(a) The secretary may require handlers, including cooperative associations acting as handlers, to make reports at any intervals and in any detail that he or she finds necessary for the operation of the pool. The secretary may impose and collect a civil penalty of one hundred dollars ($100) from any handler or cooperative association acting as a handler that does not file a report on the date specified by the secretary pursuant to this subdivision. Any funds collected pursuant to this subdivision shall be deposited in the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the funds may be expended for the purposes of this chapter.

(b) For the purposes of enforcing this chapter, the secretary, through his or her duly authorized representatives and agents, shall have access to the records of every producer and handler. The secretary shall have at all times, free and unimpeded access to any building, yard, warehouse, store, manufacturing facility, or transportation facility in which any market milk or market milk product is produced, bought, sold, stored, bottled, handled, or manufactured.

Any books, papers, records, documents, or reports made to, acquired by, prepared by, or maintained by the secretary pursuant to this chapter, which would disclose any information about finances, financial status, or worth, composition, market share, or business operations of any producer or handler, excluding information that solely reflects transfers of production base and pool quota among producers, is confidential and shall not be disclosed to any person other than the person from whom the information was received, except pursuant to the final order of a court with jurisdiction, or as necessary for the proper determination of any proceeding before the secretary.

(c) In conjunction with the pools authorized by this chapter, the secretary may require handlers to make payments into a settlement fund for fluid milk received and the secretary may provide for the disbursement of moneys from the settlement fund in the course of administering the pools. Handlers who have a financial obligation to the pool resulting from the operation of the pooling plan shall pay the obligations to the pool manager each month as requested. All of these moneys shall be deposited in a bank or banks approved by the secretary, and shall be paid out by the pool manager to handlers who have pool credits resulting from the operation of the pooling plan. All financial operations of each pool shall be audited by the department at least once annually. The secretary may require handlers to make such deductions from amounts due to producers as he or she finds are necessary to establish a reserve fund to insure prompt payment to producers.

(d) The secretary may employ a pool manager to operate each pool and may permit the pool manager to employ such other necessary personnel and incur such expenses incidental to the operation of the pool as the secretary finds are necessary. The pool manager shall effectuate the purposes of Section 62711 by designating the percentage of each price class (i.e., classes 1, 2, 3, 4a, and 4b) to be paid within each pool settlement classification (i.e., quota pool, production pool, and overproduction pool), and in so doing he or she shall allocate the highest usage available, first to the quota pool, next to the production pool, and last to the overproduction pool.

(e) All pool quotas initially determined pursuant to Section 62707 shall be recognized and shall not in any way be diminished.

(Amended by Stats. 1994, Ch. 95, Sec. 48. Effective June 6, 1994.)