California Assembly Member Mike Eng

2007 Legislation

SIGNED BY THE GOVERNOR/ADOPTED

AB 234 – Marriage and Family Therapists and Licensed Educational Psychologists. This bill makes a number of clarifying changes and updates to the Marriage and Family Therapy licensing law, including limiting the amount of experience that may be earned while providing personal psychotherapy services via telemedicine. Additionally this bill makes a number of changes to Licensed Educational Psychologists licensing law relating to the required number of hours of experience for licensure, continuing education, and degree eligibility. Sponsors: Marriage and Family Therapists.

Bill text, analyses, status, and votes

AB 253 – Restructuring of the Medical Board of California.  This bill reduces the membership of the Medical Board of California from 21 members to 15 members, and increases the public member representation on the board, in an effort to streamline the governance structure of the MBC in a manner that will make it more responsive and its operations more transparent. Sponsor: Medical Board of California

Bill text, analyses, status, and votes

AB 269 – Dentist Data Collection.  This bill aids efforts to collect data in the dental industry in order to address the growing disparities of access to care for underserved communities.  Specifically, AB 269 allows the California Dental Board and the Committee on Dental Auxiliaries to collect data on their licensees’ ethnic background and language proficiency based on the zip code of primary practice.  The data would be reported annually and made publicly available for use by policymakers, researchers, health officials and the general public.  Sponsor: Latino Coalition for a Healthy California

Bill text, analyses, status, and votes

AB 609 – Green Building Equipment.  This bill will allow the state to make green building purchases if the life-cycle costs for the equipment are comparable or less than the life-cycle costs of similar equipment without the green building enhancements.  Under current law, the state is unable to purchase green building equipment unless the costs to the state will be less or comparable to non-green building equipment on a year by year comparison.  This year by year cost formula establishes a barrier that prevents state agencies from acquiring green building equipment since initial costs of green building equipment will generally be more than equipment without green building enhancements.
Sponsor: Planning and Conservation League

Bill text, analyses, status, and votes

AB 935 – Record Retention Periods.  This bill will achieve costs savings for local governments by creating records retention periods for various documents filed with county clerks by process servers, professional photocopiers, unlawful detainer assistants, legal document assistants, bail agents, bail permittees, and admitted surety insurers.  Sponsor: California Association of Clerks and Election Officials

AB 936 – Contractors State License Board Licensees.  This measure will provide the Contractors State License Board with assist the consumer protection mission of Contractors State License Board by requiring a licensee whose license has expired or suspended to maintain a current address of record during the five-year period immediately following the expiration or cancellation of the license.  Sponsor: Contractors State License Board

AB 937 – California Architect’s Board’s Licensees.  This bill will assist the California Architect’s Board's enforcement efforts and enhancing licensees' understanding of the laws by specifically describing violations of the laws governing licensed landscape architects.  Sponsor: American Institute of Architects, California Council, California Council of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the California Architects Board

AB 986 – Board of Optometry.  This bill is a consumer protection measure that will ensure that the California Board of Optometry has the resources necessary to fulfill its mission to appropriately license and regulate optometrists, will make certain that patient records are maintained, and facilitate the delivery of optometric services in temporary locations such as nursing homes and prisons. Sponsor: California Board of Optometry

Bill text, analyses, status, and votes

AB 1126 – Taking Discovery in a Landlord-Tenant Case.  This bill revises provisions of the Civil Discovery Act to clarify and improve the procedures for taking discovery in a landlord-tenant case (unlawful detainer). By preventing disputes over procedural ambiguities and establishing sensible procedures, the bill would benefit landlords, tenants, the courts, and the public generally.  This bill was drafted by the California Law Revision Commission, as part of an ongoing study of civil discovery. The Commission found that numerous provisions in the Civil Discovery Act are ambiguous because language specifying a special time limit for an unlawful detainer case is mixed with language specifying the time limit for other types of cases.  Sponsor: California Law Revision Commission

Bill text, analyses, status, and votes

AB 1264 – Reduction in Unnecessary Court Appearances.  This bill would ensure that plaintiffs will be given the opportunity to properly address their grievances by being given sufficient opportunity to identify the persons or parties to whom the suit is directed.  This bill would allow the plaintiff to use information gathered during discovery or during the introduction of evidence at trial to ascertain the identity of previously unknown defendants.  The newly discovered defendants could then be properly named in the court action and ensure due process for all.  Sponsor: California Consumer Attorneys

Bill text, analyses, status, and votes

AB 1698 – Truancy Mandate Conformity.  This bill would require the Commission on State Mandates to amend the parameters and guidelines regarding the notification of truancy mandate program to conform to a statute that defines truancy as three full days of absences. In addition, this bill will require COSM to conform the content of the notification of truancy to content specified in state statute. Sponsor: California State Controller John Chiang

Bill text, analyses, status, and votes

ACR 51 – Hate Crimes Awareness Month.  This resolution designated the month of June as Hate Crimes Awareness Month.  Sponsor: Anti-Defamation League & CSP /Victim Witness Program
 
AJR 29 – Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.  This resolution memorializes the Legislature’s support for the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (LLEHCPA). The LLEHCPA expands hate crimes laws to include sexual orientation, gender identity and disability and provides local law enforcement agencies with additional tools and resources to investigate and prosecute these tragic acts of racism.  Sponsor: Equality California

HR 17 – Labor/Grocery Store Negotiations.  This resolution encourages labor and management currently engaged in negotiations with the three large grocery chains; Albertsons, Ralphs, and Vons in Southern California to bargain in good faith and reach a fair and equitable settlement.  Sponsor: United Food and Commercial Workers Union

VETOED BY THE GOVERNOR

AB 249 – Prohibition of “Gag Clauses” By Healthcare Professionals.  This bill will prohibit the use of regulatory "gag clauses" in the settlement of lawsuits against healthcare professionals licensed by a Department of Consumer Affairs.  Gag clauses prevent injured or cheated people from filing complaints or cooperating with state regulatory agencies that have a responsibility to investigate the misconduct of licensed professionals under their jurisdiction.  These gag clauses harm unsuspecting consumers by allowing them to be exposed to unscrupulous and/or incompetent healthcare licensees because the licensee’s regulator cannot take appropriate disciplinary action against them.

Bill text, analyses, status, and votes

AB 614 – Ensure Voting Rights for All.   AB 614 will strengthen the Secretary of State's ability to monitor the compliance of elections officials with various voting rights laws. This monitoring will ensure that election officials have adequate plans for providing language assistance and adhere to existing voting rights laws.  As a result, this bill will improve planning in order to mitigate barriers and facilitate the ability of limited English-proficient and first-time voters to participate in California's voting process.  Sponsor: Asian Americans for Civil Rights & Equality 

Bill text, analyses, status, and votes

AB 843 – Data Collection and Transfers of Property.  This bill would greatly improve the efficiency by which County Assessors throughout California collect information from taxpayers by means of the Preliminary Change in Ownership Report (PCOR) and the Change of Ownership Statement (COS).  Specifically, this legislation would do the following: (1) Increase the penalty cap for not responding to a COS request by a County Assessor from $2,500 to $10,000, unless the property is eligible for the homeowner’s exemption; and (2) transfer to the BOE the jurisdiction to prescribe the PCOR.  Sponsor: Board of Equalization Member Judy Chu

Bill text, analyses, status, and votes

AB 969 – California Use Tax Compliance.  This measure will raise public awareness of the California use tax and increase compliance among the growing number of California consumers that are turning to electronic commerce.  According to the BOE, California loses over $1 billion every year as a result of unreported use tax from the purchase of electronic and mail-order goods.  By clarifying that consumers are required to report use tax liabilities on their income tax returns after failing to pay the BOE directly, this measure will enable both tax practitioners and consumers to have a better understanding of their obligation to properly report use tax liabilities.  Sponsor: Board of Equalization.

Bill text, analyses, status, and votes