BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2485
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2485 (Dickinson and Ridley-Thomas)
As Amended April 10, 2014
2/3 vote. Urgency
JUDICIARY 10-0 APPROPRIATIONS 16-0
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|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 |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Re-establishes pilot authority, which sunset last
year, for the City of Sacramento to continue to participate in
the controlled substances-related eviction program pursuant to
Civil Code Section 3486. Specifically, this bill :
1)Re-establishes pilot authority, which sunset last year, for
the City of Sacramento to continue to participate in the Civil
Code Section 3486 program that conditionally allows the city
attorney and prosecutors in participating cities to bring
eviction proceedings against tenants for committing nuisance
violations involving unlawful drugs or controlled substances,
as specified.
2)Establishes a January 1, 2019, sunset date for Sacramento's
participation in the pilot program.
3)Revises specified information and data required to be reported
annually by Sacramento 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 by specified dates in 2016 and
2018.
4)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 City of Sacramento because
AB 2485
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of its unique and historic role in reporting data to the CRB
through its past program participation.
EXISTING LAW :
1)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.
2)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.
3)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 in the City of Los Angeles.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, minor absorbable costs to the City of Sacramento and
to the CRB for the reporting requirements.
COMMENTS : This bill seeks to re-establish pilot authority for
the City of Sacramento to continue to participate in the
controlled substances-related eviction program pursuant to Civil
Code Section 3486. Authority for Sacramento's participation in
the program was first established by AB 530 (Krekorian), Chapter
244, Statutes of 2009, but that authority lapsed on December 31,
2013, pursuant to the sunset date in that bill when no statute
was subsequently enacted to continue Sacramento's participation
without interruption. According to the bill's sponsor, the City
of Sacramento, this bill is needed to correct that unfortunate
legislative oversight and ensure continued implementation and
evaluation of the program-which Sacramento plays a key role in
by virtue of its active participation and reporting of data.
AB 2485
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According to the author, the pilot authority under the Civil
Code Section 3486 program has been and continues to be an
important tool needed by the City of Sacramento to protect
public safety. The author states, "This bill will allow the
Office of the Sacramento City Attorney to assist landlords who
are intimidated from bringing eviction proceedings against
tenants engaged in drug-related crimes and illegal possession of
weapons or ammunition on the premises. Participating cities
(including Sacramento) have had tremendous success prosecuting
evictions against persons possessing controlled substances and
illegal weapons. These measures are important components of
cities' efforts to improve neighborhood safety. Many cities
have found this program helpful in making their neighborhoods
safer and this program should be renewed for an additional four
years so that further information can be gathered to evaluate
its overall effectiveness."
The Civil Code Section 3486 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 controlled substances. 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 a controlled substance purpose. The city's action
would be predicated on its belief that a specified controlled
substance 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
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
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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 .
This district bill reauthorizes Sacramento's participation in
the controlled substance-related eviction pilot program until
January 1, 2019, and requires continued reporting of specified
data by Sacramento to CRB as a condition of its participation.
Reporting Requirements: To allow for better study and
evaluation of the program, as recommended by CRB staff, the bill
revises 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
time 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
and provided by CRB.
Sunset Date: The bill establishes a sunset date of January 1,
2019, for Sacramento's participation in the program, which
allows the CRB four more years to collect data and analyze
unresolved research questions that remain about effectiveness
and implementation of the program.
Analysis Prepared by : Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
FN: 0003182