CALIFORNIA STATUTES AND CODES
SECTIONS 8610-8614
GOVERNMENT CODE
SECTION 8610-8614
8610. Counties, cities and counties, and cities may create disaster
councils by ordinance. A disaster council shall develop plans for
meeting any condition constituting a local emergency or state of
emergency, including, but not limited to, earthquakes, natural or
manmade disasters specific to that jurisdiction, or state of war
emergency; those plans shall provide for the effective mobilization
of all of the resources within the political subdivision, both public
and private. The disaster council shall supply a copy of any plans
developed pursuant to this section to the California Emergency
Management Agency. The governing body of a county, city and county,
or city may, in the ordinance or by resolution adopted pursuant to
the ordinance, provide for the organization, powers and duties,
divisions, services, and staff of the emergency organization. The
governing body of a county, city and county, or city may, by
ordinance or resolution, authorize public officers, employees, and
registered volunteers to command the aid of citizens when necessary
in the execution of their duties during a state of war emergency, a
state of emergency, or a local emergency.
Counties, cities and counties, and cities may enact ordinances and
resolutions and either establish rules and regulations or authorize
disaster councils to recommend to the director of the local emergency
organization rules and regulations for dealing with local
emergencies that can be adequately dealt with locally; and further
may act to carry out mutual aid on a voluntary basis and, to this
end, may enter into agreements.
8610.3. The Legislature hereby finds and declares as follows:
(a) The California Emergency Management Agency, in consultation
with the State Department of Health Services and affected counties,
investigated the consequences of a serious nuclear powerplant
accident for each of the nuclear powerplants in California with a
generating capacity of 50 megawatts or more.
(b) This study culminated in the establishment of emergency
planning zones for nuclear powerplant emergency preparedness.
(c) All state and local government nuclear powerplant emergency
response plans have been revised to reflect the information provided
in the study.
8610.5. (a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions
shall apply:
(1) "Agency" means the California Emergency Management Agency.
(2) "Previous fiscal year" means the fiscal year immediately prior
to the current fiscal year.
(3) "Utility" means an "electrical corporation" as defined in
Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code, and "utilities" means more
than one electrical corporation.
(b) (1) State and local costs to carry out activities pursuant to
this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part 9
of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code that are not
reimbursed by federal funds shall be borne by utilities operating
nuclear powerplants with a generating capacity of 50 megawatts or
more.
(2) The Public Utilities Commission shall develop and transmit to
the agency an equitable method of assessing the utilities operating
the powerplants for their reasonable pro rata share of state agency
costs specified in paragraph (1).
(3) Each local government involved shall submit a statement of its
costs specified in paragraph (1), as required, to the agency.
(4) Upon each utility's notification by the agency, from time to
time, of the amount of its share of the actual or anticipated state
and local agency costs, the utility shall pay this amount to the
Controller for deposit in the Nuclear Planning Assessment Special
Account, which is continued in existence, for allocation by the
Controller, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to carry out
activities pursuant to this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with
Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety
Code. The Controller shall pay from this account the state and local
costs relative to carrying out this section and Chapter 4 (commencing
with Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and
Safety Code, upon certification thereof by the agency.
(5) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Controller may
disburse up to 80 percent of a fiscal year allocation from the
Nuclear Planning Assessment Special Account, in advance, for
anticipated local expenses, as certified by the agency pursuant to
paragraph (4). The agency shall review program expenditures related
to the balance of funds in the account and the Controller shall pay
the portion, or the entire balance, of the account, based upon those
approved expenditures.
(c) (1) The total annual disbursement of state costs from the
utilities operating the nuclear powerplants within the state for
activities pursuant to this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with
Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety
Code, shall not exceed the lesser of the actual costs or the maximum
funding levels established in this section, subject to subdivisions
(e) and (f), to be shared equally among the utilities.
(2) Of the annual amount of two million forty-seven thousand
dollars ($2,047,000) for the 2009-10 fiscal year, the sum of one
million ninety-four thousand dollars ($1,094,000) shall be for
support of the agency for activities pursuant to this section and
Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division 104
of the Health and Safety Code, and the sum of nine hundred
fifty-three thousand dollars ($953,000) shall be for support of the
State Department of Public Health for activities pursuant to this
section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part 9 of
Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code.
(d) (1) The total annual disbursement for each fiscal year,
commencing July 1, 2009, of local costs from the utilities shall not
exceed the lesser of the actual costs or the maximum funding levels
established in this section, in support of activities pursuant to
this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part 9
of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code. The maximum annual
amount available for disbursement for local costs, subject to
subdivisions (e) and (f), shall, for the fiscal year beginning July
1, 2009, be one million seven hundred thirty-two thousand dollars
($1,732,000) for the Diablo Canyon site and one million six hundred
thousand dollars ($1,600,000) for the San Onofre site.
(2) The amounts paid by the utilities under this section shall be
allowed for ratemaking purposes by the Public Utilities Commission.
(e) (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), the amounts available
for disbursement for state and local costs as specified in this
section shall be adjusted and compounded each fiscal year by the
percentage increase in the California Consumer Price Index of the
previous fiscal year.
(2) For the Diablo Canyon site, the amounts available for
disbursement for state and local costs as specified in this section
shall be adjusted and compounded each fiscal year by the larger of
the percentage change in the prevailing wage for San Luis Obispo
County employees, not to exceed 5 percent, or the percentage increase
in the California Consumer Price Index from the previous fiscal
year.
(f) Through the inoperative date specified in subdivision (g), the
amounts available for disbursement for state and local costs as
specified in this section shall be cumulative biennially. Any
unexpended funds from a year shall be carried over for one year. The
funds carried over from the previous year may be expended when the
current year's funding cap is exceeded.
(g) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2019, and, as
of January 1, 2020, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
which becomes effective on or before July 1, 2019, deletes or extends
the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.
(h) Upon inoperation of this section, any amounts remaining in the
special account shall be refunded pro rata to the utilities
contributing thereto, to be credited to the utility's ratepayers.
8611. Counties, cities and counties, and cities may provide for the
calling of test exercises, either singularly or jointly, whenever,
in the opinion of such political subdivisions, such test exercises
are needed; provided, however, that with respect to any such test
exercise no one shall have the power to command the assistance of any
private citizen, and the failure of a citizen to obey any order or
regulation pertaining to a test exercise shall not constitute a
violation of any law.
8612. Any disaster council that both agrees to follow the rules and
regulations established by the California Emergency Management
Agency pursuant to Section 8585.5 and substantially complies with
those rules and regulations shall be certified by the agency. Upon
that certification, and not before, the disaster council becomes an
accredited disaster council.
8613. Should an accredited disaster council fail to comply with the
rules and regulations of the California Emergency Management Agency
in any material degree, the agency may revoke its certification and,
upon the act of revocation, the disaster council shall lose its
accredited status. It may again become an accredited disaster council
in the same manner as is provided for a disaster council that has
not previously been accredited.
8614. (a) Each department, division, bureau, board, commission,
officer, and employee of each political subdivision of the state
shall render all possible assistance to the Governor and to the
Secretary of Emergency Management in carrying out the provisions of
this chapter.
(b) The emergency power that may be vested in a local public
official during a state of war emergency or a state of emergency
shall be subject or subordinate to the powers vested in the Governor
under this chapter when exercised by the Governor.
(c) Ordinances, orders, and regulations of a political subdivision
shall continue in effect during a state of war emergency or a state
of emergency except as to any provision suspended or superseded by an
order or regulation issued by the Governor.