BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 2310 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 2310 (Ridley-Thomas and Dickinson) As Amended March 28, 2014 2/3 vote. Urgency JUDICIARY 10-0 APPROPRIATIONS 16-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Wieckowski, Wagner, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bigelow, Allen, | | |Alejo, Chau, Dickinson, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian | | |Garcia, Gorell, | |Calderon, Campos, Eggman, | | |Maienschein, Muratsuchi, | |Gomez, Holden, Linder, | | |Stone | |Pan, Quirk, | | | | |Ridley-Thomas, Wagner, | | | | |Weber | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Re-establishes a pilot program, which sunset last year, that conditionally allows city attorneys and prosecutors in participating cities to bring eviction proceedings against tenants for committing nuisance violations involving unlawful weapons and ammunition. Specifically, this bill : 1)Re-establishes the Civil Code Section 3485 (Section 3485) pilot program for weapons-related evictions that, until sunsetting on December 31, 2013, provided pilot authority to the city attorney or prosecutor in participating jurisdictions to file an unlawful detainer action in the name of the people against a tenant for the illegal possession or sale of firearms or ammunition, as specified, on the residential premises, or for using the premises to further that illegal purpose. 2)Authorizes only the cities of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Sacramento to participate in the pilot program. 3)Establishes a January 1, 2019, sunset date for the pilot program. 4)Revises specified information and data required to be reported annually to the California Research Bureau (CRB), and requires the CRB to submit a brief report evaluating the merits of the pilot program to the Senate and Assembly Judiciary Committees AB 2310 Page 2 by specified dates in 2016 and 2018. 5)Declares that this is an urgency statute to protect public safety and makes findings that a special law is necessary to limit application of the law to the jurisdictions identified in this act. EXISTING LAW : 1)Provides that a tenant who maintains, commits or permits a nuisance upon the premises or who uses the premises for an unlawful purpose thereby terminates the lease, entitling the landlord to restitution of the premises under unlawful detainer. 2)Specifies that a person who illegally possesses certain firearms or ammunition on the premises, or who illegally possesses or sells a controlled substance on the premises, or who uses the premises to further either purpose, as defined, shall be deemed to have committed a nuisance upon the premises for the purpose of determining unlawful detainer against that person. 3)Authorizes the city attorney or prosecutor in Los Angeles to file, in the name of the people, an action for unlawful detainer against a tenant for committing nuisance violations involving the illegal possession or sale of a controlled substance on the premises or using the premises to further that purpose. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, minor absorbable costs to the cities and to the CRB for the reporting requirements. COMMENTS : This bill, sponsored by the Los Angeles City Attorney's office, seeks to re-establish the Section 3485 pilot program that, until it sunset last year, authorized city attorneys in participating jurisdictions to bring eviction proceedings against tenants for committing nuisance violations involving unlawful weapons and ammunition. Authority for the pilot program was extended an additional four years by AB 530 (Krekorian), Chapter 244, Statutes of 2009, but that authority sunset on December 31, 2013, pursuant to AB 530 when no statute was subsequently enacted to continue the program. According to AB 2310 Page 3 proponents, that was an unfortunate legislative oversight, and this urgency bill is needed to restore the Section 3485 program to ensure public safety, as well as uninterrupted study and evaluation of the program. According to the author, the pilot authority provided to city attorneys and prosecutors under the Section 3485 program is an important tool that can be used to reduce gun violence and protect public safety. The author states, "At times, the property owner is afraid to evict the tenant because of threats, gang affiliation or other intimidating conduct. Section 3485 authorized city attorneys to bring an unlawful detainer in such a circumstance. Allowing the city attorney to bring the action shields fearful or vulnerable owners from retaliatory threats or violent reprisals by armed tenants. Eviction of the tenant committing a weapon or ammunition related violation also increases public safety and the sense of community among law-abiding tenants." The Section 3485 pilot program authorizes city attorneys and prosecutors in participating jurisdictions, rather than the landlord or property owner, to initiate eviction proceedings against tenants for committing nuisance violations involving unlawful weapons and ammunition. This special statutory authority is unusual because traditionally only the landlord has authority to file an unlawful detainer against a tenant for recovery of possession of the property. Under the pilot programs, a city attorney or city prosecutor may file an unlawful detainer action against any person for creating a nuisance on the property by using or allowing the premises to be used for the illegal possession or sale of specified weapons or ammunition. The city's action would be predicated on its belief that a specified weapons-related offense has occurred on the subject real property based upon an arrest report or other law enforcement report. In any unlawful detainer action brought by the city prosecutor or city attorney under the pilot programs, the public prosecutor must first give 30 calendar days of written notice documenting the alleged nuisance or illegal activity to the landlord and the offending tenant. This notice is designed to give the landlord the first opportunity to file an unlawful detainer action against the offending tenant. The landlord may then either file AB 2310 Page 4 the action or assign the right to bring the unlawful detainer action to the public prosecutor. If the landlord fails to file an unlawful detainer action, or fails to prosecute such an action diligently and in good faith, the city attorney or city prosecutor may file the action and may join both the landlord and the offending tenant as co-defendants. Participation in the program also requires the city attorney to report specified information to the CRB about city attorney involvement, property owner response, court processing, and tenant reaction. The law requires CRB, in turn, to evaluate and report the merits of the program to the Legislature. The most recent CRB report, containing more detailed analysis of both the weapons and drug-related eviction pilot programs, is available at: http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/13/13-001.pdf . Participating Jurisdictions: Under this bill, only the cities of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Sacramento are authorized to participate in the pilot program. Reporting Requirements: To allow for better study and evaluation of the program, the author has adopted several recommendations from the CRB to revise the data items currently required to be reported. According to the CRB, these revisions are intended to facilitate information reported at the individual case level (i.e., for each instance a notice is provided to the tenant) rather than at an aggregate level, and to also make reporting less burdensome by requiring data to be uniformly reported in a template designed by CRB. Sunset Date: The bill contains a sunset date of January 1, 2019, for all participating jurisdictions, which allows the CRB four more years to collect data and examine still unresolved research questions about the program's effectiveness and implementation. Analysis Prepared by : Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334 FN: 0003166 AB 2310 Page 5