Amended in Assembly April 10, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 482

Introduced by Assembly Member Atkins

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(Coauthor: Assembly Member Ian Calderon)

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(Coauthor: Senator Block)

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February 19, 2013

An act to amend Sections 20053 and 20080 of, and to add Section 20092 to, the Education Code, relating to the California Cultural and Historical Endowment, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 482, as amended, Atkins. California Cultural and Historical Endowment.

(1) Existing law, the California Cultural and Historical Endowment Act, establishes the California Cultural and Historical Endowment begin delete (endowment) end delete in the California State Library, and provides that it is chaired by the State Librarian. Among other things, the act authorizes the endowment to make grants and loans on a competitive basis to public agencies and nonprofit organizations, as defined, to encourage development of California’s historical and cultural resources and requires the endowment to undertake a comprehensive survey of the state of cultural and historical preservation, accessibility, and interpretation in California.

This bill would transfer the California Cultural and Historical Endowment to the Natural Resources Agency and would provide that the endowment be chaired by the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency and that the State Librarian remain as a member. The bill would also make a conforming change.

This bill would authorize the endowment to create a specified competitive grant program to support small capital projects in museums and would require that moneys deposited in the California Cultural and Historical Endowment Fund from the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Fund be made available to the endowment, for the purpose of initially funding the grant program. The bill would, if the endowment creates the grant program, require the endowment to apply, on or before October 1, 2013, to the Department of Motor Vehicles for the purpose of creating a specialized license plate program using the cartoon character Snoopy as created by Charles M. Schulz and made available through the California Association of Museums to assist museums in California. The bill would require that the additional fees collected from the sale of the specialized license plates be deposited in the California Cultural and Historical Endowment Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, to fund the grant program.

(2) By requiring that the additional fees collected from the sale of the specialized license plates be deposited into the continuously appropriated California Cultural and Endowment Fund, the bill would make an appropriation.

(3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Vote: ²⁄₃. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 20053 of the Education Code is amended
to read:

20053.  

(a) There is in the Natural Resources Agency begin delete , in the
Archaeology, History and Museums Division of the Department
of Parks and Recreation, end delete the California Cultural and Historical
Endowment, consisting of the following 10 members:

(1) The Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, who shall
serve as chair of the endowment, or his or her designee.

(2) The State Librarian, or his or her designee.

(3) The Director of Finance, or his or her designee.

(4) Three members appointed by the Governor.

(5) Two members appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules.

(6) Two members appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly.

(b) Two Members of the Senate, appointed by the Senate
Committee on Rules, and two Members of the Assembly, appointed
by the Speaker of the Assembly, shall meet with the endowment
and participate in its activities to the extent that such participation
is not incompatible with their respective positions as Members of
the Legislature.

SEC. 2.  

Section 20080 of the Education Code is amended to
read:

20080.  

The endowment shall undertake a comprehensive survey
of the state of cultural and historical preservation, accessibility,
and interpretation in California. In conducting the survey, the
endowment shall coordinate with existing state agencies, including
the California Arts Council and the Secretary of State. The report
shall include all of the following:

(a) A survey of elements in California’s existing assemblage of
buildings, sites, artifacts, museums, cultural landscapes, trails,
illustrations, the arts and artistic expressions, written materials,
and displays and interpretive centers that are missing or
underrepresented, such as if current facilities, materials, and
services leave out, misrepresent, or inadequately present some
important thread of the story of California as a unified society or
of the many groups of people that together comprise historic and
modern California.

(b) Recommendations for steps that should be taken to fill in
the missing or underrepresented elements identified in subdivision
(a).

(c) Recommendations for the manner of transferring the Office
of Historic Preservation in the Department of Parks and Recreation
to the endowment, consistent with the Legislature’s intent
expressed in Section 20052.5.

(d) Recommendations for additional steps that should be taken
to better preserve and administer cultural and historic resources
efficiently and effectively, including additional actions that should
be taken to improve the governmental structures responsible for
historic and cultural preservation in California, including oversight
and support of museums. In particular, the endowment shall
examine the feasibility and desirability of establishing the
endowment as a separate institution in state government, without
ties to any existing agency or department, although under the
general authority of the Governor. The endowment shall also
identify the most appropriate chair, or the most appropriate method
for selecting the chair, of its board.

(e) A survey of the capacities and fiscal conditions of public,
nonprofit, and other private entities in California that provide
cultural and historical facilities and services, including museums.

(f) Recommendations for the future financing of cultural and
historical programs provided by public agencies and nonprofit
agencies in California, including museums.

(g) Recommendations for programs to encourage the historic
maintenance and restoration of properties in private ownership,
including, but not limited to, a state tax credit for restoration of
historic properties that maintain historic integrity, property tax
deferral as long as a property’s historic integrity is maintained,
and low interest loans.

(h) A study of the economic impact of the preservation and
interpretation of cultural and historic resources in the state. This
should include the economic benefits resulting from the
preservation of historic commercial and residential properties and
sites, and from historic and cultural tourism activities.

SEC. 3.  

Section 20092 is added to the Education Code, to read:

20092.  

(a) The endowment may create a competitive grant
program to support small capital projects in museums pursuant to
subdivision (b) of Section 20057. The grant program shall give
priority to the objectives listed in Section 20091 and shall be
funded initially from any moneys deposited in the California
Cultural and Historical Endowment Fund from the California Clean
Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection
Fund for the administration of the endowment. Once funding
becomes available from the sale of specialized license plates
pursuant to subdivision (b), funding for the grant program shall
only be made from the funds collected pursuant to subdivision (b).

(b) If the endowment creates the grant program described in
subdivision (a), the endowment shall apply, on or before October
1, 2013, to the Department of Motor Vehicles pursuant to Section
5156 of the Vehicle Code for the purpose of creating a specialized
license plate program using the cartoon character Snoopy as
authorized by Jean Schulz, widow of the artist Charles M. Schulz,
the creator of Snoopy, and made available through the California
Association of Museums to assist museums in California. It is
hereby warranted to the purchasers of these specialized license
plates that the additional fees collected from the sale of the
specialized license plates shall be deposited in the California
Cultural and Historical Endowment Fund to fund the grant program
described in subdivision (a). The endowment shall comply with
all of the requirements of Article 8.6 (commencing with Section
5151) of Chapter 1 of Division 3 of the Vehicle Code that apply
to a state agency that sponsors a specialized license plate program.

SEC. 4.  

This act is an urgency statute necessary for the
immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within
the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into
immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:

In order for the transfer of the California Cultural and Historical
Endowment to the Natural Resources Agency be accomplished in
a timely, effective, and economical manner, it is necessary that
this act take immediate effect.