BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 869
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Date of Hearing: April 29, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
869 (Cooper) - As Amended April 13, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
No
SUMMARY:
This bill allows a public transit agency that has opened a civil
adjudication procedure for a minor transit-related offense to
close out that procedure and instead pursue criminal penalties
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if a person fails to either pay the administrative penalty or
successfully complete the civil administrative process. This
bill also requires:
1)The notice provided following an offense to include a
statement informing the person that failure to pay the
administrative penalty or to have the penalty dismissed could
result in a criminal charge for the alleged misconduct.
2)The person being charged with an infraction or misdemeanor
after failing to pay the administrative penalty to be served
with a new notice setting forth the criminal violation.
FISCAL EFFECT:
To the extent providing notification that nonpayment of a civil
penalty could instead result in a criminal penalty leads to
greater compliance, transit agencies will realize greater
penalty revenues offset to some extent by the added
administrative costs associated with changing from an
administrative process to a criminal matter. In addition there
should be concurrent court savings, offset to some extent by
costs related to criminal matters.
COMMENTS:
Background and Purpose. Penal Code Section 640 makes it a
criminal infraction for a person to engage in a variety of
specified activities in a transit vehicle or facility. Rather
than citing alleged violators under Penal Code Section 640,
public transit agencies have the option to adopt and impose an
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administrative process for adjudicating offenses committed by
adults that is similar to the process for issuing and enforcing
parking tickets. The issuing officer serves the alleged
violator with a "notice of fare evasion or passenger misconduct
violation," which in part includes the administrative penalty
amount, the date by which the penalty must be paid, and the
process for contesting the citation. Transit agencies may set
their own fines, which by law cannot exceed the maximum base
fine established for the offense under Penal Code Section 640.
Under an administrative process, transit agencies have the
flexibility to establish diversion programs to address repeat
offenders.
Under current law, a transit agency can cite an alleged violator
either under its administrative process, if it has established
one, or under Penal Code 640. This bill would allow transit
agencies to first cite an alleged violator under an
administrative process but then switch to the criminal process
under Penal Code Section 640 if the alleged violator fails to
pay the fine or otherwise complete the administrative process.
The sponsor, Sacramento Regional Transit District (RT), would
like to adopt an administrative process to address fare evasion
and other minor offenses, but feels the existing statute needs
this change in order to make the process work effectively. RT
contends there is likely to be greater compliance with the
administrative process if individuals who receive citations are
aware that their case could end up as a more costly criminal
matter if they fail to pay the administrative fine or otherwise
complete the administrative process. Greater compliance with an
administrative process would likely benefit the Sacramento
County Superior Court, which is currently overburdened with fare
evasion citations and other minor transit-related citations.
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Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081