BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 1916
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 16, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                   AB 1916 (Buchannan) - As Amended:  May 3, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                              Water, Parks and 
          Wildlife     Vote:                            13-0

          Urgency:     Yes                  State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill authorizes the Department of Parks and Recreation 
          (DPR) to enter into an agreement with the private nonprofit, 
          Save Mount Diablo, for restoration of the Mount Diablo Beacon.  
          The bill specifies that Save Mount Diablo's work shall meet 
          historic preservation standards and shall be audited by a 
          conservator company.  The bill further specifies that all 
          restoration costs are to be covered by Save Mount Diablo.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Minor, absorbable costs to DPR to coordinate with Save Mount 
          Diablo.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale.  The author notes that the beacon atop Mount Diablo 
            is in a state of complete disrepair and is inoperable. The 
            beacon needs to be repaired prior to December 7, 2012, in 
            order to host the annual Pearl Harbor Memorial ceremony. The 
            beacon has been lit every year on December 7 since 1964. This 
            will be the first year that the ceremony won't be able to take 
            place because the beacon is inoperable. The Pearl Harbor 
            survivors are elderly and for some it may be the last year 
            they will be able to commemorate their fallen peers.

           2)Background  .  The Mount Diablo Beacon sits atop Mount Diablo in 
            Contra Costa County.  The beacon was lit remotely by Charles 
            Lindbergh in 1928 and was turned off on December 8, 1941, the 
            day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, in observance of the 
            West Coast blackout and in recognition of the fear of a 








                                                                  AB 1916
                                                                  Page  2

            possible Japanese attack on the California Coast. The beacon 
            is now relit just once a year on Pearl Harbor Day. 

            Save Mount Diablo is a nonprofit 501(c) organization dedicated 
            to preserving Mount Diablo's peaks and the surrounding 
            foothills and watersheds through land acquisition and 
            preservation strategies designed to protect the mountain's 
            natural beauty, biological diversity, and historic and 
            agricultural heritage, to enhance the area's quality of life, 
            and to provide recreational opportunities consistent with 
            protection of natural resources.  Save Mount Diablo is a 
            cosponsor of the annual lighting ceremony and is interested in 
            paying for the costs of restoration.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081