Governor Signs Legislation on: Conservatorship, Drug Offender Ed/Treatment and Clean Transportation

State Modernizes Conservatorship Law

SACRAMENTO —  Gov. Gavin Newsom Oct. 10 signed Senate Bill 43 (Eggman, D-Stockton) to modernize the state’s conservatorship laws for the first time in more than 50 years. The law updates the definition for those eligible for conservatorship to include people who are unable to provide for their personal safety or necessary medical care, in addition to food, clothing, or shelter, due to either severe substance use disorder or serious mental health illnesses. The Governor was joined by Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman and mental health advocates and clinicians as he signed Senate Bill 43.

Updating conservatorship laws and increasing transparency will provide county mental health departments, courts, family members, clinicians and people with serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders a more effective approach for delivering last-resort behavioral health care.

Under existing law, people may be eligible for a conservatorship if they have a serious mental illness that leaves them unable to secure food, clothing or shelter. Senate Bill 43 broadens eligibility to people who are unable to provide for their personal safety or necessary medical care. Additionally, Senate Bill 43 encompasses people with a severe substance use disorder, such as chronic alcoholism, and no longer requires a co-occuring mental health disorder. The new law will update the situations when this intervention can be considered and create transparency into data and equity on mental health conservatorships.

Conservatorship is a last resort to help connect people with severe behavioral health care needs with the resources and support to protect them and others. The process begins with a county mental health department petitioning a court to appoint a third party, often a family member, to direct the person’s care for a limited time, across the full range of behavioral health care, including but not only secure settings. Conservatorship can help break the cycle of repeated crises including arrest and imprisonment, psychiatric hospitalization, homelessness and even premature death – and instead provide the care that can restore mental health and end the conservatorship.

State to Require Mandatory Education/Treatment for Drug Offenders 

SACRAMENTO —  Gov. Gavin Newsom Oct. 9 signed legislation authored by Sen. Richard D. Roth (Riverside-CA) that requires mandatory education and/or treatment programs for those who have been convicted of a drug offense and granted probation.

“This legislation seeks to help those most susceptible and give them the tools they need, with education and treatment, so they don’t become another statistic and can turn their life around. In order to do this, specific and intentional education and treatment must be required to reduce recidivism and ensure long-term success. I thank the Governor for signing this important legislation,” said Senator Roth.

SB 46 outlines standards for programs for convicted offenders and requires education and treatment for drug diversion to include information on the effects of controlled substances on the brain and body, how to recognize and respond to the signs of a drug overdose, and the dangers of using controlled substances.

State Extends Clean Transportation Program, Funds Zero Emission Transportation

SACRAMENTO — Legislation jointly-authored by Senator Lena A. Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) and Assembly Majority Leader Emeritus Eloise Gomez Reyes (D-Colton) to revitalize the Clean Transportation Program or CTP was signed into law Oct. 7 by Gov. Newsom.

AB 126 secures an estimated $2 Billion in funds, over the next 11 years, to help meet California’s climate goals, reduce emissions and transition the state’s transportation sector to zero-emission vehicles or ZEV. Along with advancing transportation infrastructure projects in the state, the bill will extend the air quality improvement program and the enhanced fleet modernization program until 2035.

Since the creation of the CTP in 2007, the California Energy Commission has invested more than $1.5 billion in projects dedicated to clean transportation advancements including installing or planning nearly 23,800 chargers for plug-in electric vehicles, funding 27 manufacturing projects for ZEVs, ZEV components (including batteries), and ZEV infrastructure, and providing workforce training for more than 32,000 trainees and trainers to prepare workers for the clean transportation economy.

The transportation sector accounts for about half of statewide greenhouse gas emissions, and ninety percent of harmful diesel particulate matter pollution. Of the thirty million vehicles registered in California, only two million are trucks, yet they create 70% of smog and eighty percent of carcinogenic diesel pollution.

AB 126 allows the CEC to issue grants that will aid manufacturers, business owners, and state and local agencies in the industry, to accelerate the transition to cleaner trucks and ensure communities disproportionately burdened by truck pollution benefit from emissions reductions. The measure also requires CEC to prioritize projects that advance the deployment of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, and projects that fill gaps in the deployment for light-duty vehicle infrastructure.

Disadvantaged and low-income communities in California experience far more of the health and environmental impacts of climate change, and recent data shows that people of color are 61% more likely to live in a county with poor air quality. To help tackle this inequity, AB 126 will require that at least 50% of the funds awarded under CTP must directly benefit disadvantaged and low-income communities.