(a) Notwithstanding Section 10851, each county shall retain all records that are necessary to determine the number of months each adult recipient has received aid subject to the time limits provided in Section 11454 and Section 608(a)(7) of Title 42 of the United States Code. The county shall retain the records for the period of time established by the department by regulation.

(b) Each county shall provide case record information to the department’s automated system for tracking the period of time a recipient has received aid. Each county shall provide information, as determined by the department, to the department’s automated system that is sufficient to allow reliable determinations of the number of months each adult recipient of aid has received aid for purposes of Section 11454 and Section 608(a)(7) of Title 42 of the United States Code. The department shall, pursuant to the adoption of emergency regulations, specify the case record information that each county shall provide under this section.

(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), if a county cannot provide sufficient information to the automated system, the county shall maintain the information in a nonautomated format, and shall promptly provide that information to any county requesting this information to accurately determine time on aid and enforce time limits.

(d) Any county that fails to provide information required by subdivision (b) or (c) shall be subject to the following:

(1) To the extent that the failure to provide or maintain reliable time clock information results in an audit exception, the costs associated with that exception shall be passed on to the county responsible for the exception unless the county can demonstrate that the costs would have been incurred if the county had provided the information in subdivision (b). In such a case, this amount shall be applied as a reduction in the county’s single allocation under Section 15204.2.

(2) Increased program costs resulting from a court order requiring the department to provide additional months of eligibility to any adult aid recipient due to the failure to reliably determine the number of months each adult recipient has received aid for purposes of Section 11454 shall be passed on to the county responsible for the failure unless the county can demonstrate that the costs would have been incurred if the county had provided the information required in subdivision (b). The county’s single allocation under Section 15204.2 shall be reduced by an amount of the increased program costs resulting from a court order that is proportionate to the responsible county’s caseload.

(e) The department, by regulation, shall establish good cause standards and an appeal process.

(f) In any fiscal year in which a county is assessed a cost under subdivision (d), the county shall expend additional funds to replace any reduction in the single allocation resulting from the penalty.

(g) The department shall adopt regulations to implement this section in accordance with Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code. The initial adoption of any emergency regulations and one readoption of the initial regulations shall be deemed to be an emergency and necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, or general welfare. The initial emergency regulations and one readoption of those regulations shall be exempt from review by the Office of Administrative Law. The emergency regulations authorized by this section shall be submitted to the Office of Administrative Law for filing with the Secretary of State and publication in the California Code of Regulations.

(Added by Stats. 2001, Ch. 111, Sec. 28. Effective July 30, 2001.)