BILL NUMBER: AB 616	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Blumenfield

                        FEBRUARY 25, 2009

   An act relating to community conservation corps.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 616, as introduced, Blumenfield. San Fernando Valley Community
Conservation Corps.
   Existing law creates the Department of Conservation in the Natural
Resources Agency.
   Existing law defines community conservation corps, for the
purposes of the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter
Reduction Act, as a nonprofit public benefit corporation formed or
operating pursuant to certain requirements or an agency operated by a
city or county that is certified by the California Conservation
Corps as meeting specified criteria.
   This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation that would require, by July 1, 2010, the department to
complete a plan for the establishment of a San Fernando Valley
Community Conservation Corps whose primary mission would be to offer
at-risk young adults and schoolaged youth with opportunities to
succeed by providing them with job training, education, and work
skills training with an emphasis on environmental and service
projects that benefit the community, and would require the department
to seek a one-time grant of youth employment training funds from the
federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5)
to pay for the cost of establishing the San Fernando Valley Community
Conservation Corps and initial startup operations.
   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.  It is the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation that does all of the following:
   (a) By July 1, 2010, the Department of Conservation should
complete a plan for the establishment of a San Fernando Valley
Community Conservation Corps whose primary mission is to offer
at-risk young adults and schoolaged youth opportunities to succeed by
providing them with job training, education, and work skills
training with an emphasis on environmental and service projects that
benefit the community.
   (b) Functions performed by the San Fernando Valley Community
Conservation Corps may include, but would not be limited to, all of
the following:
   (1) Providing services in energy conservation and weatherization.
   (2) Housing rehabilitation.
   (3) Emergency and disaster relief.
   (4) Graffiti abatement.
   (5) Park improvements.
   (6) Bike and pedestrian trail building and restoration.
   (7) Other conservation and community service projects.
   (c) The Department of Conservation should seek a one-time grant of
youth employment training funds from the federal American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to pay for the cost of establishing the
San Fernando Valley Community Conservation Corps and initial startup
operations.
   (d) Once established, the San Fernando Valley Community
Conservation Corps should operate as a local nonprofit conservation
corps and become certified.