Tax Law, or Corporation Tax Law to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This property tax bill would include the additional information that is required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure in the Sales and Use Tax Law, Personal Income Tax Law, or Corporation Tax Law. (3) The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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. (4) By adding to the duties of local tax officials, and expanding the crime of perjury by requiring an affidavit, 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 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. (5) Existing law requires the state to reimburse local agencies annually for certain property tax revenues lost as a result of any exemption or classification of property for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding those provisions, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. (6) This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.