SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to continue the work of the Vehicle Dismantling Industry Strike Team and to implement the January 21, 2020, recommendations of the strike team to address the problem of unlicensed automobile dismantling and to require state agencies to continue in their collaboration to combat unlicensed and unregulated automobile dismantling for the purposes of investigating environmental impacts, public health impacts, and tax evasion that is occurring as a result of this activity, and to implement strategies to bring unlicensed automobile dismantlers into compliance through compliance
assistance, education, training, and other methods.
(b) The Vehicle Dismantling Industry Strike Team was established in 2017, and was composed of the Department of Motor Vehicles, California Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Toxic Substances Control, State Water Resources Control Board, State Board of Equalization, State Air Resources Board, and Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery.
(c) The Vehicle Dismantling Industry Strike Team found that unlicensed automobile dismantling occurs not just in private garages and industrial areas, but also in residential neighborhoods, near parks, schools, and vulnerable waterways.
(d) The Vehicle Dismantling Industry Strike Team found that unlicensed automobile dismantlers, unlike licensed automobile dismantlers, harm the environment and public health, have
unsafe workplaces, sell defective parts, create a strain on the economy due to millions of dollars lost in uncollected taxes and fees, pay salaries under the table, and put employees at risk by not providing workers’ compensation insurance.
(e) The Vehicle Dismantling Industry Strike Team as of December 31, 2019, January 1, 2020, generated 1,105 cases that included identifying 824 unlicensed automobile dismantlers, issued 566 citations, and referred 202 cases to allied state environmental agencies and 81 cases to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration for further investigation and enforcement.
(f) The Vehicle Dismantling Industry Strike Team’s January 21, 2020, report
highlighted the importance and beneficial work of coordinated enforcement and compliance activities associated with the strike team, which was instrumental in persuading violators to comply with licensing requirements, enforcing public nuisance and abatement laws, assessing fines and penalties for noncompliance, and, overall, ensuring the protection of public health and the environment.
(g) Further, the Vehicle Dismantling Industry Strike Team’s January 21, 2020, report included a number of specific recommendations to maintain the momentum in addressing unregulated, unlicensed operators including providing the Department of Motor Vehicles with expanded automobile dismantling operations, including continuation of the coordinated enforcement and compliance activities of the strike
team and with providing the authority to utilize public nuisance and abatement laws to shutter those operations as well as authority to increase fines on operators unlicensed automobile dismantlers
for noncompliance.