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 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |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 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 Page 2 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 Page 3 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 AB 2485 Page 4 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