BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1883
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1883 (Evans)
As Amended April 5, 2010
Majority vote
JUDICIARY 7-3
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|Ayes:|Feuer, Brownley, Evans, | | |
| |Jones, Lieu, Monning, | | |
| |Nava | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Tran, Hagman, Knight | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Authorizes, as a pilot program, county boards of
supervisors to increase specified fees to fund domestic violence
prevention programs and direct services. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Authorizes a county board of supervisors, upon making
specified findings and declarations, to increase the fees for
certified copies of marriage and birth certificates, and death
records, by up to $4. Directs that the fees be deposited into
a special fund from which one-half of the fees can be used for
governmental oversight and coordination of domestic violence
and family violence prevention, intervention, and prosecution
efforts and one-half to nonprofit, community-based
organizations that serve victims of domestic violence and
their families, including, but not limited to, organizations
that serve underserved communities.
2)Allows Alameda and Contra Costa Counties and the City of
Berkeley, upon making specified findings and declarations, to
increase the fees for certified copies of marriage and birth
certificates, and death records, by up to $2. Directs that
the fees be provided to nonprofit, community-based
organizations that serve victims of domestic violence and
their families.
3)Allows Solano and Sonoma Counties, until the expiration of
their respective domestic violence pilot funding programs and
upon making specified findings and declarations, to increase
AB 1883
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the fees for certified copies of marriage and birth
certificates, and death records, by up to $2. Directs that
the fees be provided to nonprofit, community-based
organizations that serve victims of domestic violence and
their families. After expiration of their respective domestic
violence pilot funding programs, allows these counties to
participate fully in the domestic violence prevention program
in 2), above.
4)Requires that funds provided to nonprofit, community-based
organizations that serve victims of domestic violence and
their families be awarded through a competitive request for
proposals process.
5)Requires that any county board of supervisors or the City of
Berkeley that elects to increase fees as specified in this
bill must submit to the Assembly and Senate Judiciary
Committees a report by February 1, 2015, regarding the funds
received, the activities funded, and the outcomes of those
activities.
6)Sunsets the program on January 1, 2016.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Authorizes the Alameda County Board 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 increases permitted on an annual basis, based on the
Consumer Price Index (CPI). 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.
2)Authorizes a $4 fee (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 the Contra Costa County.
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3)Authorizes the Solano County Board of Supervisors, upon making
findings and declarations of the need for governmental
oversight and coordination of domestic violence agencies, to
increase fees for marriage licenses, confidential marriage
licenses, and certified copies of marriage certificates, fetal
death records, and death records by up to $2, until January 1,
2011.
4)Authorizes the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, upon making
findings and declarations of the need for governmental
oversight and coordination of domestic violence agencies, to
increase fees for marriage licenses, confidential marriage
licenses, and certified copies of marriage certificates, fetal
death records, and death records by up to $2, until January 1,
2015.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : Over the last decade, the Legislature has authorized,
on a pilot basis, four counties, including, Alameda, and Contra
Costa, 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 programs in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties and
the City of Berkeley have been made permanent.
This bill, sponsored by the California Partnership to End
Domestic Violence, seeks to allow the expansion of these
programs statewide by giving all counties, 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, intervention, and services to victims and their
families.
While initially begun as pilots, the programs in Alameda and
Contra Costs County and the City of Berkeley have now been made
permanent. In support of making those programs permanent, the
Alameda County Board of Supervisors (Board) wrote that the funds
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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."
The Berkeley City Council told the Legislature that it uses
these funds for a 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
system-wide 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.
Rather than continue a piecemeal approach, this bill allows all
county boards of supervisors, upon making specified findings and
declaration on the need for more funding to combat domestic
violence, to increase the fees for certified copies of marriage
and birth certificates, and death records, by up to $4. If a
county elects to increase these fees, half of the fees must be
used for governmental oversight and coordination of domestic
violence and family violence prevention, intervention, and
prosecution efforts. The other half of the fees must be
provided to nonprofit, community-based organizations that serve
victims of domestic violence and their families, including, but
not limited to, organizations that serve underserved
communities. In order to ensure the funding for community-based
AB 1883
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organizations is used as effectively as possible, the bill
requires that this funding be awarded to local programs through
a competitive process that begins with a request for proposals.
This bill is designed to work in tandem with the existing
domestic violence prevention programs, which only allow for
funding of governmental oversight and coordination of domestic
violence and family violence prevention, intervention, and
prosecution efforts, by providing that those entities with
existing programs may seek to raise fees by up to $2 in order to
fund nonprofit, community-based organizations that serve victims
of domestic violence and their families.
Analysis Prepared by : Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916)
319-2334
FN: 0003811