BILL NUMBER: AB 1827	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Patterson

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2014

   An act relating to state government.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1827, as introduced, Patterson. State bodies: administrative
and civil penalties.
   Existing law authorizes certain state bodies to impose and enforce
civil and administrative penalties upon businesses for regulatory
violations.
   This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation to require all state bodies to allow specified businesses
to cure minor violations that do not cause actual public harm or
physical injury prior to the imposition of civil penalties,
administrative penalties, or both. This bill would state legislative
findings regarding enforcement programs.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  (a) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation, notwithstanding any other law, to require all state
bodies, as defined by Section 11121 of the Government Code, to allow
businesses that have 50 or fewer full-time employees an opportunity
to cure minor regulatory violations that did not cause actual public
harm or physical injury to any person prior to the imposition of
administrative penalties, civil penalties, or both.
   (b) The Legislature finds and declares that the primary purpose of
enforcement programs administered by state bodies is to seek to
bring about compliance with the law, and that financial penalties
shall only be imposed in the absence of good faith compliance efforts
or after repeated violation of rules and regulations, and in a
manner in which the amount of the financial penalty accurately and
justly reflects the seriousness of the offense.