Existing law creates the Office of Emergency Services within the office of the Governor. The office is responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or man-made disasters and emergencies. Existing law requires the office to establish by rule and regulation various classes of disaster service workers, the scope of the duties of each class, and to adopt rules and regulations for the registration of each class of these workers. Existing law requires the office to work with advocacy groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing for the purpose of improving accessibility to emergency information and services for the populations that they serve. Existing law requires the office to develop a plan for state and local utilization of volunteers during a state of emergency. This bill would, until January 1, 2024, enact the Community Response Initiative to Strengthen Emergency Systems Act or the C.R.I.S.E.S. Act for the purpose of creating, implementing, and evaluating the C.R.I.S.E.S. Act Grant Pilot Program, which the act would establish. The bill would require the Office of Emergency Services to establish rules and regulations for the act with the goal of making grants to community organizations, over 3 years, for the purpose of expanding the participation of community organizations in emergency response for specified vulnerable populations. The bill would require that grantees receive a minimum award of $250,000 per year. The bill would require a community organization receiving funds pursuant to the program to use the grant to stimulate and support involvement in emergency response activities that do not require a law enforcement officer, as specified. The bill would require the director of the office to assemble staff and resources to carry out certain duties in support of the program. The bill would require the office to support an 11-member C.R.I.S.E.S. Advisory Committee, selected by the Governor, the Chair of the Senate Rules Committee, and the Speaker of the Assembly, as specified, to be inclusive of community organizations with a proven history of leadership and partnership on emergency response. The committee would establish grant application criteria and parameters for eligible community organizations, review and decide upon grant proposals, ensure grants are adhering to standards, and make recommendations to the office, among other things. The bill would establish the Community Response Initiative to Strengthen Emergency Systems Act Fund in the State Treasury in support of the program, to be administered by the director. The bill would require that the act be implemented only if appropriate funding is made available to the office, which would make a determination to this effect, to be published on its internet website. The bill would provide that if the appropriation was not made, the office would bear no responsibility for implementing the act. The bill would make findings and declarations in regard to innovative approaches to emergency responses.
Sponsored bills
(1) The Planning and Zoning Law requires the legislative body of a city or county to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan that includes various elements, including, among others, a housing element and a safety element for the protection of the community from unreasonable risks associated with the effects of various geologic and seismic hazards, flooding, and wildland and urban fires. Existing law requires the housing element to be revised according to a specific schedule. Existing law requires the planning agency to review and, if necessary, revise the safety element upon each revision of the housing element or local hazard mitigation plan, but not less than once every 8 years to identify new information relating to flood and fire hazards and climate adaptation and resiliency strategies applicable to the city or county that was not available during the previous revision of the safety element. Existing law requires that the Office of Planning and Research, among other things, coordinate with appropriate entities, including state, regional, or local agencies, to establish a clearinghouse for climate adaptation information for use by state, regional, and local entities, as provided. This bill would require the safety element, upon the next revision of the housing element or the hazard mitigation plan, on or after June 1, 2022, whichever occurs first, to be reviewed and updated as necessary to include a comprehensive retrofit strategy to reduce the risk of property loss and damage during wildfires, as specified, and would require the planning agency to submit the adopted strategy to the Office of Planning and Research for inclusion into the above-described clearinghouse. The bill would also require the planning agency to review and, if necessary, revise the safety element upon each revision of the housing element or local hazard mitigation plan, but not less than once every 8 years, to identify new information relating to retrofit updates applicable to the city or county that was not available during the previous revision of the safety element. By increasing the duties of local officials, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law requires the general plan to include a land use element that designates the proposed general distribution and general location and extent of the uses of the land for, among other purposes, housing, business, and industry. Existing law additionally requires the general plan to include a housing element and requires each local government to review and revise its housing element, as specified. This bill would require a city or county that contains a very high fire risk area, as defined, upon each revision of the housing element on or after June 1, 2022, to amend the land use element of its general plan to contain, among other things, the locations of all very high fire risk areas within the city or county and feasible implementation measures designed to carry out specified goals, objectives, and policies relating to the protection of lives and property from unreasonable risk of wildfire. The bill would require the city or county to complete a review of, and make findings related to, wildfire risk reduction standards, as defined, upon each subsequent revision of the housing element, as provided. The bill would require the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to review the findings and make recommendations, as provided. The bill would additionally require the Office of the State Fire Marshal, in consultation with the Office of Planning and Research and the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, by January 1, 2023, to adopt wildfire risk reduction standards that meet certain requirements and reasonable standards for third-party inspection and certifications for a specified enforcement program. The bill would also require the Office of the State Fire Marshal to, by January 1, 2024, update the maps of the very high fire hazard severity zones, as specified. The bill would require the Office of the State Fire Marshal to convene a working group of stakeholders, as specified, to assist in this effort and to consider specified national standards. Existing law requires county or city zoning ordinances to be consistent with the general plan of the county or city, as specified. This bill would require a city or county that contains a very high fire risk area, within 12 months following the amendment of the city or county's land use element, to adopt a very high fire risk overlay zone or otherwise amend its zoning ordinance so that it is consistent with the general plan, as specified. This bill would additionally prohibit the legislative body of a city or county that contains a very high fire risk area, upon the effective date of the revision of the city or county's land use element, from entering into a development agreement for property that is located within a very high fire risk area, approving specified discretionary permits or other discretionary entitlements for projects located within a very high fire risk area, or approving a tentative map or a parcel map for which a tentative map was not required for a subdivision that is located within a very high fire risk area, unless the city or county makes specified findings based on substantial evidence in the record. By increasing the duties of local officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, in consultation with each council of governments, to determine each region's existing and projected housing need, as provided. Existing law requires each council of governments, or the department for cities and counties without a council of governments, to adopt a final regional housing need plan that allocates a share of the regional housing need to each city, county, or city and county and that furthers specified objectives. This bill would require the regional housing needs allocation plan to additionally further the objective of reducing development pressure within very high fire risk areas. (4) Existing law requires the council of governments, or delegate subregion, as applicable, to develop a proposed methodology for distributing the existing and projected regional housing need and, to the extent that sufficient data is available as provided, to include specified factors to develop the methodology that allocates regional housing needs, including, among other factors, the rate of overcrowding. This bill would additionally require the council of governments, or delegate subregion, as applicable, to include within those factors for any scheduled revision of the housing element required, as provided, on or after July 1, 2022, the amount of land in each member jurisdiction that is within a very high fire risk area by allocating a lower proportion of housing if the council of governments or delegate subregion determines, based on specified factors, that it is likely that the jurisdiction would otherwise need to identify lands within a very high fire risk area as adequate sites in order to meet its housing need allocation. For cities and counties without a council of governments, existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to determine and distribute the existing and projected housing need, unless that responsibility is delegated as provided to cities and counties, based upon available data and in consultation with the cities and counties, taking into consideration, among other things, the availability of suitable sites and public facilities. This bill would also require the department, for any scheduled revision of the housing element required, as provided, on or after July 1, 2022, to take into consideration the amount of land in each city and each county that is within a very high fire risk area, as defined, by allocating a lower proportion of housing if the department determines, based on specified factors, that it is likely that the jurisdiction would otherwise need to identify lands within a very high fire risk area as adequate sites in order to meet its housing need allocation. By increasing the duties of local officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) Existing law requires the Office of Planning and Research to implement various long-range planning and research policies and goals that are intended to, among other things, encourage the formation and proper functioning of local entities and, in connection with those responsibilities, to adopt guidelines for the preparation and content of the mandatory elements required in city and county general plans. This bill would require the Office of Planning and Research, on or before January 1, 2023, in collaboration with cities and counties, to identify local ordinances, policies, and best practices relating to land use planning in very high fire risk areas, wildfire risk reduction, and wildfire preparedness and publish these resources on the above-described clearinghouse, as specified. (6) Existing law requires, until the 2023–24 fiscal year, the amount of $165,000,000 to be appropriated from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for healthy forest and fire prevention programs and projects that improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by uncontrolled wildfires. This bill would establish the Wildfire Risk Reduction Planning Support Grants Program, administered by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, for the purpose of providing small jurisdictions, as defined, containing very high fire hazard risk areas with grants for specified planning activities to enable those jurisdictions to meet the requirements set forth in the bill, as described above. Upon appropriation, the bill would require the department to distribute grant funds under the program via a noncompetitive, over-the-counter process, as provided, to small jurisdictions. The bill would require a recipient small jurisdiction to use the allocation solely for wildfire risk reduction planning activities, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to set aside up to 5% of any amount appropriated for these purposes for program administration. (7) Existing law requires a common interest development within a very high fire severity zone to allow an owner to install or repair a roof with at least one type of fire retardant roof covering material that meets specified requirements. This bill would require the one type of fire retardant roof covering material to additionally meet, at a minimum, class B standards, as specified in the International Building Code. (8) 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 establishes the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency to enforce civil rights laws with respect to housing and employment and to protect and safeguard the right of all persons to obtain and hold employment without discrimination based on specified characteristics or status. The DFEH has specified powers, including the power to receive, investigate, conciliate, mediate, and prosecute certain complaints. Existing law establishes within the Department of Industrial Relations the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, which is vested with the general duty of enforcing various labor laws, including provisions prohibiting wage rates that discriminate on the basis of gender or race. This bill would authorize the DFEH to receive, investigate, conciliate, mediate, and prosecute complaints alleging practices unlawful under those discriminatory wage rate provisions. The bill would require the DFEH, in coordination with the division, to adopt procedures to ensure that the departments coordinate activities to enforce those provisions. Existing federal law requires specified companies to file with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission an annual Employer Information Report (EEO-1) that contains specified data regarding demographics of the employer's workforce. This bill would require, on or before March 31, 2021, and on or before March 31 each year thereafter, a private employer that has 100 or more employees, and that is required to file an annual Employer Information Report under federal law, to submit a pay data report to the DFEH that contains specified wage information. The bill would require that the information be made available in a prescribed format. The bill would require the DFEH to make the reports available to the division upon request. The bill would authorize the DFEH, if it does not receive the required report from an employer, to seek an order requiring the employer to comply, as specified. The bill would require the DFEH to maintain the pay data reports for a minimum of 10 years and would make it unlawful for any officer or employee of the DFEH or the division to make public in any manner whatever any individually identifiable information obtained from the report prior to the institution of certain investigation or enforcement proceedings, as specified. The bill would require the Employment Development Department to provide DFEH, upon its request, as specified, with the names and addresses of all businesses with 100 or more employees. The bill would make legislative findings in support of these provisions. The California Public Records Act requires a public agency to make public records available for inspection, unless an exemption from disclosure applies. This bill would provide that any individually identifiable information submitted to the department pursuant to this bill be considered confidential information and not subject to disclosure pursuant to the California Public Records Act, except as specified. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law makes specified persons subject to parole supervision by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, including a person who has been released from a state prison after conviction for a serious or violent felony or a crime for which the person is classified as a high-risk sex offender, and specifies the length of time the person is required to be supervised on parole. This bill, contingent upon the appropriation to the State Department of Health Care Services of funds received pursuant to a specified federal grant, would establish the California MAT Re-Entry Incentive Program, which would make a person released from prison on parole, with specified exceptions, who has been enrolled in, or successfully completed, an institutional substance abuse program, eligible for a reduction in the period of parole if the person successfully participates in a substance abuse treatment program that employs a multifaceted approach to treatment, including the use of United States Food and Drug Administration approved medically assisted treatment (MAT) . The bill would authorize a 30-day reduction for each 6 months of treatment successfully completed that is not ordered by the court, up to a maximum 90-day reduction. The bill would require, to the extent consistent with the terms of the grant, the sum of $1,000,000 of the appropriated grant funds to be allocated to the department for this purpose. The bill would also require the department to collect data and analyze utilization and program outcomes and to provide that information in a specified report.
Existing law governs employment relations, defines the contract of employment, and establishes the obligations of employers to their employees. This bill would require an employer, as defined, to offer its laid-off employees specified information about job positions that become available for which the laid-off employees are qualified, and to offer positions to those laid-off employees based on a preference system, in accordance with specified timelines and procedures. The bill would define the term "laid-off employee" to mean any employee who was employed by the employer for 6 months or more in the 12 months preceding the state of emergency giving rise to the application of the bill's provisions, and whose most recent separation from active service was due to a public health directive, government shutdown order, lack of business, a reduction in force, or other economic, nondisciplinary reason related to the state of emergency, as defined. The bill would also require an incumbent employer, within 15 days after the execution of a transfer document, to provide to the successor employer specified information pertaining to eligible employees and would require the successor employer to maintain and hire from a preferential hiring list for a specified time period. The bill would authorize an employee to enforce violations of these provisions by filing an action with the Division of Labor Standards and would authorize various remedies, including hiring and reinstatement rights and awarding of back pay.
Existing law allows a court to issue an order restraining an individual from possessing a firearm for the duration of the order. Existing law allows the court to issue a temporary emergency gun violence restraining order on an ex parte basis if the possession of a firearm by the subject of the petition poses an immediate and present danger. Existing law requires a law enforcement officer who requests a temporary emergency gun violence restraining order to take certain steps, including filing a copy of the order with the court as soon as practicable after issuance. This bill would instead require the law enforcement officer to file a copy of the order with the court as soon as practicable, but not later than 3 court days, after issuance. Under existing law, a person who owns or possesses a firearm or ammunition with the knowledge that they are prohibited from doing so by a gun violence restraining order is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be prohibited from having custody or control of, owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving, or attempting to purchase or receive, a firearm or ammunition for a 5-year period, commencing upon the expiration of the existing gun violence restraining order. This bill would specify that this offense also applies to persons who are subject to certain gun violence restraining orders, as described, issued by an out-of-state jurisdiction. This bill would state that its provisions are severable. By expanding the application of an existing crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law establishes the Domestic Violence Prevention Act for the purpose of preventing acts of domestic violence, abuse, and sexual abuse and providing for a separation of the persons involved in the domestic violence for a period sufficient to enable those persons to seek a resolution of the causes of the violence. Existing law authorizes a court to issue an ex parte order enjoining a party from engaging in specified acts against another party, including threatening or harassing that party or disturbing their peace, and, in the discretion of the court, against other named family or household members. A violation of this court order constitutes contempt of court, which is punishable as a misdemeanor. This bill would define "disturbing the peace of the other party" as conduct that destroys the mental or emotional calm of the other party, as specified. The bill would provide that disturbing the peace of the other party includes coercive control, which is a pattern of behavior that unreasonably interferes with a person's free will and personal liberty and includes, among other things, unreasonably isolating a victim from friends, relatives, or other sources of support. Existing law requires a family court to determine the best interests of a child in deciding child custody in specified proceedings and establishes a rebuttable presumption that an award of child custody to a person who has perpetrated domestic violence is detrimental to the best interests of the child. Existing law defines "perpetrated domestic violence" to mean, among other things, that the person engaged in behavior for which the court may issue an ex parte order to protect the child or the person seeking custody of the child. By adding coercive control to the bases for the ex parte orders described above, the bill would, for purposes of a family court determining child custody in those proceedings, create a rebuttable presumption that an award of child custody to a party who has engaged in coercive control is detrimental to the best interests of the child. Because a violation of a court order constitutes contempt of court and is therefore a crime, by expanding the bases for the issuance of these ex parte orders, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing federal law, known as Title IX, prohibits a person, on the basis of sex, from being excluded from participation in, being denied the benefits of, or being subject to discrimination, which includes sexual harassment, under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. A portion of the Donahoe Higher Education Act, known as the Equity in Higher Education Act, declares, among other things, that it is the policy of the State of California that all persons, regardless of their sex, should enjoy freedom from discrimination of any kind in the educational institutions of the state. Existing law provides that a party to a written complaint of prohibited discrimination at certain public postsecondary educational institutions may appeal the action to specified bodies. Existing law also requires that persons who have filed a complaint of prohibited discrimination be advised by the educational institution that civil law remedies may also be available to the complainant. This bill would require, no later than January 1, 2022, except as specified, a postsecondary institution that receives state financial assistance to comply with requirements relating to the protection of students from, and providing students with procedural protections relating to complaints of, sexual harassment. In particular, the bill would require the governing board or body of each of these institutions to (1) disseminate a notice of nondiscrimination to each employee, volunteer, and individual or entity contracted with the institution, (2) designate at least one employee of the institution to coordinate its efforts to comply with its responsibilities specified in this act, (3) adopt rules and procedures for the prevention of sexual harassment, (4) adopt and publish on its internet website grievance procedures providing for the prompt and equitable resolution of sexual harassment complaints, (5) publish on the institution's internet website the name, title, and contact information for the Title IX coordinator or other employee designated to coordinate the institution's efforts to comply with and carry out the responsibilities specified in this act and any individual official with the authority to investigate complaints or to institute corrective measures, as specified, (6) include specified training to each employee engaged in the grievance procedure, (7) include annual training for residential life student and nonstudent staff for the trauma-informed handling of reports regarding incidents of sexual harassment or violence at an institution with on-campus housing, (8) notify employees of the obligation to report sexual harassment to appropriate school officials, and (9) provide training to all employees on the identification of sexual harassment. The bill would authorize enforcement of these provisions through a civil action brought pursuant to existing law, as specified. By imposing new duties on community college districts, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law, subject to exceptions, generally makes it an offense to manufacture or sell an unsafe handgun, as defined, and requires the Department of Justice to compile a roster listing all of the handguns that have been tested and determined not to be unsafe handguns. Existing law establishes criteria for determining if a handgun is an unsafe handgun, including, for firearms manufactured after a certain date and not already listed on the roster, the lack of a chamber load indicator, magazine disconnect mechanism, and technology that transfers a microscopic array of characters from the firearm to the cartridge case when the firearm is fired, known as a microstamp. Existing law requires the microstamp to be transferred to the cartridge upon firing and to be imprinted in 2 or more places on the internal working parts of the handgun. This bill, effective July 1, 2022, would revise the criteria for unsafe handguns by requiring the microstamp to be imprinted in one place on the interior of the handgun, and would require the department, for every new firearm added to the roster, to remove, as specified, 3 firearms from the roster that are not compliant with current requirements. By expanding the number of firearms the sale or manufacture of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize the department to adopt emergency regulations, as specified, to implement the provisions of this bill. 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 Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas in the state as very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria and the severity of the fire hazard. Existing law requires a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains an occupied dwelling or structure in, upon, or adjoining a mountainous area, forest-covered land, brush-covered land, grass-covered land, or land that is covered with flammable material that is within a very high fire hazard severity zone, as designated by a local agency, or a building or structure in, upon, or adjoining those areas or lands within a state responsibility area, to maintain a defensible space of 100 feet from each side and from the front and rear of the structure, as specified. A violation of these requirements is a crime. This bill would require a person described above to use more intense fuel reductions between 5 and 30 feet around the structure, and to create an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of the structure, based on regulations promulgated by the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, as provided. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime or expand the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require each local agency having jurisdiction of property upon which conditions that are regulated by the defensible space provisions described above apply and, contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute for this purpose, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to make reasonable efforts to provide notice to affected residents of the above requirements before imposing penalties for a violation of those requirements. By expanding the duty of a local agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would prohibit the requirement for an ember-resistant zone from taking effect for new structures until the state board updates the regulations, as specified, and the guidance document described below, as specified. The bill would prohibit the department from changing defensible space inspection practices and forms or enforcement to implement the requirement for an ember-resistant zone until the director makes a written finding that the Legislature has appropriated sufficient resources to do so. Existing law requires the department to develop, periodically update, and post on its internet website a guidance document on fuels management, as provided. This bill would instead require the state board, in consultation with the department, to develop, periodically update, and post on its internet website the guidance document. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2023, the state board, in consultation with the department, to update the guidance document to include suggestions for creating an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of a structure, as provided. The bill would make the requirement that the state board update the guidance document and promulgate certain regulations contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute for these purposes. This bill would also make conforming changes and nonsubstantive changes. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 51182 and 51189 of the Government Code and Section 4291 of Public Resources Code proposed by SB 1348 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1348 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 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.