BILL NUMBER: AB 1225	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 6, 2012
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JANUARY 24, 2012
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JANUARY 4, 2012

INTRODUCED BY   Committee on Veterans Affairs (Cook (Chair), Atkins,
Block, Beth Gaines, V. Manuel Pérez, and Williams)

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2011

   An act to add Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 8122) to Part 1
of Division 8 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to cemeteries.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1225, as amended, Committee on Veterans Affairs. Cemeteries:
veteran's commemorative property. 
   Existing law establishes the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau within
the Department of Consumer Affairs. 
   Existing law prohibits a cemetery owned and operated by a city,
county, or city and county from engaging in the business of selling
monuments or markers, and also prohibits the cemetery's officers and
employees who manage, operate, or otherwise maintain the cemetery on
a day-to-day basis from engaging in the private business of selling
monuments or markers.
   This bill would prohibit any person or entity  , except a
municipal corporation, as specified, that owns or controls a cemetery
where veteran's commemorative property has been placed 
from selling, trading, or transferring veteran's commemorative
property, except as provided. This bill would require any person or
entity, except a municipal corporation, as specified, that owns or
controls a cemetery where veteran's commemorative property has been
placed that wishes to sell, trade, or transfer veteran's
commemorative property to petition the  bureau  
superior court in the county in which the veteran's commemorative
property is located  for permission to sell, trade, or transfer
all or any part of the veteran's commemorative property. The bill
would establish procedures for the  bureau  
court  to grant this permission. The bill would make the
violation of its provisions a misdemeanor. By creating a new crime,
the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
   The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
   This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.


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

  SECTION 1.  Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 8122) is added to
Part 1 of Division 8 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:
      CHAPTER 6.  VETERAN'S COMMEMORATIVE PROPERTY


   8122.  For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions
shall apply: 
   (a) "Bureau" means the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau established
pursuant to Section 9603 of the Business and Professions Code.
 
   (b) 
    (a)  "Veteran" means a living or deceased person who
meets all of the following conditions:
   (1) Either served in the active military or naval service of the
United States during a war in which the United States was engaged, or
served in active duty in a force of any organized state militia, not
including the inactive National Guard and not including the
California National Guard when in an inactive, full-time status.
   (2) Was released from the service otherwise than by dishonorable
discharge or was furloughed to the reserve. 
   (c) 
    (b)  "Veteran's commemorative property" means any
monument, headstone, marker, memorial, plaque, statue, vase, urn,
flagholder, badge, or shield that meets all of the following
conditions: 
   (1) Is over 50 years old.  
   (2) 
    (1)  Identifies or commemorates any veteran or group of
veterans, including, but not limited to, any veterans' organization
or any military unit, company, battalion, or division. 
   (3) 
    (2)  Is located in any cemetery.
   8123.  (a) Except as provided in subdivision (b),  any
  no  person or entity  that owns or
controls a cemetery where any veteran's commemorative property has
been placed, including an unincorporated association, a cemetery
corporation, or a religious corporation, and except a municipal
corporation described in Section 8137, shall not   shall
 sell, trade, or transfer veteran's commemorative property.
   (b) Any person, unincorporated association, cemetery corporation,
or religious corporation, except a municipal corporation described in
Section 8137, that owns or controls a cemetery where any veteran's
commemorative property has been placed that wishes to sell, trade, or
transfer veteran's commemorative property shall petition the
 bureau   superior court in the county in which
the veteran's commemorative property is located  for permission
to sell, trade, or transfer all or any part of the veteran's
commemorative property. The  bureau   court
 may approve the sale, trade, or transfer of the veteran's
commemorative property under any of the following conditions:
   (1) The veteran's commemorative property is at reasonable risk of
physically deteriorating so that it will become unrecognizable as
identifying or commemorating the veteran or group of veterans
originally identified or commemorated thereby and the veteran's
commemorative property that is to be sold, traded, or transferred is
replaced at its original site by a fitting replacement commemorative
property, monument, or marker that appropriately identifies and
commemorates the veteran or group of veterans.
   (2) The veteran's commemorative property is proposed to be sold,
traded, or transferred to a suitable person that will preserve the
current condition of the veteran's commemorative property and place
the veteran's commemorative property in a suitable place that will
commemorate the veteran or group of veterans.
   (3) The petitioner needs to sell, trade, or transfer the veteran's
commemorative property to ensure that sufficient funds are available
to suitably maintain the cemetery where the veteran's commemorative
property was placed, and the specific lot, plot, grave, burial place,
niche, crypt, or other place of interment of a veteran or group of
veterans, so that the place will retain the respect that these
hallowed places deserve.
   (4) If the veteran's commemorative property to be sold, traded, or
transferred is reasonably known to the petitioner to have been
donated to the petitioner by any veterans' organization  ,
historical organization, civic organization, or an individual  ,
the sale, trade, or transfer shall have been consented to by that
veterans' organization  , historical organization, civic
organization, or individual  .
   (5) If the petitioner is not the owner of the veteran's
commemorative property that is to be sold, traded, or transferred,
the petitioner is authorized by the owner of the veteran's
commemorative property to engage in the sale, trade, or transfer.
   (6) By operation of any other law authorizing the sale, trade, or
transfer of the veteran's commemorative property.
   (c) A petition under subdivision (b) shall be  delivered
to the bureau   filed with the clerk of the superior
court  . Upon receipt of the petition, the  bureau shall
fix a date, time, and place of the hearing   clerk
shall fix the time and date for the hearing  . The date fixed
for the hearing shall be within a reasonable time, not to exceed 100
days, after the petition is  received   filed
 .
   (d) The petitioner shall serve notice of the hearing and a copy of
the petition upon the persons and entities mentioned in paragraphs
(1) to (6), inclusive, of subdivision (e) who could reasonably be
ascertained and contacted by the petitioner and upon any other person
as may be directed by the  bureau   court 
. Service of the notice of hearing and petition shall be made in a
manner and by a date as shall be specified by the  bureau
  court  .
   (e) At the hearing held pursuant to subdivision (c), the following
persons and entities, or their representatives, may be heard:
   (1) The petitioner.
   (2) Any person, other than the petitioner, who is the owner of the
veteran's commemorative property in question.
   (3) Any veterans' organization  , historical organization,
civic organization, or individual  that donated the veteran's
commemorative property in question to the petitioner.
   (4) The family of each veteran at whose lot, plot, grave, burial
place, niche, crypt, or other place of interment the veteran's
commemorative property in question is or was placed.
   (5) The Division of Veterans Services within the Department of
Veterans Affairs.
   (6) The Department of Parks and Recreation.
   (7) Any other member of the public who would like to offer written
or oral testimony.
   (f) Testimony may be heard in person or by counsel or submitted in
writing.
   (g)  The bureau shall render its decision in writing,
within 60 days of the hearing, and shall forward a copy of the
decision to each person who appeared at the hearing. An order or
determination of the bureau   An order of the court
 granting the petition, in whole or in part  ,   or
modifying the petition  , may, at the discretion of the
 bureau   court  , specify the manner in
which the petitioner is to use or apply the proceeds of the sale,
trade, or transfer. In particular, but not by way of limitation, if
the petitioner is an unincorporated association or corporation that
is subject to the Nonprofit Corporation Law (Division 2 (commencing
with Section 5000) of Title 1 of the Corporations Code), any order
 or determination of the bureau   of the court
 granting the petition, in whole or in part  , or modifying
the petition  , may, at the discretion of the  bureau
  court , specify that the petitioner deposit the
proceeds of the sale, trade, or transfer in the permanent maintenance
fund maintained by the petitioner pursuant to the Nonprofit
Corporation Law. 
   (h) The bureau shall adopt any regulations regarding petitions,
hearings, and procedures under this section as may be appropriate to
further the purposes of this section.  
   (i) 
    (h)  A person who violates any provision of this section
is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than one
hundred dollars ($100) or more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or
by imprisonment in a county jail for not less than 10 days or more
than six months, or by both that fine and imprisonment; and in
addition is liable for all costs, expenses, and disbursements paid or
incurred by the person prosecuting the case.
  SEC. 2.  No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.