BILL NUMBER: AB 2097 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Miller
FEBRUARY 18, 2010
An act to amend Section 1808.4 of the Vehicle Code, relating to
vehicles.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2097, as introduced, Miller. Vehicles: confidential home
addresses: citations.
(1) Existing law makes confidential the home address of any of a
list of state officers and employees that appear in the Department of
Motor Vehicles records, if an officer or employee requests that his
or her address be kept confidential, with certain exemptions for
information available to specified governmental agencies. Existing
law requires the department to inform a person who requests a
confidential home address what agency the individual whose address
was requested is employed by or the court at which the judge or court
commissioner presides.
This bill would require a person who requests the confidentiality
of his or her home address to provide the department with a current
employment address for purposes of processing the service and
collection of a traffic, parking, or toll road violation. The bill
would require that the applicable statutory time periods for
processing the service and collection of traffic, parking, or toll
road violations are tolled until the department provides the law
enforcement agency, governmental agency, or issuing agency with the
person's current employment address.
The bill would require a person who has requested the
confidentiality of his or her home address to notify the department
of motor vehicles of any change in his or her employment address
within 10 days.
By creating new crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated
local program.
(2) Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to
refuse to renew the registration of a vehicle if the registered owner
or lessee has been mailed a notice of delinquent parking violation
or a failure to pay a traffic citation and the processing agency has
filed or electronically transmitted to the department an itemization
of the unpaid parking or traffic citation penalty, including the
administrative fee, and the owner or lessee has not paid the penalty
and administrative fee.
This bill would require the department to refuse to renew the
registration of a vehicle if the person who has been served pursuant
to this section has been mailed a notice of delinquent parking
violation or a failure to pay a traffic citation and the processing
agency has filed or electronically transmitted to the department an
itemization of the unpaid parking or traffic citation penalty,
including the administrative fee, and the owner or lessee has not
paid the penalty and administrative fee.
(3) 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 no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 1808.4 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:
1808.4. (a) For all of the following persons, his or her home
address that appears in a record of the department is confidential if
the person requests the confidentiality of that information:
(1) Attorney General.
(2) State Public Defender.
(3) A Member of the Legislature.
(4) A judge or court commissioner.
(5) A district attorney.
(6) A public defender.
(7) An attorney employed by the Department of Justice, the office
of the State Public Defender, or a county office of the district
attorney or public defender.
(8) A city attorney and an attorney who submits verification from
his or her public employer that the attorney represents the city in
matters that routinely place the attorney in personal contact with
persons under investigation for, charged with, or convicted of,
committing criminal acts, if that attorney is employed by a city
attorney.
(9) A nonsworn police dispatcher.
(10) A child abuse investigator or social worker, working in child
protective services within a social services department.
(11) An active or retired peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5
(commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2 of the Penal
Code.
(12) An employee of the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Facilities, or the Prison
Industry Authority specified in Sections 20403 and 20405 of the
Government Code.
(13) A nonsworn employee of a city police department, a county
sheriff's office, the Department of the California Highway Patrol, a
federal, state, or local detention facility, or a local juvenile
hall, camp, ranch, or home, who submits agency verification that, in
the normal course of his or her employment, he or she controls or
supervises inmates or is required to have a prisoner in his or her
care or custody.
(14) A county counsel assigned to child abuse cases.
(15) An investigator employed by the Department of Justice, a
county district attorney, or a county public defender.
(16) A member of a city council.
(17) A member of a board of supervisors.
(18) A federal prosecutor, criminal investigator, or National Park
Service Ranger working in this state.
(19) An active or retired city enforcement officer engaged in the
enforcement of the Vehicle Code or municipal parking ordinances.
(20) An employee of a trial court.
(21) A psychiatric social worker employed by a county.
(22) A police or sheriff department employee designated by the
Chief of Police of the department or the sheriff of the county as
being in a sensitive position. A designation pursuant to this
paragraph shall, for purposes of this section, remain in effect for
three years subject to additional designations that, for purposes of
this section, shall remain in effect for additional three-year
periods.
(23) A state employee in one of the following classifications:
(A) Licensing Registration Examiner, Department of Motor Vehicles.
(B) Motor Carrier Specialist 1, Department of the California
Highway Patrol.
(C) Museum Security Officer and Supervising Museum Security
Officer.
(24) (A) The spouse or child of a person listed in paragraphs (1)
to (23), inclusive, regardless of the spouse's or child's place of
residence.
(B) The surviving spouse or child of a peace officer, as defined
in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2 of
the Penal Code, if the peace officer died in the line of duty.
(b) The confidential home address of a person listed in
subdivision (a) shall not be disclosed, except to any of the
following:
(1) A court.
(2) A law enforcement agency.
(3) The State Board of Equalization.
(4) An attorney in a civil or criminal action that demonstrates to
a court the need for the home address, if the disclosure is made
pursuant to a subpoena.
(5) A governmental agency to which, under any provision
of law, information is required to be furnished from
records maintained by the department.
(c) (1) A record of the department containing a confidential home
address shall be open to public inspection, as provided in Section
1808, if the address is completely obliterated or otherwise removed
from the record.
(2) Following termination of office or employment, a confidential
home address shall be withheld from public inspection for three
years, unless the termination is the result of conviction of a
criminal offense. If the termination or separation is the result of
the filing of a criminal complaint, a confidential home address shall
be withheld from public inspection during the time in which the
terminated individual may file an appeal from termination, while an
appeal from termination is ongoing, and until the appeal process is
exhausted, after which confidentiality shall be at the discretion of
the employing agency if the termination or separation is upheld. Upon
reinstatement to an office or employment, the protections of this
section are available.
(3) With respect to a retired peace officer, his or her home
address shall be withheld from public inspection permanently upon
request of confidentiality at the time the information would
otherwise be opened. The home address of the surviving spouse or
child listed in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (24) of subdivision (a)
shall be withheld from public inspection for three years following
the death of the peace officer.
(4) The department shall inform a person who requests a
confidential home address what agency the individual whose address
was requested is employed by or the court at which the judge or court
commissioner presides.
(d) (1) A person who requests the confidentiality of his or her
home address pursuant to this article shall provide the department
with a current employment address for purposes of processing the
service and collection of a traffic, parking, or toll road violation.
The applicable statutory time periods for processing the service and
collection of traffic, parking, or toll road violations are tolled
until the department provides the law enforcement agency,
governmental agency, or issuing agency with the person's current
employment address. Notwithstanding Sections 40500 and 40518 or any
other law, the use of a person's current employment address, whose
home address is confidential, satisfies the requirement of the person'
s home address for purposes of serving a notice to appear or a notice
of violation pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 40500)
of Chapter 2 of Division 17.
(2) A person who has requested the confidentiality of his or her
home address shall notify the department of any change in his or her
employment address within 10 days.
(3) The department shall refuse to renew the registration of a
vehicle if the person who has been served pursuant to this section
has been mailed a notice of delinquent parking violation or a failure
to pay a traffic citation and the processing agency has filed or
electronically transmitted to the department an itemization of the
unpaid parking or traffic citation penalty, including the
administrative fee, and the owner or lessee has not paid the penalty
and administrative fee.
(d)
(e) A violation of subdivision (a) by the disclosure of
the confidential home address of a peace officer, as specified in
paragraph (11) of subdivision (a), a nonsworn employee of the city
police department or county sheriff's office, or the spouses or
children of these persons, including, but not limited to, the
surviving spouse or child listed in subparagraph (B) of paragraph
(24) of subdivision (a), that results in bodily injury to the peace
officer, employee of the city police department or county sheriff's
office, or the spouses or children of these persons is a felony.
SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.