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