BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 470
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Date of Hearing: May 6, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
470 (Chu) - As Introduced February 23, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill establishes the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS)
Fingerprint Account in the State Treasury. Specifically, this
bill:
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1)Establishes the IHSS Fingerprint Account and requires all
moneys assessed for IHSS criminal background checks to be
deposited in the account.
2)Requires the funds in the IHSS Fingerprint Account to be
continuously appropriated to the Department of Justice (DOJ)
to offset the fingerprinting and background check costs
incurred by the department and for maintenance and improvement
to the systems from which criminal background information is
obtained.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Ongoing costs likely over $4 million annually (IHSS Fingerprint
Account - special fund created in this bill) for IHSS
fingerprint processing and Applicant Processor System
enhancements, based on the 2014 fingerprint processing workload.
This would be offset by fees collected from employers of IHSS
providers and deposited into the IHSS Fingerprint Account and
continuously appropriated to DOJ.
a)DOJ currently does not allocate staff within its California
Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division based on the
category of the applicant. Under this bill, CJIS would be
required to dedicate staff solely to IHSS requests to be paid
exclusively from the new IHSS Fingerprint Account, essentially
creating a new unit within the Division. This new unit would
likely require a Supervising Program Technician (SPT) II, 3.0
Criminal Identification Specialist (CIS) IIs, and 15.0 Program
Technician (PT) IIs for IHSS fingerprint submission processing
based on the workload generated in 2014 (115,984 eldercare
fingerprint submissions).
b)In addition, new staff positions would be needed to perform
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analysis, development, testing, and implementation of
enhancements to the Applicant Processor. This would likely
include 1.0 Senior Information Systems Analyst, 1.0 Staff
Information Systems Analyst, and 1.0 Staff Programmer Analyst.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, "With over 450,000 consumers
in California relying on IHSS providers for their care and
well-being, it is imperative that a sufficient number of
providers be available for such care. While background checks
are a necessary requirement to ensure the safety of consumers,
neither consumers nor providers are served by unnecessary
delays in the employment process. This bill will better
ensure that qualified providers are able to get to work
expeditiously so that IHSS consumers in California have
appropriate and adequate care."
2)Background. The DOJ processes approximately two million state
level background checks annually. The DOJ charges fees to
process background checks for a number of different categories
of applicants for licenses and paid and volunteer employment.
These categories include positions involving the care and
supervision of children, the elderly, and people with
disabilities; applicants volunteering to transport individuals
impaired by drugs or alcohol, and; applicants wishing to adopt
a child or to be foster parents.
The fees collected by the DOJ for processing background checks
are deposited into the Fingerprint Fees Account in the General
Fund and can be appropriated by the Legislature back to the
DOJ to offset the costs of administering background checks and
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maintaining the necessary systems. This bill establishes a
separate fund exclusively for IHSS background check fees and
requires the fund to be continuously appropriated to the DOJ.
3)IHSS background check requests. In 2014, public authorities
submitted 115,984 requests for criminal background information
to the DOJ for predominantly IHSS, and some other in-home
care, provider applicants. Of those transactions, 74% were
dispensed with immediately and 26% required technical review
by the DOJ. Overall, the department processed and dispensed
with 95% of the requests within the required 30-day time
period. The remaining 5% of cases required further technical
review beyond the 30-day timeframe.
Technical reviews are frequently triggered when criminal
history information is missing, including arrest information
that is not accompanied by disposition information. DOJ is
required by statute to make a "genuine effort" to determine
the disposition of any arrest that is not accompanied by a
corresponding disposition. DOJ does this by seeking
information from local authorities. This usually requires, at
a minimum, contacting the booking agency and the arresting
agency in an attempt to obtain the necessary disposition
information. Depending on the circumstances, this can
sometimes cause delays in the completion of a criminal
background check report.
4)Suggested Amendment. Staff notes that under existing law,
fees collected for deposit into the Fingerprint Fees Account
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in the General Fund for background checks are available to the
DOJ upon appropriation by the Legislature. This bill contains
a continuous appropriation. Continuous appropriations have
been contrary to the general policy of this committee. Staff
recommends an amendment to instead require appropriation by
the Legislature in order to retain legislative oversight of
the program.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081