1400-1403
MILITARY AND VETERANS CODE
SECTION 1400-1403
1400. (a) (1) The Department of Veterans Affairs, in voluntary cooperation with the Shasta County Board of Supervisors and the boards of supervisors of other participating northern California counties as specified in Section 1401, shall design, develop, and construct a state-owned and state-operated Northern California Veterans Cemetery which shall be located in northern California. (2) The department shall oversee and coordinate the design, development, and construction of the cemetery. (b) (1) Those eligible for interment in the cemetery are all honorably discharged veterans and their spouses and children. A fee of five hundred dollars ($500) shall be charged for each spouse or child interred in the cemetery. (2) For the purposes of this subdivision, the department shall adopt regulations to specify the eligibility requirements for interment in the cemetery. (3) All fees received pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be deposited in the Northern California Veterans Cemetery Perpetual Maintenance Fund created pursuant to Section 1401. 1401. (a) For the purposes of Section 1400, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors may join with other northern California counties including, but not limited to, the Counties of Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity, to design, develop, and construct the cemetery. (b) All moneys received for the design, development, and construction of the cemetery shall be deposited in the Northern California Veterans Cemetery Master Development Fund, which is hereby created in the State Treasury. Notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, money in the fund is continuously appropriated to the department for the purpose of designing, developing, constructing, and equipping the cemetery. Moneys appropriated by the Legislature for these purposes shall also be deposited in the fund. (c) (1) All moneys received for the maintenance of the cemetery, including moneys received pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 1400, shall be deposited in the Northern California Veterans Cemetery Perpetual Maintenance Fund, which is hereby created in the State Treasury. Any state funding for the annual maintenance of the cemetery shall be appropriated by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act. (2) It is estimated that, after the construction of the cemetery, four hundred fifty thousand dollars ($450,000) should be appropriated annually by the state or the participating northern California counties, or both, to the department for the operating costs of the cemetery. (3) Total expenditures for operations and maintenance should not be more than six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) per fiscal year, as appropriated in the annual Budget Act. 1402. (a) Proposals for the construction, placement, or donation of monuments and memorials to the cemetery shall be subject to review by an advisory committee comprised of the cemetery administrator, representatives from the County of Shasta, local veterans' service organizations, and others as approved by the director. (b) All proposals for the construction, placement, or donation of monuments and memorials to the cemetery shall be subject to the approval of the director. (c) The department shall adopt regulations for the policies and procedures to be followed with respect to the design, placement, and approval of monuments and memorials proposed to be placed on the cemetery grounds. 1403. (a) Notwithstanding Section 11005 of the Government Code, the cemetery administrator, subject to the approval of the director, may accept donations of personal property, including cash or other gifts, to be used for the maintenance or beautification of the cemetery. (b) Cash donations shall be deposited into the Northern California Veterans Cemetery Perpetual Maintenance Fund and shall be expended for the maintenance and repair of the facility or, subject to the approval of the director, for a specified cemetery maintenance or beautification project designated by the donor. (c) Notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, donations deposited to the credit of the Northern California Veterans Cemetery Perpetual Maintenance Fund as authorized by this section shall be continuously appropriated to the department, without regard to fiscal year.