Article 13. Termination Of Marketing Programs of California Food And Agricultural Code >> Division 21. >> Part 2. >> Chapter 2. >> Article 13.

Except as otherwise provided in Section 59820, if any marketing program which is in active operation does not provide for a periodic referendum of producers of record with the department, directly affected by the program, for the purpose of determining whether or not the program shall be continued or modified, the director shall, prior to the beginning of a marketing season, conduct a referendum on the program at least biennially for the purpose of making the determination.

An expression by a majority of the producers that participate in the referendum shall govern the action of the director in declaring a program modified, continued, or suspended.

In conducting the referendum, the director may require the majority expression to be that of producers in terms of volume of production in addition to numbers of producers voting.

After the institution of any marketing program, the program shall be terminated if there is filed with the director a petition for its termination which is signed by not less than 40 percent of the producers of the commodity in the proration zone that produced not less than 40 percent of the commodity affected that was produced within the proration zone during the last preceding season. The signatures of the producers upon the petition shall be those of the producers whose names appear on the list which was used at the institution of the program or on any corrected list which the director has had prepared during the existence of the marketing program, or their successors in interest.

Each petitioner shall, upon affixing his signature to the petition for termination, write in the date of signing. No signature to the petition shall be valid for any purpose if affixed more than six months prior to the filing of the petition with the director. The petition shall be accompanied by a good and sufficient undertaking in an amount which is equal to the probable costs incident to conducting the hearing and making of findings. A hearing shall be held by the director upon the petition to determine the sufficiency of the signatures within 60 days after the presentation of the petition.

If from a check of the petition together with the facts and evidence which are adduced at the hearing, it is established that the petition to terminate is signed by the required 40 percent of the producers of the commodity in the zone that produced at least 40 percent of the proration commodity affected which was produced within the zone during the last preceding season, the director shall terminate the marketing program. Any marketing program on a seasonal commodity shall not, however, be terminated except at the end of its marketing season.

The costs incident to conducting the hearing and making of findings shall initially be paid from the funds of the program to the extent that they are available and thereafter from the undertaking. If the petition is found to be insufficiently signed, the entire cost of conducting the hearing shall be paid from the undertaking. If a program is terminated, any funds which remain for the use of the program committee that are not otherwise disposed of by this chapter shall be deposited in the State Treasury to the credit of the Department of Agriculture Fund.

The director may at any time initiate an investigation to determine whether or not the facts which are specified in Sections 59655 to 59662, inclusive, continue to exist. Upon a finding that any one or more of the prerequisite facts no longer exist, the director shall terminate or suspend the marketing program and may dissolve the proration zone. A program on a seasonal commodity shall not, however, be terminated or suspended except at the end of its marketing season.