Article 4. Intergovernmental Cooperation of California Food And Agricultural Code >> Division 1. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 3. >> Article 4.

(a) The department may, with the approval of the Governor, cooperate with officials of the United States Department of Agriculture or with officials of other states in the conduct of pest or disease investigations outside of this state in the interest of the protection of the agricultural industry of this state from any pest or disease which is not generally distributed in this state.
  (b) The department may enter into cooperative agreements with the United States Department of Agriculture to carry out a program for the prevention and control of avian influenza. The department shall, in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, adopt any regulations necessary to implement program requirements set out in the agreement.

(a) The director may enter into cooperative agreements with individuals, associations, boards of supervisors, and with departments, divisions, bureaus, boards, or commissions of this state or of the United States for the purpose of eradicating, controlling, or destroying any infectious disease or pest within this state.
  (b) The director may enter into cooperative agreements with boards of supervisors or commissioners for the purpose of administering and enforcing this code.
  (c) The director may enter into cooperative agreements with boards of supervisors and commissioners for the purpose of administering and enforcing any activity, duty, or responsibility under this code in addition to those activities, duties, or responsibilities specifically designated or authorized to be carried out by the commissioners. The cooperative agreement shall provide for payment to the county or commissioner for the county's or the commissioner's performance under the agreement except where payment is provided for elsewhere in this code. Where this code requires the director to perform an activity, duty, or responsibility, an agreement entered into under this subdivision does not relieve the director of ultimate responsibility for that performance.

The director may arrange for the services of any individual employed by the United States, the state, or a county on a collaborative basis and allow him a reasonable fee and necessary expenses which are incurred when serving the department in a collaborative capacity.

The director may enter into cooperative agreements with departments, divisions, bureaus, boards, or commissions of the United States for the purpose of administering meat or poultry meat inspection programs to protect the public from uninspected, adulterated, or misbranded meat and poultry meat and products thereof.

(a) The secretary may enter into cooperative agreements with private entities, and with boards, bureaus, commissions, or departments of this state or of the United States, for the purpose of administering compensation, conservation, disaster assistance, economic assistance, education, environmental enhancement, indemnification, market promotion, research, and similar programs that promote and enhance agriculture.
  (b) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the secretary may receive and expend federal funds and any nonstate matching funds made available to the department for the purposes specified above via grant, interagency agreement, or otherwise, and these funds shall be administered in accordance with Section 221.
  (c) (1) Grant awards shall be made by the department on a competitive basis established by the department wherever possible.
  (2) Any grant awarded on an alternative basis that is not competitive shall comply with all applicable state requirements, orders, and guidelines.
  (3) Decisions of the secretary relating to the award of grants shall be final.
  (d) Procedures, forms, and guidelines established for these grant programs, including the application process, are exempt from Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
  (e) If the secretary expends funds or awards grants for the study of protocols for crops to meet standards for transport out of a quarantine area, the following shall apply:
  (1) Primary consideration shall be given to crops that are most at risk from the imposition of a quarantine and for which protocols do not currently exist, as long as the application otherwise meets reasonable scientific standards.
  (2) The department may consult with individuals or representatives of the agriculture industry, and academic or scientific individuals, or organizations to establish criteria and assist in the recommendation of any expenditure of funds or the award of grants.

Notwithstanding Section 482, the secretary may not enter into a cooperative agreement with a county of the first class, as defined in Section 28022 of the Government Code, for agricultural inspector services, if the cooperative agreement requires that the county provide year-round services, unless not less than 66 percent of the agricultural inspector aides and not less than 75 percent of the agricultural inspector associates not afforded protections as permanent employees employed under the cooperative agreement are afforded protections as permanent employees under the county's civil service or other personnel system.