BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 2097
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 19, 2010

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
                                   Mike Eng, Chair
                 AB 2097 (Miller) - As Introduced:  February 18, 2010
           
          SUBJECT  :  Home address confidentiality

           SUMMARY  :  Requires persons requesting confidentiality of their  
          Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) records to provide a current  
          employment address.  Specifically,  this bill  :  

          1)Requires a person who, by virtue of his or her profession  
            qualifies for special confidentiality protections, requests  
            DMV to exercise these protections, to provide DMV with a  
            current employment address for purposes of processing the  
            service and collection of a traffic, parking, or toll road  
            violation.  

          2)Suspends the applicable statutory time periods for processing  
            the service and collection of traffic, parking, or toll road  
            violations until DMV provides the law enforcement agency,  
            governmental agency, or issuing agency with the person's  
            current employment address.  

          3)Provides that the use of a person's current employment  
            address, when that person's 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.  

          4)Requires a person who has requested the confidentiality of his  
            or her home address to notify DMV of any change in his or her  
            employment address within 10 days.  

          5)Requires DMV to refuse to renew the registration of a vehicle  
            if the person who has been mailed a notice of delinquent  
            parking violation or failure to pay a traffic citation and the  
            processing agency has filed or electronically transmitted to  
            DMV an itemization of the unpaid parking or traffic citation  
            penalty, including the administrative fee, and the vehicle  
            owner or lessee has not paid the penalty and administrative  
            fee.  

           EXISTING LAW  :








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          1)Lists 24 classes of persons primarily in law enforcement  
            fields, plus the spouses and children of those persons, and  
            allows them to request that their home addresses be held  
            confidential by DMV.  The home address of these persons may  
            only be disclosed to a court, a law enforcement agency, the  
            state Board of Equalization (BOE), or any governmental agency  
            legally required to be furnished that information.  

          2)Affords confidentiality for the home addresses of all  
            individuals contained within DMV records.  These provisions  
            similarly allow for disclosure to courts, law enforcement  
            agencies, and other governmental agencies but also allow for  
            limited disclosure to financial institutions, insurance  
            companies, attorneys, vehicle manufacturers, and persons doing  
            statistical research.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  Unknown

           COMMENTS  :  Until 1989, DMV records were considered public  
          records, unless state law specifically made them confidential,  
          as was the case for peace officers' addresses.  Therefore, until  
          1989, home addresses were not considered confidential, and any  
          person who gave a reason that DMV deemed legitimate and could  
          present to DMV a person's driver's license number or license  
          plate number could obtain address information on that  
          individual.  

          In 1989, actress Rebecca Schaeffer was stalked and killed.  The  
          murderer obtained her address from a private investigation  
          agency doing business in Arizona.  The private investigation  
          agency acquired her address through a subcontractor agent in  
          California, who obtained it from DMV.  In response, the  
          Legislature enacted AB 1779 (Roos), Chapter 1213, Statutes of  
          1989, which made home addresses in DMV records confidential,  
          with specified exceptions.  

          AB 1779 left in place, however, earlier confidentiality  
          provisions that applied only to peace officers and certain other  
          officials thought to be at risk.  The home addresses of those on  
          the statutory list of such officials may only be disclosed to a  
          court, a law enforcement agency, the BOE, or any governmental  
          agency legally required to be furnished that information.  The  
          home addresses of everyone else may also be disclosed, in  
          limited circumstances, to financial institutions, insurance  








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          companies, attorneys, vehicle manufacturers, and persons doing  
          statistical research.  

          The Orange County Register in 2008 conducted an investigation  
          that uncovered thousands of unpaid violations and tolls accrued  
          by a number of peace officers and other individuals whose DMV  
          records are afforded enhanced confidentiality beyond the  
          protections afforded under AB 1779.  Those unpaid tolls and  
          fines had cost agencies in Orange County over $5 million over  
          the prior five years.  Parking and toll agencies throughout the  
          state, including those in San Diego and San Francisco, had  
          experienced similar abuses.  

          When parking agencies or toll road operators attempt to collect  
          fines from such individuals, DMV is not able to provide the  
          offender's registered addresses in a manner timely enough for  
          fines to be collected under the statute of limitations.   
          Therefore, it is generally not cost effective for agencies to  
          pursue money owed, so that fines for these violations are  
          usually written off.  While some agencies attempt to collect the  
          money by sending a notice to the individuals' employing entities  
          on file at DMV, there is no way to enforce the collection of  
          violations because this practice is not authorized under the  
          law.  

          By requiring a person with enhanced home address confidentiality  
          to provide their business address, this bill would appear to  
          close the above-described loophole that has been exploited by a  
          number of individuals.  It would allow toll facilities and  
          parking agencies to avoid large revenue losses and would relieve  
          DMV of the burden of having to respond to the thousands of  
          requests from these agencies for delinquent vehicle owners'  
          mailing addresses, a burden described by DMV as "a major hassle  
          for both us and the agencies."  

           Legislative history  :  AB 996 (Spitzer) of 2008, which was vetoed  
          by the Governor, would have allowed confidential home addresses  
          maintained by DMV to be disclosed to a governmental agency when  
          that information was necessary to serve or collect a traffic,  
          parking, toll bridge, or toll road violation.  Like this bill,  
          it also would have suspended the applicable statutory time  
          periods for processing the service and collection of traffic,  
          parking, toll bridge, or toll road violations until DMV provided  
          the affected law enforcement agency or governmental agency with  
          the home address of a vehicle owner or driver's license holder  








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          whose address information is otherwise held confidential by DMV.  
           

          The Governor, in his veto message, said in part:  "There are  
          existing mechanisms in place to allow a traffic enforcement  
          agency to pursue collections from law enforcement officers and  
          others who have a restricted confidential home address.  The  
          agencies are authorized to obtain an individual's employment  
          information from DMV and send billing notification to the  
          individual's place of employment.  Additionally, unpaid fines  
          can be reported to DMV and included in the registration renewal  
          notice.  

          "DMV estimates significant costs to implement this bill,  
          depending on the volume of requests for restricted confidential  
          address records.  DMV maintains over 1.5 million records that  
          fall under the Confidential Records program.  These records  
          cannot be accessed electronically, and therefore, additional  
          staff time would be required to manually process requests for  
          these records."  

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :   

           Support 
           
          California State Sheriffs' Association

           Opposition 
           
          None received
           

          Analysis Prepared by  :   Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093