BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 493 (Perea) - Registered sex offenders: community care
facilities.
Amended: August 6, 2012 Policy Vote: HS 6-0, PS 5-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: August 16, 2012
Consultant: Jolie Onodera
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: AB 493 would do the following:
Makes it a misdemeanor for a person required to register under
the Sex Offender Registration Act (the Act) to reside, work,
or volunteer, except as specified, in a licensed foster home
or facility, a certified home of a foster family agency (FFA),
or a home or facility approved to receive placement of a
dependent child, as specified.
Mandates specified local officials who register a person under
the Act, at the time of registration of a person, to determine
whether the person is registering at a residence or place of
employment that is prohibited, to notify the person when his
or her registered residence or place of employment would be
prohibited, and take appropriate law enforcement action or
notify appropriate law enforcement if the person registers at
a prohibited place after being so notified.
Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to, no later
than January 1, 2014, provide specified local law enforcement
agencies the addresses, or other equivalent data, of each
licensed foster home and facility, each home certified by a
FFA, and any home or facility approved to receive a dependent
child. This bill would also require DSS investigators to, no
less frequently than each quarter, compare the residence and
employment addresses of persons required to register under the
Act against the addresses of specified homes and facilities,
and would require any match to be reported to the DSS and
county child welfare agency immediately, or as soon as
practicably possible.
Fiscal Impact:
Ongoing increased costs potentially in excess of $150,000
(General Fund) to the DSS to continue to redirect staff to
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perform address cross-checks via computer matching, as well
as verification and follow-up activities.
First-year costs of $42,000 (General Fund) to the
Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2012-13, and ongoing costs of
$68,000 (General Fund) to the DOJ for workload associated
with increased enforcement-related inquiries from agencies.
Potential ongoing court-related costs for new misdemeanor
filings of $24,000 to $48,000 (General Fund) for 50 to 100
additional misdemeanor filings per year.
While the impact of this bill independently on local jails
is likely to be minor, the cumulative effect of all new
misdemeanors could create General Fund cost pressure on
capital outlay, staffing, programming, the courts, and other
resources in the context of recently enacted 2011 Public
Safety Realignment.
Background: Existing law enacts the Sex Offender Registration
Act which requires persons convicted of certain sex offenses to
permanently register with local law enforcement within five
working days of coming into or changing his or her residence,
place of employment or enrollment in an institution of higher
education, and requiring the individual to update registration
annually. Any person who is required to register under the Act
based on a misdemeanor or felony conviction or juvenile
adjudication and who willfully violates any requirement of the
Act is guilty of a misdemeanor or felony, depending on the
underlying offense.
Existing law prohibits the issuance of a license to operate or
manage a community care facility to a person required to
register as a sex offender, as specified. In addition to the
applicant, the prohibition applies to any person other than a
client residing in the facility, any staff person, volunteer, or
employee who has contact with the clients, or any adults
responsible for administration or direct supervision of staff.
Any person who violates the California Community Care Facilities
Act (CCFA) or who willfully or repeatedly violates any rule or
regulation promulgated under the CCFA is guilty of a
misdemeanor, as specified.
A report released by the California State Auditor, Bureau of
State Audits (BSA) entitled Child Welfare Services: California
Can and Must Provide Better Protection and Support for Abused
and Neglected Children (October 2011),noted that DSS could make
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better use of the DOJ sex offender registry to ensure that sex
offenders are not living or working among children in the child
welfare services system. The BSA compared the addresses of sex
offenders in the DOJ registry with the addresses of DSS- and
county- licensed facilities, as well as the addresses of child
welfare services placements, and found over 1,000 address
matches, nearly 600 of which were high risk and in need of
immediate investigation.
Proposed Law: This bill seeks to strengthen existing laws to
ensure that registered sex offenders do not reside, work, or
volunteer in community care facilities or child welfare services
placements, except as specified. Specifically, this bill:
Provides that it is a misdemeanor for a person required to
register under the Sex Offender Registration Act to reside,
work, or volunteer, except as specified, in a licensed foster
home or facility, a certified home of a FFA, or a home or
facility approved to receive placement of a dependent child.
Provides an exception to the prohibition on residence if the
registered individual is a client.
Provides that a court may waive the prohibition from a
registered sex offender residing, working, or volunteering in
a specified home or facility if the residence is that of a
noncustodial parent, a relative, or a nonrelative extended
family member who receives a dependent child placement, and
the court finds that it is in the best interest of the child.
Requires a county sheriff, or the chief of police of a city
or a campus of the University of California (UC), the
California State University (CSU), or community college
(CCC), at the time of registration of a person required to
register as a sex offender, to determine whether the person
is registering at a residence or place of employment that is
prohibited, notify the person when his or her registered
residence or place of employment would be prohibited, and
take appropriate law enforcement action or notify appropriate
law enforcement if the person registers at a prohibited place
after being so notified.
Requires law enforcement to immediately, or as soon as
practicably possible, report in writing, by telephone,
facsimile, or electronic transmission to the county child
welfare agency and the DSS regarding the registration of a
person at a residence or place of employment at which a
dependent child resides.
Requires the DSS to, no later than January 1, 2014, provide
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specified local law enforcement agencies the addresses, or
other equivalent data, of each licensed foster home and
facility, each home certified by a FFA, and any home or
facility approved to receive a dependent child.
Requires DSS investigators to, no less frequently than each
calendar quarter, compare the residence and employment
addresses of persons required to register under the Act
against the addresses of specified homes and facilities, and
would require any match to be reported to the DSS and county
child welfare agency immediately, or as soon as practicably
possible.
Adds a local law enforcement agency among the agencies that
may receive lists from the DSS containing the names,
addresses, and other identifying information of small family
day care homes, as specified.
Related Legislation: SB 583 (Hollingsworth) Chapter 55/2009
requires the DOJ to record each address at which a registered
sex offender resides with a unique identifier that shall include
the nature of the dwelling, as specified. This bill requires the
DOJ to maintain those classifications within the database
maintained for sex offender registrations and to provide that
information to other state agencies, including the DSS, when
required for law enforcement purposes relating to investigative
responsibilities relative to sex offenders.
AB 2593 (Adams) 2008 would have established the Registered Sex
Offender Address Matching Act of 2008, requiring the DSS to
develop and implement a website that would match addresses of
registered sex offenders and specified licensed residential
facilities. This bill would have required the DSS and counties
to check the Megan's Law website prior to making placements and
licensing care facilities. This bill was held on the Suspense
File of this Committee.
Staff Comments: This bill would enact a series of mandated
checks by law enforcement agencies to ensure that registered sex
offenders are not residing, working, or volunteering in
community care facilities or child welfare placements unless
otherwise provided a waiver by the court from the prohibition.
Requiring local law enforcement officials to complete a series
of tasks related to registering persons under the Act could
result in significant ongoing state reimbursable costs,
potentially in the hundreds of thousands to low millions of
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dollars statewide. Although law enforcement agencies have
indicated many of these activities are included in existing
processes, mandating the activities in statute could result in
the costs of these activities being reimbursable by the state.
Additionally, campus police have indicated there could be
additional training required on the process outlined in this
measure with respect to the cross-checking and reporting
requirements to other law enforcement, the child welfare agency,
and the DSS.
The DOJ's California Justice Information Services (CJIS)
Division has indicated that additional categories may be
required in the Megan's Law database, which is used by agencies
to locate information on sex offender registrants, in order to
capture the information required under the provisions of this
bill. Although the additional workload required to modify the
database is estimated to be absorbable within existing staff
resources, the DOJ has indicated additional first-year costs of
$42,000 in 2012-13, and ongoing costs of $68,000 (General Fund)
for workload associated with clarifying addresses and fielding
an increased number of enforcement-related inquiries from
agencies.
This bill requires the DSS to, no later than January 1, 2014,
provide specified local law enforcement agencies the addresses,
or other equivalent data, of each licensed foster home and
facility, each home certified by a FFA, and any home or facility
approved to receive a dependent child. There may be a timing
issue with respect to law enforcement's ability to comply, or to
have a complete list of facilities upon implementation, as the
requirement for law enforcement to cross check the addresses of
registrants against the specified information from the DSS
becomes effective January 1, 2013. Additionally, the bill does
not specify how frequently the information is to be provided by
the DSS in order to maintain an updated list to law enforcement
agencies.
This bill also adds a local law enforcement agency among the
agencies that may receive lists from the DSS containing the
names, addresses, and other identifying information of small
family day care homes, as specified. The DSS has indicated the
costs of providing this information to law enforcement would be
minor and absorbable.
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This bill also requires the DSS investigators to, no less
frequently than each calendar quarter, compare the residence and
employment addresses of persons required to register under the
Act against the addresses of specified homes and facilities, and
would require any match to be reported to the DSS and county
child welfare agency immediately, or as soon as practicably
possible. The DSS is currently conducting this work on a monthly
basis through the redirection of existing staff. While the
requirement under the provisions of this bill entails a
quarterly review, the additional workload is not currently
funded within the existing DSS budget and would require the
continued redirection of workload that could eventually need to
be backfilled. As a result, the DSS will incur ongoing costs
potentially in excess of $150,000 to continue to support the
workload involved in cross checking addresses against
registrants under the Act. The cross check of addresses of
registrants not only involves a computer match of addresses, but
also entails follow up review requiring active staff time and
research.
The Judicial Council may incur additional costs for increased
misdemeanor filings that could result in increased costs of
approximately $24,000 to $48,000 (General Fund) statewide if 50
to 100 new misdemeanors are filed annually. The creation of new
misdemeanors has historically been analyzed by this Committee to
result in non-reimbursable state mandated costs for local law
enforcement and incarceration. Staff notes, however, that the
creation of new misdemeanors taken cumulatively could increase
the statewide adult jail population to a degree that could
potentially impact the flexibility of counties to manage their
jail populations recently increased under the 2011 Public Safety
Realignment. While the provisions of this bill are likely to be
minor, the cumulative effect of all new misdemeanors could
create unknown General Fund cost pressure on capital outlay,
staffing, programming, the courts, and other resources.
The author's proposed amendments do the following:
Remove the mandate on local law enforcement agencies.
Make other technical changes.