Central Coast Forest Association
Caring for forests, protecting our land
PO Box 66868, Scotts Valley, Ca 95066
April 16, 2015
to:
The Honorable Marc Steinorth
Directors
Brian Campbell
Ron DeBenedetti
Pat Driscoll
Walter Haines
Jim Hildreth
Marty McCormick
Barbara McCrary
Cate Moore
Eric Moore
Doug White
Re: Oppose AB-797 Regulations: effective dates and legislative review.
Dear Assemblyman Steinorth,
The Central Coast Forest Association (CCFA) is an organization comprised of forest landowners,
resource professionals and others concerned with forest issues and land use policy in the Central Coast
region of California.
We oppose AB-797 because it will create confusion about what is the current official code of
regulations at any point in time and raise the costs of incorporating the regulatory changes into the
code.
Every year California enacts hundreds of changes to laws and regulations. The public knows that these
changes will go into effect on January 1 and take care to look them up at that time to fold them into
their operational procedures. Regulators collect their new copies of the regulations for the year and
incorporate them into their forms and procedures.
If the rules change such that a new law can take effect at multiple times of the year, given the time it
takes to incorporate these changes into an existing process, there will never be a steady, dependable
code to refer to for either the regulators or the regulated. Costs will rise significantly for the agencies
due to increased notification costs and continually changing bureaucratic needs. Costs will rise
significantly for businesses as well as they continually try to keep up with the changes in their own
procedures.
We ask that January 1 remain the date that all new laws and regulations take effect.
Sincerely,
Member, Board of Directors,
Central Coast Forest Association
Cc:
Assembly Accountability and Administrative Review Committee
Assemblyman Luis Alejo
Assemblyman Richard Gordon
Assemblyman Kevin Mullin
Assemblyman Mark Stone
Senator Jim Beall
Senator Jerry Hill
Senator Bill Monning