BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1151| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- CONSENT Bill No: AB 1151 Author: Santiago (D) Amended: 3/26/15 in Assembly Vote: 21 SENATE TRANS. & HOUSING COMMITTEE: 11-0, 6/23/15 AYES: Beall, Cannella, Allen, Bates, Gaines, Galgiani, Leyva, McGuire, Mendoza, Roth, Wieckowski ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/4/15 (Consent) - See last page for vote SUBJECT: Parking violations: penalties SOURCE: Author DIGEST: This bill authorizes a local government to allow a person to agree to pay parking citations in installments at any stage of the administrative hearing process. ANALYSIS: Existing law: 1)Describes the required elements of an administrative hearing process for persons wishing to contest a parking violation in excruciating detail, including the qualifications and training required for appointed or contracted examiners responsible for reviewing the contested violations. 2)Authorizes, following the administrative hearing process, if an examiner has determined that a person has committed a AB 1151 Page 2 violation, the examiner to allow the violator to pay his or her penalty in installments, or the issuing agency to allow for deferred payment or installments, as long as the violator provides evidence of an inability to pay the penalty in full. This bill authorizes, not just following determination of a violation, but at any stage of the initial review or the administrative hearing process, the examiner or issuing agency to allow a violator to pay parking citations in installments, or the issuing agency may allow for deferred payment. Comments 1)Purpose. According to the author, existing law provides for a person with parking tickets the ability to enter into an installment payment plan only after conclusion of an appeal through the administrative process. The requirement that a person complete the administrative process before entering into a payment plan inconveniences the public and creates unnecessary administrative costs for local governments. 2)What does this bill do? Existing law allows for people to contest parking citations through an administrative hearing process. At the end of this process, if the examiner finds that the person committed the violation as cited, the examiner can allow the person to pay their penalty in installments, or offer deferred payments if authorized by the issuing agency. Existing law generally does not allow local agencies to offer installment payments or deferred payments for parking penalties to violators who do not go through the administrative hearing process. This bill allows local agencies to offer installment payments to violators who provide evidence of an inability to pay their parking penalty in full, regardless of whether the violator contests the citation. A supporter of this bill wants to offer installment payments for parking penalties, but finds that the law stands in its way. It makes little sense that someone would be forced to contest a parking citation in order to access the ability to request a payment plan. If cities and counties want to offer payment AB 1151 Page 3 plans for parking citations, they should have the ability to do so at any point in the process. Offering payment plans up front may serve to cut down on the number of contested citations, saving the public money in the long run. FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:NoLocal: No SUPPORT: (Verified6/26/15) California Public Parking Association Office of the Mayor of Los Angeles OPPOSITION: (Verified6/26/15) None received ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/4/15 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, 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, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins NO VOTE RECORDED: Campos, Dahle Prepared by:Eric Thronson / T. & H. / (916) 651-4121 6/26/15 15:13:53 AB 1151 Page 4 **** END ****