Sen. Bill Dodd

This measure would proclaim the month of September 2023 as California Wine Month.

This measure would proclaim the month of October 2023 as California Firefighter Appreciation Month and October 14, 2023, as California Firefighters Memorial Day.

Existing law authorizes the Department of Parks and Recreation to enter into an operating agreement with a qualified nonprofit organization for the development, improvement, restoration, care, maintenance, administration, or operation of a unit or units, or portion of a unit, of the state park system, as provided. Existing law repeals this authorization on January 1, 2025. This bill would indefinitely authorize the Department of Parks and Recreation to enter into operating agreements with a qualified nonprofit organization, as provided.

This measure would proclaim August 2023 as Breastfeeding Awareness Month of 2023 in California. The measure would recognize the unique benefits that breastfeeding provides, as specified, and would affirm that Californians should work to ensure that barriers to initiation and continuation of breastfeeding are removed. The measure would encourage Californians to work together to explore ways to, among other things, improve women's access to breastfeeding support services in medical, social, and employment settings.

Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which is administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, regulates the application, issuance, and suspension of licenses for the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages. Existing law, known as tied-house restrictions, generally prohibits specified licensees and their agents from paying a retailer for advertising. Existing law creates a variety of exceptions to this general prohibition. This bill would create a new exception to the tied-house restrictions on advertising. In this regard, the bill would authorize specified licensees to purchase advertising services from an advertising subsidiary that is under common ownership with a retail licensee subsidiary, subject to specified conditions. The bill would require an advertising subsidiary from whom an authorized licensee purchases advertising services pursuant to these provisions to submit to the department semiannually a report that summarizes those services and includes other specified information. The bill would make the solicitation or coercion of a wholesaler or an authorized licensee, as specified, in connection with the advertising services permitted under these provisions a misdemeanor and subject to specified penalties. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would define terms for its purposes and would set forth related findings. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

(1) Existing law, the Contractors State License Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of contractors by the Contractors State License Board in the Department of Consumer Affairs. That law requires an applicant, registrant, or licensee to provide certain information to the board. This bill would additionally require an applicant, registrant, or licensee that has a valid email address to provide the board with that email address at the time of application or renewal, as applicable. (2) Existing law, the California Public Records Act, requires a state or local public agency to make public records available for public inspection and to make copies available upon request and payment of a fee, unless the records are exempt from disclosure. The bill would provide that the above-specified email addresses are not subject to disclosure under prescribed law, including the California Public Records Act, except as specified. (3) Existing law authorizes the board to take various measures as part of a decision in a disciplinary action, including impose conditions upon the licensee. This bill would further authorize a decision to provide for a stay of execution of the decision, pending the completion of specified terms and conditions of probation. The bill would provide that the failure to fully comply with the terms and conditions of probation may result in the automatic termination of the stay of execution. (4) 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.

The California Constitution provides that the University of California constitutes a public trust, and requires the university to be administered by the Regents of the University of California, a corporation in the form of a board, with full powers of organization and government, subject to legislative control only for specified purposes. The California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 2001 requires all agencies and museums, which is defined to include higher education institutions, that receive state funding and have possession or control over collections of California Native American human remains and associated funerary objects to inventory those remains and objects for repatriation to the appropriate California Indian tribes, as specified. As a condition for using state funds to handle and maintain Native American human remains and cultural items, this bill would require the office of the President of the University of California to comply with various requirements regarding repatriation of Native American human remains and cultural items, as provided.

The Political Reform Act of 1974 prohibits a person, other than a small contributor committee or political party committee, from making to a candidate for elective state, county, or city office, and prohibits those candidates from accepting from a person, a contribution totaling more than $3,000 per election, as that amount is adjusted by the Fair Political Practices Commission in January of every odd-numbered year to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. This bill would apply those contribution limits to candidates for school district, community college district, and other special district elections. The bill would make certain other provisions of the act relating to contribution limits applicable to candidates for district office. However, the bill would authorize school districts, community college districts, and other special districts to impose contribution limits on candidates for district office that differ from the limits imposed by the act, as provided. This bill would retain the existing provisions of law until January 1, 2025, and on that date would repeal the existing law and make operative the provisions of the bill described in this paragraph. The act makes a knowing or willful violation of its provisions punishable as a misdemeanor and subject to specified penalties. By adding new contribution limits to the act, the bill would expand the scope of an existing crime and thereby 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.

(1) Existing law establishes the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program, administered by the State Department of Education, with the purpose of encouraging, maintaining, and strengthening the delivery of high-quality career technical education programs. Existing law provides, for the 2021–22 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, that $300,000,000 shall be available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the program. Existing law prohibits an applicant from being awarded an amount higher than the amount that the allocation formula determines them to be eligible to receive under the program. This bill instead would provide, for the 2024–25 fiscal year, and each fiscal year thereafter, that $450,000,000 shall be made available to the department upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the program. The bill would delete the prohibition against an applicant being awarded more than the amount determined by the allocation formula. (2) Existing law requires grant applicants to meet minimum requirements, including, among other things, reporting to the Superintendent of Public Instruction data on the number of pupils completing career technical education coursework. This bill would require applicants to additionally report data on the number of pupils completing a career technical education pathway consisting of a sequence of 2 or more career technical education courses in the same career technical education subject matter discipline. (3) Existing law requires the Superintendent to take specified actions for purposes of administering the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program. This bill would require the Superintendent to establish, in collaboration with the executive director of the State Board of Education, a stakeholder workgroup, as specified, on or before June 30, 2024, to consider and provide recommendations on maximizing career technical education opportunities for pupils, as provided, and to report those recommendations to the policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature, the Department of Finance, and the Governor by January 31, 2025. The bill would require the Superintendent to ensure a level of professional staffing within the department that is dedicated to career technical education, sufficient to effectively administer the program and other federal and state career technical education programs, as specified. (4) Existing law requires the K–12 Workforce Pathway Coordinators and the K–14 Technical Assistance Providers to provide technical assistance and support to grant recipients, as provided. This bill would, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year, and each fiscal year thereafter, instead require $12,000,000 to be made available to the department, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute, to provide regional career technical education coordinators for the provision of technical assistance and support to local educational agencies in implementing all of their career technical education courses, programs, and pathways, as provided. (5) Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law establishes the Strong Workforce Program to provide funding to career technical education regional consortia made up of community college districts, as specified. Existing law also establishes a K–12 component of the Strong Workforce Program. Existing law provides that, commencing with the 2018–19 fiscal year, the amount appropriated in the annual Budget Act for the K–12 component of the program is used to create, support, or expand high-quality career technical education programs at the K–12 level that are aligned with the workforce development efforts occurring through the program. This bill would, as of July 1, 2024, repeal the K–12 component of the Strong Workforce Program and would require the administration of any outstanding allocations for the K–12 component of the Strong Workforce Program to be administered by the department pursuant to the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program.