Existing law establishes the California Conservation Corps (CCC) within the Natural Resources Agency to provide young adults with employment, training, educational opportunities, and experience performing conservation and emergency-response work. Existing Public Employee Retirement Law (PERL) separately permits members to purchase service credit for certain qualifying public service, including service with the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps.
SB 1207 modernizes several CCC statutes. Among other changes, SB 1207 expressly includes wildfire prevention and suppression and forest resiliency within CCC projects; allows the CCC to contract with conservation corps established by California Native American tribes; revises education-related reporting; and allows a CalPERS member to elect to purchase service credit for qualifying prior service as a CCC corpsmember or special corpsmember, subject to payment of the required contributions. The law also exempts CCC corpsmembers from specified wage, hour, and working-condition provisions that otherwise apply under the Labor Code.
Local contracting agencies are subject to the service-credit provision only if they elect to include the provision in their contract with CalPERS.
SB 1207 amends Government Code section 21023.5 and Labor Code section 1171; amends Public Resources Code sections 14000, 14300, 14303, 14304, 14310, 14315, 14318, 14400, 14415, and 14424; repeals Public Resources Code section 14308; and repeals Chapter 3.2 commencing with section 14350 of Division 12 of the Public Resources Code.
