BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 318
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
318 (Chau)
As Amended April 14, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
|----------------+------+------------------------+-------------------|
|Judiciary |10-0 |Mark Stone, Wagner, | |
| | |Alejo, Chau, Chiu, | |
| | |Gallagher, Cristina | |
| | |Garcia, Holden, | |
| | |Maienschein, O'Donnell | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+------------------------+-------------------|
|Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, Bloom, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, Chang, | |
| | |Daly, Eggman, | |
| | |Gallagher, Eduardo | |
| | |Garcia, Holden, Jones, | |
| | |Quirk, Rendon, Wagner, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Establishes a pilot program, until January 1, 2021,
under which a public transit agency (PTA) may donate to charity a
certain proportion of lost or unclaimed bicycles that go unclaimed
after 45 days. Specifically, this bill:
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1)Requires lost property valued at $100 or more that is found on a
vehicle of public conveyance or on public transit agency
property to be turned into the public transit agency rather than
the local police or sheriff's department. Further requires the
public transit agency to notify the owner, if ascertainable,
that it possesses the property and where it may be claimed, and
authorizes a reasonable charge to the owner to defray the costs
of storage and care of the property.
2)Establishes certain rules and procedures for PTAs to handle lost
property, other than bicycles, that mirror longstanding existing
rules for police and sheriff departments.
3)Establishes the parameters of a pilot program exclusively for
the disposal of lost and unclaimed bicycles that were found by
or turned into a PTA. Until January 1, 2021, the pilot program
would:
a) Require the PTA to restore a lost or unclaimed bicycle to
an owner who appears within 45 days, can prove ownership, and
pays reasonable charges.
b) Authorize the PTA to donate bicycles unclaimed after 45
days to a qualified charitable organization, provided that a
notice of the planned donation is published in a newspaper at
least five days before the time fixed for the donation.
c) Require the notice to identify the period of time during
which the bicycles were found, the name of the charity
receiving the planned donation, and where the bicycles may be
claimed prior to the donation.
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d) Limit donation of unclaimed bicycles to two occasions per
year, and the number of bicycles donated to no more than 25%
of the total number of bicycles found or saved by the PTA
during the prior six months.
e) Require the board of the PTA, after a public hearing, to
determine the charitable organizations that are qualified to
receive donations of unclaimed bicycles.
f) Establishes a five-year sunset date for the pilot program
(until January 1, 2021) and requires participating PTA's to
report specified information to the Senate and Assembly
Judiciary Committees by the end of the fourth year of the
program's operation (i.e. on or before January 1, 2020).
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, given the reduction, under the pilot program, in the
required holding period for bicycles and the opportunity to donate
a portion of recovered bicycles to nonprofits rather than
disposing through public auction, PTAs should realize operational
savings that should more than offset the revenue reduction from
fewer auction sales.
COMMENTS: Under existing law, public transit agencies (PTAs) are
required to store and safeguard lost or misplaced personal
property left behind on buses, railcars and in their facilities
for at least 90 days to give the owner sufficient opportunity to
reclaim the property. For most property that remains unclaimed
after 90 days, current law requires the PTA to prepare the
unclaimed property for sale at public auction and advertise notice
of the property in a newspaper of general circulation. According
to the sponsor of this bill, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (LA Metro):
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In recent years, public transit agencies like LA Metro
have reached critical mass with the amount of unclaimed
property, particularly bicycles. The amount of space
required to store the bikes for 90 days has become
costly and unsustainable, not to mention the use of
staff time to inventory all the items and then perform
the public auction. Bikes are much larger items and
therefore take up a great deal of storage space. This
bill would remove burdening financial and spatial
constraints on transit agencies' staff and facilities
resources.
Pilot program for unclaimed bicycles held by public transit
agencies. This bill establishes a five-year pilot program to
authorize public transit agencies to employ new procedures for
handling unclaimed bicycles lost or left behind on PTA vehicles
and stations. Because PTAs have identified bicycles as the
primary item driving their increased storage and auction-related
costs, this bill is specifically focused on bicycles and seeks to
alleviate the reportedly high costs associated with unclaimed
bicycles left on public transit property. It is important to note
that this bill does not seek to change current procedures or time
periods that apply to property other than bicycles, nor does it
affect any procedures that apply to property held by departments
or agencies other than public transit agencies. This bill
clarifies that the 90-day claim period and other procedures under
current law shall continue to apply to all property held by police
or sheriff's departments, as well as all property other than
bicycles that is turned over to a PTA.
Period to claim bicycles shortened from 90 days to 45 days. Under
the proposed pilot program, PTAs are required to store unclaimed
bicycles for a minimum of 45 days to allow owners the chance to
appear and recover their property. Proponents contend that the 45
day period still provides a sufficient opportunity for recovery,
citing LA Metro-reported data indicating that the average customer
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retrieval rate for bicycles is about 20% (meaning up to 80% of
bicycles are not claimed within 90 days) and that the average time
of recovery ranges from just three to seven business days. In
light of the increased storage costs associated with bicycles
because of their size and data showing that few lost bicycles are
claimed in the last 45 days of the current 90-day recovery period,
there appears to be solid justification for allowing the shorter
claim period of 45 days for lost bicycles over the course of the
pilot program. The impact of the shorter recovery period will be
evaluated at the end of the five-year trial period.
Pilot authority to donate a percentage of unclaimed bicycles to
charity instead of fulfilling existing publication and public
auction requirements. Under existing law, departments or agencies
holding property valued at $250 or more that is unclaimed after 90
days must provide notice by publication in a newspaper for seven
days to give the owner of the property a final opportunity to come
forward and recover the property. (Property valued at less than
$250 is not subject to the newspaper publication requirement.) If
no one comes forward and proves ownership of the property after
seven days of publication (or, for property under $250, after 90
days of being unclaimed), then title to the property vests in the
person who found or saved the property, unless the property was
found in the course of employment by an employee of a public
agency. For property found by a public agency employee (including
PTA employees, clearly), title never vests in the individual
employee but instead the property is required to be sold at public
auction.
The public auction requirement provides an important safeguard
against potential mischief. It prevents an unscrupulous public
employee from either gaining title to the property he or she
individually "found" or from surreptitiously steering hundreds or
thousands of dollars of unclaimed property to an outside
individual or organization who might have close ties to the
employee or agency. Combined with the newspaper publication
requirement, the two serve a due process-related function by
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providing a last opportunity for recovery to a person who may have
been unable to "prove ownership," as is required under existing
law, in order to claim the property.
In response to concerns that this bill allowed PTAs to donate
bicycles to charities without adequately ensuring due process or
safeguarding against potential mischief in disposing of the lost
property, the author developed amendments to the bill to do the
following: 1) require publication of notice before any planned
donation of unclaimed bicycles; 2) require a transparent, public
process for determining which charities will receive donations of
unclaimed bicycles; and 3) limit the donations to two occasions
per year, and limit the number of bicycles that may be donated to
charity without being subject to public auction.
First, to preserve an opportunity for the owner to claim a lost
bicycle before it is donated to charity, this bill requires the
PTA to publish notice of the planned donation in a general
circulation newspaper at least five days before the donation is to
occur. Specifically, the notice must identify the time period
when the bicycles which are planned to be donated were found by
the public transit agency, the name of the charity receiving the
donation, and where unclaimed bicycles may be claimed prior to the
date of donation. This information is intended to alert an owner
that a bicycle he or she lost during a certain time period is
about to be donated to a specific charity identified by name in
the notice, and provide a final opportunity for the owner to
appear and reclaim his or her lost bicycle before it is donated.
Second, to ensure that the charities chosen by the PTA to receive
donated bicycles are selected through a fair and transparent
process, this bill provides that the board of the public transit
agency will only select the charitable organizations to receive
donated bicycles after a public hearing on the matter. These
safeguards will help prevent potential mischief in the disposal of
unclaimed property worth thousands of dollars.
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Finally, this bill adopts an incremental rather than wholesale
change in policy, as is often appropriate when conducting a pilot
program. To this end, the number of bicycles allowed to bypass
the public auction process and be donated to charity (after public
notice and a final opportunity to claim them) is capped at 25% of
the total number of bicycles found or saved by the PTA in the
prior six months. This bill also limits the number of auctions to
a maximum of two per year.
Sunset date and reporting requirements. This bill establishes a
five-year pilot program for implementing these new policies,
meaning that the pilot authority to donate unclaimed goods to
charity shall expire on January 1, 2021. In addition, at the end
of the fourth year (on or before January 1, 2020), this bill
requires certain information to be reported to the two Judiciary
Committees to allow evaluation of the pilot project during the
year leading up to the trigger of the 2021 sunset clause.
Analysis Prepared by:
Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334 FN: 0000317