BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



              APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE FISCAL SUMMARY

                                         AB 206 (Hertzberg)

Hearing Date: 7/21/97                                 Amended:  
6/2/97          
                             
Consultant:  Ed Derman                   Policy Vote: G.O. 9-0
___________________________________________________________________ 

BILL SUMMARY: 

AB 206 requires each state agency to make available on its  
Internet web site by 7/1/98, or within 6 months of establishing  
such a site, a form through which a person could register  
complaints or comments about the agency or about a person licensed  
by the agency. The complaint form would either be mailed or filed  
electronically, depending on the method for filing complaints the  
state agency established. The agency also would, to the extent  
feasible,  provide specific information on filing complaints to a  
person calling to lodge a complaint.

                         Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
  
Major Provisions               1997-98       1998-99        1999-2000   Fund  

Complaint form        Probably not substantial total statewide  
costSpecial/General
 development and processing                                 

STAFF COMMENTS:  

Based on discussions with a staff from a variety of state agencies  
which probably receive most of the citizen complaints or comments  
concerning an agency or its licensees, it appears that each state  
agency would incur relatively minor, largely one-time costs to  
program the complaint or comment form onto its web site, and some  
additional, probably minor costs to process the additional  
complaints or comments that the increased availability of the form  
would generate. DMV indicates, for example, that this bill is  
consistent with its current plans to put complaint forms on its  
web site. Consumer Affairs, on the other hand, estimates that it  
would incur costs of about $55,000 annually, for programming the  
form and processing additional complaints. According to that  
department, based on its current experience, it would anticipate  
that a number of complaints would concern individuals not licensed  










by any of its boards and bureaus, and these complaints or comments  
would be forwarded to another agency for processing. In addition,  
because of the added expense of establishing an  electronic  means  
to submit complaint or comment forms, it is likely that most  
agencies would post forms on their web sites for downloading by  
citizens, who would have to mail them to the agency.