(a) Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (b) or (i), every government agency employee who handles, applies, or supervises the use of any pesticide for public health purposes, shall be certified by the department as a vector control technician in at least one of the following categories commensurate with assigned duties, as follows:
(1) Mosquito control.
(2) Terrestrial invertebrate vector control.
(3) Vertebrate vector control.
(b) The department may establish by regulation exemptions from the requirements of this section that are deemed reasonably necessary to further the purposes of this section.
(c) The department shall establish by regulation minimum standards for continuing education for any government agency employee certified under Section 116110 and regulations adopted pursuant thereto, who handles, applies, or supervises the use of any pesticide for public health purposes.
(d) An official record of the completed continuing education units shall be maintained by the department. If a certified technician fails to meet the requirements set forth under subdivision (c), the department shall suspend the technician’s certificate or certificates and immediately notify the technician and the employing agency. The department shall establish by regulation procedures for reinstating a suspended certificate.
(e) The department shall charge and collect a nonreturnable renewal fee of one hundred twenty dollars ($120) to be paid by each continuing education certificant on or before the first day of July, or on any other date that is determined by the department. Each person employed on September 20, 1988, in a position that requires certification, shall first pay the annual fee the first day of the first July following that date. All new certificants shall first pay the annual fee the first day of the first July following their certification.
(f) The department shall charge and collect nonrefundable examination fees for providing examinations pursuant to this section. When certification is required as a condition of employment, the employing agency shall pay the fees for certified technician applicants. The fees shall not exceed the estimated reasonable cost of providing the examinations, as determined by the director.
(g) The department shall collect and account for all money received pursuant to this section and shall deposit it in the Vectorborne Disease Account provided for in Section 116112. Notwithstanding Section 116112, fees deposited in the Vectorborne Disease Account pursuant to this section shall be available for expenditure, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to implement this section.
(h) Fees collected pursuant to this section shall be subject to the annual fee increase provisions of Section 100425.
(i) Employees of the Department of Food and Agriculture and county agriculture departments holding, or working under the supervision of an employee holding, a valid Qualified Applicator Certificate in Health Related Pest Control, issued by the licensing and certification program of the Department of Pesticide Regulation, shall be exempt from this section.
(Amended by Stats. 2008, Ch. 758, Sec. 9. Effective September 30, 2008.)