BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1127
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 12, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
Mark Stone, Chair
AB 1127
(Cooley) - As Amended April 6, 2015
SUBJECT: SACRAMENTO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FUNDING: VITAL RECORDS
FEES
KEY ISSUE: IN ORDER TO COMBAT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND HUMAN
TRAFFICKING IN SACRAMENTO COUNTY, SHOULD FEES FOR SPECIFIED
VITAL RECORDS BE RAISED TO SUPPORT CREATION OF A ONE-STOP FAMILY
JUSTICE CENTER?
SYNOPSIS
Over the last decade, the Legislature has authorized, on a pilot
basis, five counties to increase fees for copies of various
vital records to fund governmental oversight and coordination of
domestic violence prevention, intervention, and prosecution
programs. Many of these programs have been highly successful in
combating domestic violence through creation of one-stop family
justice centers (FJCs); and the Legislature, after reviewing
program reports required as a condition of the pilots, made the
programs in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano Counties, and the
City of Berkeley permanent. Last year, the Legislature defined
FJCs in state law and defined key aspects of their operations.
(AB 1623 (Atkins), Chap. 85, Stats. 2014.)
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This bill, sponsored by the Sacramento County Board of
Supervisors and the Sacramento District Attorney, is modeled
after similar programs in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
Sacramento County intends to use the increased fees to create a
one-stop FJC to help combat domestic violence and human
trafficking. This bill requires the Board of Supervisors to
report back to the Legislature on the activities funded by the
fee increases and the outcomes of those activities. The program
sunsets as of January 1, 2021.
Supporters, including WEAVE, My Sister's House and the
California District Attorneys Association, state that the
proposed FJC will create a single place for the delivery of
comprehensive support services to domestic violence victims,
which in turn will lead to improved outcomes for victims,
improved offender accountability and improved operational
efficiencies. It is opposed by the California Taxpayers
Association and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association who
argue that the fee increase is a special tax that, under
Proposition 26, requires approval by a two-thirds vote. This
bill passed the Local Government Committee last week on a vote
of 5-3.
SUMMARY: Creates, as a pilot program, the Sacramento County
Zero Tolerance for Family Violence and Human Trafficking Act,
which authorizes the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to
increase specified fees to fund domestic violence and human
trafficking prevention programs. Specifically, this bill:
1)Authorizes, until January 1, 2021, the Sacramento County Board
of Supervisors (Board), upon making specified findings and
declarations to increase the fees for certified copies of
marriage certificates, birth certificates, fetal death
records, and death records, up to a maximum increase of $4,
with further increases permitted annually based on the
California Consumer Price Index (CPI), as specified.
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2)Requires proceeds from the fee increase to be used for
governmental oversight and coordination of domestic violence
and family violence prevention, intervention, and prosecution
efforts among the court system, the district attorney's
office, the public defender's office, law enforcement, the
probation department, mental health, substance abuse, child
welfare services, adult protective services, and
community-based organizations and other agencies working in
Sacramento County in order to increase the effectiveness of
prevention, early intervention, and prosecution of domestic
and family violence.
3)Allows Sacramento County to retain up to 4 percent of the fees
for administrative costs associated with the collection and
segregation of the additional fees and the deposit of these
fees into the required special fund, as specified.
4)Requires the Board to submit to the Legislature, no later than
July 1, 2017, a report about the annual amounts of funds
received and expended from the fee increases and the outcomes
achieved.
5)Makes specified findings and declarations, including:
a) In 2013, 18,000 domestic violence-related calls were
reported by law enforcement entities within Sacramento
County, with over 4,000 adult cases arrested and over 2,400
cases filed and prosecuted. More than 21,000 crisis calls
are made to the three domestic violence shelter programs in
Sacramento County every year.
b) Sacramento has a high rate of human trafficking, and in
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2013, the FBI Human Trafficking Task Force, in a multiday
sweep involving Sacramento, rescued the sixth highest total
of underage trafficking victims in the country.
c) Domestic violence is ubiquitous, it cuts across all
economic and education levels, all age groups, ethnicities,
and other social and community characteristics.
d) Domestic violence puts children at risk. Children in
homes where domestic violence occurs are physically abused
or seriously neglected at a rate significantly higher than
the national average in the general population.
e) Domestic violence is learned and generational. Studies
show that boys who witness family violence are more likely
to batter their female partners as adults than boys raised
in nonviolent homes. Girls who witness their mothers'
abuse have higher rates of being battered as adults and it
is often a precursor to becoming a victim of human
trafficking. Over 80 percent of victims of human
trafficking either suffered abuse in their homes or
witnessed such abuse between parents.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Authorizes the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors to increase
the fee by up to $4 (subject to CPI increases) for certified
copies of marriage certificates, birth certificates, and death
records to provide funding for governmental oversight and
coordination of domestic violence prevention, intervention,
and prosecution efforts in Contra Costa County. (Health and
Safety Code Section 103626; Welfare and Institutions Code
Section 18308.)
2)Authorizes the Alameda, Solano and the Stanislaus County
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Boards of Supervisors, and the Berkeley City Council, upon
making specified findings and declarations, to increase the
fees for marriage licenses and confidential marriage licenses,
as well as certified copies of marriage, birth, and death
certificates, by up to $2, with further CPI increases
permitted on an annual basis. The authorization for
Stanislaus expires on January 1, 2016. Directs that the fees
be deposited into a special fund to be used for governmental
oversight and coordination of domestic violence and family
violence prevention, intervention, and prosecution efforts.
(Government Code Sections 26840.10 and 26840.11; Health and
Safety Code Sections 103627, 103627, 103628, 103628.6; Welfare
and Institutions Code Sections 18309, 18309.5 and 18309.8.)
3)Authorizes a city, county, city and county, or community-based
nonprofit organization to establish a family justice center
(FJC), as defined, to assist victims of domestic violence,
sexual assault, elder and dependent adult abuse, and human
trafficking to ensure victims of abuse are able to access all
needed services in one location. (Penal Code section 13750.)
FISCAL EFFECT: As currently in print this bill is keyed
non-fiscal.
COMMENTS: Over the last decade, the Legislature has authorized,
on a pilot basis, five counties to increase fees for marriage
licenses and for marriage, birth and death certificates to fund
governmental oversight and coordination of domestic violence
prevention, intervention, and prosecution programs. These
programs have been highly successful and have led to the
creation of a family justice center in Alameda County, a youth
intervention program in the City of Berkeley and significantly
greater coordination of services in Contra Costa County. As a
result of their successes, the Legislature, after reviewing
program reports required as a condition of the pilots, made the
programs in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano Counties and the
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City of Berkeley permanent.
This bill, sponsored by the Sacramento County Board of
Supervisors and the Sacramento District Attorney, is modeled
after the programs in Alameda and Contra Costa counties and
allows the Sacramento Board of Supervisors, on a pilot basis,
the ability to raise fees for certified copies of marriage and
birth certificates and death records by up to $4 in order to
fund governmental oversight and coordination of domestic
violence prevention and intervention. The fee would increase
annually based on the CPI. Sacramento County intends to use the
increased fees to create a one-stop FJC to help combat domestic
violence and human trafficking. This bill requires the Board to
report back to the Legislature on the activities funded by the
fee increases and the outcomes of those activities. This bill
sunsets the program as of January 1, 2021.
The author explains the need for the bill: "To ensure the
effectiveness of the efforts of those working to address
[d]omestic violence, it is necessary to ensure that their
objects, protocols, policies, and activities are aligned. AB
1127 allows the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to
increase the fees charged for providing copies of vital records
to fund a domestic violence resource center/family justice
center."
The bill's sponsors add:
Research done by the Family Justice Center Alliance found
that "survivors?benefitted from a comprehensive service
approach that considered the context of a safe and
supportive environment, in an all-in-one service approach
that included the therapeutic and legal needs of survivors,
and individualized services that emphasized emotional
support and survivors getting the help they need." The
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service model contemplated in Sacramento County would serve
victims of not only domestic violence, but also family
violence including child abuse victims as well as survivors
of human trafficking. This comprehensive approach to
service delivery is vital to producing more positive
outcomes and making the receipt of services easier for
victims. (Footnote omitted.)
Devastating Effects of Domestic Violence on Women and Families.
Domestic violence is a serious criminal justice and public
health problem most often perpetrated against women. (Extent,
Nature and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings
from the National Violence against Women Survey, U.S. Department
of Justice (2001).) Prevalence of domestic violence at the
national level ranges from 960,000 to three million women each
year who are physically abused by their husbands or boyfriends.
While the numbers are staggering, they only include those cases
of reported domestic violence. In fact, according to a 1998
Commonwealth Fund survey of women's health, nearly 31% of
American women report being physically or sexually abused by a
husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. (Health
Concerns Across a Woman's Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women's
Health, The Commonwealth Fund (May 1999).)
Domestic violence continues to be a significant problem in
California. In 2005, the Attorney General's Task Force on
Domestic Violence reported that:
The health consequences of physical and psychological
domestic violence can be significant and long lasting, for
both victims and their children. . . . A study by the
California Department of Health Services of women's health
issues found that nearly six percent of women, or about
620,000 women per year, experienced violence or physical
abuse by their intimate partners. Women living in
households where children are present experienced domestic
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violence at much higher rates than women living in
households without children: domestic violence occurred in
more than 436,000 households per year in which children
were present, potentially exposing approximately 916,000
children to violence in their homes every year.
(Report to the California Attorney General from the Task Force
on Local Criminal Justice Response to Domestic Violence, Keeping
the Promise: Victim Safety and Batterer Accountability (June
2005) (footnotes omitted).)
That report discovered numerous significant and troubling
problems in the implementation of statutory directives aimed at
preventing domestic violence, including failing to enter
restraining orders into CLETS (California Law Enforcement
Telecommunications System) and failing to ensure that batterers
attend mandated treatment programs.
Human Trafficking is a Significant Problem in Sacramento County.
According to a report by the California Child Welfare Council,
California is a magnet for commercial exploitation of children,
and many of those children are also involved with the child
welfare system:
Youth in the child welfare system are particularly
vulnerable to [commercial sexual exploitation]. Abuse and
neglect, unstable placements, and lack of positive
relationships create vulnerabilities that exploiters
target. "One recovered youth told me 'being in foster care
was the perfect training for commercial sexual
exploitation. I was used to being moved without warning,
without any say, not knowing where I was going or whether I
was allowed to pack my clothes. After years in foster
care, I didn't think anyone would want to take care of me
unless they were paid. So, when my pimp expected me to
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make money to support 'the family,' it made sense to me.'"
(Kate Walker, Ending the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children: A Call for Multi-System Collaboration in California
5-6 (California Child Welfare Council 2013) (footnote omitted).)
A one-stop FJC would bring together not only law enforcement,
but also child welfare and community services necessary to
support these young victims.
According to the sponsors, Sacramento has a particularly high
rate of human trafficking. An FBI national sweep to stop human
trafficking rescued the sixth highest number of underage human
trafficking victims in Sacramento.
Successful Pilot Programs to Combat Domestic Violence Made
Permanent. While initially begun as pilots, the programs in
Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano Counties and the City of
Berkeley have now been made permanent. In support of making
those programs permanent, the Alameda County Board of
Supervisors wrote that the funds from the fee increases have
played a vital role in funding the coordination costs and have
"changed the way systems and service providers are delivering
essential and critical services to victims of domestic violence
and their children." The Board noted that domestic violence
deaths in the county dropped from 26 in 2001 to 3 in 2006, with
a goal of zero deaths going forward.
The Alameda County District Attorney's Office agreed, stating
that as a result of the Family Justice Center in the county
built, in part, with funds provided by the fee increases, "there
is a new (or re-newed) confidence on the part of Victims that
the legal systems work for them and that there are resources and
service providers who will work together to protect, support and
empower them and their children to have lives free of
interpersonal violence."
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The Berkeley City Council told the Legislature that it uses
these funds for youth intervention in the schools to promote
healthy relationships and prevent domestic violence, modeled
after "extremely successful peer health educator programs."
As a result of the increased funding, Contra Costa County has
been able to, among other things, increase funding for a
coordinated system and for individual agencies; increase
systemwide accountability; increase batterer accountability; and
increase protections for victims and children. Prior to the fee
increase, individual agencies had not worked together smoothly,
but the funding increase has permitted the county to operate an
efficient and coordinated system.
Family Justice Center Model for Combating Domestic Violence.
The FJC model was originally developed in San Diego, which
opened a center in 2002. The idea behind the FJC model is to
create a coordinated, single-point-of-access center offering
comprehensive services for victims of domestic violence, thereby
reducing the number of locations a victim must visit in order to
receive critical services. The United States Department of
Justice, through its Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), has
identified the FJC model as a best practice in the field of
domestic violence. According to the OVW, FJC outcomes include a
reduction in the rate of homicide; increased victim safety;
improved offender prosecution; reduced fear and anxiety for
victims and their children; increased efficiency among service
providers through the provision of collaborative services; and
increased community support for the provision of services to
victims and their children. (Casey Gwinn and Gael Strack, Hope
for Hurting Families: Creating Family Justice Centers Across
America (Volcano Press 2006).)
In 2011 the Legislature passed SB 557 (Kehoe), Chap. 262, which
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directed the establishment of four FJCs to assist victims of
domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, cyberstalking,
cyberbullying, human trafficking, and elder or dependent adult
abuse. An evaluation of the FJCs, mandated by that bill, found
that the centers "successfully served a significant number of
survivors and addressed multiple service needs, supporting the
need for co-located multi-agency service models." Last year,
the Legislature in AB 1623 (Atkins), Chap. 85, Stats. 2014,
sought to further improve the operation of FJCs across the state
by defining FJCs in state law and setting forth key aspects of
their operations. There are almost 20 FJCs operating in
California today.
This Bill Will Allow Sacramento County to Fund a Family Justice
Center. According to the sponsors, this bill will allow
Sacramento County to open a one-stop FJC to help address family
violence and human trafficking. According to Sacramento
County's website, "In 2011, the national Family Justice Center
Alliance chose Sacramento County to receive initial funds to
launch a Family Justice Center (FJC). The FJC will be available
to serve victims of family violence and sexual assaults,
including victims of marital and dating violence, elder and
child abuse and human trafficking. The FJC collaborative will
include government agencies and community based organizations
working together with one central facility where victims and
their families can come to access almost all services available
in the county." Sacramento County estimates it will raise
$500,000 annually from the increased fees for vital records.
Opposition Raises Proposition 26 Tax Concern. The Howard Jarvis
Taxpayers Association, in opposition, states that while "the
purpose of this tax - to provide a source of funding for
domestic violence programs - is laudable, the means to that end
is flatly illegal and will only engender expensive and
protracted litigation. AB 1127, simply stated, violates
Proposition 26." The Association writes that the bill lacks an
appropriate regulatory nexus between the fee increase and its
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use and therefore the bill "purports to authorize a special tax
without the requisite two-thirds vote."
California voters approved Proposition 26 in 2012, an initiative
constitutional amendment that expanded the definition of a "tax"
to include many state and local government assessments
previously classified as "fees." Among other provisions,
Proposition 26 amended Article XIII C, Section 1 of the
California Constitution to define the term "tax" as any levy,
charge, or exaction of any kind imposed by a local government,
with seven specific exemptions. If the extension of the fee
increase does not fall into one of those exemptions, it will
likely require approval by local voters. However, since this
bill does not mandate the fee extension, but simply allows the
county to extend the fee increase, it does not require a
two-thirds vote in the Legislature.
The California Taxpayer Association adds that a fee on records
"merely should cover the reasonable administrative costs of
processing and printing the license or record, as well as any
administrative staff time used to cover the cost of providing
such a service. While we commend the author for seeking
solutions to prevent domestic and family violence, the county
should instead consider other funding alternatives for such
programs."
Previous Legislation. AB 1852 (Campos), 2012, would have
allowed a county board of supervisors, or a city council of a
city with a local registrar, to increase fees for certified
copies of marriage certificates, birth certificates, fetal death
records, and death records by up to $5. AB 1852 was vetoed. AB
1883 (Evans), 2010, which would have allowed a county board of
supervisors, or a city council of a city with a local registrar,
to increase similar fees, was held in the Senate.
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AB 1770 (Galgiani), Chap. 578, Stats. 2010, established a
similar domestic violence prevention funding pilot program in
Stanislaus County until January 1, 2016.
SB 635 (Wiggins), Chap. 356, Stats. 2009, established a similar
domestic violence prevention funding pilot program in Sonoma
County until January 1, 2015.
SB 425 (Torlakson), Chap. 90, Stats. 2001, established a similar
domestic violence prevention funding pilot program in Contra
Costa County. SB 968 (Torlakson), Chap. 635, Stats. 2006,
repealed the sunset date, making Contra Costa's program
effective indefinitely.
AB 2010 (Hancock), Chap. 830, Stats. 2004, established the pilot
programs in Alameda County and Solano County. AB 1712
(Hancock), Chap. 545, Stats. 2005, authorized the City of
Berkeley, within Alameda County, to also participate in the
pilot program. AB 73 (Hayashi), Chap. 215, Stats. 2009,
repealed the sunset date, making Alameda's and Berkeley's
programs effective indefinitely; and SB 154 (Wolk), Chap. 120,
Stats. 2011, made the Solano County program permanent.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Sacramento County Board of Supervisors (co-sponsor)
Sacramento County District Attorney (co-sponsor)
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A Community for Peace
California District Attorneys Association
California Police Chiefs Association
My Sister's House
WEAVE
Opposition
California Taxpayers Association
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Analysis Prepared by:Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
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