The drought is not over, but for the first time in six years, cotton acreage will increase in California according to preliminary survey conducted by the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations this past month.  The Association is currently estimating approximately 145,000 acres of pima and 61,000 acres of upland statewide.   Now, this is preliminary and a lot can happen between now and when things are actually planted, but based on the survey this is our best estimate.  If it plays out, it will represent a 19% increase in pima acreage and a 24% increase in upland acreage in California as compared to 2015.

We are gearing up for the 2016 Annual California Cotton Ginners Association meeting in Monterey on Wednesday, June 1st through Friday, June 3rd at the Monterey Marriott.  There will be a welcome reception on Wednesday night for the early arrivals.  On Thursday we will be having our golf tournament and for non-golfers it will be an open day, with a reception dinner, and annual award presentations on Thursday evening.  The Board of Directors will hold their regularly scheduled board meeting on Friday morning followed by the Ginners Annual Meeting featuring guest speakers covering the “hot topic” issues in the industry.

2016 Ginner Registration

2016 Associate Registration

Following is TPO’s recap of CA’s mandatory Paid Sick Leave (PSL) with yellow highlights representing areas of change with the 7/13/15 “clean-up” law.

Employers who revised/created their policies to comply with PSL prior to 7/1/15  may choose to make further revisions in light of the “PSL clean-up” law, though revisions are not required and some employers may choose to not further revise their policies.

The Department of Industrial Relation’s (DIR’s) website was updated in October 2015 to reflect the 7/13/15 law (http://www.dir.ca.gov/DLSE/Paid_Sick_Leave.htm).

3 4 16 – TPO’s PSL Recap CoBranded (002)

Louie Colombini, Westside Farmers Co-op Gin was named the winner of the 2015 Horace Hayden National Cotton Ginner of the Year by the National Cotton Ginners Association, this month at the National Cotton Council Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas.  Louie is one of the most active Ginners in California Cotton Ginners Association.  He is a past Chairman of this Association in 2000-2001, Ginner of the Year recipient in 2002, and longtime and current board member.  Currently, Louie sits on the Association’s Joint Steering, Safety, and Energy Committees.  Additionally, Louie has served as a board member for the San Joaquin Valley Cotton Board.  Finally, on the national level, Louie has been a longtime Ginner delegate to the National Cotton Council.   Louie is a member of, and serve as a Eucharistic Minister for the St. Phillip’s Catholic Church.  He is a past Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus.  Louie was also involved in the Boy Scouts for 15 years.  Louie has been a significant contributor to the California cotton ginning industry for many years, and is a shining example of the leadership within our industry.    Congratulations to Louie Colombini!

A luncheon will be held in remembrance of Wayne Russell Dumont tomorrow, Friday, January 15^th at the San Joaquin Wine Co. located at 21801 Avenue 16 in Madera from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm.

If the vehicle is located, please notify the The Zenith Insurance Company.

Please click here to view BOL.

Thank you,

CRCPTF

For General Questions regarding the CRCPTF and Membership please contact the following members:

President – Chad Parker  caparker@tehamaso.org

Vice President – Kristie Dougan  kdougan@SBCSD.ORG

Secretary – Rodney Blaco RBlaco@co.tulare.ca.us

Treasurer – Robert Winn winnr@kernsheriff.com

For BOLO distribution – Bo Houngviengkham  agcrimes@fresnosheriff.org

Recent Changes to CRCPTF Crime Alerts

CRCPTF has recently changed the format of its news alerts in order to provide you information more efficiently and to add new features. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to send them to CRCPTF.

About the CRCPTF

The Task Force is a combination of County Sheriff’s Departments, District Attorney Offices, Agricultural Commissioners and local Police Departments together with state agencies such as the Attorney General’s Office, Food and Agriculture and the Governor’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning and the United States Department of Agriculture. Additionally, private organizations within the agri-business community such as the Farm Bureau, the State Grange, the Agri-Business League and other agricultural business related groups form an invaluable part of the Task Force.

We all work together for the common goal of reducing crime in the agriculture related business community.

To Join the CRCPTF:
Contact Robert Winn at:
winnr@kernsheriff.com

CRCPTF Mailing Address:

CRCPTF

1350 Norris Rd.

Bakersfield, CA 93308

CCGGA President/CEO Roger Isom joined forces with California Citrus Mutual, the Nisei Farmers League and the California Independent Oil Marketers Association in meetings with Kern County Supervisors this past week to oppose a Kern County mandate to replace all aboveground storage tanks immediately.  Multiple farmers have already received notices of violation and been told to replace all gravity fed aboveground storage tanks and single wall aboveground storage tanks “immediately”.  This is being done in response to a change in State Fire Code that the Association has been fighting for the past year.  The Association is also leading an effort to introduce legislation to ensure that this mandate is spread over time, instead of immediately.  The group met with Supervisors Maggard and Scrivner, and staff from Supervisors Gleason and Perez.  The primary purpose was to inform the Supervisors how Kern County was going beyond the law and was the only county in the state doing this at this time.  Additional meetings will occur in the coming weeks as we work to find a more reasonable solution.

January is upon us, and while it is time to celebrate the coming of a new year, it also means that vehicle fleets must be registered or updated with the Air Resources Board (ARB).  If you are familiar with registering your trucks through the Truck and Bus Reporting System, you will be pleasantly surprised with their newly designed reporting website.  If you are unfamiliar with the system, ARB requires that vehicle fleets be reported through their website.   The information needed for reporting includes vehicle make and model, vehicle model year, vehicle type, VIN number, and family name of the vehicle.  The purpose of the website is to report annual mileage for vehicles used at a specific operation.  Agriculture has several exemptions available through the program, including: Ag Mileage Extensions, Ag Specialty Vehicles, Low Mileage Work Truck, and Low-Use Non Operational Vehicles.  There are restrictions to the number of vehicles, or number of miles specific vehicles, can be registered under specific exemptions.  The Ag Mileage Extension only allows for 5 vehicles to be registered under that exemption, and Low Use Non-Op vehicles are only allowed to travel a couple hundred miles every year at the maximum.

Vehicle fleet registration/update is due by January 31^st, so there is plenty of time to get your vehicles updated.  If you have any questions with reporting, or would like help getting your vehicles registered, please feel free to contact Director of Technical Services, Chris McGlothlin, at chris@ccgga.org , or give us a call at (559) 252-0684.

For the second time in the past two years, Californians will be seeing an increase to minimum wage.  The first increase saw minimum wage reach $9/hour and took effect July 1^st, 2014.  This upcoming increase will be to $10/hour effective January 1^st.  While this minimum wage increase is being applied state wide, cities throughout California are taking it upon themselves to increase minimum wage beyond the signed $10 per hour bill.  San Francisco, and some surrounding communities, has agreed to increase minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2015, the City of Sacramento has agreed to increase the minimum wage to $12.50 per hour by 2020, and Los Angeles City Council approved a measure to increase minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020.  These increases are having negative effects on various industries, with some business owners being forced to reduce staff in order to pay for minimum wage hikes.  The unfortunate news is that the increases are not over.  There are currently two ballot measures asking voters to approve a $15 per hour, statewide minimum wage. Stay tuned for more wage updates in the upcoming year.

As the New Year is upon us, so are numerous new laws, not the least of which is a minimum wage increase to $10 per hour effective January 1^st.  But there are several other laws that you should be aware of and our labor attorneys, the Saqui Law Group have summarized these here.  As always, we will be covering these in detail at our annual Safety and Labor Summits and coming webinars throughout the year.  For details on these new laws, please click here: Ready Or Not New Laws Affecting Employers