Today's Law As Amended


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AB-1827 State bodies: environmental agencies: administrative and civil penalties.(2013-2014)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.
 The Legislature finds and declares that the primary purpose of enforcement programs administered by agencies, boards, commissions, departments, divisions, and offices within the California Environmental Protection Agency or the Natural Resources Agency is to seek to bring about compliance with the law and that financial penalties shall only be imposed in the absence of good faith compliance efforts or after repeated violation of rules and regulations, and in a manner in which the amount of the financial penalty accurately and justly reflects the seriousness of the violation.

SEC. 2.

 Section 12812.7 is added to the Government Code, to read:

12812.7.
 (a) Notwithstanding any other law, prior to the imposition of an administrative or civil penalty, an agency, board, commission, department, division, or office within the California Environmental Protection Agency or the Natural Resources Agency shall allow a business with 50 or fewer employees an opportunity to cure a minor violation that did not cause an actual harm to the public or physical injury to a person, or endanger the public health and safety.
(b) For the purpose of this section, a minor violation does not include any of the following:
(1) A knowing, willful, or intentional violation.
(2) A violation that enabled the violator to benefit economically from noncompliance.
(3) A chronic violation by a recalcitrant violator.