BILL ANALYSIS SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: Ab 2097 SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Miller VERSION: 5/28/10 Analysis by: Jennifer Gress FISCAL: yes Hearing date: June 29, 2010 SUBJECT: Confidential home addresses DESCRIPTION: This bill establishes a process whereby a person who has requested that the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) hold his or her home address confidential shall provide to DMV the address of his or her employment address for the purpose of processing the service and collection of traffic, parking, and toll road violations. ANALYSIS: Existing law lists persons who may request that the home address appearing in a DMV record be held confidential. Some of these persons include: The Attorney General The State Public Defender A member of the Legislature A judge or court commissioner A district attorney A public defender An attorney employed by the Department of Justice or the Office of the State Public Defender A city attorney or an attorney that represents a city in matters that place the attorney in personal contact with persons under investigation for, charged with, or convicted of committing criminal acts A non-sworn police dispatcher A child abuse investigator or social worker working in child protective services An active or retired peace officer AB 2097 (MILLER) Page 2 The spouse or child of any of these persons The confidential home address of these persons may not be disclosed except to any of the following: A court A law enforcement agency The State Board of Equalization An attorney in a civil or criminal action that demonstrates to a court the need for the home address A governmental agency to which, under law, information is required to be furnished from DMV records Following termination of office or employment, a confidential home address shall remain confidential for three years, unless the termination is the result of conviction of a criminal offense. The home address of a retired peace officer shall remain confidential permanently upon request at the time the information would otherwise be opened. Existing law also establishes time periods by which an agency must issue a notice of violation to an alleged violator and by which the alleged violator must either pay the fine or contest the citation. For example, for parking violations, an agency must issue a notice of violation within 15 calendar days of the violation occurring and a person has 21 days to pay or contest. For toll evasion violations, a toll agency has 21 days to issue a notice of toll evasion violation, but an additional 45 if the agency is unable to obtain the address of an alleged violator. This bill : Requires a person who requests confidentiality of his or her home address to provide DMV with a current employment address for purposes of processing the service and collection of traffic, parking, and toll violations. Waives the 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. Provides that the use of a person's business address satisfies the requirement that a notice to appear or a notice of violation be served to a person's home address. AB 2097 (MILLER) Page 3 Requires a person whose home address is confidential to notify DMV of any change in his or her employment address within 10 days of the change. Requires DMV to refuse to renew the registration of a vehicle if the owner whose home address is confidential has been served notice to his or her employment address has been mailed a notice of delinquent parking violation or a failure to pay a traffic citation. Requires DMV to update the form persons may use to request confidentiality to include the requirement that the person provide a current employment address. Requires DMV to distribute copies of the updated form to the human resources offices of each agency that employs any of the persons eligible to request confidentiality. Requires the human resources office of an applicant or existing enrollee to make the form available to all new applicants and all existing enrollees, to require these persons to provide their employment address, and to forward the forms to the Confidential Records Unit at DMV. The forms for existing enrollees must be received by DMV by April 1, 2012. COMMENTS: 1.Purpose . According to the author, the purpose of this bill is to provide a means for traffic fine collectors to collect unpaid tolls and penalties for traffic, toll, and parking violations without compromising existing confidential records. The author also strives to create transparency in government by allowing for the collection of fees and penalties that would otherwise remain un-collectable from those with confidential DMV records. Finally, the author also asserts that the bill will provide a new source of revenue for badly needed transportation projects throughout the state. 2.The problem . The exact nature of the problem this bill seeks to address is unclear. DMV does have a process whereby a government agency, law enforcement agency, or court can request a masked home address, though the time it can sometimes take DMV to unmask a record and provide the address to a requester may be longer than the notice requirements AB 2097 (MILLER) Page 4 provided under current law. Additionally, some of the entities seeking the information use private vendors under contract with the agency that are not authorized to request home addresses. In these situations, the entity must make requests for home addresses through a court or a law enforcement agency, an additional layer of bureaucracy that some agencies resist. If the principal issue is that the time required to obtain a confidential home address may exceed the time allowed by the notice requirements, the author or committee may wish to consider an amendment that would extend the notice periods when an agency is not able to obtain the home address readily, as is the case under current law for toll evasion violations. 3.Previous legislation . In 2007, Assembly Member Spitzer authored legislation to allow that confidential home addresses be disclosed to government agencies for the purpose of service and collection of traffic, parking, and toll violations. That bill was vetoed by the Governor. His veto message read, in part: This bill allows collectors of traffic and parking fines to have access to the confidential home address information at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). 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 the 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 the bill, depending of 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. I am also concerned that this access puts the home addresses of law enforcement officers at risk of disclosure. 4.Current enrollees . The process of developing a new form, providing it to all employers, requiring employers to solicit an employment address from all current enrollees, and then AB 2097 (MILLER) Page 5 requiring current enrollees to provide an employment address is cumbersome. The process also raises questions about the consequences if DMV does not, for whatever reason, receive an employment address from a current enrollee. If DMV does not receive an employment address from an individual whose address is already confidential, will DMV no longer treat that address as confidential? What if the person has already retired or change jobs? Given the logistical problems of requiring current enrollees to provide an employment address, the author or committee may wish to consider an amendment to make the bill prospective such that the requirement to provide an employment address would apply only to persons who newly request that their addresses be held confidential. Assembly Votes: Floor: 76-0 Appr: 17-0 Trans: 13-0 POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on Wednesday, June 23, 2010) SUPPORT: California State Sheriffs' Association Orange County Toll Authority South Bay Expressway OPPOSED: None received.