BILL NUMBER: SB 548 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 5, 2007
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 4, 2007
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 10, 2007
INTRODUCED BY Senator Hollingsworth
FEBRUARY 22, 2007
An act to amend Sections 8558 and Section
8690.6 of the Government Code, relating to emergency services,
making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof,
to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 548, as amended, Hollingsworth. California Emergency Services
Act.
(1) California
The California Emergency Services Act establishes the
Disaster Response-Emergency Operations Account in the Special Fund
for Economic Uncertainties, and continuously appropriates moneys in
the account for allocation by the Director of Finance to state
agencies for qualifying disaster response operation costs for
specified activities. These provisions are repealed as of July 1,
2007.
This bill would extend the repeal date of these provisions to
January 1, 2013 2009 . By extending the
existence of a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make
an appropriation.
(2) The act defines a "state of emergency" for purposes of its
provisions as the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster
or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the
state caused by specified conditions.
This bill would specify that these conditions do not include
conditions in the state's prisons, medical facilities, or youth
correctional facilities resulting solely from the actions or inaction
of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in administering
those facilities.
(3) This
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 8558 of the Government Code
is amended to read:
8558. Three conditions or degrees of emergency are established by
this chapter:
(a) "State of war emergency" means the condition which exists
immediately, with or without a proclamation thereof by the Governor,
whenever this state or nation is attacked by an enemy of the United
States, or upon receipt by the state of a warning from the federal
government indicating that such an enemy attack is probable or
imminent.
(b) "State of emergency" means the duly proclaimed existence of
conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons
and property within the state caused by such conditions as air
pollution, fire, flood, storm, epidemic, riot, drought, sudden and
severe energy shortage, plant or animal infestation or disease, the
Governor's warning of an earthquake or volcanic prediction, or an
earthquake, complications resulting from the Year 2000 Problem, or
other conditions, other than conditions resulting from a labor
controversy, conditions causing a "state of war emergency," or
conditions in the state's prisons, medical facilities, or youth
correctional facilities resulting solely from the actions or inaction
of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in administering
those facilities, which, by reason of their magnitude, are or are
likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel,
equipment, and facilities of any single county, city and county, or
city and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or
regions to combat, or with respect to regulated energy utilities, a
sudden and severe energy shortage requires extraordinary measures
beyond the authority vested in the California Public Utilities
Commission.
(c) "Local emergency" means the duly proclaimed existence of
conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons
and property within the territorial limits of a county, city and
county, or city, caused by such conditions as air pollution, fire,
flood, storm, epidemic, riot, drought, sudden and severe energy
shortage, plant or animal infestation or disease, the Governor's
warning of an earthquake or volcanic prediction, or an earthquake,
complications resulting from the Year 2000 Problem, or other
conditions, other than conditions resulting from a labor controversy,
which are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services,
personnel, equipment, and facilities of that political subdivision
and require the combined forces of other political subdivisions to
combat, or with respect to regulated energy utilities, a sudden and
severe energy shortage requires extraordinary measures beyond the
authority vested in the California Public Utilities Commission.
SEC. 2. SECTION 1. Section 8690.6 of
the Government Code is amended to read:
8690.6. (a) The Disaster Response-Emergency Operations Account is
hereby established in the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties.
Notwithstanding Section 13340, moneys in the account are continuously
appropriated, subject to the limitations specified in subdivisions
(c) and (d), without regard to fiscal years, for allocation by the
Director of Finance to state agencies for disaster response operation
costs incurred by state agencies as a result of a proclamation by
the Governor of a state of emergency, as defined in subdivision (b)
of Section 8558. These allocations may be for activities that occur
within 120 days after a proclamation of emergency by the Governor.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Disaster
Response-Emergency Operations Account have an unencumbered balance of
one million dollars ($1,000,000) at the beginning of each fiscal
year. If this account requires additional moneys to meet claims
against the account, the Director of Finance may transfer moneys from
the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties to the account in an
amount sufficient to pay the amount of the claims that exceed the
unencumbered balance in the account.
(c) Funds shall be allocated from the account subject to the
conditions of this section and upon notification by the Director of
Finance to the Chairperson of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee
and the chairpersons of the fiscal committees in each house.
(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, authorizations for
acquisitions, relocations, and environmental mitigations related to
activities, as described in subdivision (a), shall be authorized
pursuant to this section. However, these funds may only be authorized
for needs that are a direct consequence of the proclaimed emergency
where failure to undertake the project may interrupt essential state
services or jeopardize public health or safety. In addition, any
acquisition accomplished under this subdivision shall comply with any
otherwise applicable law, except as provided in the first sentence
of this subdivision.
(e) No funds allocated under this section shall be used to
supplant federal funds otherwise available in the absence of state
financial relief.
(f) The amount of financial assistance provided to an individual,
business, or governmental entity under this section, or pursuant to
any other program of state-funded disaster assistance, shall be
deducted from sums received in payment of damage claims asserted
against the state, its agents, or employees, for causing or
contributing to the effects of the proclaimed disaster.
(g) No public entity administering disaster assistance to
individuals shall receive funds under this section unless it
administers that assistance pursuant to the following criteria:
(1) All applications, forms, and other written materials presented
to persons seeking assistance shall be available in English and in
the same language as that used by the major non-English-speaking
group within the disaster area.
(2) Bilingual staff who reflect the demographics of the disaster
area shall be available to applicants.
(h) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2013 2009 , and as of that date is
repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before
January 1, 2013 2009 , deletes or
extends that date.
SEC. 2. 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 that the restrictions contained in the amendment
to Section 8558 of the Government Code made by Section 1 of this
act, and that the Disaster Response-Emergency Operations
Account established pursuant to Section 8690.6 of the Government Code
may continue in uninterrupted existence, it is necessary that this
act take effect immediately.