BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 222
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Date of Hearing: April 22, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
222 (Achadjian) - As Amended March 23, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill authorizes employees of the Department of State
Hospitals (DSH) and the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) in specified classifications, and their
spouses and children, to enroll in the DMV Confidential Records
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Program (CRP).
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)About 4,600 employees and their family members would become
eligible to enroll in the CRP. Based on the cost estimate for
recent, similar legislation that would have made over 100,000
code enforcement officers and their family members eligible,
DMV's annual costs to implement AB 222 should be minor (up to
$50,000). [Motor Vehicle Account]
2)Potential reduction in state and local tolls, parking fees,
fines, to the extent that current law makes it difficult for
local parking and toll agencies to collect tolls and fines
from additional persons protected by the enhanced
confidentiality statutes.
COMMENTS:
1)Background. Until 1989, DMV records were considered public
records, unless state law specifically made them confidential,
as was the case for peace officers' addresses. Therefore,
until 1989, home addresses were not considered confidential,
and any person who gave a reason that DMV deemed legitimate,
and could present to DMV a person's driver's license number or
license plate number, could obtain address information on that
individual. In 1989, actress Rebecca Schaeffer was stalked and
killed. The murderer obtained her address from a private
investigation agency doing business in Arizona. The private
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investigation agency acquired her address through a
subcontractor agent in California, who obtained it from DMV.
In response, the Legislature enacted AB 1779 (Roos)/Chapter
1213 of 1989, which made everyone's home addresses in DMV
records confidential, except under limited circumstances.
Under current law, over 20 classes of persons, primarily those
in law enforcement fields, plus the spouses and children of
those persons, may request that their home addresses be held
confidential by DMV. The home address of these persons may
only be disclosed to a court, a law enforcement agency, the
state Board of Equalization (BOE), or any governmental agency
legally required to be furnished that information. For all
other individuals, home addresses contained within DMV records
are confidential and may only be disclosed with the same
exceptions as for the classes of persons above, plus limited
disclosure for financial institutions, insurance companies,
attorneys, vehicle manufacturers, and persons doing
statistical research.
2)Purpose. AB 222 adds certain employees of the DSH and CDCR,
including psychiatric technicians, to the list of those
eligible to request that DVM hold their addresses confidential
via the CRP. According to the sponsor, the California
Association of Psychiatric Technicians, while most employees
of CDCR are already eligible for the CRP, psychiatric
technicians are not. In addition, DSH, which also employs
psychiatric technicians, treats many of the same serious and
violent offenders as CDCR at its facilities. The author and
sponsor state that many psychiatric technicians have been
threatened and even stalked by paroling inmates and discharged
patients, and in several cases the inmate or patient was able
to obtain a psychiatric technician's home address.
3)Prior Legislation. Over the past 12 years, several bills
proposing to expand the statutory confidentiality list have
either died or have been vetoed. The one exception was AB 2687
(Bocanegra)/Chapter 273 of 2014, which added licensing program
analysts within the Department of Social Services. As with AB
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222, AB 2687 involved a relatively small cohort, and its costs
were minor.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081