Existing law prohibits an entity from diverting or obstructing the natural flow of, or substantially changing or using any material from the bed, channel, or banks of, a river, stream, or lake, or depositing or disposing of debris, waste, or other material containing crumbled, flaked, or ground pavement where it may pass into a river, stream, or lake, unless the Department of Fish and Wildlife receives written notification regarding the activity and the department either determines that the activity will not substantially adversely affect an existing fish and wildlife resource or, if the department determines that the activity may substantially adversely affect an existing fish and wildlife resource, the department issues a final agreement to the entity that includes reasonable measures necessary to protect the affected resource. This bill would, if the department determines that the Anderson Dam project, as defined, will substantially adversely affect existing fish and wildlife resources and the Santa Clara Valley Water District completes certain actions for the project, require the department within 180 days of receipt of a notification, as defined, from the district to issue a final agreement with the district that includes reasonable measures necessary to protect the affected resource, unless the department and the district agree to an extension. 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 (EIR) 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 administrative procedures for the review and certification of the EIR for a project and judicial review procedures for any action or proceeding brought to challenge the lead agency's decision to certify the EIR or to grant project approvals. This bill would establish specified procedures for the administrative and judicial review of the environmental review and approvals granted for the Anderson Dam project, as defined. The bill would apply certain rules of court establishing procedures requiring actions or proceedings seeking judicial review pursuant to CEQA or the granting of project approvals, including any appeals to the court of appeal or the Supreme Court, to be resolved, to the extent feasible, within 270 business 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 the Anderson Dam project under CEQA. The bill would require the Santa Clara Valley Water District, in implementing the project, to comply with certain requirements. This bill would establish a schedule for the issuance of a draft EIR and the certification of the final EIR for the implementation of measures set forth in a specific settlement agreement to benefit fisheries in the Stevens Creek and the Guadalupe River watersheds, as provided. Existing law designates the State Water Resources Control Board as that state water pollution control agency for purposes of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and authorizes the state board to issue a certificate or statement under the federal act that there is reasonable assurance that an activity of a person subject to the jurisdiction of the state board will not reduce water quality below applicable standards. This bill would prescribe procedures by which the state board is to issue the certification for the Anderson Dam project. This bill would authorize state agencies with permitting authority over the Anderson Dam project to take certain actions to expedite the permitting process for the project, including entering into an agreement for the recovery of certain costs. This bill would require the Santa Clara Valley Water District to develop, in consultation with the adaptive management team, as described, the Adaptive Management Program, as described. The bill would require the district, in conjunction with the state board and others, to implement a new flow regime, known as FAHCE+, for the Guadalupe River and Stevens Creek by October 15, 2020. The bill would require the district, by January 1, 2021, to engage and discuss with the Guadalupe River Corridor Restoration Management Team the development of a Guadalupe River Corridor restoration management plan, as provided. Existing law authorizes certain local entities to select a bidder for a contract on the basis of "best value," as defined. Existing law governs various types of contract procedures applicable to the Santa Clara Valley Water District and prescribes competitive bidding procedures for any improvement or unit of work over $50,000. This bill would authorize the district, upon approval by the board of directors of the district, to award contracts on a best value basis for any work of construction to retrofit, repair, or replace the Leroy Anderson Dam and Reservoir, owned by the district and located in the County of Santa Clara. The bill would require the district, if the board elects to award contracts on a best value basis, to comply with specified requirements governing the documents prepared setting forth the scope and estimated price of the project and the request for qualifications. The bill would prohibit a best value contractor from being prequalified, shortlisted, or awarded a contract unless the contractor provides an enforceable commitment to the district that the contractor and its subcontractors at every tier will use a skilled and trained workforce to perform all work on the project, in accordance with certain criteria. By requiring certain information of bidders to be certified under penalty of perjury, the bill would expand an existing crime, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Santa Clara Valley Water District. 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 declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Sponsored bills
(1) Existing federal law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , enacts various health care market reforms. 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 provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a group or individual health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on or after September 23, 2010, to comply with the requirements of the PPACA, and any rules or regulations issued under the PPACA, that require a group health plan and health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage to, at a minimum, provide coverage for specified preventive services, and prohibits the plan or health insurance issuer from imposing any cost-sharing requirements for those preventive services. Existing law also prohibits a plan or health insurer offering group or individual coverage from imposing lifetime or annual limits on the dollar value of benefits for a participant, beneficiary, or insured. Existing law requires a plan and a health insurance issuer to comply with those provisions to the extent required by federal law. This bill would delete the requirement that a health care service plan or a health insurer comply with the requirement to cover preventive health services without cost sharing to the extent required by federal law, and would instead require a group or individual nongrandfathered health care service plan contract or health insurance policy to, at a minimum, provide coverage for specified preventive services without any cost-sharing requirements for those preventive services, thereby indefinitely extending those requirements. The bill would also delete the requirement that a health care service plan or a health insurer comply with the prohibition on lifetime or annual limits to the extent required by federal law, and would instead prohibit an individual or group health care service plan contract or health insurance policy from establishing lifetime or annual limits on the dollar value of any covered benefits for an enrollee or insured, whether provided in network or out of network, thereby indefinitely extending the prohibitions on lifetime or annual limits, except as specified. Because a willful violation of these provisions by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law authorizes the State Registrar, a local registrar, or a county recorder to furnish a certified copy of a birth, death, marriage, or military service record to an authorized person, as defined, who submits a written, faxed, or digitized image request accompanied by a notarized statement sworn under penalty of perjury that the applicant is an authorized person. Existing law, until January 1, 2021, authorizes the official to accept an electronic request and an electronic acknowledgment if the request for a certified copy of a birth, death, or marriage record is made electronically and the electronic acknowledgment verifies the identity of the applicant using a multilayered remote identity proofing process. This bill would extend the above-described authorization for an electronic request and an electronic acknowledgment to January 1, 2022. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to license and regulate facilities that provide residential nonmedical services to adults who are recovering from problems related to alcohol, drug, or alcohol and drug misuse or abuse, and who need alcohol, drug, or alcohol and drug recovery treatment or detoxification services. Existing law also requires the department to implement a voluntary certification procedure for alcohol and other drug treatment recovery services. Existing law requires all programs certified and licensed by the department to disclose, among other things, ownership or control of, or financial interest in, a recovery residence, as defined. Existing law requires the department to conduct a site visit to investigate an allegation of an operating unlicensed alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facility and issue a notice to cease providing services under specified conditions. The bill would require the department to take action against an unlicensed facility that is disclosed as a recovery residence pursuant to these disclosure requirements. The bill would authorize the department to refer a substantiated complaint against a recovery residence to other enforcement entities as appropriate under state or federal law. The bill would make a technical change to refer to licensed facilities in these requirements. (4) Existing law, the California Organic Products Act of 2003, requires the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, county agricultural commissioners, and the Director of the State Department of Public Health to enforce state and federal laws governing the production, labeling, and marketing of organic products, as specified. Under existing law, all persons who handle or sell at retail organic products must keep accurate records that include specified information, which includes, if applicable, the registration numbers issued pursuant to state law, of all suppliers and other persons who sell, purchase, or otherwise transfer organic products, subject to specified exceptions. This bill would rename the act as the California Organic Food and Farming Act. The bill would remove the requirement that the registration numbers issued pursuant to state law be included in the required records. (5) Existing law establishes the Health Care Benefits Fund to support the University of California's implementation of the California Health Benefit Review Program. Existing law imposes an annual charge on health care service plans and health insurers, as specified, to be deposited into the fund. Under existing law, the fund and the program became inoperative on July 1, 2020, and are repealed as of January 1, 2021. This bill would extend the operation of the program and the fund, and would authorize the continued assessment of the annual charge on health care service plans and health insurers for that purpose. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2022, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2023. (6) Existing federal law establishes the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) , which provides specified services for older individuals at a PACE center so that they may continue living in the community. Federal law authorizes states to implement PACE as a Medicaid state option. Existing state law establishes the California Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE program) to provide community-based, risk-based, and capitated long-term care services as optional services under the state's Medi-Cal State Plan. Existing law generally requires an adult day health care center or home health agency to be licensed by the State Department of Public Health, which is required to obtain a criminal record clearance for specified individuals that own or are employed by the adult day health care center or home health agency. Under existing law, an adult day health care center or a home health agency that has been approved by the State Department of Health Care Services to exclusively serve PACE participants is exempt from licensure by the State Department of Public Health. This bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to obtain a criminal record clearance for the administrator, program director, and fiscal officer of an adult day health care center before approving the center to exclusively serve PACE participants or individuals being assessed for the PACE program. To qualify for approval as a home health agency that exclusively serves PACE participants or individuals being assessed for the PACE program, the bill would require an owner or administrator of a home health agency to submit electronic fingerprint images to the Department of Justice for the furnishing of the person's criminal record to the State Department of Health Care Services. (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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. (8) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires an employer to provide an employee, at the time of hiring, a written notice including specified information in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to the employee. Existing law requires the Labor Commissioner to prepare a template that includes the specified information mentioned above and to make the template available to employers in the manner as determined by the commissioner. This bill would require an employer to include in their written notice to all employees, specified information required in the event of a federal or state declared disaster or applicable to the county or counties in which the employee will be employed. The bill would prohibit an employer from retaliating against an employee for raising questions about the declarations' requirements or recommendations. This bill would additionally require an employer to provide an H-2A employee, as described, on the day the employee begins work in the state, or begins work for another employer after being transferred, a written notice in Spanish and, if requested by the employee, in English, containing specified information relative to an H-2A employee's rights pursuant to federal and state law. The bill would also require the commissioner to create a template, as specified, by either creating a new template or combining these requirements with an existing notification template for purposes of carrying out this requirement, including a separate section of the template listing key legal rights of H-2A workers under California Law, and to make the template available to employers in the manner as determined by the commissioner by January 2, 2021. The bill would also make conforming changes. Existing law requires an employer to provide, among other things, compensation for travel time from an employee housing facility to the worksite, bathroom access, meal and rest break areas to its employees, and to provide protections for those employees from high heat, pesticide exposure, and other safety measures. This bill would require an employer to provide its employees with specified night work equipment and specified worksite layout information. This bill would also exempt employers from providing compensation for travel between housing facilities and the worksite if the employers are covered by a collective bargaining agreement that meets specified criteria.
Existing law provides that the Labor Commissioner may, upon request, represent a claimant who is financially unable to represent themselves in a hearing where an employer is appealing an order of the commissioner. Existing law also provides that if the claimant is attempting to uphold the amount awarded by the commissioner and is not objecting to any part of the final order, the commissioner is required to represent the claimant. This bill would extend the authority of the commissioner to also represent a claimant who is financially unable to represent themselves in a hearing where a court order has compelled arbitration to determine the claim and the commissioner has determined that the claim has merit. The bill would also require that a petition to compel arbitration pursuant to specified statutes be served on the Labor Commissioner.
The California Endangered Species Act prohibits the taking of an endangered or threatened species, except as specified. The act permits the Department of Fish and Wildlife to authorize, by permit, the take of listed species if the take is incidental to an otherwise lawful activity and the impacts are minimized and fully mitigated. This bill would permit the department to authorize under the act, by permit, the take of the Santa Cruz long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum) resulting from impacts attributable to the construction along the State Route 156 corridor through Moro Cojo Slough in the County of Monterey for the purpose of enhancing safety and access, if certain conditions are satisfied. The bill would also provide that those conditions are subject to amendment if required by a certain monitoring program and adaptive management process. The bill would also make a related change.
Existing law, until January 1, 2021, establishes the California Sea Otter Fund and allows individuals to designate on their personal income tax returns that a specified amount in excess of their tax liability be transferred to the fund. Existing law requires money in that fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be allocated to the Department of Fish and Wildlife for the purposes of establishing a sea otter fund to be used for sea otter conservation, and to the State Coastal Conservancy for competitive grants and contracts for research, projects, and programs related to the Federal Sea Otter Recovery Plan or improving the nearshore ocean ecosystem. Existing law requires any new or extended voluntary tax contribution to include the words "voluntary tax contribution" in the name of the fund, to require the administrative agency to include specified information about the fund on its internet website, and to continuously appropriate voluntary tax contributions made to the fund to the administrative agency. Existing law requires the minimum contribution amount to a new or extended voluntary tax contribution fund for the second calendar year after the first appearance of the fund on the tax refund form, and each calendar year thereafter, to be $250,000. This bill would extend the operation of the above-described provisions relating to the California Sea Otter Fund to January 1, 2028, or until an earlier date if the Franchise Tax Board determines that the amount of contributions estimated to be received during a calendar year will not equal or exceed $250,000. The bill would conform with those aforementioned requirements on new or extended voluntary tax contributions by making the money in the fund continuously appropriated, by renaming the fund the California Sea Otter Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund, and by requiring the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the State Coastal Conservancy to report on their internet websites information regarding the process for awarding money, the amount spent on administration, and an itemization of how program funds were awarded.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law contains various provisions relative to the responsibilities of a gas or electrical corporation and master-meter customer when gas or electrical service is provided by a master-meter customer to users who are tenants of a mobilehome park, apartment building, or similar residential complex, including a requirement that the master-meter customer charge each user at the same rate that would be applicable if the user were receiving gas or electricity directly from the gas corporation or electric corporation. This bill would replace "electrical corporation" with "load-serving entity," defined as including electrical corporations, community choice aggregators, and electric service providers, in many of these provisions relative to the responsibilities of an electrical corporation and master-meter customer when electrical service is provided by a master-meter customer to users who are tenants of a mobilehome park, apartment building, or similar residential complex. Existing law requires master-meter customers that receive a rebate for electrical or gas service to distribute the rebate to, or credit the rebate to the account of, current users served by the master-meter customer, as specified. The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The state board is authorized to include market-based compliance mechanisms to comply with the regulations. The implementing regulations adopted by the state board provide for the direct allocation of greenhouse gas allowances to electric utilities, including electrical corporations, pursuant to a market-based compliance mechanism. With respect to greenhouse gas allowances directly allocated to electrical corporations, existing law authorizes the commission to allocate 15% of the revenues generated by the sale of the allowances for clean energy and energy efficiency projects established pursuant to statute that are administered by electrical corporations and requires the commission to direct that the balance of the revenues be credited directly to the residential, small business, and emissions-intensive trade-exposed retail customers of the electrical corporations, as specified. This bill would expressly provide that the above-described requirement for the distribution of rebates received by master-meter customers includes the credits received by those customers from revenues generated by the sale of the direct allocation of greenhouse gas allowances to an electrical corporation.
Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health within the California Health and Human Services Agency. This bill would authorize the State Department of Public Health to establish the Office of Suicide Prevention within the department, would require the office to perform specified duties, including providing information and technical assistance to statewide and regional partners regarding best practices on suicide prevention policies and programs and reporting on progress to reduce rates of suicide, and authorize the office to apply for and use federal, state, and foundation grants. The bill would require the office to consult with the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to implement suicide prevention efforts. The bill would require that the duties and responsibilities of the office be accomplished with existing staff and resources. The bill would make these provisions operative subject to an appropriation for these purposes in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
Existing law, the Public Employees' Retirement Law (PERL) , establishes the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) , which provides a defined benefit to members of the system based on final compensation, credited service, and age at retirement, subject to certain variations. PERL authorizes any public agency to make its employees members of PERS by contract. Under existing law, when a contracting agency is succeeded by another agency, the successor agency may become a contracting agency of PERS. Existing law provides that if the successor agency contracts with PERS, the contract of the former agency shall merge with the contract of the succeeding agency. This bill would authorize a successor agency for the Central Fire Protection District and the Aptos/La Selva Fire Protection District to provide employees the defined benefit plan or formula that those employees received from their respective employer prior to the consolidation. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Santa Cruz.
The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities Commission and authorizes the commission to exercise ratemaking and rulemaking authority over all public utilities, as defined, subject to control by the Legislature. The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to supervise and regulate every public utility, including electrical corporations, and to do all things that are necessary and convenient in the exercise of that power and jurisdiction. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law authorizes the commission, in a proceeding on an application by an electrical corporation to recover costs and expenses arising from a catastrophic wildfire occurring on or after January 1, 2019, to allow cost recovery if the costs and expenses are just and reasonable, after consideration of the conduct of the utility, including consideration of specified factors. Existing law establishes the Wildfire Fund to pay eligible claims arising from a covered wildfire, as provided. Existing law requires the commission to initiate a rulemaking proceeding to consider using its existing authority to require certain electrical corporations to collect a nonbypassable charge from its ratepayers to support the Wildfire Fund, and requires the commission to direct those electrical corporations to collect that charge if the commission determines that the imposition of the charge is just and reasonable and that it is an appropriate exercise of its authority, as specified. This bill would enact the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Act of 2020 and would require the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with the commission, to adopt an interim expenditure plan and an expenditure plan that are focused on reducing wildfire risk on the ground and in communities through activities such as defensible space implementation, home hardening, improved public safety, including expenditures to add trained emergency medical technicians to the workforce, and other authorized activities, as well as to prepare residents for wildfires through public education and outreach, as provided. The bill would establish the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, would require moneys in the fund be used for the implementation of those plans. The bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, upon the adoption of the interim plan, to notify the State Controller of the adoption. The bill would require, within 30 days of the notification, the transfer of $500,000,000 from the Surplus Money Investment Fund to the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund, and would appropriate the money to the Natural Resources Agency for the implementation of the interim expenditure plan. The bill would provide for the repayment of the moneys transferred from the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund to the Surplus Money Investment Fund, as provided. The bill would require the commission to require large electrical corporations, as defined, to collect, on and after a specified time, a nonbypassable charge from their ratepayers, as provided, to finance the bonds issued for the support of the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund, as described below. Existing law, until January 1, 2003, authorizes the Department of Water Resources to enter into contracts for the purchase of electric power. Existing law authorizes the department to sell power to retail end use customers and local publicly owned electric utilities under certain circumstances. Existing law authorizes the department to issue revenue bonds and entitles the department to recover, as a revenue requirement, amounts necessary to enable it to finance the bonds and purchase electric power pursuant to these provisions. Existing law authorizes the department to issue Wildfire Fund bonds on and after either the date on which the department legally defeases all of its remaining bonds under the provisions described above or the date on which it pays those obligations in full at maturity, whichever is earlier, to support the Wildfire Fund. Existing law entitles the department to recover, as a revenue requirement, amounts necessary to enable it to finance the bonds in support of the Wildfire Fund. Existing law requires those bond proceeds and revenues received by the department to be deposited in the Department of Water Resources Charge Fund. Existing law continuously appropriates the moneys in the Department of Water Resources Charge Fund to the department for specified purposes, including transfers to the Wildfire Fund and repayment of the bonds issued in support of the Wildfire Fund. This bill would authorize the department to issue bonds, in an aggregate amount of up to $3,000,000,000, the repayment of which, including interest, commences on the date on which the department has paid in full, at maturity, or legally defeases any outstanding bonds issued for the support of the Wildfire Fund or on January 1, 2036, whichever is later, to support the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund. The bill would entitle the department to recover, as a revenue requirement, amounts necessary to enable it to finance the bonds in support of the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund. The bill would require those bond proceeds and revenues received by the department to be deposited in the Department of Water Resources Charge Fund. The bill would continuously appropriate the moneys in the Department of Water Resources Charge Fund to the department for specified purposes, including transfers to the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund and repayment of the bonds issued for the support of the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund. 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 certain of the above provisions would be codified in the act and would require action by the commission, a violation of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 3289 of the Public Utilities Code proposed by SB 350 to be operative only if this bill and SB 350 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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 declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.