BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1958
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 23, 2008
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mark Leno, Chair
AB 1958 (Swanson) - As Amended: March 25, 2008
Policy Committee: Transportation
Vote: 13-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill adds firefighters, code enforcement officers, and
certain veterinarians to the list of peace officers and other
public officials who may request the DMV to keep their home
addresses confidential from disclosure to the general public.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Moderate costs, in the range of $720,000 primarily in 2008-09,
to the DMV to modify its public official confidentiality
process and to add potentially several thousand names to the
confidentiality list. (Motor Vehicle Account (MVA).)
2)Moderate ongoing costs, in the range of $400,000 annually
starting 2009-10, to the DMV to continue to add and delete
names from the public official confidentiality and to
"blackout" these home addresses if the general confidentiality
provisions of existing law are ever repealed and the DMV
decides to divulge this information to the general public.
(MVA)
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author believes public access to personal
information regarding firefighters, code enforcement officers,
and certain veterinarians whose jobs may require them to be
placed in sensitive positions, should be limited to a handful
of "need-to-know" public entities. The author is concerned
these officials and veterinarians periodically become
potential targets for retaliation from a disgruntled person.
AB 1958
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2)Background . Until 1989, DMV records were considered public
records and any person who had a legitimate reason to seek a
home address of a particular person in the DMV files could
obtain it simply by producing the relevant driver's license
number or a license plate number. In 1986, legislation was
enacted creating a list of public officials whose home
addresses were to be kept relatively confidential by the DMV.
The original list of persons whose home addresses are to be
kept confidential by the DMV, included the Attorney General
and Department of Justice attorneys, the State Public Defender
and deputy defenders, members of the Legislature, judges or
court commissioners, district attorneys and their deputies,
public defenders, and peace officers and their families.
Since then, the list has expanded to encompass tens of
thousands of other public employees and their families.
In 1989, actress Rebecca Schaeffer was stalked and killed by a
man who obtained her address through a private investigator
who, in turn, obtained her address from the DMV. In response
to this murder, the Legislature enacted AB 1779 (Roos) -
Chapter 1213, Statutes of 1989, which made confidential the
home addresses of all individuals with records at the DMV.
Since 1990, when AB 1779 went into effect, there has been no
useful reason for the DMV to maintain the separate and
explicit confidentiality list of public officials and
employees.
Despite the fact that all home addresses are kept confidential
by the DMV, the Legislature has considered and enacted several
bills since 1990 proposing to add select categories of persons
to the public official confidentiality process. The DMV is
not aware of any instance since the enactment of AB 1779 in
which the department's home address information has been used
to commit any crime.
3)Alternative Action . Since the enactment of AB 1779 in 1989
eliminates the need for the separate home address
confidentiality protections afforded to public officials and
employees under Vehicle Code sections 1808.2, 1808.4, and
1808.6, a more appropriate course of action would be to repeal
these three outdated sections.
4)Related Legislation . AB 2039 (Arambula) removes peace
officers who have been convicted of a crime and have left
their positions from the public official confidentiality
AB 1958
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list's three-year moratorium on public access to home address
information. AB 2039 passed this committee April 9.
AB 966 (Spitzer), which passed the Assembly last year as a
measure related to parole, was amended April 9 to delete all
confidentiality provisions and instead allow government
agencies access to the public official confidentiality list of
home addresses in an effort to better collect traffic, parking
or toll road violations.
Analysis Prepared by : Steve Archibald / APPR. / (916)
319-2081