BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 2485
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          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                     |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |     |                          |     |                          |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           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  








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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.









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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 


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