BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1863
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Date of Hearing: April 18, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1863 (Chesbro) - As Amended: March 26, 2012
Policy Committee: Local
GovernmentVote:7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill expands reimbursable costs under mutual aid and
appropriates funds to pay the County of Mendocino for costs
incurred during a recent manhunt. Specifically, this bill :
1)Appropriates $40,827.29 from the General Fund to Mendocino
County to reimburse the County for the costs it incurred for
the food and lodging of outside agencies' personnel that
offered mutual aid to the County in the 2011 manhunt for a
difficult to apprehend suspected murderer.
2)Expands the definition of "disaster" to include an uncommon
situation that requires law enforcement and for which local
resources are inadequate to protect the lives and property of
citizens or to enforce the law, as specified.
3)Allows the costs of food and lodging for mutual aid responders
to be reimbursed from moneys appropriated for disaster
assistance for a state of emergency proclaimed by the
governor.
FISCAL EFFECT
This bill will result in a direct cost to the General Fund of
$40,000. To the extent it provides a precedent for
reimbursement of mutual aid costs, the state could incur higher
costs as other local governments sponsor bills for
reimbursement. There are approximately 500 law enforcement
mutual aid missions annually.
Additional costs are likely, in the range of $250,000 annually
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for increased reimbursement of law enforcement costs from
disasters declared by the governor. The number of declared
disasters is usually about 15 annually.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . According to the author, while California has one
of the best mutual aid systems in the nation, there is no
method for reimbursement of significant law enforcement events
with state impacts similar to how the fire mutual aid system
is structured. The author argues AB 1863 provides Mendocino
County with reimbursement for the 2011 manhunt and clarifies
existing law that a disaster includes law enforcement
emergencies. The author notes that events like this are
unusual, but when they do occur, law enforcement's primary
responsibility should be to focus on the event and secure
public safety, rather than be concerned about budgets and the
cost of events. The author concludes that AB 1863 will assist
counties, especially rural counties, which have limited
resources but still have a need to respond to significant
public safety events.
2)Background. Mutual aid is the voluntary sharing of personnel
and resources when an agency cannot deploy its own resources
sufficiently to respond to an unusual occurrence. Resources
are requested by the affected agency through a system
established by an agreement adopted by most cities and all 58
counties. This agreement creates a formal structure with each
jurisdiction retaining control of its own personnel and
facilities, while giving and receiving help when it is needed.
Generally speaking, there is no reimbursement for providing
law enforcement mutual aid. The agency receiving the mutual
aid is responsible for the care, feeding and shelter of
personnel from agencies that volunteered mutual aid resources.
In some instances, reimbursement for mutual aid costs may be
possible under state and federal disaster declarations.
3)Bureau of State Audits . The bureau released a report in
January 2012 on California's mutual aid system. The audit
found that a majority of the 15 local fire agencies that were
interviewed stated that they have not evaluated the impact
that providing mutual aid has on their budgets. Moreover, the
majority of these local fire agencies said that they absorb in
their operating budgets the costs of responding to mutual aid
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requests. Similarly, the five local law enforcement agencies
interviewed stated that they have not evaluated the impact
that fulfilling aid requests have on their budgets.
4)Related legislation . A similar bill, AB 1873 (Galgiani), also
makes an appropriation from the state's General Fund to
reimburse San Joaquin and Calaveras Counties for mutual aid
costs.
Analysis Prepared by : Roger Dunstan / APPR. / (916) 319-2081