(a) The Legislature finds and declares that the Department of Food and Agriculture is responsible for ensuring the integrity of the Fair and Exposition Fund, administering allocations from the fund to the network of California fairs, as defined in Sections 3101 to 3104, inclusive, and providing oversight of activities carried out by each California fair.
(b) Oversight shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) Monitoring the solvency of the Fair and Exposition Fund.
(2) Distributing available state resources to the network of California fairs based on criteria for state allocations approved by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture. The criteria for the distribution of available state resources to the network of California fairs shall not include a consideration of the structure that governs the fair.
(3) Creating a framework for administration of the network of California fairs allowing for maximum autonomy and local decisionmaking authority, and conducting, or causing to be conducted, annual fiscal audits and periodic compliance audits.
(4) Conducting fiscal and performance audits of county fairs and citrus fruit fairs that are requested by the fair that is the subject of the audit, and that the Department of Food and Agriculture deems to be necessary.
(5) Guiding and providing incentives to fairs to seek matching funds and generate new revenue from a variety of sources.
(6) Supporting continuous improvement of fair programming to ensure that California fairs remain highly relevant community institutions.
(Added by Stats. 2024, Ch. 559, Sec. 38. (AB 2143) Effective January 1, 2025.)