BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1233 (Oropeza)
Hearing Date: 05/27/2010 Amended: 05/17/2010
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz Policy Vote: ER&CA: 5-0 Jud: 4-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 1233 removes the sunset for the "Safe at
Home" programs, and requires the Secretary of State to
permanently retain name change records for program participants.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Safe at Home extension $0 $0
$303 General
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
The Safe at Home program, known as the "Address Confidentiality
for Victims of Domestic Violence and Stalking", is scheduled to
be repealed on January 1, 2013.
SB 1233 permanently removes that sunset. Full year annual
ongoing costs will be $606,000 beginning FY 2013-14. In
addition to conducting outreach, processing applications and
mail, and providing assistance to participants, staff also
provides training for and responds to calls from over 325 Safe
at Home enrolling agencies statewide.
The Safe at Home program was originally created by SB 489
(Alpert), Chapter 1005, Statutes of 1998, to allow victims of
domestic violence or stalking to apply to the Secretary of State
(SOS) to request an alternate address be used in public records.
The SOS provides a substitute address for these victims while
protecting their actual residences, and also acts as the
participants' agent for service of process and forwards mail
received at the substitute address. A participate must be
certified, and may stay in the program for four years unless
recertified. Any person filing a new affidavit of voter
registration may have the information relating to his or her
residence address, telephone number, and email address declared
confidential, as well as having their DMV information
suppressed.
In 2002, the Safe at Home program was expanded to include
reproductive health care services providers, employees,
volunteers and patients who are fearful of their safety. Since
the inception of the Safe at Home program, over 4,900 survivors
of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault, as well as
reproductive health care doctors, nurses, volunteers and
patients have been protected. The number of current active
participants is 2,437, of which approximately 43% are children.
During 2009, more than 244,000 pieces of mail were forwarded to
program participants. The sunset has been extended twice since
the inception of the program. SB 1233 will remove the sunset,
thereby making the program permanent.
SB 1233 (Oropeza)
Page 2
Existing law provides that any records or documents pertaining
to the Safe at Home program shall be retained for a period of
three years after termination of certification in the program.
SB 1233 provides that name change records will be retained by
the SOS permanently. Safe at Home participants often legally
change their name. Part of the address confidentiality
provision exempts the publishing of the name change in a
newspaper of general circulation, and also requires the courts
to keep the name change confidential. Existing law requires the
old name to be removed from court records and the new name to be
filed with the Secretary of State. As a result, the Secretary
of State maintains the only complete record of the participant's
confidential name change. Since records are currently destroyed
three years after the participant no longer participates in the
Safe at Home program, all of the records pertaining to a
participant's previous name are lost. This bill will require
the SOS to maintain all name change records permanently. This
is consistent with the requirements currently imposed on trial
court clerks with respect to the maintenance of name change
court records for individuals who are not participants in the
Safe at Home program.
According to the Safe at Home 2009 Annual Report released by the
Secretary of State on January 8, 2010, some of the program
highlights in 2009 were:
1) Partnering with the Judicial Council to ensure Safe at Home
participants are protected from publication of confidential name
changes in any public forum including the Internet and court
calendars,
2) Strengthening the security of the Safe at Home database,
reducing operating expenses, and expanding outreach efforts to
minority communities, and
3) Compiling a detailed procedure manual to serve as both a
training tool in California and a model for other states.