BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 2283 (Portantino) - Department of Fish and Game.
Amended: May 25, 2012 Policy Vote: NR&W 6-2
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 16, 2012 Consultant:
Bob Franzoia
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: AB 2283 would rename the Department of Fish and
Game the Department of Fish and Wildlife and provide the
department may be referred to as CAL WILD.
Fiscal Impact: Costs in 2013-14 and 2014-15 to the department of
$100,000 or more from the Fish and Game Preservation Fund to
revise information technology (IT) systems to account for
changes in the department's name.
Background: Kentucky, Washington and Oregon use the term
"wildlife" instead of "game" for their respective departments
reflecting the broad range of non-game related wildlife
activities under their jurisdiction.
Proposed Law: This bill would:
- Prohibit existing supplies, forms, insignias, signs, logos,
uniforms, or emblems from being destroyed or changed as a result
of changing the name to the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and
would require their continued use until exhausted or
unserviceable.
- Prohibit the department from revising IT systems or programs
sooner than otherwise planned as a result of the change in the
name of the department.
- Provide that the Department of Fish and Wildlife may be
referred to, where deemed appropriate by the Director of Fish
and Wildlife, as CAL WILD.
- Prohibit existing supplies, forms, insignias, signs, or logos
from being destroyed or changed as a result of authorization to
use CAL WILD, where appropriate, to refer to the Department of
Fish and Wildlife, and would require their continued use until
exhausted or unserviceable.
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Related Legislation: AB 1423 (Bogh) Chapter 265/2006 allowed the
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to be
referred to as "CalFIRE." Policy committee staff noted that
"CalFIRE" logos became rapidly widespread following the
chaptering of AB 1423 (Bogh) despite safeguards similar to those
included in this bill that require supplies and other materials
be used in their entirety prior to implementing the change.
AB 2402 (Huffman) would, among other things, change the name of
the department to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. That
bill is also on the Suspense File.
Staff Comments: The Legislature adopts the Budget Act every year
based on workload assumptions and legislative priorities for
spending. The Appropriations Committee cannot assume that
additional workload can be undertaken within existing resources
without displacing other activities the Legislature has
explicitly or implicitly recognized in adopting the annual
Budget Act. In addition, as most departments have experienced
budget reductions and staff furloughs in recent years, it has
become more difficult for state agencies to undertake additional
responsibilities within existing resources. While this bill
contains language intended to minimize or prevent costs, that
language will conflict with the duties of administering a
renamed department.
For example, some properties of the department will need to have
templates redesigned (department business card templates,
mastheads for magazines, electronic logos) that would never be
rendered unserviceable or exhausted, yet that will still require
staff time and funding to implement.
Also, prohibiting the department from revising IT systems or
programs sooner than otherwise planned as a result of the change
in the name of the department may appear to prohibit
expenditures but cannot change reasonable IT considerations
associated with renaming the department since the aspects being
affected are persistent public branding and do not wear out and
are never scheduled to be changed.
The ability of the department is to present information to the
public without clear identity may be hindered. Revisions of
email domains, web domains, firewall policies, web site
re-branding, social media re-branding are all activities that
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the department will need to undertake as a direct result of this
name change. These are not activities that would be undertaken
in the normal course of doing business. The department would
incur costs, mostly associated with staff time (estimated
$20-$60 an hour), involved to make the updates.
The proposed amendments would delay the effective date of the
bill to July 1, 2013 and add a coauthor.