Simi Valley Chamber Legislative Update Spring 2017

CHAMBER POSITION

BILL

BILL DESCRIPTION

AB 445 (Cunningham and O’Donnell): Career technical education: the California Career Technical Education Grant Program

Existing law establishes the California Career Technical Educational Incentive Grant Program as a state education, economic, and workforce development initiative with the goal of providing pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, with the knowledge and skills necessary to transition to employment and postsecondary education. Existing law appropriates $200,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for purposes of this grant program for the 2017-18 fiscal year. This bill would change the name of the program to the California Career Technical Education Grant Program. It would increase to $300,000,000 the General Fund appropriation to the State Department of Education for this program for the 2017-18 fiscal year, and would further provide for an appropriation to the department in this amount for the 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21 fiscal years.

Support

SB 49 (De Leon and Stern): California Environmental, Public Health, and Workers Defense Act of 2017

The federal Clean Air Act regulates the discharge of air pollutants into the atmosphere. Existing state law regulates the discharge of air pollutants into the atmosphere. This bill would prohibit state and local agencies from amending or revising their rules and regulations implementing the state laws to be less stringent than the baseline federal standards, as defined, and would require specified agencies to take prescribed actions to maintain and enforce certain requirements and standards pertaining to air, water, and protected species. This bill would make conforming changes to the Protect California Air Act of 2003. By imposing new duties on local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Oppose

AB 1583 (Chau): Proposition 65: enforcement: certificate of merit: factual basis.

The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, an initiative measure approved as Proposition 65, prohibits a person, in the course of doing business, from knowingly, and intentionally exposing any individual to a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity without giving a specified warning, or from knowingly discharging or releasing such a chemical into water, or onto land and passing into any source of drinking water, except as specified. This bill would require, if the Attorney General believes there is not merit to the action after reviewing the factual information sufficient to establish the basis for the certificate of merit and meeting and conferring with the noticing party regarding the basis for the certificate of merit, the Attorney General to serve a letter to the noticing party and the alleged violator stating the Attorney General believes there is not merit to the action, as specified.

Support

BILL

BILL DESCRIPTION

CHAMBER POSITION

AB 912 (Obernolte): Small business: California Small Business Regulatory Fairness Act.

Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, governs the procedures for the adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations by state agencies and requires, among other things, that a state agency make available to the public facts, evidence, documents, testimony, or other evidence on which the state agency relies to support the agencies determination that the proposed action will not have a significant adverse impact on business. The bill would require a state agency to assist a small business, as defined, in complying with all statutes and regulations administered by the state agency and in any enforcement action by the state agency. The bill would require a state agency to establish a policy, by December 31, 2018, that provides for the reduction of civil penalties for violations of regulatory or statutory requirements by a small business under appropriate circumstances. The bill would authorize the state agency to update the policy to reflect current issues and conditions affecting small businesses and the state agency.

Support

SB 555 (Morrell): Regulations: 5-year review and report.

The Administrative Procedure Act generally sets forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies. This bill would additionally require a state agency to review and report on regulations that it adopts or amends on and after January 1, 2018, 5 years after adoption, as specified. The bill would require that the review and report include 10 specified factors, including summary of the written criticisms of the regulation received by the agency within the immediate preceding 5 years and the estimated economic, small business, and consumer impact of the regulation. The bill would require the Office of Administrative Law to make the review and report available on the office’s Internet Web site.

Support

AB 5 (Gonzalez and Kalra): Employers: Opportunity to Work Act.

Existing law, with certain exceptions, establishes 8 hours as a day’s work and a 40-hour workweek, and requires payment of prescribed overtime compensation for additional hours worked. This bill would create the Opportunity to Work Act. The bill would require an employer with 10 or more employees to offer additional hours of work to an existing nonexempt employee before hiring an additional employee or subcontractor, except as specified, would require an employer to post notice of employee rights, as specified, and would require the employer to maintain certain documentation. The bill would authorize an employee to file a complaint for violation of these provisions with the division and to, in the alternative, bring a civil action for remedies under the act. The bill would require the division to enforce these provisions, as specified and would authorize the division to, among other things, adopt rules and regulations.

Oppose

BILL

BILL DESCRIPTION

CHAMBER POSITION

AB 450 (Chiu): Employment regulation: immigration worksite enforcement actions.

This bill would impose various requirements on public and private employers with regard to federal immigration agency immigration worksite enforcement actions. Except as otherwise provided by federal law, this bill would prohibit an employer from providing a federal immigration enforcement agent access to a place of labor without a properly executed warrant and would prohibit an employer from providing voluntary access to a federal government immigration enforcement agent to the employer’s employee records without a subpoena. This bill would require an employer to notify the Labor Commissioner of a federal government agency immigration worksite enforcement action within 24 hours of receiving notice of the action and, if the employer does not receive advance notice, to immediately notify the Labor Commission upon learning of the action, unless prohibited by federal law.

Oppose

SB 562 (Lara and Atkins): The Healthy California Act

The Federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) enacted various health care coverage market reforms that took effect January 1, 2014 and required each state to establish an American Health Benefit Exchange to facilitate the purchase of qualified health benefit plans by qualified individuals and qualified small employers. Existing state law creates the California Health Benefit Exchange, also known as Covered California, to facilitate the purchase of qualified health plans by qualified individuals and qualified small employers.

This bill, the Healthy California Act, would create the Healthy California program to provide comprehensive universal singlepayer health care coverage and a health care cost control system for the benefit of all residents of the state. The bill, among other things, would provide that the program cover a wide range of medical benefits and other services and would incorporate the health care benefits and standards of other existing federal and state provisions, including, but not limited to, the state’s CHIP, Medi-Cal, etc. The bill would create the Healthy California Board to govern the program, made up of 9 members with demonstrated and acknowledged expertise in health care, and appointed as provided. It would prohibit health care service plans and health insurers from offering health benefits or covering any service for which coverage is offered to individuals under the program, except as provided.

Oppose

BILL

BILL DESCRIPTION

CHAMBER POSITION

SB 63 (Jackson): Unlawful employment practice: parental leave

Existing law makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer, as defined, to refuse to grant a request by an eligible employee to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid protected leave during any 12-month period (1) for reason of a child born to, adopted by, or placed for foster care with, the employee, (2) to care for the employee’s parent or spouse who has a serious health condition, or (3) because the employee is suffering from a serious health condition rendering him or her unable to perform the functions of the job. This bill would prohibit an employer from refusing to allow an employee with more than 12 months of service with the employer, who has at least 1,2500 hours of service with the employer during the previous 12 month period, and who works at a worksite in which the employer employs at least 20 employees within 75 miles, to take up to 12 weeks of parental leave to bond with a new child within one year of the child’s birth, adoption, or foster care placement. The bill would also prohibit an employer from refusing to maintain and pay for coverage under a group health plan for an employee who takes this leave.

Oppose

SB 33 (Dodd): Arbitration agreements

Existing law requires a court, on petition of a party to an arbitration agreement alleging (1) the existence of a written agreement to arbitrate a controversy and (2) that a party to the agreement refuses to arbitrate the controversy, to order the petitioner and the respondent to arbitrate the controversy if the court determines that an agreement to arbitrate exists, unless the court makes other determinations. This bill would add to these determinations instances in which a financial institution, as defined, seeks to apply a written agreement to arbitrate, contained in a contract consented to by a consumer, to a purported contractual relationship with that consumer created fraudulently by the petitioner without the consumer’s consent and by unlawfully using the consumer’s personal identifying information, as defined.

Oppose

AB 281 (Salas): Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004: right to cure

The Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 authorizes an aggrieved employee who complies with specific notice and filing requirements to bring a civil action to recover specific penalties that would otherwise be assessed and collected by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency.

The act provides an employer a right to cure violations under the act, except for certain specified violations, including health and safety violations, before the aggrieved employee may bring a civil action. The act requires that the employer cure a violation within 33 calendar days of the postmark date of the notice sent by the aggrieved employee or representative. This bill would extend the period of time in which the employer may cure the violation from 33 to 65 calendar days.

Support

CHAMBER POSITION

BILL

BILL DESCRIPTION

SB 258 (Lara): Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017

Existing law regulates the existence of, and disclosure of, specified chemicals and components in consumer products, including phthalates and bisphenol A. This bill would require a manufacturer of a cleaning product, as defined, that is manufactured or sold in the state on or after January 1, 2018, to disclose ingredients contained in and health impact information related to the cleaning product on the product label. This bill would require the California EPA to develop a pictogram to communicate these potential health concerns.

This bill would prohibit a manufacturer from manufacturing or selling a cleaning product in the state unless the product complies with these provisions.

Oppose

AB 791 (Frazier): Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project: new conveyance facility

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009 prohibits construction of a new delta conveyance facility from being initiated until the persons or entities that contract to receive water from the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project have made arrangements or entered into contracts to pay for certain costs required for the construction, operation and maintenance of the facility. This bill would require, before a water contractor enters into a contract to pay for these costs, that the lead agency provide the breakdown of costs for each water contractor entering into a contract and what benefits each contractor will receive based on the proportion it has financed of the proposed conveyance project.

Oppose

AB 792 (Frazier): Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: Delta Plan: certification of consistency

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009 establishes the Delta Stewardship Council and requires the council to develop, adopt, and commence implementation of a comprehensive management plan for the Delta, known as the Delta Plan. The act requires a state or local agency that proposes to undertake a covered action to prepare and submit to the council a written certain of consistency with the Delta Plan before undertaking that action. This bill would prohibit the council from granting a certification of consistency with the Delta Plan until the board has completed its update of a specified water quality control plan.

Oppose

BILL

BILL DESCRIPTION

CHAMBER POSITION

AB 793 (Frazier): Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: financing

This bill would declare it to be state policy that the existing state of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is recognized and defined as an integral component of California’s water infrastructure. This bill would state that the maintenance and repair of the Delta are eligible for the same forms of financing as other water collection and treatment infrastructure and would specify the maintenance and repair activities that are eligible are limited to certain cleanup and abatement-related restoration and conservation activities.

Oppose

AB 1209 (Gonzalez Fletcher) Employers: Gender Pay Differentials

Existing law requires a corporation, limited liability company, or common interest development, among others, to file a statement of information with the Secretary of State, providing specified information about the entity. Existing law regulates the terms and conditions of employment, including the payment of wages. Existing law generally prohibits an employer from paying any of its employees at rates less than the rates paid to employees of the opposite sex for substantially similar work, as specified. This bill would require an employer that is required to file a statement of information with the Secretary of State and that has 250 or more employees to collect specified information on gender pay differentials. It would require the employer to publish the information collected on an Internet Web site that is available to the public

by July 1, 2020, and to submit to the Secretary of State, subject to the occurrence of a specific contingency.

Oppose