BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 1131 (Galgiani) - Department of Motor Vehicles: records:
confidentiality
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|Version: March 28, 2016 |Policy Vote: PUB. S. 7 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: April 25, 2016 |Consultant: Jolie Onodera |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 1131 would add code enforcement officers, parking
control officers, non-sworn investigators with the Department of
Insurance (DOI), and the spouses and children of these persons
to the list of persons who may request an additional level of
confidentiality from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
Fiscal
Impact:
To the extent up to 6,500 code enforcement officers, DOI
investigators, parking control officers, and their family
members could apply in the first year and/or annually
thereafter, accounting for changes to vehicle ownership, the
DMV would incur additional staffing costs to process these
applications as the system is administered manually, including
a significant portion requiring follow-up inquiries.
SB 1131 (Galgiani) Page 1 of
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First-year costs are estimated at about $350,000 and ongoing
costs of $85,000 (Special Fund*).
Potential reduction in state and local tolls, parking fees,
and fines to the extent that current law makes it difficult
for local parking and toll agencies to collect tolls and fines
from additional persons protected by the enhanced
confidentiality statutes.
*Motor Vehicle Account
Background: Under existing law the residential address of certain public
employees and their families are confidential. (Vehicle Code
(VC) §§ 1808.4 and 1808.6.)
Existing law states that all residence addresses in any record
of the DMV are confidential and shall not be disclosed to any
person, except a court, law enforcement agency, or other
governmental agency, or as otherwise authorized. (VC § 1808.21.)
Existing law provides that the release of such confidential
information is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to
$5,000 and/or by up to one year in county jail. (VC § 1808.45.)
According to the Senate Committee on Public Safety analysis of
this measure:
Vehicle Code section 1808.4 was added by statute in 1977
to provide confidentiality of home addresses to specified
public employees and their families. In 1989, Vehicle Code
section 1808.21 was added to make all residence addresses
contained within the DMV files confidential. Vehicle Code
section 1808.21(a) states the following:
The residence address in any record of the department is
confidential and cannot
be disclosed to any person except a court, law enforcement
agency, or other governmental agency, or as authorized in
Sections 1808.22 or 1808.23.
SB 1131 (Galgiani) Page 2 of
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This section was further amended in 1994 to allow
individuals under specific circumstances to request that
their entire records be suppressed. Any individual who is
the subject of stalking or who is experiencing a threat of
death or great bodily injury to his or her person may
request their entire record to be suppressed under this
section.
Upon suppression of a record, each request for information
about that record has to be authorized by the subject of
the record or verified as legitimate by other
investigative means by the DMV before the information is
released.
A record is suppressed for a one-year period. At the end
of the one year period, the suppression is continued for a
period determined by the department and if the person
submits verification acceptable to the department that he
or she continues to have reasonable cause to believe that
he or she is the subject of stalking or that there exists
a threat of death or great bodily injury to his or her
person.
DMV has long maintained that all residence addresses are
suppressed and only persons authorized by statute can
access this information.
Proposed Law:
This bill would add the following persons to those who may
request an additional level of confidentiality from the DMV:
A code enforcement officer, as specified.
A parking control officer employed by a city, county, or
city and county, university, college, public hospital,
public airport, special district, or other public agency to
monitor and enforce state laws and ordinances related to
parking.
An investigator employed by the Department of Insurance.
The spouse or child of a person listed above, regardless
of the spouse's or child's place of residence.
Prior
Legislation: SB 672 (Galgiani) 2015 was identical to this
SB 1131 (Galgiani) Page 3 of
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measure. This bill was held on the Suspense File of this
Committee.
AB 2687 (Bocanegra) Chapter 273/2014 allows Licensing Program
Analysts from the Department of Social Services to enroll in the
DMV Confidential Records Program.
SB 767 (Lieu) 2014 would have added code enforcement officers to
those eligible to enroll in the DMV Confidential Records
Program. This bill failed passage in the Assembly Committee on
Transportation.
Over the past 10 years, a number of bills proposing to expand
the statutory confidentiality list, including for code
enforcement officers, have either failed in committee or have
been vetoed.
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