62712
. (a) The secretary may require handlers, including
cooperative associations acting as handlers, to make reports at any
intervals and in any detail that he or she finds necessary for the
operation of the pool. The secretary may impose and collect a civil
penalty of one hundred dollars ($100) from any handler or cooperative
association acting as a handler that does not file a report on the
date specified by the secretary pursuant to this subdivision. Any
funds collected pursuant to this subdivision shall be deposited in
the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund and, upon appropriation
by the Legislature, the funds may be expended for the purposes of
this chapter.
(b) For the purposes of enforcing this chapter, the secretary,
through his or her duly authorized representatives and agents, shall
have access to the records of every producer and handler. The
secretary shall have at all times, free and unimpeded access to any
building, yard, warehouse, store, manufacturing facility, or
transportation facility in which any market milk or market milk
product is produced, bought, sold, stored, bottled, handled, or
manufactured.
Any books, papers, records, documents, or reports made to,
acquired by, prepared by, or maintained by the secretary pursuant to
this chapter, which would disclose any information about finances,
financial status, or worth, composition, market share, or business
operations of any producer or handler, excluding information that
solely reflects transfers of production base and pool quota among
producers, is confidential and shall not be disclosed to any person
other than the person from whom the information was received, except
pursuant to the final order of a court with jurisdiction, or as
necessary for the proper determination of any proceeding before the
secretary.
(c) In conjunction with the pools authorized by this chapter, the
secretary may require handlers to make payments into a settlement
fund for fluid milk received and the secretary may provide for the
disbursement of moneys from the settlement fund in the course of
administering the pools. Handlers who have a financial obligation to
the pool resulting from the operation of the pooling plan shall pay
the obligations to the pool manager each month as requested. All of
these moneys shall be deposited in a bank or banks approved by the
secretary, and shall be paid out by the pool manager to handlers who
have pool credits resulting from the operation of the pooling plan.
All financial operations of each pool shall be audited by the
department at least once annually. The secretary may require handlers
to make such deductions from amounts due to producers as he or she
finds are necessary to establish a reserve fund to insure prompt
payment to producers.
(d) The secretary may employ a pool manager to operate each pool
and may permit the pool manager to employ such other necessary
personnel and incur such expenses incidental to the operation of the
pool as the secretary finds are necessary. The pool manager shall
effectuate the purposes of Section 62711 by designating the
percentage of each price class (i.e., classes 1, 2, 3, 4a, and 4b) to
be paid within each pool settlement classification (i.e., quota
pool, production pool, and overproduction pool), and in so doing he
or she shall allocate the highest usage available, first to the quota
pool, next to the production pool, and last to the overproduction
pool.
(e) All pool quotas initially determined pursuant to Section 62707
shall be recognized and shall not in any way be diminished.