BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 2311 Page 1 Date of Hearing: May 4, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Lorena Gonzalez, Chair AB 2311 (Brown) - As Amended March 16, 2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Governmental Organization |Vote:|20 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable: Yes SUMMARY: This bill requires state and local agencies to utilize a credentialed sign language interpreter in public events regarding an emergency. Specifically, this bill: AB 2311 Page 2 1)Requires the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (CalOES), in cooperation with the Office for Access and Functional Needs (OAFN), to provide or contract for a disaster response sign language interpretercredential program to train American Sign Language interpreters to effectively communicate public safety information. 2)Requires every state agency and every local agency to utilize a sign language interpreter who has completed the credential program to provide interpretation services at every media or public briefing and any emergency shelter where actionable information will be disseminated before, during, or after a state of war emergency, state of emergency, or local emergency. FISCAL EFFECT: 1)Negligible costs to develop a credentialing program for certified sign language interpreters. OAFN already has a program in place that meets the requirements of this bill. 2)Unknown reimbursable costs to local agencies for employing credentialed sign language interpreters in the event of a state-declared emergency. The estimated cost for a local agency to bring aboard an interpreter for public events on disasters, per event, is in the range of $200 to $300, which covers the hourly rate and estimated travel reimbursement. State costs would depend on the number of qualified state-declared disasters that occur in a given year, with most years having few emergencies and thus minor costs. Costs would be much greater in the event of a sustained state-declared disaster that covers many jurisdictions. AB 2311 Page 3 3)Significant ongoing costs for CalOES in the range of $100,000 to expand coordination of current credential programs to meet increased local demand for certified sign language interpreters. Under the current model, CalOES does not bear the cost of running credentialing programs. However, CalOES staff help manage referrals and the program would need to be expanded to accommodate these new local requirements. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author, the deaf community continues to be denied access to information and resources at the time of disasters. This bill is intended to remove barriers to critical information for the deaf community in times of need. 2)Background. In 2009, the California Legislature merged the powers, purposes, and responsibilities of the former OES with those of OHS into the newly- created California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA). On July 1, 2013, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.'s Reorganization Plan #2 eliminated Cal EMA and restored it to the Governor's Office, renaming it the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (CalOES), and merging it with the Office of Public Safety Communications. Today, CalOES is responsible for overseeing and coordinating emergency preparedness, response, recovery and homeland security activities within the state. 3)Office for Access and Functional Needs (OAFN). In January 2008, CalOES established the OAFN. The purpose of OAFN is to identify the needs of people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs before, during, and after a disaster and to integrate disability needs and AB 2311 Page 4 resources into 4)emergency management systems. OAFN offers guidance to emergency managers and planners, disability and older adult service systems for planning and responding during disasters and recovery. 5)Reach of this bill. The Assembly Governmental Organization Committee's analysis of this bill notes that CalOES currently has in place a Disaster Response Interpreter (DRI) Training Course that should satisfy certain provisions of AB 2311. This course involves partnerships with local on-call sign language services, and certified interpreters are already sent to areas affected by disaster. AB 2311's mandate that every local agency must utilize a certified sign language interpreter at every relevant meeting would likely result in an increased demand for interpreters. According to CalOES, there are approximately 100 statewide certified interpreters spread across various agencies statewide. The number of certified interpreters would have to increase substantially to ensure this mandate could be met on the state and local level. Analysis Prepared by:Luke Reidenbach / APPR. / (916) 319-2081 AB 2311 Page 5