(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 and Section 71050.5. 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) Except as provided in Section 71050.5, 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) (1) 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.
(2) 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 their eligibility shall be deemed to have waived their 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.
(Amended by Stats. 2023, Ch. 84, Sec. 2. (AB 454) Effective July 21, 2023.)