AB 179

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law regulates the submission and review of fingerprint images and criminal history information by state agencies. This bill would make certain changes to the process for submission and review of fingerprint images and criminal history information by the Department of Cannabis Control and the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. The bill would add requirements regulating the process for submission and review of fingerprint images and criminal history information by the Department of Consumer Affairs, the State Department of Developmental Services, the Department of General Services, the Department of Health Care Access and Information, the Public Employees' Retirement System, the State Department of Public Health, and the State Department of Social Services. (2) The Horse Racing Law vests the California Horse Racing Board with jurisdiction and supervision over horse racing meetings in the state and makes the board responsible for issuing licenses to racing associations and all persons who participate in horse racing meetings with parimutuel wagering. The Horse Racing law authorizes the board to issue a license to any person to conduct a horse racing meeting at the track specified in the written application submitted for that license, as specified. The Horse Racing Law also requires a person who is not required to obtain one of those licenses but who participates in, or has anything to do with, the racing of horses to be licensed by the board under a separate license, as specified. The Horse Racing Law requires the board to submit to the Department of Justice fingerprint images and related information required by the Department of Justice of all employees, prospective employees, and contractors. The Horse Racing Law authorizes the board's chief of licensing and enforcement to investigate the criminal history of those persons in order to make a final determination of a person's fitness to perform duties. This bill would define "person" for purposes of the above-described track operator license to mean any officer, director, or partner, or any individual who holds 5% or more of outstanding shares, of a racing association. The bill would also provide that the separate license requirement described above applies to certain persons who participate in, or have anything to do with, the racing of horses in specified capacities. The bill would expand the fingerprinting and background check provisions to, among others, current or prospective holders of the above-described licenses. (3) Existing law establishes the Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program, to be administered by the California Victim Compensation Board for the purpose of providing victim compensation to survivors of specified state-sponsored or coercive sterilization. Existing law requires an individual seeking victim compensation pursuant to this program to submit an application within a specified timeframe. Existing law authorizes a claimant who receives an adverse claim decision to file an appeal to the board within 30 days of receipt of notice of the decision. This bill would instead authorize a claimant who receives an adverse claim decision to file an appeal to the board no later than January 1, 2025. The bill would require the board to do an additional review of previously denied claims or appeals upon request by the claimant with a showing of good cause, as specified. The bill would authorize a claimant to make a request for additional review no later than January 1, 2025. Existing law requires the board to conclude the program after exhaustion of all appeals arising from the denial of an individual's application, but no later than 3 years and 3 months after the start date of the program. This bill would instead require the board to conclude the program after the exhaustion of the aforementioned appeals, but no later than January 1, 2026. This bill would make the provisions establishing the program inoperative on July 1, 2026, and would repeal it as of January 1, 2027. The Budget Act of 2021 appropriated $300,000 to the board to conduct a study relating to the program, as specified. This bill would require the board to submit a report on the outcome of that study to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee on or before January 1, 2025. (4) Existing law establishes the Flexible Assistance for Survivors (FAS) pilot grant program, administered by the Office of Emergency Services, to provide grants to qualifying community-based organizations with the goal of improving safety, healing, and financial stability for survivors, and the loved ones of those violently injured or killed. Existing law authorizes an organization receiving a grant under these provisions to use the funds as flexible cash assistance to survivors to meet survivors' financial needs or to cover survivors' expenses, distributed at the discretion of the organization in amounts determined by the organization based on the need of survivors, as specified. This bill would authorize an organization to distribute flexible cash assistance funds to a survivor directly, to the parent or guardian of a survivor, or to a vendor, business, or another third party to pay for an expense or to purchase a product on a survivor's behalf, as specified. The bill would prohibit payments under FAS from reducing a victim's maximum benefit allowance from the California Victim Compensation Board, except as specified. Existing law requires cash assistance received under these provisions to be treated in the same manner as the federal earned income refund, as specified, for purposes of determining eligibility to receive specified benefits. This bill would instead require cash assistance received by a survivor under these provisions to be treated in the same manner as the federal earned income refund, as specified, for purposes of determining eligibility to receive specified benefits. Existing law authorizes the Office of Emergency Services to use up to 5% of the funds appropriated for the grant program each year for the costs of administering the grant program, including, among other things, issuing a report on the impacts of the grant program through the 2025–26 fiscal year. Existing law requires the office to submit a progress report to the Legislature by July 1, 2025, as specified, and to post on its internet website a public report on the impact of the grant program before July 1, 2027, as specified. Under existing law, the FAS pilot grant provisions become inoperative on July 1, 2027, and are repealed as of January 1, 2028. This bill would instead include in the costs of administering the grant program described above, issuing a report on the impacts of the grant program through the 2026–27 fiscal year. The bill would instead require the office to submit the above-described progress report to Legislature by July 1, 2026, and to post the above-described public report on July 1, 2028. The bill would instead make the FAS pilot grant provisions inoperative on July 1, 2028, and would repeal these provisions as of January 1, 2029. (5) Existing law establishes the Budget Deficit Savings Account in the State Treasury to serve as a supplementary savings account to mitigate the effects of actual or future projected budget deficits in the General Fund or other state funds. Existing law authorizes the Legislature, in any fiscal year, to transfer funds into the Budget Deficit Savings Account or authorize the transfer of some or all of the balance of the Budget Deficit Savings Account to the General Fund or any other state fund. This bill, until December 31, 2030, would establish the Projected Surplus Temporary Holding Account in the State Treasury as a General Fund reserve to hold a portion of General Fund surplus moneys temporarily for use in future fiscal years, as an added responsible budgeting technique to counter tax revenue volatility. The bill would require, in a year that a transfer is made to the Projected Surplus Temporary Holding Account, that such a transfer be provided for in the annual Budget Act. The bill would require funds transferred to the Projected Surplus Temporary Holding Account to remain in that account for no more than one year from the date of deposit, after which time these funds would be transferred to the General Fund, except as specified. The bill would authorize the Controller to use the funds in the Projected Surplus Temporary Holding Account for cashflow loans to the General Fund, as specified. (6) Existing law creates the Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund within the State Treasury and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, requires the Office of Small Business Advocate within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development to establish and administer a grant program to enable small nonprofit performing arts organizations to hire and retain employees, among other things. Existing law requires the Office of Small Business Advocate to adopt regulations on specified matters relating to the grant program and fund, including regulations ensuring that grant recipients have not used moneys for other purposes. This bill would instead require the Office of Small Business Advocate to adopt guidelines on those specified matters, and would exempt the adoption of those guidelines from the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. (7) Existing law, the State Contract Act, authorizes a department, defined as specified state entities as to any project under the jurisdiction of that state entity, to authorize the carrying out of the project directly by the state agency concerned therewith if the estimated cost does not exceed $600,000, except as specified, where the nature of the work, in the opinion of the department, is such that its services in connection therewith are not required. This bill would also authorize a department described above, upon request from the state agency concerned, to authorize the carrying out of a project, or a class of projects, with an estimated cost of any amount directly by the state agency concerned if the department finds that the state agency is capable of successfully undertaking the project or projects of that amount. The bill would require a department, for projects or a class of projects where the total project cost exceeds $3,000,000, to seek approval from the Department of Finance prior to authorizing a state agency to carry out the project or class of projects. The State Contract Act generally provides for a contracting process by state agencies for public works of improvement pursuant to a competitive bidding process, under which bids are awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, with specified alternative procurement procedures authorized in certain cases. Other existing law authorizes certain state and local agencies to engage in job order contracting, as prescribed. This bill would amend the act to authorize the Department of General Services (DGS) to engage in job order contracting, as prescribed, as an alternative procurement procedure for public works. The bill would restrict such a contract to a maximum initial contract term of 24 months. The bill would impose a maximum contract amount of $10,000,000 in the first term of the contract and authorize the DGS to issue up to 4 one-year extensions to each job order contract, up to an additional $5,000,000 per year. The bill would prohibit any single job order from exceeding $1,000,000, as prescribed. The bill would provide for the adjustment of these caps to reflect the percentage change in the annual California Construction Index, as prescribed. Existing law establishes requirements that apply when a public entity is required by statute or regulation to obtain an enforceable commitment that a bidder, contractor, or other entity will use a skilled and trained workforce, which requires, among other conditions, that all the workers performing work in an apprenticeable occupation, as defined, in the building and construction trades are either skilled journeypersons or registered apprentices. Existing law also authorizes a public entity to require that a bidder, contractor, or other entity use a skilled and trained workforce to complete a contract or project, regardless of whether the public entity is required to do so by a statute or regulation. This bill, with prescribed exceptions, would prohibit a contractor from being awarded a job order contract unless the contractor provides an enforceable commitment to the Director of General Services that the contractor and its subcontractors at every tier will use a skilled and trained workforce to perform all work for each job order that falls within an apprenticeable occupation in the building and construction trades, in accordance with existing law. Existing law, except as specified, requires that, for workers employed on public works, as defined, not less than the general prevailing rate of per diem wages, determined as provided by the Director of Industrial Relations, for work of a similar character in the locality in which the public work is performed be paid to those workers, as provided. This bill would require a job order contract to set forth in the general conditions of the job order contract the party or parties responsible for seeing that prevailing wage requirements are complied with. The bill would provide that, for purposes of job order contracting, prevailing wages when required to be paid apply to all work ordered under the job order contract regardless of thresholds set forth in existing law. The bill would require the job order contractor to pay the prevailing wage in effect at the time the job order is issued by the DGS and all increases as published by the Department of Industrial Relations for the term of the job order contract, as prescribed. Existing law governs state acquisition of goods and services and, except as specified, requires DGS approval for contracts entered into by any state agency for the acquisition of goods, services, the construction, alteration, improvement, repair, or maintenance of property, or the performance of work or services by the state agency for or in cooperation with any person or public body. Existing law requires the DGS to exempt from its approval contracts under $150,000 that any state agency awards if the state agency complies with certain requirements, including conducting an audit every 2 years of the contracting program and reporting to the DGS as it requires. Existing law also requires any state agency that enters into or expects to enter into more than one consulting services contract with the same individual, business firm, or corporation within a 12-month period for an aggregate amount of $12,500 or more to notify the DGS and have it approve each contract that exceeds that amount. This bill would revise the approval exemption provision for contracts under $150,000 to instead require a state agency to conduct the audit every 3 years of the contracting program. The bill would remove the notification and approval requirement for consulting services contracts that exceed $12,500. (8) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 26051.5 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 1064 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1064 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (9) This bill would, for the 2024–2025 fiscal year, appropriate the sum of $10,000 to the Department of Justice for purposes of administering the above-described fingerprint requirements. (10) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.