BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                          SB 182 (Corbett)
          
          Hearing Date: 5/2/2011          Amended: 4/12/2011
          Consultant: Jolie Onodera       Policy Vote: Judiciary 3-2
          
















































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          BILL SUMMARY: SB 182 would add gender identity and sexual 
          orientation to the list of demographic data provided by judicial 
          applicants, nominees, appointees, justices, and judges required 
          to be collected and released annually by the Governor, the 
          Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation (JNE Commission) of 
          the State Bar, and the Administrative Office of the Courts 
          (AOC). The bill would also require any data disclosed or 
          released to indicate the percentage of respondents who declined 
          to respond.
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                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2011-12      2012-13       2013-14     Fund
                                                                      
          Additional demographic Up to $75 in one-time costs; $35 annually 
          General*
          data collection/release by        ongoing
          AOC

          Data collection/release by        Minor, absorbable costsGeneral
          JNE/Governor's Office  

          *Trial Court Trust Fund
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          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the 
          Suspense File.
          
          Under existing law, the Governor, the JNE Commission, and the 
          AOC must annually collect and release demographic data relative 
          to ethnicity, race, and gender provided by judicial applicants, 
          nominees, appointees, justices, and judges. Providing the 
          specified information is voluntary, and the disclosure or 
          release of any demographic data must be done on an aggregated 
          statistical basis and cannot identify any individual applicant, 
          justice, or judge. This bill would add gender identity and 
          sexual orientation to the list of demographic data to be 
          collected and released. This bill would also require that any 
          demographic data disclosed or released must indicate the 
          percentage of respondents who declined to respond.

          To collect and publish the demographic information required, the 








          SB 182 (Corbett)
          Page 3

          Judicial Branch indicates it would incur both one-time and 
          ongoing administrative costs. The estimated one-time costs 
          reflect time for the 1,700 existing justices and judges to 
          complete the questionnaire and discuss privacy concerns with 
          judicial staff on the two new categories, as well staff time to 
          prepare, compile and release the information. Costs will be 
          dependent upon the actions of the judges and justices. To the 
          extent some judicial officers choose not to respond to the new 
          questionnaire nor take any time to discuss privacy concerns, 
          these costs would be reduced.

          The JNE Commission is required to collect and release 
          information provided by all judicial applicants regarding 
          ethnicity, race, and gender, and areas of legal practice and 
          employment, as well as a statewide summary of recommendations by 
          category. This bill would add gender identity and sexual 
          orientation to list of demographic data collected and released. 
          The JNE Commission anticipates the cost of collection and 
          release of the additional information would be minimal assuming 
          that the upgrade to the State Bar database to add and process 
          the new data is a simple task for the Stat Bar's information 
          technology department.
           
          This bill would also add gender identity and sexual orientation 
          to the list of demographic data provided by judicial applicants, 
          nominees, and appointees required to be collected and released 
          annually by the Governor. This bill would provide that in the 
          year following a general election or recall election that would 
          result in a new Governor taking office prior to March 1, the 
          departing Governor shall provide all the demographic data 
          collected for the year to the incoming Governor, who shall then 
          be responsible for releasing the specified data by the March 1 
          deadline. The costs to collect and release the additional 
          information are estimated to be minor and absorbable.