BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 309
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 309 (Lieu)
As Amended September 9, 2013
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :36-3
ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS 6-0 BUSINESS AND
PROFESSIONS 14-0
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|Ayes:|Ian Calderon, Waldron, |Ayes:|Bonilla, Jones, |
| |Bloom, Brown, Levine, | |Bocanegra, Campos, |
| |Wilk | |Dickinson, Eggman, |
| | | |Gordon, Hagman, Holden, |
| | | |Maienschein, Mullin, |
| | | |Skinner, Ting, Wilk |
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APPROPRIATIONS 16-0
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|Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow, |
| |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Calderon, Campos, Eggman, |
| |Gomez, Hall, Holden, |
| |Linder, Pan, Quirk, |
| |Wagner, Weber |
| | |
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SUMMARY : Extends the operation of the California State Athletic
Commission (Commission) until 2016, which regulates professional
and amateur boxing, kickboxing, and martial arts contests and
exhibitions; enacts fee increases and spending restrictions to
ensure the financial sustainability and appropriate operation of
the Commission; deletes the training gymnasium license and
creates a professional trainer's license; and expands the
Commission's authority to delegate and revoke regulatory
oversight of amateur contests. Specifically, this bill :
1) Extends the sunset date of the Commission and its executive
officer to January 1, 2016.
2) Deletes annual reporting requirements related to the
identification of opportunities for licensees to participate
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in major professional championship boxing contests.
3) Deletes the obsolete requirement that only a natural person
be licensed as a boxer or martial arts fighter.
4) Repeals the prohibition against a professional boxer sparring
for training purposes with any person not licensed as a
professional boxer or who does not have a sparring permit, or
operating under a related exemption.
5) Repeals the Commission's authority to issue a sparring
permit.
6) Deletes requirements related to operators of a professional
boxers' training gymnasium.
7) Permits the Commission to authorize sanctioning bodies to
administer its rules for amateur boxing, wrestling and full
contact martial arts contests, as specified, the performance
of which may be reviewed by the Commission annually.
8) Requires sanctioning bodies to provide a medical insurance
program satisfactory to the Commission covering all
contestants, and to provide a written financial report of
receipts and disbursements to the Commission within 90 days
of an event.
9) Authorizes the Commission, at its discretion, to rescind
previously approved authorization of a nonprofit boxing,
wrestling, or martial arts club, organization, or sanctioning
body to administer its rules.
10)Repeals provisions related to the professional boxers'
training gymnasium license and owners and operators thereof.
11)Requires the trainer of a professional boxer, kickboxer, or
martial arts athlete to be licensed by the Commission as a
professional trainer, and shall possess a minimum of five
years' experience in combative sports.
12)Authorizes licensed professional trainers to make
recommendations to the Commission as to whether or not a
contestant is prepared for his or her first amateur mixed
martial arts bout, or his or her first professional contest
in boxing, kickboxing, or mixed martial arts; further
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requires the licensed professional trainer to be present in
the corner of the contestant unless otherwise authorized.
13)Requires a licensed professional trainer, fighter, boxer,
second, or manager to report an injury or knockout to the
Commission and to a database designated by the Commission, as
specified.
14)Provides that the administrative costs associated with
managing and distributing the neurological examination
account shall be limited to no more than 20% of the prior
year's contributions.
15)Authorizes the Commission to use moneys from the neurological
examination account capped at 30%, upon appropriation by the
Legislature, to fund special neurological examinations and
new diagnostic imaging and testing, as specified.
16)Deletes existing clinic attendance requirements for referees
and physicians, and instead requires referees and physicians
assigned to a boxing contest to complete a clinic.
17)Recasts provisions related to the clinic attendance
requirements for referees and physicians assigned to a boxing
contest, including deleting a provision authorizing the
Commission to pay travel expenses of clinic participants,
authorizing the clinic provider to charge a reasonable fee
for participation, and clarifying that the Commission may
offer the clinic.
18)Provides that the application and renewal fee for a licensed
professional trainer shall be $200.
19)Authorizes the Commission to charge a $20 fee to issue
Federal Identification Cards and provides that cards shall be
reissued once every four years.
20)Changes the required timeline from five working days to 72
hours for every person who conducts a contest or wrestling
exhibition for which admission is charged and received to
provide the Commission with a proper accounting of the event,
including payment of specified fees.
21)Modifies the reporting requirement for the fiscal impact of
the $100,000 limit on contests and wrestling exhibitions so
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that the report is made to the Legislature during its next
sunset review.
22)Deletes conditional fee provisions related to the Boxers'
Pension Fund that are now obsolete.
23)Raises the minimum fee collected by the Commission for an
amateur contest or exhibition from $500 to $1,000, and sets
the minimum fee for a professional contest or exhibition at
$1,250.
24)Raises the maximum fee on broadcasting or television rights
collected by the Commission from $25,000 to $35,000, as
specified.
25)Limits the maximum percentage of administrative costs
associated with investing, managing and distributing the
Boxers' Pension Fund to 2% of the corpus of the fund.
26)States that no reimbursement is required 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, or changes the
definition of a crime.
27)Contains chaptering out language to avoid conflict issues
with AB 1168 (Bonilla) of the current legislative session.
28)Makes various other technical and clarifying changes.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Continues, for two years, special fund base expenditures of
$1.2 million (Athletic Commission Fund) supporting five
positions, offset by $1.4 million in revenues, based on the
2013-14 Budget Act. Additional ongoing costs of about $50,000
for one-half position to administer the professional trainers'
licensing program.
2)Increased revenues totaling approximately $290,000 annually
(Athletic Commission Fund) from increased event fees,
trainers' licenses, and federal identification cards.
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COMMENTS : This bill would extend the sunset date of the
Commission by two years to 2016, and enact financial reforms
that include fee updates and spending restrictions to ensure the
financial sustainability of the Commission. This bill also
deletes the training gymnasium license, creates a professional
trainer's license, and expands the Commission's authority to
delegate and revoke regulatory oversight of amateur contests.
The contents of this bill are the result of the 2013 joint
sunset review process, and are without opposition.
The Commission is responsible for protecting the health and
safety of its licensees: boxers, kickboxers and martial arts
athletes. Established by initiative in 1924, the Commission
provides direction, management, control of and jurisdiction over
professional and amateur boxing, professional and amateur
kickboxing, all forms and combinations of full contact martial
arts contests, including mixed martial arts (MMA) and matches or
exhibitions conducted, held or given in California. The
Commission oversees licensing, prohibited substance testing, and
event regulation. Functionally, the Commission consists of four
components; licensing, enforcement, regulating events and
administering a pension fund.
A "sunset review" is essentially a performance review of a
government entity, usually driven by the statutory expiration
date of that's entity's authority to operate. The review
focuses on how well the entity is performing relative to its
goals, considering its cost-effectiveness and measuring its
successes and failures.
As a result of the sunset review process, which includes the
production of a detailed report noting problems and suggestions
for change as well as a public hearing, the Legislature may
choose to let the entity expire, or extend its sunset date for a
period of time (usually for four years) often in conjunction
with other legislative reforms. Sunset review is traditionally
conducted jointly by the Senate Business, Professions & Economic
Development (BPED) and Assembly Business, Professions and
Consumer Protection committees.
On April 8, 2013, the Senate Business, Professions and Economic
Development Committee and the Assembly Arts, Entertainment,
Sports, Tourism & Internet Media Committee, and the Assembly
Business, Professions and Consumer Protection Committee, held a
Joint Oversight and Sunset Review Hearing of the Commission,
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which considered the major issues pertaining to the Commission.
Recommendations were made by committees' staff and within the
BSA's report regarding the particular issue areas which needed
to be addressed. This bill is intended to implement some of the
legislative changes to the Commission discussed in the public
hearing. The Commission's last sunset review was in 2011.
Beyond the sunset review process, the Commission has been the
subject of various audits. The BSA conducted an audit of the
Commission in response to a request by the Joint Legislative
Audit Committee (JLAC) in June 2012, the results of which are
contained in a report published March 2013, "State Athletic
Commission: Its Ongoing Administrative Struggles Call Its Future
Into Question". The report found numerous issues with the
Commission, detailed in the policy analysis. Simultaneously,
the DCA conducted an internal audit of the Commission, the
findings of which are contained in a report published in March
2013, "California State Athletic Commission Operational and
Administrative Control Audit" which also found numerous
deficiencies in Commission operations, particularly those
related to event regulation and revenue reconciling for events.
Since the 2011 sunset review of the Commission, a number of
administrative improvements have been made, primarily since
November 2012 when the Commission hired a new Executive Officer.
Those improvements include: increasing outreach to retired
boxers eligible to draw from the Pension Fund; completing a
strategic plan for 2013-15; improving standardized cash handling
procedures; creating standard operating procedures in an
administrative manual for field staff; holding and tracking
inspector trainings; instituting a more efficient system for
assigning staff to events; issuing required federal ID's to
athletes prior to events; and issuing laptops to field staff to
improve eligibility compliance and information processing.
Taking into consideration the severity of the problems
encountered in the recent past with the Commission and the
strong improvement it has shown since November 2012, and in
light of the many changes recommended as a result of the sunset
review process and the issues that remain unresolved, the author
has adopted a limited sunset extension of two years for the
Commission and its executive officer. This would allow the
Commission to continue its work, but with the certainty that the
Legislature will review its performance in 2015 to ensure that
the improvement continues or else it will take other appropriate
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action.
Please see the policy committee analysis for full discussion of
this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Dana Mitchell / A.,E.,S.,T. & I.M. /
(916) 319-3450
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