Slate of new laws arriving in the new year

Among the first of the changes residents can expect to see is a bill authored by Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, which called for upgrades to the state’s vehicle identification system so temporary license plates can be issued at the time of a car purchase. Effective Jan. 1, Assembly Bill 516 will replace paper license plates provided at car dealers with assigned temporary plates, a change Mullin hopes will improve law enforcement officers’ ability to identify cars involved in crimes such as hit-and-run accidents or toll evasion.

A pilot program currently operating in four counties and requiring repeat DUI offenders and first-time offenders involved in injury accident to install an ignition interlock device in their cars will become a statewide program under Senate Bill 1046, authored by state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo. For more than seven years, the pilot has operated in Alameda, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Tulare counties and requires those subject to the law to blow into a device that will measure their blood alcohol concentration levels and prevent their cars from starting if they are not sober. Though the ignition interlock device costs $70 to $150 to install and some $3 daily for monitoring and calibration, a sliding scale under SB 1046 will ensure low-income offenders receive assistance in paying for the cost of the device.

A newly-formed Office of Elections Cybersecurity has already had its first pass in protecting voters in the 2018 election after a bill proposed by Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in August. Aimed at counteracting false or misleading information used to suppress voter participation, Assembly Bill 3075 established a new office within the Secretary of State’s office focused on protecting election infrastructure from cyber threats and identifying resources state and county elections officials can use to strengthen cybersecurity.

Maintaining elections integrity, increasing voter participation and ensuring transparency for voters were also top of mind for Mullin, who successfully passed a series of elections bills this year. With the passage of improvements to the Social Media DISCLOSE Act, or Assembly Bill 2188, social media platforms will be required come 2020 to include within “promoted” or “sponsored” ads a link to the top three funders of the advertisement as well as a public database of the political ads funded by committees. Public buildings will remain available for use as vote centers as long as elections officials give the governing body sufficient advance notice before Election Day under Assembly Bill 2540, and Assembly Bill 2707 will establish an online database with the contact information for elected officials by July of 2020.

In response to recent disasters and incidents of sexual misconduct, Hill took on bills aimed at ensuring the safety of residents in multi-unit buildings and patients of physicians who are disciplined by their regulatory board. Moved by a fatal fifth-story balcony collapse in Berkeley in which six people were killed when a rotting balcony gave way, Hill advocated for Senate Bill 721 and Senate Bill 1465, companion bills requiring periodic inspection of load-bearing structures on the exteriors of apartment buildings and contractors who settle construction defect lawsuits to report them to the Contractors State License Board, respectively.

SB 721 and SB 1465 will take effect Jan. 1, as will Senate Bill 1205, will requires fire departments to annually report their progress in meeting state mandates for safety inspections of schools, apartments, hotels and motels, which Hill said was inspired by the 2016 Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland.

Fueled by the power of the #MeToo movement and the moving testimonies of Olympic-level athletes abused by former sports medicine doctor Larry Nassar

, Hill felt a bill expected to keep patients of previously-disciplined physicians informed of their doctors’ histories received the support needed for passage some three years after he first initiated it. As of July, Senate Bill 1448 will require doctors disciplined for sexual misconduct with a patient, drug abuse harmful to a patient, criminal convictions involving patients and inappropriate prescriptions resulting in patient harm to notify their patients of their probation status.

For Berman, a bill to ensure those displaced by a state of emergency, such as a wildfire or other natural disaster, have access to continuous health care was needed after a string of destructive wildfires destroyed parts of several California cities last year. Under Assembly Bill 2941, health plans and insurance providers can authorize care by out-of-network providers and ease prescription requirements, among other changes, for those who lose their homes to emergencies.

Berman was also hopeful Assembly Bill 2639, which will provide online suicide prevention training to teachers, school administrators and students by the summer of 2019, will give school communities the training and skills needed to intervene if they are concerned about another student.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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