BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 470 Page 1 Date of Hearing: May 6, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Jimmy Gomez, Chair AB 470 (Chu) - As Introduced February 23, 2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Human Services |Vote:|7 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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: AB 470 Page 2 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 AB 470 Page 3 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 AB 470 Page 4 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 AB 470 Page 5 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