Clarification Of “Repeat Violation”

The Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) has recently been asked by a number of county agricultural commissioners (CACs) to clarify the meaning of a repeat violation for the purpose of levying a civil penalty under Title 3, California Code of Regulations section 6130.

The enclosed document “What Constitutes Repeatability” is the response to this question that DPR intends to release for your guidance as a result of our Hearing Officer Roundtable Project discussions facilitated by Mr. Jerry Benincasa last year. This project is a collection of approximately 40 guidance documents from questions raised during these roundtable meetings. DPR intends to publish these on our Web site to assist you with the civil penalty process.

DPR acknowledges there has been contrary policy previously stated, however, upon review of this past policy it was found to be inconsistent with the existing regulations. Therefore, we have clarified the policy to meet the intent of the regulation.

DPR is distributing this particular document prior to the release of the entire Hearing Officer Roundtable Project so you may familiarize yourself with it for discussion at the Pesticide Regulatory Affairs Committee meeting in August.

Sincerely,