BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1473
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Date of Hearing: June 14, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS, AND WILDLIFE
Marc Levine, Chair
SB
1473 (Committee on Natural Resources and Water) - As Amended
March 30, 2016
SENATE VOTE: 37-0
SUBJECT: Natural resources
SUMMARY: Makes procedural and technical changes to update the
Fish and Game Code, including conforming certain regulatory
processes of the Fish and Game Commission to the State
Administrative Procedures Act (APA), and deleting obsolete
provisions. Specifically, this bill:
1)Clarifies that, except where otherwise expressly excluded, all
Fish and Game Commission regulations governing take or
possession of wild animals are subject to the general
rulemaking procedures specified in Article 1 of Chapter 2 of
Division 1 of the Fish and Game Code.
2)Revises and updates the regulatory procedures specified in
Article 1 to make these rules consistent with the requirements
of the APA.
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3)Repeals several obsolete and superfluous provisions of the
Fish and Game Code, and reorganizes other provisions based on
their function, without substantive change.
4)Makes various other technical and conforming changes.
5)Repeals obsolete provisions of existing law that conditionally
granted certain tidelands and submerged lands to the county of
Los Angeles, but which by their terms never took effect,
thereby causing the lands to revert to the state and the
jurisdiction of the State Lands Commission.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Specifies in the Fish and Game Code state laws concerning fish
and wildlife in California, including laws regarding the
conservation and management of fish and wildlife resources,
and laws governing the recreational and commercial take of
game and nongame species in the State. Specifies the duties,
responsibilities and authorities of the Department of Fish and
Wildlife and the Fish and Game Commission with regard to
implementation of the code requirements.
2)Provides for a grant of certain tidelands and submerged lands
in trust to the City and County of Los Angeles, and to the
City of Santa Monica, based on specified conditions, including
development and approval of a master plan. Requires that the
tidelands shall revert to the State and the jurisdiction of
the State Lands Commission if the conditions are not met.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible if any state
costs.
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COMMENTS: This bill makes primarily nonsubstantive changes to
the Fish and Game Code recommended by the California Law
Revision Commission (CLRC). The recommended changes are
proposed to update and modernize the code by conforming
procedural rules to current practices and the APA, improving the
organization of the code, and eliminating obsolete language.
1)Author's Statement: This bill makes changes to the Fish and
Game Code as recommended by the CLRC. In 2012, the Legislature
asked the CLRC to conduct a comprehensive review of the Fish
and Game Code, and to recommend changes to the Legislature
that would update, clarify, and improve the code. In 2015,
the Legislature passed and the Governor signed AB 1527
(Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife), which contained the
first set of recommendations. This bill is the second set of
such recommendations. Specifically, the changes put forward in
this bill would (1) generalize the rulemaking procedure for
the Fish and Game Commission, (2) modernize the statutes
governing rulemaking at public meetings to conform to APA
requirements, and (3) repeal obsolete provisions and make
conforming revisions.
In addition to the technical changes to the Fish and Game Code,
this bill would repeal an outdated statute that granted
tidelands to the County of Los Angeles in 1967 that has been
agreed to by the County and the State Lands Commission.
2)Background: The CLRC is working on a multi-phase project to
recodify the Fish and Game Code to improve its organization
and clarity, remove obsolete or redundant material, and
correct technical errors. This is the second set of
legislative changes to the Fish and Game Code proposed by the
CLRC. This bill proposes a largely nonsubstantive
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modernization and reorganization of provisions of the Fish and
Game Code relating to the regulatory procedures of the Fish
and Game Commission.
In 2010, the Legislature directed the Natural Resources Agency
to develop and submit a strategic vision for the Fish and Game
Commission and the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Among
other things, the Strategic Vision report that was produced in
response included a recommendation that the CLRC review and
make recommendations on clean-up of the Fish and Game Code to
resolve inconsistencies, eliminate redundancies and outdated
sections, and make other improvements. The chairs of the
Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee and the Senate
Natural Resources and Water Committee, at that time, then
requested that the CLRC conduct a comprehensive review and
recommend change to the Legislature to update, clarify and
improve the Fish and Game Code. The authorization for the
CLRC to undertake the project was provided through a
legislative resolution passed in 2012.
The provision of this bill regarding the grant of tidelands
would repeal a provision that was never implemented and is now
obsolete. The State Lands Commission has asked that the
statute be deleted to avoid confusion. The State Lands
Commission explains that in 1967, the California Legislature
conditionally granted public trust lands to the County of Los
Angeles. To be operative, the grantee was required to submit
a land use plan to the State Lands Commission for approval.
The land use plan was not submitted and the land reverted back
to the State. It is currently under the State Lands
Commission's jurisdiction. This bill would repeal the
granting statute to clarify jurisdiction and lessen confusion
when projects are proposed on the land.
3)Double-referral: This bill is double-referred to the Assembly
Natural Resources Committee which is scheduled to hear this
bill next after this committee.
4)Prior and Related Legislation: ACR 98 (Wagner), Resolution
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Chapter 108, Statutes of 2012, authorized the CLRC to study
whether the Fish and Game Code and related statutory law
should be revised to improve its organization, clarify its
meaning, resolve inconsistencies, eliminate unnecessary or
obsolete provisions, standardize terminology, clarify program
authority and funding sources, and make other minor
improvements, without
making any significant substantive change to the effect of the
law.
AB 1527 (Committee on Water, Parks & Wildlife), Chapter 154,
Statutes of 2015, enacted the first set of updates to the Fish
and Game Code recommended by the CLRC. AB 1527 made numerous
technical, nonsubstantive changes to the Fish and Game Code to
improve organization and clarity, removes obsolete or
redundant material, and make other technical clarifications
and corrections.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
SB 1473
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Analysis Prepared by:Diane Colborn / W., P., & W. / (916)
319-2096