BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 869|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 869
Author: Cooper (D)
Amended: 6/18/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANS. & HOUSING COMMITTEE: 11-0, 6/16/15
AYES: Beall, Cannella, Allen, Bates, Gaines, Galgiani, Leyva,
McGuire, Mendoza, Roth, Wieckowski
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 5/7/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Public transportation agencies: fare evasion and
prohibited conduct
SOURCE: Author
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
for minor transit-related offenses.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Makes it a criminal infraction for a person to engage in any
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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.
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
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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.
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.
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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
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 (a) fail to appear, or (b) 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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
SUPPORT: (Verified6/27/16)
Amalgamated Transit Union
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Sacramento Regional Transit District
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/27/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 5/7/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly,
Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Campos, Roger Hernández, Steinorth
Prepared by:Alison Dinmore / T. & H. / (916) 651-4121
6/27/16 15:56:55
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