Article 2. General Definitions of California Government Code >> Division 1. >> Title 2. >> Chapter 7. >> Article 2.

Unless the provision or context otherwise requires, the definitions contained in this article govern the construction of this chapter.

"Governor" means the Governor or the person upon whom the powers and duties of the office of Governor have devolved pursuant to Section 10 of Article V of the California Constitution.

(a) "State agency" means any department, division, independent establishment, or agency of the executive branch of the state government.
  (b) "Political subdivision" includes any city, city and county, county, district, or other local governmental agency or public agency authorized by law.
  (c) "Governing body" means the legislative body, trustees, or directors of a political subdivision.
  (d) "Chief executive" means that individual authorized by law to act for the governing body of a political subdivision.
  (e) "Disaster council" and "disaster service worker" have the meaning prescribed in Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 3201) of Part 1 of Division 4 of the Labor Code.
  (f) "Public facility" means any facility of the state or a political subdivision, which facility is owned, operated, or maintained, or any combination thereof, through moneys derived by taxation or assessment.
  (g) "Sudden and severe energy shortage" means a rapid, unforeseen shortage of energy, resulting from, but not limited to, events such as an embargo, sabotage, or natural disasters, and which has statewide, regional, or local impact.

Three conditions or degrees of emergency are established by this chapter:
  (a) "State of war emergency" means the condition which exists immediately, with or without a proclamation thereof by the Governor, whenever this state or nation is attacked by an enemy of the United States, or upon receipt by the state of a warning from the federal government indicating that such an enemy attack is probable or imminent.
  (b) "State of emergency" means the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state caused by such conditions as air pollution, fire, flood, storm, epidemic, riot, drought, sudden and severe energy shortage, plant or animal infestation or disease, the Governor's warning of an earthquake or volcanic prediction, or an earthquake, or other conditions, other than conditions resulting from a labor controversy or conditions causing a "state of war emergency," which, by reason of their magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat, or with respect to regulated energy utilities, a sudden and severe energy shortage requires extraordinary measures beyond the authority vested in the California Public Utilities Commission.
  (c) "Local emergency" means the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the territorial limits of a county, city and county, or city, caused by such conditions as air pollution, fire, flood, storm, epidemic, riot, drought, sudden and severe energy shortage, plant or animal infestation or disease, the Governor's warning of an earthquake or volcanic prediction, or an earthquake, or other conditions, other than conditions resulting from a labor controversy, which are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of that political subdivision and require the combined forces of other political subdivisions to combat, or with respect to regulated energy utilities, a sudden and severe energy shortage requires extraordinary measures beyond the authority vested in the California Public Utilities Commission.

(a) A "mutual aid region" is a subdivision of the state emergency services organization, established to facilitate the coordination of mutual aid and other emergency operations within an area of the state consisting of two or more county operational areas.
  (b) An "operational area" is an intermediate level of the state emergency services organization, consisting of a county and all political subdivisions within the county area.

(a) "Emergency plans" means those official and approved documents which describe the principles and methods to be applied in carrying out emergency operations or rendering mutual aid during emergencies. These plans include such elements as continuity of government, the emergency services of governmental agencies, mobilization of resources, mutual aid, and public information.
  (b) "State Emergency Plan" means the State of California Emergency Plan as approved by the Governor.

"Master Mutual Aid Agreement" means the California Disaster and Civil Defense Master Mutual Aid Agreement, made and entered into by and between the State of California, its various departments and agencies, and the various political subdivisions of the state, to facilitate implementation of the purposes of this chapter.