grenades. • ….
grenades.
• Assembly Bill 26 requires police departments to adopt policies that mandate immediate reporting when an officer witnesses a colleague using excessive force and punishes those who do not intervene.
• Assembly Bill 490 prevents police from using restraints and transport methods that carry a substantial risk of suffocating the suspect.
• Assembly Bill 48 prohibits police from firing rubber bullets or tear gas at a protest unless all other crowd control methods have been exhausted, and it is “objectively reasonable to defend against a threat to life or serious bodily injury.”
• Senate Bill 16 allows for more types of police personnel records to be subject to public disclosure, including those related to excessive use of force and sustained findings of failure to intervene, unlawful arrests and searches, and discrimination.
• Senate Bill 73 ends mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug crimes, giving judges discretion to hand down probation instead of jail time for offenses.
• Senate Bill 81 directs judges considering sentencing enhancements to give greater weight to mitigating factors, such as whether the offense was connected to mental illness or childhood trauma and whether the enhancement is based on a prior conviction that is more than five years old.
• Assembly Bill 118 creates a pilot program to test community- based alternatives to a police response when people call 911. Community groups can receive grants to respond to some 911 calls that don’t require a police officer, such as issues related to mental health and substance abuse.
• Senate Bill 332 enables more private controlled fires by reducing the legal liability when a fire escapes control lines and requires an emergency response.
• Senate Bill 389 allows restaurants to continue selling beer, wine and cocktails to go through the end of 2026. Due to their overwhelming popularity— and positive financial ramifications —restaurants will be able to sell alcoholic beverages for takeout long past shelter-in-place orders.
Drinks will need to be purchased with a meal.
• Assembly Bill 1096 strikes the word “alien” from state law and replaces it with alternatives like “person who is not a citizen.”
• Assembly Bill 1084 requires large retail stores to have a gender-neutral area or display for selling children’s toys and items starting in 2024. The bill does not ban boys’ and girls’ sections in stores but requires the addition of a neutral area. It does not include clothing. The law is the first of its kind in the nation.
• Senate Bill 221 requires insurance companies and health plans to provide timely followup care and reduce wait times for patients seeking care for mental health and substance use issues.
• Assembly Bill 286 bans food delivery apps from holding onto tips. In an effort to support delivery workers and increase billing transparency, it will be illegal for food delivery apps to retain any portion of a tip or gratuity. If the order is for delivery, that tip must go to the individual worker. If the order is for pickup, the gratuity must go to the restaurant.
And there are laws enacted years ago that will go into effect Jan. 1, most significantly:
• Senate Bill 1383, Trash Composting: Starting in 2022, California will require residents and businesses to recycle organic waste, and all jurisdictions must provide organic waste collection services with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from landfills.
Essentially, all Californians will be mandated to separate organic material from their other garbage.
Senate Bill 1383 requires organics, such as food and leftovers, coffee grounds, egg shells, banana peels, garden trimmings, lawn clippings, leaves and paper-based items, to be placed into a “green” or “organic” waste bin.
State studies have found that food waste represents about 18 percent and all organics represent 50 percent of total waste, according to environmental consultant Judi Gregory of Go2Zero Strategies. In households, organics comprise 2-3 percent, according to Bill Kalpakoff, general manager of CalMet Services Inc., LW’s trash disposal provider.
Waste haulers will divert the organic material away from traditional landfills to facilities that will turn the biological mishmash into products such as compost, mulch and natural gas. LW residents will not immediately need to change their trash disposal routines. CalMet is finalizing a plan to comply with this new regulation, which may include dumping food waste into gardeners’ green waste bins among other ideas.
The state mandate did not provide funding to implement the new law, and how the mandate will be enforced is unclear. Fines for non-compliance will not be levied until 2024.
• California Minimum Wage: As part of the state’s continued incremental raising of the minimum wage toward a $15 per hour goal, it will hit $14 on Jan. 1 for employers with 25 employees or less, and increase to $15 for those with 26 or more employees.
In 2016, California became the first state in the nation to commit to raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour statewide by 2022 for large businesses and by 2023 for small businesses. This law increases the minimum wage over time consistent with economic expansion, while providing safety valves to pause wage increases if negative economic or budgetary conditions emerge.
—compiled from various news reports
