Title FAC — California Food & Agric. Code

(a) Proceedings for the formation of a district within any county shall be commenced by a petition signed by the owners of 15 percent of the table grape acreage. (b) The petition shall be addressed to, and filed with, the board of supervisors of the county.

The petition may be filed in sections, each of which shall comply with all the requirements for a petition, except that a section need not contain the total number of signatures required for the petition.

Signatures to the petition may be withdrawn at any time before it has been acted upon by filing with the clerk of the board of supervisors a declaration signed by the petitioner that states that it is the intention of the petitioner to withdraw his or her signature from the petit…

(a) The petition shall state the name of the proposed district and shall set forth its boundaries or describe the lands to be included. (b) It is a sufficient designation of the boundaries of a proposed district to recite that all the table grape acreage in the county that is to …

(a) The petition shall be accompanied by a fee in an amount established by the board of supervisors as is necessary to reimburse the county for all costs incurred by it in connection with the proposed organization of the district. The board of supervisors may charge the district …

(a) Upon the presentation and filing of a petition, the board of supervisors shall refer the petition to the county agricultural commissioner for the preparation of a register of owners of table grape acreage within the proposed district, and for an investigation and report. (b) …

(a) During the first marketing season, beginning July 1, 2001, and ending June 30, 2002, the annual assessment shall be three dollars ($3) for each one thousand dollars ($1,000) assessed pursuant to Section 6047.9 for all grapes subject to assessment under this article. The depar…

(a) The board of supervisors shall fix a time and place for a hearing of the petition. (b) The hearing shall not be less than 20 days, or more than 40 days, after the filing of the petition with the board of supervisors. (c) The board of supervisors shall order the clerk of the b…

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.

At the hearing, the report of the county agricultural commissioner shall be received. Protests may be made orally or in writing by any person interested in the formation of the proposed district. Any protest that pertains to the regularity or sufficiency of the proceedings shall …

At the hearing, any owner of table grape acreage in the proposed district may present to the board of supervisors a request, in writing, for the exclusion of that acreage or any part of that acreage from the proposed district upon a showing that the acreage or part of that acreag…

If the board of supervisors determines that the petition does not comply with the requirements of law, the matter may be dismissed without prejudice to present a new petition covering the same matter. A finding by the board of supervisors in favor of the sufficiency of the petiti…

(a) If the board of supervisors determines that the project is feasible and in the interest of the table grape acreage owners of the county, the board of supervisors shall, by order entered in its minutes, declare the district is duly organized under the name designated in the pe…

(a) In determining the boundaries of the district, the board of supervisors shall exclude from the district any table grape acreage that it finds will not be benefited by the proposed project, pursuant to the facts in Section 6047.74, and it may include in the district any acreag…

Upon the filing of the order of organization, the board of supervisors shall appoint a board of directors of five members to administer the affairs of the district.

(a) The assessment is the obligation of the producer. (b) For purchased grapes, the processor who purchases the grapes shall act on behalf of the person from whom the grapes were purchased in collecting and remitting the assessment, shall deduct the assessment from moneys owed by…

To be a director of the district, a person shall be either an owner of, or the designee of an owner of, acreage included in the district that is devoted, in whole or in part, to the growing of table grapes.

Upon his or her appointment, each director shall, in the manner provided by law, subscribe the oath of office and file the oath with the county clerk.

(a) From and after the filing for record of the order of the board of supervisors declaring the district organized, and the appointment and qualification of its first board of directors, the organization of the district is complete. The district shall operate for a period of five…

(a) Immediately after the organization of the district, the directors shall meet and organize as a board and shall elect a chairperson, vice chairperson, and secretary from among their own number. (b) The chairperson shall call and preside at all meetings of the board, sign all w…

The members of the board shall serve for terms of two years, or for a longer term as determined by the board of supervisors, and until the appointment and qualification of their successors.

Upon the expiration of the term of any member of the board, the board of supervisors shall appoint the successor. Vacancies shall be filled by the board of supervisors for the unexpired term.

The members of the board shall not receive any compensation for their services, but may be reimbursed for their actual and necessary expenses, when claims for those expenses have been approved by the board.

(a) The district may do all of the following: (1) Sue and be sued in all actions and proceedings in all courts and tribunals of competent jurisdiction. (2) Adopt a seal and alter it at pleasure. (3) Accept contributions, and by grant, purchase, gift, devise, lease, or otherwise, …

Every district formed pursuant to this article has all of the powers prescribed by Section 6047.87 and other provisions of this article, regardless of any language in the petition for formation for any district or in any of the proceedings leading to the formation that would othe…

The county agricultural commissioner of the county in which the district is located shall, upon request of the board, assist the district to the extent possible in all activities undertaken by the district for the control of glassy-winged sharpshooter and Pierce’s disease or othe…

(a) For purposes of calculating the amount to be collected by the processor for purchased grapes, the assessment shall be based on the gross dollar value of the grapes, which is the gross dollar amount payable for the grapes before any deductions for governmental assessments and …

The board shall, immediately after its appointment and after public hearing, formulate an effective plan and adopt a budget of expenditures for the forthcoming fiscal year. At a public hearing on the plan and the budget, any owner of table grape acreage included in the district m…

There may be added to the budget for the first fiscal year of the operation of the district an amount not to exceed 20 percent of the total amount of the budget to cover the preliminary expenses of the district, including, but not limited to, the costs of formation, before the be…

For each fiscal year subsequent to the first year of operation of the district, the board shall adopt the final budget in the same manner that the budget for the first fiscal year was adopted.

The district shall identify any parcel of real property with more than one acre of table grape plants that shall be subject to assessments.

Whenever acreage within the district is planted with table grape plants in a fashion so as to qualify as table grape acreage, the acreage is subject to assessment as provided in this article.

(a) After the district has been formed, an owner of table grape acreage in the district may present to the board a request in writing for the exclusion of that acreage or any part of the acreage from the district upon a showing that the acreage or part of the acreage will not be …

(a) The board shall, on or before the first Monday in April of each year, or as soon thereafter as possible, file with the board of supervisors a budget that sets forth all estimated expenditures of the district for the fiscal year commencing on the first day of July. A copy of t…

The assessment authorized to be assessed and levied is hereby declared to be in the nature of a special assessment, and the Legislature hereby finds that the owners of all table grape plants will be benefited by the district to the same extent and in the same manner regardless of…

(a) The assessment levied shall be computed and entered upon the assessment roll by the county auditor, and if the supervisors fail to levy the assessment as required, the auditor shall do so. (b) The assessment shall be collected at the same time, and in the same manner as, and …

(a) The plant hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata) is a noxious aquatic weed not native to the State of California. The Legislature hereby declares that the further introduction and spread of this serious aquatic weed pest would be detrimental to the state, causing irreparable damage…

The department, with the cooperation of the University of California, the United States Department of Agriculture, or other agencies, may develop and implement biological control methods to eradicate or control the aquatic weed pest hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata) in any area of…

Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, a person shall not slaughter, or request or hire any person that is not a licensed slaughterer to slaughter, any bovine animal.

The Legislature finds and declares that mobile slaughter operators who perform the service of slaughtering cattle for the owner of the cattle on the owner’s premises are not licensed slaughterers pursuant to this chapter. However, on and after January 15, 1998, a mobile slaughter…

Any producer of cattle may slaughter or have slaughtered for him on his own premises, in small numbers, cattle of his own production and raising on his own premises for use exclusively by him, members of his household and his nonpaying guests and employees.

Cattle which are slaughtered by or for the producer of the cattle at his premises and for his own consumption may be transported with the hide on, after complete removal of the viscera, head, and feet, to any licensed frozen food locker plant to be skinned, split, and quartered b…

Carcasses and hides received by the licensed frozen food locker plant or processor shall be identified in a manner prescribed by regulation and inspected, or released, by the brand inspector. It shall be the responsibility of the person who slaughtered the animal to identify each…

It is the responsibility of the person who slaughters an animal and delivers the carcass to a licensed frozen food locker plant or processor pursuant to Section 22003 or 22004 to obtain a brand inspection of the hide prior to moving it beyond the first point of sale.

The skinning, splitting, and quartering of the cattle slaughtered pursuant to Section 22002 at a licensed frozen food locker plant are not required to be performed by a licensed slaughterer.

The licensed frozen food locker plant operator shall maintain a record of every transaction which involves uninspected meat for a period of five years. The record shall show the name of the producer of the cattle and the number of carcasses which were delivered by the producer. (…

Any owner or producer of livestock may have them inspected and slaughtered by a licensed slaughterer. The owner or producer may, thereafter, sell the meat from those livestock.

Every person that is not a licensed slaughterer that slaughters cattle shall do all of the following: (a) Keep a record in a book which he or she keeps for that purpose of all cattle that are slaughtered by him or her. The record shall include the name, address, and telephone num…

Any person who is requested to custom cut or otherwise process for another person any meat from a bovine animal that was not slaughtered by a licensed slaughterer pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 22031) of this chapter, or which was not slaughtered in accordance wit…