BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING
Senator Jim Beall, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 869 Hearing Date: 6/16/2015
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|Author: |Cooper |
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|Version: |4/13/2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Eric Thronson |
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SUBJECT: Public transportation agencies: fare evasion and
prohibited conduct
DIGEST: This bill authorizes a transit district to pursue
criminal penalties if a person fails to pay the administrative
penalty or successfully complete a civil administrative process.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Makes it a criminal infraction for a person to engage in any
of the following activities in a public transit vehicle or
facility:
a) Fare evasion.
b) Misuse of a transfer, pass, ticket, or token with the
intent to evade the payment of a fare.
c) Disturbing another person by loud or unreasonable noise.
d) Smoking, eating, or drinking where those activities are
prohibited by the transit provider.
AB 869 (Cooper) Page 2 of ?
e) Expectorating.
f) Willfully disturbing others by engaging in boisterous or
unruly behavior.
g) Carrying an explosive or acid, flammable liquid, or
toxic or hazardous material.
h) Urinating or defecating except in a lavatory.
i) Willfully blocking the free movement of another person
unless permitted by First Amendment rights.
j) Skateboarding, roller skating, bicycle riding,
rollerblading, or operating a motorized scooter, except as
necessary for utilization of the transit facility by a
bicyclist.
aa) Unauthorized use of a discount ticket or failure to
present acceptable proof of eligibility to use a discount
ticket.
bb) Selling goods or services if those activities are
prohibited by the transit provider.
cc) Willfully tampering with, removing, displacing,
injuring, or destroying part of a transit vehicle or
facility.
1)Authorizes transit agencies to adopt civil adjudication
procedures and impose and enforce administrative penalties for
any of the above-listed offenses that are committed by adults.
AB 869 (Cooper) Page 3 of ?
2)Allows transit agencies to set their own administrative
penalty amounts, but prohibits the amounts from exceeding the
maximum statutory criminal penalties for the same offenses.
3)Prohibits a person who receives a notice of fare evasion or
passenger conduct violation from a transit agency from also
being cited for a criminal infraction for the same offense.
This bill specifies that:
1)A person cannot be charged with a criminal violation as long
as he or she either pays the administrative penalty on time or
otherwise successfully completes the civil administrative
process.
2)A transit agency may charge a person with a criminal violation
if the person does not pay the administrative penalty on time
or otherwise successfully complete the civil administrative
process.
3)If a transit agency chooses to charge a person with a criminal
penalty, then the agency must dismiss the civil charge and
personally serve the person with the new notice of criminal
violation.
4)A transit agency must include a printed statement with the
served notice of administrative violation that the violator
may be charged with a criminal violation if he or she fails to
pay the fine when due or successfully complete the civil
administrative process.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, existing law creates a
difficult choice for transit agencies in how they choose to
enforce fare evasion and other passenger misconduct. Agencies
can either issue criminal citations with costly fines that
discourage payment, or they can issue administrative citations
with no enforcement recourse if not paid.
For example, according to the author, the Sacramento Regional
Transit District (RT) issues criminal citations for fare
evasion and other prohibited conduct; the current base fine
AB 869 (Cooper) Page 4 of ?
for such a violation is $20, but the addition of court fees
and assessments brings the total to $151. An increasing
number of these citations result in dispositions in which
individuals either (1) fail to appear, or (2) are unable to
pay the fine. Existing law provides an alternative approach
to RT through the authority to enact an administrative process
to handle fare evasion and other prohibited conduct cases. RT
has not utilized this remedy for enforcing fare evasions,
however, due to the lack of any compliance mechanism for those
cited that fail to appear or pay the fine.
This bill addresses this challenge by allowing transit
agencies to first issue an administrative citation for fare
evasion or passenger misconduct and then switch to a
misdemeanor citation if the alleged violator fails to pay the
fine or fails to complete the administrative process.
2)Technical amendments.
On page 5, line 37, after "evasion" add "or passenger
conduct violation".
On page 6, line 3, after "evasion" add "or passenger
conduct violation".
1)Chaptering amendments. This bill has chaptering conflicts
with two other bills, SB 140 (Leno) and SB 413 (Wieckowski).
Should these bills continue to move through the Legislature,
the author will need to resolve these conflicts at some point.
Related Legislation:
SB 24 (Hill) - restricts the use of e-cigarettes in specific
areas, including adding the use of e-cigarettes on transit
property to the list of activities that are infractions. This
bill failed passage on the Senate Floor.
SB 140 (Leno) - defines "smoking" to include the use of
e-cigarettes, and references this definition in relation to the
smoking activity included in existing law as an infraction on a
transit property. This bill is currently pending in the
Assembly Rules Committee.
SB 413 (Wieckowski) - adds violations to the list of activities
that are infractions related to transit operators, as well as
includes minors as potential violators of all existing
AB 869 (Cooper) Page 5 of ?
infractions. This bill is currently pending in the Assembly
Transportation Committee.
Assembly votes:
Floor: 77-0
Appr: 17-0
Trans: 15-0
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday,
June 10, 2015.)
SUPPORT:
Amalgamated Transit Union
Sacramento Regional Transit District
OPPOSITION:
None received
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