BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
Senator Ed Hernandez, O.D., Chair
BILL NO: SB 563
AUTHOR: Galgiani
INTRODUCED: February 22, 2013
HEARING DATE: April 24, 2013
CONSULTANT: Marchand
SUBJECT : Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development:
construction of health facilities.
SUMMARY : Requires the person or entity requesting a copy of a
plan maintained by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and
Development (OSHPD) to bear the cost of producing the copy of
that plan.
Existing law:
1.Establishes the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic
Safety Act of 1983 (Seismic Safety Act), which requires OSHPD
to propose proper building standards for earthquake
resistance, and provide an independent review of the design
and construction of hospital buildings.
2.Requires OSHPD to observe the construction of, reconstruction,
or alteration of any hospital building as it deems necessary
to comply with the Seismic Safety Act.
3.Requires the governing authority of each hospital, before
adopting any plans for the hospital building, to submit the
plans to OSHPD for approval.
4.Establishes the California Public Records Act (PRA), which
requires each state or local agency, upon a request for a copy
of records, to make the records promptly available to any
person upon payment of fees covering direct costs of
duplication, or a statutory fee if applicable.
5.Defines "public records," for purposes of the PRA, to include
any writing containing information relating to the conduct of
the public's business prepared, owned, used, or retained by
any state or local agency regardless of physical form or
characteristics. Exempts certain types of records from
disclosure under the PRA.
6.Requires certain specified state and local bodies, including
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OSHPD, to establish written guidelines for accessibility of
records under the PRA.
This bill: Requires the person or entity requesting a copy of a
plan maintained by OSHPD to bear the cost of producing the copy
of that plan.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill has not been analyzed by a fiscal
committee.
COMMENTS :
1.Author's statement. OSHPD's Facilities Development Division
(FDD) receives numerous requests to have architectural plans
in their office copied. Plans can be thousands of pages and
weigh hundreds of pounds. To stay within its budget and to
ensure OSHPD FDD carries out its primary mission, it is
essential that costs are recovered for the resources used.
This includes, but is not limited to, staff time, computer
time and programming, copying and shipping and handling costs.
Therefore, this bill allows OSHPD to recover all its costs
from such requests.
2.OSHPD's PRA Guidelines. According to OSHPD's guidelines for
access to public records under the PRA, in general, all public
records are open to inspection by any person on any state
business day, unless the records are exempt from disclosure
pursuant to specific provisions of law. If there is any
question as to whether the requested records or "public
records" or whether the records are otherwise exempt from
disclosure, OSHPD's legal staff will review the records and
make a determination. With regard to requests for copies of
records, OSHPD will charge the following duplicating costs:
a. The fee for photocopying 8-1/2" x 11" or 8-1/2" x
14" documents is $0.10 per page. The costs for copying
oversized or odd-sized documents will be determined on a
case by case basis, and will be based on the actual cost
to OSHPD. In some instances, OSHPD will require the
requestor to arrange and pay for a copy service to make
copies at a time mutually agreeable to the Office and the
requestor;
b. The fee for computer data will be calculated on a
case-by-case basis. It will be based on staff and
processing time, as well as a per page charge for
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printouts;
c. Any applicable statutory fees will be assessed; and,
d. If the records are mailed to the requester, the
requester must pay the cost of postage.
3.Support. This bill is sponsored by the California Hospital
Association (CHA), which states that OSHPD receives numerous
requests to have architectural plans in their office copied.
Plans can be thousands of pages and weigh hundreds of pounds.
To stay within its budget and to ensure that OSHPD carries out
its primary mission, it is essential that costs are recovered
for the resources used, which includes staff time to retrieve
the plan from offsite warehouses, computer time and
programming, copying, and shipping and handling costs. CHA
states that this bill allows OSHPD to recover all of its costs
from such requests.
The Association of California Healthcare Districts (ACHD) also
supports this bill, stating that many district hospitals are
in the midst of meeting Seismic Safety Act requirements. ACHD
states that this bill would protect construction plans of
hospitals when those plans are submitted to OSHPD.
4.Will this bill have desired effect? CHA has indicated to
committee staff that for security reasons, CHA is concerned
that plans are generally available to the public. According to
CHA, by requiring those requesting plans to bear the actual
cost of producing a copy of the plan, this bill may provide a
barrier for nefarious or frivolous requests. CHA also stated
that between 2008 and 2013, requests to copy hospital design
plans at OSHPD increased by 400 percent, and that OSHPD
averages almost 170 hours and 5 full-time equivalent staff per
week to meet PRA requests to access plans (committee staff was
unable to verify this with OSHPD).
Existing law already permits agencies to charge people
requesting documents under the PRA the "direct costs of
duplication," and OSHPD's PRA guidelines as described above
specify that OSHPD charges $0.10 per page for standard size
documents. Construction plans, however, would most likely
fall under the "oversized or odd-sized documents," in which
case the costs charged are determined on a case-by-case basis
"based on actual cost to OSHPD." This bill requires the
requester to "bear the costs of producing the copy." It is
unclear whether there is a meaningful difference between
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"bearing the costs of producing the copy," and paying costs
"based on actual cost to OSHPD."
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION :
Support: California Hospital Association (sponsor)
Association of California Healthcare Districts
Oppose: None received
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