BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1254
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1254 (Tom Berryhill)
As Amended August 16, 2010
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |72-1 |(January 27, |SENATE: |34-0 |(August 18, |
| | |2010) | | |2010) |
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Original Committee Reference: W., P. & W.
SUMMARY : Modifies requirements for annual Fish and Game
Commission (FGC) meetings; requires the Department of Fish and
Game (DFG) to offer special hunting opportunities as incentives to
hunter education instructors; and, authorizes DFG to temporarily
suspend or seek reimbursement of county expenditures of fish and
wildlife propagation fund monies if it determines pursuant to an
audit that the county's expenditures are not in compliance with
fish and game laws.
The Senate amendments :
1)Restore the requirement that the FGC hold no fewer than 10
regular meetings per calendar year.
2)Strike an Assembly-approved provision that would have repealed a
section of law prohibiting hunting on private property where
signs are displayed of specified size and location that say
PRIVATE PROPERTY NO HUNTING, leaving that section as is under
current law.
3)Require DFG to offer special hunting opportunities to qualified
hunter education instructors in order to recruit and retain such
instructors. Specify the methods through which DFG may provide
a limited number of existing tags and other hunting
opportunities to hunter education instructors, including through
the private lands management program, the Shared Habitat
Alliance program, cooperative agreements with federal, state or
local agencies, cooperative agreements with landowners or
tenants seeking depredation permits for game animals, and
authorizing a maximum of 15 tags from the annual tag quota, as
determined by DFG.
4)Provide that DFG shall determine eligibility criteria for hunter
education instructors seeking hunting opportunities, and require
AB 1254
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that DFG select instructors meeting those criteria to receive
the hunting opportunities only by random drawing.
5)Authorize DFG to adopt regulations to implement the hunter
education instructor special hunting opportunities.
6)Authorize DFG, if it determines through exercise of its existing
auditing authority that a county's expenditure of funds from its
fish and wildlife propagation fund are not in compliance with
requirements of the Fish and Game Code, to require that
expenditures from the fund be temporarily suspended, or to seek
reimbursement of funds DFG determines were expended improperly
based on the audit, or both.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Makes it unlawful to enter any lands, including lands
temporarily inundated by waters, where signs forbidding trespass
are displayed, for the purpose of discharging any firearm or
taking or destroying any mammal or bird without written
permission from the landowner.
2)Makes it unlawful to take any mammal or bird or to discharge any
firearm on lands posted with "PRIVATE PROPERTY NO HUNTING" signs
meeting certain specifications.
3)Requires completion of a hunter education course to obtain a
hunting license and provides for certification of hunter
education instructors.
4)Requires the FGC to hold no fewer than 10 regular meetings per
calendar year, no more than two of which may be held in
Sacramento.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill repealed an existing statute
making it unlawful to hunt on private property that is posted with
PRIVATE PROPERTY NO HUNTING signs in specified sizes and
locations, and authorized the FGC to hold no fewer than eight
regular meetings per year if it has adequate funding for travel,
including for DFG travel, with no more than three regular meetings
to be held in Sacramento.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee,
pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : This bill allows the FGC to adjust its meeting schedule
AB 1254
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to address funding shortfalls, requires DFG to provide incentives
in the form of special hunting opportunities to help recruit and
retain hunter education instructors, and authorizes DFG to take
actions to address unauthorized county expenditures of fish and
game fine moneys.
Completion of a hunter education course offered by a certified
hunter education instructor is a precondition to obtaining a
hunting license. DFG has had difficulty recruiting hunter
education instructors. The author and sponsors of this bill hope
that by providing special hunting opportunities, which would be
awarded to qualified hunter education instructors through a random
drawing, this will help with recruitment and retention of
instructors.
Amendments added in the Senate also authorize DFG to take actions
to address unauthorized county expenditures of fish and game fine
moneys based on an audit showing that the expenditures were not in
compliance with the law. Under existing law, one-half of all
fines and forfeitures collected for violations of fish and game
laws go to the county were the offense was committed, and are
required to be expended by the county for specified purposes
related to protection, conservation, propagation and preservation
of fish and wildlife. DFG is authorized to audit county
expenditures of these funds to ensure compliance with these
expenditure requirements. This bill, as amended in the Senate,
authorizes DFG, if it determines through an audit that a county's
expenditures of these funds are not in compliance with the law, to
temporarily suspend expenditures from the fund, or to seek
reimbursement of the funds that were improperly expended, or both.
Analysis Prepared by : Diane Colborn / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096
FN: 0006162