Article 1. Funds, Arms, And Equipment of California Military And Veterans Code >> Division 2. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 8. >> Article 1.

The National Guard, Naval Militia, and unorganized militia when called into active service shall be provided by the State with the supplies and equipment, not supplied by the United States, necessary for the proper performance of functions authorized or prescribed by the laws and regulations of the State and the United States.

The board of supervisors of any county or the legislative body of any city may appropriate money from the general fund of such county or city for the use, benefit, or assistance of the National Guard or Naval Militia or for National Guard or Naval Militia purposes within such county or city only.

Any officer who is accountable for any Federal, State, or company funds or property who fails or neglects to deliver over such funds or property to the person designated by proper authority to relieve such officer, shall be charged with all shortages thereof not covered by the receipt obtained by such officer from the person to whom he has delivered the same. Quartermasters and supply officers are accountable and responsible for all property issued to the headquarters to which they are attached or with which they are on duty.

(a) Notwithstanding any other law, the Adjutant General may do all of the following:
  (1) Establish support programs, including, but not limited to, morale, welfare, recreational, training, and educational programs for the benefit of the Military Department, its components, and its soldiers, airmen, cadets, and their family members.
  (2) Establish, construct, or acquire facilities or equipment for the purposes specified in paragraph (1).
  (3) Adopt rules and regulations for all of the following:
  (A) For the programs established pursuant to paragraph (1).
  (B) For the solicitation and acceptance of funds authorized pursuant to subdivision (b).
  (C) For the establishment, deposit, and expenditure of military post, welfare, or similar unit funds.
  (4) Perform any other acts as may be necessary, desirable, or proper to carry out the purposes of this section.
  (b) (1) Notwithstanding any other law, the Adjutant General and the Military Department may solicit and accept funds or other donations which shall be deposited in the California Military Department Support Fund, which is hereby established in the State Treasury. The money in the fund is available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, solely for the purposes prescribed by this section.
  (2) Section 11005 of the Government Code shall not apply to the acceptance of funds or other donations pursuant to this subdivision.
  (3) It is the intent of the Legislature that funds appropriated to the Military Department as provided by this section be used to supplement, not supplant, funding appropriated to the Military Department pursuant to any other law for the purposes prescribed by this section.
  (c) (1) The California Military Department Support Fund shall include the California National Guard Military Family Relief Fund, a special fund as established within the California Military Department Support Fund by subdivision (d).
  (2) For accounting and recordkeeping purposes, the California Military Department Support Fund shall be deemed to be a single special fund, and any special funds therein shall constitute and be deemed to be a separate account in the California Military Department Support Fund. Each account or fund shall be available for expenditure only for the purposes as are now or may hereafter be provided by law.
  (d) (1) Notwithstanding subdivision (d) of former Section 18709 of the Revenue and Taxation Code as added by Chapter 546 of the Statutes of 2004, the California National Guard Military Family Relief Fund is hereby established as an account within the California Military Department Support Fund for the purpose of providing financial aid grants to members of the California National Guard who are California residents and who have been called to active duty.
  (2) The Military Department shall establish eligibility criteria for the grants by January 1, 2015. The criteria shall include, but not be limited to, a demonstration of financial need.
  (3) In addition to criteria established by the Military Department pursuant to paragraph (2), members of the California National Guard shall show proof of all of the following to be eligible to receive a grant pursuant to subdivision (d):
  (A) Current membership in the California National Guard.
  (B) Residency in California.
  (C) Deployment to active duty for at least 60 consecutive days.
  (4) Grants awarded pursuant to this subdivision may be used only for food, housing, child care, utilities, medical services, medical prescriptions, insurance, and vehicle payments.
  (5) California National Guard members shall not be eligible to receive a grant if the member receives a punitive discharge or an administrative discharge with service characterized as under other than honorable conditions.
  (e) The Adjutant General, on or before March 31, 2014, and on or before that date each year thereafter, shall conduct an internal audit of the fund established in accordance with subdivisions (b) and (c) and report the findings of the audit to the Department of Finance.

All moneys including company funds, of which the commanding officer or other officer or employee is the custodian, shall be deposited in a national bank or a bank incorporated under the laws of this State. All moneys, funds, bonds, securities, property or other assets held in trust for or on behalf of any National Guard units or organizations or the commanding officers thereof, by the State of California, the State Treasurer, or other public or trust officer, may be paid to such units or organizations to be used for military purposes upon demand of the National Guard units or organizations or the commanding officers thereof provided the Adjutant General shall have approved such payment. If the National Guard units or organizations which made said payment or delivered said property in trust is or are not in existence, then said moneys, funds, bonds, securities, property or other assets so held in trust may be paid or delivered upon like demand to the successor or successors of said units or organizations. A National Guard unit or units or organizations shall be a successor or successors within the meaning of this section if it or they is or are located at, and its or their members reside in, the same general area as its or their predecessor. The order of the Adjutant General determining that a unit or units or an organization is or are a successor or successors within the meaning of this section shall be conclusive of the fact. If no National Guard unit or units is or are organized in said general area as a successor or successors then the said moneys, funds, bonds, securities, property or other assets so held in trust may be paid or delivered upon like demand and approval to the next highest organized unit in the echelon of command that includes the said general area of said former units or organizations that may have deposited said property or assets in trust as aforesaid. All money, funds, bonds, securities, property or other asssets paid or delivered to any National Guard unit or units or organization pursuant to this section shall be used for military purposes and the benefit of such unit or units or organization receiving the same, and if not so used shall be paid or delivered to the Adjutant General upon his demand and who shall in turn transmit the same to the State Treasurer in augmentation of the appropriations for military purposes. All of said units and organizations shall render an accounting to the Adjutant General upon demand and at least once in each calendar year.

Every officer and enlisted man or woman to whom public property has been issued shall be personally responsible to the state for that property. No one shall be relieved from this responsibility, unless it is shown, to the satisfaction of the Governor, that the loss or destruction of the property was unavoidable and in no way the fault of the person responsible for the loss. In all other cases the value of the property lost or destroyed, in the amount determined by a surveying officer or a board as herein provided, shall be charged against the person at fault or, with the concurrence of the appropriate commanding officer, against the command to or for which it had been issued, and if not relieved from the charge by the Governor, there shall be an indebtedness from that person or command to the state.

If the commanding officer of the organization charged does not concur in the finding of the surveying officer, then the value of lost or destroyed property and the person or command to be charged therewith shall be determined by the board consisting of the commanding officer of the organization in which such property is lost and two disinterested officers not below the grade of major appointed by The Adjutant General. A decision of a majority of the board so constituted shall be final.

Where the amount determined by a board, as provided in Section 415, as the value of lost, damaged, or destroyed property is charged to a person, it shall be deducted from any pay or allowance due or to become due to him or her from the state. Money due to the state for any reason, with or without the action of a board, from a member of the active militia, a member of the unorganized militia when called for active duty, or any civilian employee of the Office of the Adjutant General shall be deducted or withheld from any money due or to become due that member or civilian employee from the state, including any pay and allowances payable pursuant to Article 1 (commencing with Section 320) of Chapter 5 of Part 1 of Division 2. Where the amount is charged to a command, it shall be deducted one-half in successive calendar years from any allowance or money due or to become due to it from the state, except that on the disbandment of a command any indebtedness then existing and any indebtedness as may be charged to it upon a final settlement of property accounts shall, as soon as determined, be paid out of its military funds or unexpended appropriations. An action may be maintained in the name of the people of the state in any court of competent jurisdiction by the Attorney General, upon request of the Adjutant General, to recover from a member of the active militia, a member of the unorganized militia when called for active duty, or any civilian employee of the Office of the Adjutant General or his sureties any indebtedness to the state remaining unpaid upon final determination of the indebtedness.

The transportation of arms, equipment, and military stores issued to troops or received by the State and all other military transportation shall be contracted for by the Adjutant General.

All property purchased out of the moneys allowed by the State for the use and convenience of the militia is the property of the State and shall be enumerated on the property returns next following its purchase.

No member of the militia shall wear or use, except when on military duty, or by special permission of his commanding officer, any uniform or other article of military property belonging to the State or to the organization of which he is a member.

No officer in charge of public property for military use shall transfer any portion thereof, either as a loan or permanently, without the authority of the Governor.

Any person who secretes, sells, disposes of, offers for sale, purchases, retains after demand made by a commissioned officer of the National Guard or of the unorganized militia when called into the service of the state or Naval Militia, or in any manner pawns or pledges any arms, uniforms, equipment, or military or naval property of the state or of the United States, or of any organization of the active militia or of the unorganized militia when called into the service of the state is guilty of a felony if said arms, uniforms, equipments, or military or naval property of the state or of the United States is of a value of nine hundred fifty dollars ($950) or more, otherwise such person is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Any person other than an officer, warrant officer, or enlisted man or woman of the California National Guard, or of the unorganized militia when called into the service of the state or of the State Military Reserve or who may be appointed under Section 141 or who may be authorized by Sections 502, 502.1, or 502.2 or who may be a member of the Naval Militia of this state, or who may be a member of the military forces of another state or of the United States Army, United States Air Force, United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, United States Coast Guard Service or United States or State Forest Service, or personnel of the Department of Fish and Game, or members of the Department of the California Highway Patrol, or an inmate of any veterans' or soldiers' home, or other person authorized by the laws of the United States or of this state, who at any time wears the uniform of the United States Army, United States Air Force, or United States Navy, or of the armed forces of the United States or any organization thereof, or National Guard or Naval Militia, or any part of that uniform, or a uniform or part of a uniform similar thereto, is guilty of a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500), or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding 60 days, or by both.

Whenever the National Guard or Naval Militia, or any part thereof, is in active service or is called into active service, no civic organization or member thereof shall parade or appear in uniform in the locality where the National Guard or Naval Militia is in service.

Any person, who at any time wears the uniform of, or a uniform similar to that of, a foreign military or semimilitary organization without being a member thereof and being entitled to do so, is guilty of a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500), or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding 60 days or by both such fine and imprisonment. The provisions of this section shall not apply to the wearing of such uniforms by actors during the filming of any motion picture or the presentation of any stage play.