(a) For purposes of this division, “local trustee of granted public trust lands” means a county, city, or district, including a water, sanitary, regional park, port, or harbor district, or any other local, political, or corporate subdivision that has been granted, conveyed, or transferred by statute, public trust lands, including tidelands, submerged lands, or the beds of navigable waters, through a legislative grant. A local trustee of granted public trust lands is a trustee of state lands.
(b) Notwithstanding any other law, every local trustee of granted public trust lands shall establish and maintain accounting procedures, in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, providing accurate records of all revenues received from the trust lands and trust assets and of all expenditures of those revenues. If a trust grantee has several trust grants of adjacent lands and operates the granted lands as a single integrated entity, separation of accounting records for each trust grant is not required.
(c) All revenues received from trust lands and trust assets administered or collected by a local trustee of granted public trust lands shall be expended only for those uses and purposes consistent with the public trust for commerce, navigation, and fisheries, and the applicable statutory grant.
(d) All funds received or generated from trust lands or trust assets shall be segregated in separate accounts from nontrust received or generated funds.
(e) (1) Unless otherwise prescribed by an applicable statutory grant, on or before December 31 of each year, each local trustee of granted public trust lands shall file with the commission a detailed statement of all revenues and expenditures relating to its trust lands and trust assets, including obligations incurred but not yet paid, covering the fiscal year preceding submission of the statement.
(2) The statement shall be prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and may take the form of an annual audit prepared by or for the local trustee of granted public trust lands.
(3) (A) The detailed statement shall be submitted along with a standardized reporting form developed by the commission.
(B) The commission shall use an existing reporting form previously developed for purposes of this paragraph, if a finding is made by the commission that it is generally responsive to the needs of the commission as prescribed in this section. Alternatively, the commission may develop a reporting form that requires a local trustee of granted public lands to report on all of the following:
(i) A summary of all funds received or generated from trust lands or trust assets.
(ii) A summary of all spending of funds received or generated from trust lands or trust assets.
(iii) Any other disposition of funds received or generated from trust lands or trust assets or of the trust lands or trust assets themselves.
(iv) A description of the manner in which the statement required by this subdivision and accompanying the reporting form is organized.
(v) Any other information that the commission deems to be included in an accounting of granted public trust lands.
(C) The adoption of the form by the commission pursuant to this subdivision is the prescription of a form for purposes of subdivision (c) of Section 11340.9 of the Government Code.
(4) All forms and supporting statements submitted pursuant to this section shall be public records and be made available on the commission’s Internet Web site.
(f) (1) The costs that may be incurred by a local trustee of granted public trust lands that result from any new duties imposed upon that trustee pursuant to Chapter 206 of the Statutes of 2012, including the requirement to submit a standardized reporting form required by paragraph (3) of subdivision (e), shall be paid from the revenues derived from its granted public trust lands and assets specified in subdivision (b).
(2) If the revenues derived from the granted public trust lands and assets specified in subdivision (b) are not sufficient to pay the costs for the duties specified in paragraph (1), the commission shall exempt the local trustee of granted public trust lands from performing those duties for which the revenues are not sufficient, or grant a deadline extension from the performance of those duties until sufficient funds are available.
(Amended by Stats. 2014, Ch. 512, Sec. 3. (AB 2764) Effective January 1, 2015.)