BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2493
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2493 (Fuller)
As Amended April 13, 2010
Majority vote
JUDICIARY 9-0
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|Ayes:|Feuer, Harkey, Brownley, | | |
| |Evans, Hagman, Jones, | | |
| |Huffman, Monning, Nava | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires a conservator to keep a photograph of each
conservatee. Specifically, this bill requires a conservator of
a person, u pon establishment of a conservatorship and annually
thereafter, to ensure that a clear photograph of the conservatee
is taken and preserved for the purposes of identifying the
conservatee if he or she becomes missing .
EXISTING LAW :
1)Allows the court to appoint a conservator to act on behalf of
a person who is unable to adequately provide for his or her
personal needs (a conservator of the person) or incapable of
managing his or her property or other financial assets (a
conservator of the estate).
2)Provides that a conservator of the person has the care,
custody, and control of a conservatee, except as provided.
3)Allows the Public Guardian to be appointed for any person who
requires a conservator and there is no one else who is
qualified and willing to act. Requires the public guardian to
apply for appointment as conservator in specified cases.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : This bill, sponsored by the County of San Bernardino,
is the result of an unfortunate incident in which a conservatee
went missing and, although located in a neighboring county, went
unidentified for several months because the conservator did not
have an identifying photograph of the conservatee. This bill
AB 2493
Page 2
requires all conservators to have recent photographs of their
conservatees and use those photographs to identify the
conservatee should he or she become missing.
According to the author, this bill is necessary because:
Statistics show that at some point in their lives, 60
percent of individuals suffering from Alzheimer's
disease, a serious mental disorder or dementia wander
from their homes or long-term care facilities, often
without knowing their own name or address and
sometimes missing life-sustaining medications. This
can be a problem for conservatees of the public
guardian-conservator. Conservatees may wander from
their care facilities and disappear into the adjacent
community or even into other counties.
California adopted its first conservatorship statute in 1957.
Prior to that time, the court appointed a "guardian" for any
person, child or adult, who was deemed "incompetent" to manage
his or her daily affairs. After 1957, the law distinguished
between a "guardianship," created for a minor, and a
"conservatorship," created for an adult. There are also
specific types of conservatorships for persons who are
considered "gravely disabled" by reason of mental illness or
chronic alcoholism and subject to confinement in a locked
psychiatric facility under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act and
for "developmentally disabled adults"
In 2006, in response to shocking reports of abuse of
California's frail and elderly, the Legislature passed the
Omnibus Conservatorship and Guardianship Reform Act of 2006, a
landmark package of bills to overhaul California's troubled
conservatorship system. That legislation was designed to remedy
alarming deficiencies in California's conservatorship system and
help protect the financial, physical and emotional well-being of
vulnerable and dependent adults. That reform legislation also
expanded the role of the Public Guardian to not only permit
appointment of the Public Guardian for any person "who requires
a guardian or conservator and there is no one else who is
qualified and willing to act," but also to require appointment
if no one else is willing to act and there is imminent threat to
the health or safety of the proposed ward or conservatee.
AB 2493
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This bill is the result of a recent case in San Bernardino
County where police in San Bernardino County picked up an
elderly man with obvious medical issues, but who did not have
identification, could not identify himself and could not be
identified with fingerprints. Only after this unfortunate
individual had spent several months in the county's public
hospital, was he finally identified as a conservatee who had
been reported missing in another county. The conservator had
filed a missing person's report, but had no photograph to go
with the report. The sponsor believes that if the conservator
had provided a photograph with the report, the conservatee would
have been identified in several days and returned to his
residence.
This bill requires all conservators to maintain recent
photographs of their conservatees. In the event that a
conservatee becomes missing, the photograph will be available to
help identify and locate the lost conservatee as quickly as
possible, which will hopefully speed the conservatee's safe
return home.
Analysis Prepared by : Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
FN: 0003914