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.