Section 71050 Of Article 3. California Rice Commission From California Food And Agricultural Code >> Division 22. >> Part 2. >> Chapter 9.5. >> Article 3.
71050
. (a) There is in the state government the California Rice
Commission. The commission is composed of equal numbers of handler
members and producer members as set forth in this section. In
addition, there may be one public member.
(b) Each eligible handler may appoint one member and one alternate
member annually.
(c) Producer members and alternate members in a number equal to
the number of appointed handler members shall be elected by district.
(d) The number of producers to be elected from each district shall
be determined as follows:
(1) Each district shall have at least one representative.
(2) The allocation of any seats remaining after the allocation in
paragraph (1) shall be made by dividing the total number of acres in
the state planted in rice in the marketing season immediately
preceding the determination by the total number of eligible handler
members and dividing the acreage planted in rice in each district,
starting with the district having the largest acreage planted in rice
by the result and rounding to the nearest whole number.
(e) No handler who is more than 90 days delinquent in the payment
of assessments or filing of reports required pursuant to this chapter
is eligible to serve on the commission. If a handler is made
ineligible to serve pursuant to this subdivision, the member
representing District 1 who received the lowest vote total among
members representing District 1 is also ineligible to serve by
operation of law in order to maintain an equal number of eligible
handler and producer members. Additional members are ineligible to
serve by operation of law as needed in order to maintain an equal
number of handler and producer members and shall be selected from the
remaining districts in ascending order of the number of the
district. No member who is the sole representative of a district is
ineligible to serve as a result of the operation of this subdivision.
Without regard to whether any ineligible producer member
representing a district has been reinstated, no subsequent producer
member is ineligible to serve by operation of law from any district
until at least one member is ineligible to serve by operation of law
from each district except those that have only one representative.
(f) Members who are ineligible to serve by operation of law
pursuant to subdivision (e) shall be immediately disqualified from
voting on matters before the commission.
The eligibility of handler and producer members shall be
reinstated at the first meeting after the handler's payments and
reports are made current.
(g) The commission shall annually establish the number of eligible
handler members of the commission based on the volume of rice
handled in the immediately preceding marketing season, and, if
necessary, adjust and reallocate the number of producer members. Any
additional producer members shall be elected at the next regularly
scheduled election of producer members. Any handler who does not
appoint a member and alternate within 15 days of being notified of
his or her eligibility shall be deemed to have waived his or her
right to a seat for the then current marketing season and shall not
be counted in the calculation of producer seats.
(h) The public member, if any, shall be appointed to the
commission by the secretary from the nominees recommended by the
commission.