BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 934
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Date of Hearing: April 24, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
K.H. "Katcho" Achadjian, Chair
AB 934 (Cooley) - As Amended: March 21, 2013
SUBJECT : Local agencies: unclaimed money.
SUMMARY : Requires local agencies to document a reasonable
effort to locate victims to whom restitution is owed.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires a local agency to document that it has made a
reasonable effort to locate the victim to whom restitution is
owed before depositing funds into the Restitution Fund or
using those funds for victim services.
2)Provides that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines
that this bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those
costs shall be made pursuant to current law governing
state-mandated local costs.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides, pursuant to the California Constitution, that all
persons who suffer losses as a result of criminal activity
shall have the right to restitution from the perpetrators of
the crimes. Restitution must be ordered in every case unless
compelling and extraordinary reasons exist to the contrary.
2)States that, when a prisoner owes victim restitution, the
Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) shall deduct a minimum of 20% or the
balance owing on the ordered amount, whichever is less, and up
to a maximum of 50% from the wages and trust account deposits
of a prisoner. The Secretary shall transfer that amount to
the California Victim's Compensation and Government Claims
Board (CVCGCB) for direct payment to the victim, or payment
shall be made to the Restitution Fund to the extent that the
victim has received assistance pursuant to that program.
3)States that in any case in which a victim cannot be located,
the restitution revenues received by the CVCGCB on the
victim's behalf shall be held in trust in the Restitution Fund
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until the end of the state fiscal year subsequent to the state
fiscal year in which the funds were deposited or until the
time that the victim has provided current address information,
whichever occurs sooner. Amounts remaining in trust at the
end of the specified period of time shall revert to the
Restitution Fund.
4)Requires the court to assess a post-release community
supervision (PRCS) or mandatory-supervision revocation fine in
the same amount as that imposed for a restitution fine and
authorizes local agencies to collect them.
5)Authorizes prosecutors to send a victim's contact information
to CDCR without the victim's consent for purposes of
distributing restitution.
6)Provides that money, excluding restitution to victims, that is
not the property of a local agency that remains unclaimed in
its treasury or in the official custody of its officers for
three years is the property of the local agency after notice
if not claimed or if no verified complaint is filed and
served.
7)Provides that, at any time after the expiration of the
three-year period, the treasurer of the local agency may cause
a notice to be published once a week for two successive weeks
in a newspaper of general circulation published in the local
agency.
8)Requires money representing restitution collected on behalf of
victims to be either deposited into the Restitution Fund or
used by the local agency for purposes of victim services after
the expiration of the three-year period.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)This bill requires a local agency to document that it has made
a reasonable effort to locate crime victims to whom
restitution is owed before depositing unclaimed funds into the
Restitution Fund or using those funds for victim services.
This bill is sponsored by Los Angeles County District Attorney
Jackie Lacey.
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2)According to the author, "Restitution is a right under the
California Constitution and California statutes. This right
was most recently strengthened by the passage of Marsy's Law.
It is clear that the will of the people in this state favors
the disbursement of restitution to a crime victim."
3)According to the author's office, in July of 2011, the CDCR
made the Los Angeles District Attorney's office aware of
$217,555.48 that had gone undisbursed and owed to nearly 4,000
not fully identifiable crime victims in Los Angeles County.
In one case, one victim was owed approximately $18,000. The
CDCR had made efforts to locate victims and disburse monies
collected. However, they are not the only collectors of
restitution. Local probation departments, the Franchise Tax
Board, and local county agencies are all authorized to collect
restitution.
4)Last year, the Legislature approved SB 1210 (Lieu), Chapter
762, Statutes of 2012, which requires courts to assess a PRCS
or mandatory-supervision revocation fine in the same amount as
that imposed for a restitution fine and authorizes local
agencies to collect them. This was part of California's
corrections realignment plan, which shifted responsibility
from the state to counties for the custody, treatment, and
supervision of individuals convicted of specified nonviolent,
non-serious, non-sex crimes.
Also last year, the Legislature approved AB 2251 (Feuer),
Chapter 124, Statutes of 2012, which authorizes prosecutors to
send victim contact information to CDCR without the victim's
consent for purposes of distributing restitution.
This bill is a follow-up measure that requires local agencies
(in practical terms, counties) to make a reasonable effort to
locate victims of crime who are owed restitution before the
local agency transfers unclaimed restitution funds to the
Restitution Fund or uses the funds for victim services.
5)This bill is keyed a state mandate, which means the state
could be required to reimburse local agencies for implementing
the bill's provisions if the Commission on State Mandates
determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state.
6)Support arguments : Los Angeles County District Attorney
Jackie Lacey notes that money may be collected on behalf of
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victims by probation departments and prosecutors as well as
the state. Due to realignment of the prison population,
increasing numbers of crime victims will rely on local
government rather than CDCR to collect restitution. She
states that "it is time to update this law to assure that
crime victims will receive the money that is owed to them."
7)Opposition arguments : Opponents could question the lack of
definition for what it means to "document" reasonable effort
and for what "reasonable effort" entails, and what could
consequently be a lack of uniformity in compliance from one
local jurisdiction to another.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Angela Mapp / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958