BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE
Senator Patricia Wiggins, Chair
BILL NO: AB 918 HEARING: 7/1/09
AUTHOR: Adams FISCAL: No
VERSION: 6/11/09 CONSULTANT: Detwiler
COLLECTION BOXES
Background and Existing Law
Public nuisances include offensive behavior and land uses
that injure public health. Cities and counties can adopt
local ordinances that identify and then abate public
nuisances.
The California Constitution allows cities and counties to
adopt local police, sanitary, and other ordinances that
don't conflict with the state's general laws. Using this
police power to regulate private behavior to achieve public
goals, cities and counties can adopt zoning ordinances.
Some local zoning ordinances require property owners to
obtain use permits for certain land uses.
State laws and local ordinances define crimes --- felonies,
misdemeanors, infractions --- that are subject to graduated
penalties.
For 50 years, state law has regulated how organizations
solicit and sell "salvageable personal property" by
telephone, by advertising, or by placing boxes on public
property or abutting public sidewalks, streets, or in
businesses open to the public. These organizations must
keep separate accounts and books. Violating this state law
is a misdemeanor. State law recognizes that it doesn't
limit cities and counties from imposing additional
requirements on soliciting and selling salvageable personal
property (SB 928, McBride, 1959).
Charitable organizations collect salvageable property such
as clothes, books, and furniture for resale and
distribution to the poor. Some of these organizations
operate from storefronts, while others collect goods from
unattended collection boxes. Some for-profit firms also
have drop boxes which can be indistinguishable from those
owned by charitable organizations. Donors may not know if
their property is going to a charity or to a for-profit
AB 918 -- 6/11/09 -- Page 2
company. Some charitable organizations want legislators to
require the owners of unattended collection boxes to inform
donors about where their donations go.
Proposed Law
Assembly Bill 918 requires the front of every unattended
collection box to display the name, address, telephone
number, and Internet Web address of the collection box's
owner and operator, plus a statement in two-inch type that
the collection box is owned by either a for-profit or a
nonprofit organization. AB 918 defines its terms and
classifies a commercial fundraiser as a for-profit
organization. If a nonprofit organization owns the
collection box, the box's front must also display a
statement describing the charitable cause that will benefit
from the donations.
The bill requires a collection box's owner to obtain
written permission from the property owner or lessee or
their authorized agent, certifying permission to place the
box on the property. If the property owner, lessee, or
authorized agent doesn't provide written consent, the
collection box's owner can use verbal consent if documented
with contact information. When requested by the local
jurisdiction or an interested person, the box's owner must
make this written or verbal consent available.
AB 918 states that it does not supersede or limit the State
Department of Justice's authority over charitable
fundraising or affect the authority of cities and counties
to regulate, monitor, or prohibit collection boxes.
Comments
1. Informed donor . When you give away your old clothes,
who benefits? It's easy to know who benefits from a
donation when a charitable organization solicits in person,
by telephone, or in the mail. It's not as easy when you
drop those old clothes into an unattended collection box.
Maybe a worthy charity gives the clothes to the poor.
Maybe the charity sells your donated clothes and uses the
money to deliver services to poor or disabled people. But
the donated materials might be going to a commercial
AB 918 -- 6/11/09 -- Page 3
fundraiser or even a company that resells the goods for
private profit. Charitable organizations depend on the
goodwill of informed donors. By requiring drop boxes to
display basic information about their owners and operators
and tell which charitable cause benefits, AB 918 informs
donors about who gets their property.
2. Market shares . Charities, charitable fundraisers, and
for-profit companies compete for donations of clothes,
books, furniture, and other salvageable property. Even
within the charitable sector, organizations compete with
each other for donations. While AB 918 gives donors more
information about who benefits from their donations, the
bill's new requirements erect statutory barriers. An
established charity that resents the appearance of
unattended collection boxes in supermarket parking lots
could use the bill to demand to see the property owners'
written consent. The Committee may wish to consider
whether the bill advances the state's policy interest in
informed philanthropy or will be used to harass
competitors.
3. No enforcement . Although AB 918 enacts new
requirements for unattended collection boxes, the bill
doesn't provide a way to enforce its rules. There are at
least three different approaches that legislators may wish
to consider if they want to enforce AB 918's new rules:
Citations for infractions. It's a misdemeanor to
violate the state's 50-year old laws that regulate the
charitable solicitation of salvageable personal
property. The Committee may wish to consider making a
violation of AB 918 a misdemeanor which can be
processed as an infraction.
Nuisance abatement. Cities and counties can order
the abatement of land uses that constitute public
nuisances. The Committee may wish to consider
amending AB 918 to declare that an unattended
collection box that fails to meet the bill's standards
is a public nuisance which is subject to local
abatement procedures.
Mandatory local permits. Cities and counties can
use their land use regulatory powers to require use
permits for unattended collection boxes. The
Committee may wish to consider mandating cities and
counties to adopt ordinances that require permits for
unattended collection boxes.
AB 918 -- 6/11/09 -- Page 4
Without a clear means of enforcement, the bill may be
another well-intentioned but ineffective statute.
4. Says who ? If the key goal of AB 918 is to inform
donors about who benefits from their giving to unattended
drop boxes, then it's superfluous for the bill to require
the property owners' written or verbal consent for locating
the collection boxes. The existing trespass laws and
private nuisance statutes give property owners plenty of
authority to get rid of unwelcome drop boxes. The
Committee may wish to consider deleting the requirement
that collection box owners obtain and make available this
paperwork.
5. Same problem, different solution . AB 2610 (Davis,
2008) tackled the problems posed by unattended collection
boxes with a combination of state standards, local
enforcement, and defined penalties. The Senate Local
Government Committee initially defeated the 2008 Davis bill
on a 2-3 vote, reconsidered, and passed the bill on a 3-2
vote. Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, saying that
it was not a priority.
6. Technical amendment needed . To avoid using different
terms for the same concept, the Committee should adopt a
technical amendment that changes the term "local
jurisdiction" to "city, county, or city and county."
7. Legislative history . On June 17, the Senate Local
Government Committee considered AB 918 when Assembly Member
Villines presented the bill on behalf of Assembly Member
Adams. Although the Committee heard witnesses representing
the Council of California Goodwill Industries, Goodwill
Southern California, Planet Aid, California Association of
Nonprofits, and the City of Sacramento, it didn't act on
the bill. There have been no amendments since that
hearing.
Assembly Actions
Assembly Judiciary Committee:10-0
Assembly Floor: 75-0
Support and Opposition (6/25/09)
AB 918 -- 6/11/09 -- Page 5
Support : Council of California Goodwill Industries,
California Association of Nonprofits, Campus California TG,
City of Sacramento, Planet Aid.
Opposition : Unknown.