Recreational activities: skateboard parks.

Existing law prohibits an operator of a skateboard park from permitting any person to ride a skateboard in the park unless that person is wearing a helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads. Existing law further describes how those requirements may be satisfied with respect to a recreational skateboard facility owned and operated by a local public agency, as specified. Existing law, until January 1, 2012, further provides that skateboarding at a public skateboard park is a hazardous recreational activity, if all of specified conditions are met, including if the person skateboarding is 12 years of age or older. This bill would continue indefinitely the latter provision deeming skateboarding at a public skateboard park a hazardous recreational activity. Existing law, until January 1, 2012, requires a local public agency to maintain a record of injuries incurred by a skateboarder in a public skateboard park or facility constructed after 1998 and all claims and lawsuits against the public agency arising from those injuries. Existing law requires copies of those records to be filed annually with the Judicial Council, and existing law required the Judicial Council to submit a specified report on those injuries, claims, and lawsuits to the Legislature by March 31, 2011. This bill would extend the requirement to maintain those records indefinitely, and also would, for injuries on and after January 1, 2012, apply the requirement to public skateboard parks constructed on or after January 1, 1996. The bill would also require copies of the records of claims and lawsuits, beginning in 2013, to be filed annually with the Assembly Committee on Judiciary and the Senate Committee on Judiciary. By extending the requirement of that recordkeeping, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.