Title FAC — California Food & Agric. Code

The necessity of controlling beet leafhopper, the only known vector of the curly top virus, is recognized by the Legislature as being in the public benefit. The state’s agricultural business economy could be seriously damaged if measures are not continued to prevent the transmitt…

As used in this article “handler” means any person that engages in the operation of selling, marketing, or processing any of the crops vulnerable to damage from curly top virus, as covered by this chapter, which he or she has purchased, or acquired from a producer or which he or …

Except as otherwise provided in this article, the assessment collected from producers by handlers or due from producer-handlers shall be paid by the handlers or producer-handlers to the secretary as provided by regulations of the secretary.

(a) Any assessment that is imposed on the producer pursuant to this article is a personal debt of the producer. (b) Every handler or producer-handler is personally liable for the payment of the assessment. The failure of the handler or producer-handler to collect the assessment d…

For the purpose of assessment, the following districts are established: District I, Imperial and Riverside Counties; District II, Kern, Kings, Tulare, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Stanislaus, and San Joaquin Counties, and that portion of Los Angeles County lying north of the San Gabri…

The secretary may establish the rate of assessment by district and crop and may adjust the assessment rate from time to time, whenever necessary as provided in Section 6036.

The assessment rate may vary from district to district and from crop to crop based on the degree of vulnerability to damage from curly top virus experienced by those crops in those districts. The rates may also vary in accordance with the protection afforded to those crops in tho…

Any money which is received by the director pursuant to this article shall be deposited in the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund to be used for the administration and enforcement of this article.

The director may receive moneys from other sources for this program, which shall be deposited into the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund and used to carry out the purposes of this article.

The secretary shall appoint a Curly Top Virus Control Board consisting of nine members. The membership shall consist of at least one representative of each of the primary crop commodities assessed and shall include representation from each of the districts assessed. The secretary…

It is hereby declared, as a matter of legislative determination, that persons appointed to the Curly Top Virus Control Board pursuant to Section 6039 are intended to represent and further the interest of a particular agricultural industry concerned, and that such representation a…

Board members shall serve at the pleasure of the secretary.

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), the board shall be advisory to the secretary and may make recommendations on all matters pertaining to this article including, but not limited to, the annual budget, the adoption, modification, and repeal of regulations and procedures, t…

The board shall meet at the call of its chairman or the secretary or at the request of any three members of the board. The board shall meet at least once a year. Members of the board shall be allowed per diem and mileage in accordance with rules of the Department of Human Resourc…

Upon termination of this article, any remaining funds received pursuant to this article shall be refunded on a pro rata basis to all persons from whom assessments were collected during the 12-month period preceding the date of termination, unless the secretary finds the amounts s…

(a) The Legislature finds and declares that the plant killing bacterium, Xyella Fastidiosa, and the resulting pathogen, Pierce’s disease, and its vectors present a clear and present danger to California’s sixty-billion-dollar grape industry, as well as to many other commodities a…

(a) There is hereby created in the department the Pierce’s Disease Control Program. (b) The secretary shall appoint a statewide coordinator and provide an appropriate level of support staffing and logistical support for combating Pierce’s disease and its vectors. (c) (1) There is…

The secretary may establish, maintain, and enforce regulations consistent with the intent of the Legislature as expressed in this article as may be necessary to interpret, clarify, or implement this article. This authority shall be liberally construed to effectuate the intent of …

The Legislature finds and declares the following: (a) The state’s agricultural business economy could be seriously damaged if measures are not taken to prevent the transmittal of the plant killing bacterium that causes Pierce’s disease and to contain its vectors, particularly the…

(a) All assessments payable under this article shall be remitted to the department no later than January 31 of each year. The department shall deposit the assessments remitted into the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund. (b) In no event shall any proprietary information spec…

The general provisions of the laws of this state, prescribing the requirements for and manner of levying and collecting county taxes and the duties of the several county officers with respect to levying and collecting county taxes, are, so far as they are applicable and not in co…

The revenue from the assessments imposed pursuant to this article by the district are trust funds and shall be encumbered only for the purposes for which the district is formed and for the benefit of the acreage assessed. The district shall expend the minimum amount necessary for…

(a) The county treasury shall be the repository of all the moneys of the district. The county treasurer shall receive and receipt for all those moneys, and place them to the credit of the district. (b) The county treasurer shall be responsible upon his or her official bond for th…

If a consolidated district includes parts of two or more counties, the repository of all money of the district shall be the county treasury of the county in which is located the largest area of table grape acreage of the district. Money collected for the use of the district in an…

(a) The county treasurer shall pay out money of the district only upon warrants of the county auditor drawn upon the order of the board of directors of the district signed by the chairperson or vice chairperson and attested to by the secretary. The county treasurer, with the appr…

Acreage devoted exclusively to the growing of table grapes within a tract of land outside the district, but in the county in which the district is located, may be annexed to the district in the same manner provided in this article for the formation of the district.

Any two or more districts organized or existing under this article may be consolidated, whether or not the boundaries are coterminous, and whether or not the districts are located in the same county.

The board of directors may adopt a resolution that recites the fact of receipt and the willingness of the district to consolidate, and shall then send copies of the resolution to the board of directors of each of the other districts. The board shall send a certified copy of the r…

The board of supervisors of the county in which is located the largest area of table grape acreage of the proposed consolidated district shall fix a time and place for hearing the proposal. Notice shall be given and the hearing conducted in the same manner and with the same effec…

If the board of supervisors determines that consolidation is feasible and in the best interests of the table grape acreage owners of the respective districts, it shall, by resolution duly adopted, declare the districts consolidated into one district, giving the consolidated distr…

Any producer who disputes the amount of the assessment may file a claim with the department. The producer shall prove his or her claim by a preponderance of the evidence.

Upon the adoption of a resolution consolidating two or more districts, the board of supervisors of the county in which is located the largest area of table grape acreage shall immediately appoint a board of directors of at least five members, including at least one member from ea…

The board of a consolidated district has all the duties, powers, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction of the board of any other district organized pursuant to this article. The members of the consolidated board shall be appointed in the same manner and serve for the same …

Any district that has been included in a consolidated district may withdraw from the consolidated district and be reconstituted as a separate district by filing with the board of directors of the consolidated district a petition for withdrawal that is signed by the owners of not …

Upon the filing of a petition with the board of supervisors that is signed by either (1) 50 percent or more of the table grape acreage owners who own 65 percent or more of the affected acreage or by (2) 65 percent or more of the table grape acreage owners who own 50 percent or mo…

The board of supervisors shall give notice of the time and place fixed for the hearing upon the petition for dissolution.

The notice of hearing shall state all of the following: (a) That a petition has been filed requesting the dissolution of the district. (b) That the petition is available for inspection at the offices of the board of supervisors. (c) The time and place for the hearing. (d) That at…

Notice of the hearing shall be given by publication in a newspaper of general circulation published and circulated in the district.

The notice shall be published once a week for two successive weeks prior to the date set for the hearing.

If, at the hearing, a majority of the board of supervisors does not find a compelling reason to override the owners’ petition to dissolve the district, the board of supervisors shall by resolution dissolve the district.

The board of supervisors shall cause a certified copy of the resolution to be recorded in the office of the county recorder and shall file a certified copy of it with the Secretary of State. Thereupon, the district is dissolved for all purposes.

(a) Expenditures charged by the department and the board for administrative purposes shall not exceed a total of 14 percent of the assessments collected pursuant to this article. Administrative purposes shall include, but not be limited to, all auditing expenses and all costs and…

Upon dissolution, the right, title, and interest to property owned or controlled by the district that is situated within the corporate limits of any city shall vest absolutely in the city. If the property is situated outside the corporate limits of a city, it shall vest in the co…

The board of supervisors is ex officio the governing body of the dissolved district. It may levy assessments and perform other acts solely for the purpose and as may be necessary to wind up the affairs of the district and to raise money for the payment of any outstanding indebted…

All claims and accounts against the district that have not been settled by the board within 90 days after the resolution is recorded pursuant to Section 6047.119 shall be presented to the board of supervisors of the county in which the district was located, or in the case of a co…

If there are insufficient funds to discharge all claims and accounts brought pursuant to Section 6047.122, the board of supervisors shall, at the time of levying the next general county taxes, levy a special assessment upon the net acreage devoted to the growing of table grapes t…

Owners of wine grapes and raisin grapes and any other agricultural commodities may petition to become subject to any district established pursuant to this article. The petition shall adhere to all the requirements of this article and shall require the approval of the board of dir…

(a) All proprietary information obtained by the board or the department from producers, processors, or any other source, including, but not limited to, the name, addresses, and assessments collected from individual producers and processors in the possession of the board or the de…

(a) The sole remedy against any producer who fails to pay the assessment and against any processor who fails to collect and remit assessments within the time required by the secretary shall be an action to collect the delinquent assessments and payment to the secretary a penalty …

Upon termination of this article, and based upon a recommendation of the board subject to approval by the secretary, any collected assessments not required to defray financial obligations incurred pursuant to this article shall be returned on a pro rata basis to all persons from …