Existing law prohibits the disclosure of the home addresses of certain public employees and officials that appear in records of the Department of Motor Vehicles, except to a court, a law enforcement agency, an attorney in a civil or criminal action under certain circumstances, and certain other official entities.

This bill would extend that prohibition, subject to those same exceptions, to the disclosure of the home addresses of code enforcement officers and parking control officers, as defined. The bill would also require the department to charge a fee sufficient to cover the reasonable costs for this service commencing with requests for confidentiality made on or after January 1, 2019.

Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.

This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

Existing law, the Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists and Hearing Aid Dispensers Licensure Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of hearing aid dispensers by the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Board. Existing law defines the practice of fitting or selling hearing aids as those practices used for the purpose of selection and adaptation of hearing aids, including direct observation of the ear, testing of hearing in connection with the fitting and selling of hearing aids, taking of ear mold impressions, fitting or sale of hearing aids, and any necessary postfitting counseling. Under existing law, hearing tests conducted are required to include those that are in compliance with the Food and Drug Administration Guidelines for Hearing Aid Devices and those that are specifically covered in the licensing examination prepared and administered by the board.

This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to these provisions.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair

2017 - 2018 Regular Session

SB 1390 (Galgiani) - Department of Motor Vehicles: records: confidentiality

This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.

Bill Summary:

SB 1390 would add code enforcement and parking control officers, as well as their spouses and children, to the list of persons who may request an additional level of confidentiality from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). It also would require DMV to charge a fee, starting on January 1, 2019, to cover its program costs.

Fiscal Impact:

• DMV estimates first-year costs of approximately $275,000 and $90,000 annually in ongoing costs to handle manual data entry processing of confidentiality requests within the Confidential Records Unit. Workload costs would be offset through the collection of fees.

There also are costs to DMV to promulgate regulations to establish the fee and create a process to collect the fees. Standard regulatory costs are around $20,000. Department costs to promulgate regulations for establishing and processing the fee that would be required by this bill may be significantly higher due to the short time frame within which the regulations would have to be published, as DMV would be required to start collecting the fee on January 1, 2019. (Motor Vehicle Account)

• Potential reduction in state and local tolls, parking fees, and fines to the extent that current law makes it difficult for local parking and toll agencies to collect tolls and fines from additional persons protected by the enhanced confidentiality statutes.

Background:

All residence addresses in any DMV record are confidential and shall not be disclosed to any person, except a court, law enforcement agency, or other governmental agency, or as otherwise authorized under specified circumstances. The release of such confidential information is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and/or by up to one year in county jail. In addition to this protection, residential addresses of certain public employees, as well as their spouses and children, that are contained in DMV records are confidential, if the qualified person requests confidentiality of that information.

According to the Senate Committee on Public Safety analysis of this measure:

Vehicle Code section 1808.4 was added by statute in 1977 to provide confidentiality of home addresses to specified public employees and their families.

In 1989, Vehicle Code section 1808.21 was added to make all residence addresses contained within the Department of Motor Vehicle files confidential. Vehicle Code section 1808.21(a) states the following:

The residence address in any record of the department is confidential and cannot be disclosed to any person except a court, law enforcement agency, or other governmental agency, or as authorized in Section 1808.22 or 1808.23.

This section was further amended in 1994 to allow individuals under specific circumstances to request that their entire records be suppressed. Any individual who is the subject of stalking or who is experiencing a threat of death or great bodily injury to his or her person may request their entire record to be suppressed under this section.

Upon suppression of a record, each request for information about that record has to be authorized by the subject of the record or verified as legitimate by other investigative means by the DMV before the information is released.

A record is suppressed for a one-year period. At the end of the one year period, the suppression is continued for a period determined by the department and if the person submits verification acceptable to the department that he or she continues to have reasonable cause to believe that he or she is the subject of stalking or that there exists a threat of death or great bodily injury to his or her person.

DMV has long maintained that all residence addresses are suppressed and only persons authorized by statute can access this information.

Under sections 1808.4 and 1808.6 the home addresses of specific individuals are suppressed and can only be accessed through the Confidential Records Unit of the Department of Motor Vehicles while under section 1808.21, the residence address portion of all individuals’ records are suppressed but can be accessed by a court, law enforcement agency, or other governmental agency or other authorized persons.

Proposed Law:

This bill would add code enforcement officers and parking control officers employed by a city, county, university, college, public hospital, public airport, special district, or other public entity for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing state laws and local ordinances related to parking (and their families) to the list of individuals who may request the extra level of confidentiality of their home addresses that appear in DMV records. Additionally, it would require DMV to charge a fee that is sufficient to cover the reasonable costs for the confidentiality program. The department must start charging the fee on requests for confidentiality made on or after January 1, 2019.

Related Legislation:

SB 362 (Galgiani, 2017), SB 1131 (Galgiani, 2016), and SB 372 (Galgiani, 2015) were all identical to one another and would have provided code enforcement officers, parking control officers, and non-sworn investigators with the Department of Insurance with an extra level of confidentiality with respect to their home addresses in DMV records. These bills were held on the Suspense File of this Committee; SB 372 was amended subsequently to address an unrelated subject but never heard in its amended form.

AB 2687 (Bocanegra, Ch. 273, Stats. 2014) allows Licensing Program Analysts from the Department of Social Services to enroll in the DMV Confidential Records Program.

SB 767 (Lieu, 2014), which failed passage in the Assembly Transportation Committee, would have added code enforcement officers to those eligible to enroll in the DMV Confidential Records Program.

Over the past twenty years, a number of bills proposing to expand the statutory confidentiality list, including for code enforcement officers, have either failed in committee or have been vetoed.

Staff Comments:

The DMV Confidential Records Program is a paper-based program that is handled by the department’s investigation unit, as it deals with confidential records. The unit does not handle cash for DMV currently. The department would need to establish a process for how unit staff would accept and deposit the payment of fees.

The program is an unfunded service by DMV, meaning that there are no fees or revenue sources dedicated to fund the work required to add individuals to or update records in the program. Currently, resources and workload associated with the program are funding from the department’s operating funding. This bill would allow DMV to recover its costs by charging a fee to consumers of the service.

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SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY

Senator Nancy Skinner, Chair

2017 - 2018 Regular

Bill No: SB 1390 Hearing Date: April 17, 2018

Subject: Department of Motor Vehicles: Records: Confidentiality

HISTORY

Source: California Association of Code Enforcement Officers

Prior Legislation: SB 362 (Galgiani) Held in Senate Appropriations 2017

SB 1131 (Galgiani) Held Senate Appropriations 2016

SB 372 (Galgiani) 2015 this version held in Senate Appropriations

SB 767 (Lieu) (as amended in the Assembly) failed Assembly

Transportation, 2014

AB 2687 (Bocanegra) Ch. 273, Stats. 2014

AB 1270 (Eggman) failed Assembly Appropriations, 2013

AB 923 (Swanson) failed Assembly Appropriations, 2009

AB 529 (Lowenthal) failed Assembly Appropriations, 2009

AB 1958 (Swanson) failed Assembly Appropriations, 2008

AB 1311 (Berryhill) not heard Assembly Transportation, 2007

AB 1706 (Strickland) failed Assembly Transportation, 2005

AB 2012 (Chu) section amended out of the bill, 2004

AB 130 (Campbell) not heard Assembly Transportation, 2003

AB 246 (Cox) not heard Assembly Transportation, 2003

AB 1775 (Ortiz) no vote in Senate Public Safety, 2002

AB 84 (Hertzberg) Ch. 809, Stats. 2001

AB 1029 (Oropeza) Ch. 486, Stats. 2001

AB 151 (Longville) vetoed, 2000

AB 298 (Battin) held in Assembly Transportation, 2000

AB 1310 (Granlund) vetoed, 2000

AB 1358 (Shelley) Ch. 808, Stats. 2000

AB 1864 (Correa) held Assembly Appropriations, 2000

SB 171 (Knight) vetoed, 1998

AB 1941 (Bordonaro) Ch. 880, Stats. 1996

AB 191(Cannella) died in Sen. Committee on Criminal Procedure, 1996

AB 3033 (Baca) died in Sen. Committee on Criminal Procedure, 1996

AB 3391 (Ducheny) never heard, 1996

AB 688 (Frusetta) died in Sen. Committee on Criminal Procedure, 1996

AB 1396 (Poochigian) died in Sen. Committee on Criminal Procedure,

1996

AB 1931 (Conroy) Ch. 77, Stats. 1994

AB 3454 (Speier) Ch. 395, Stats. 1994

AB 3161 (Frazee) Ch. 838, Stats. 1994

AB 1268 (Martinez) Ch. 1268, Stats. 1993

AB 2367 (Polanco) Ch. 1291, Stats. 1993

SB 274 (Committee on Transportation) Ch. 1292, Stats. 1993

SB 602 (1992) Chaptered

AB 1779 (1989) Chaptered

Support: The Association of Deputy District Attorneys; California Association of Code Enforcement Officers; California College and University Police Chiefs Association; California Narcotic Officers Association; The Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association

Opposition: None known

PURPOSE

The purpose of this bill is to add code enforcement officers and parking control officers to those who may request an additional level of confidentiality from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Under existing law the residential addresses of certain public employees and their families are confidential. (Vehicle Code §§ 1808.4 and 1808.6 - began in 1977.)

Existing law states that all residence addresses in any record of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) are confidential and shall not be disclosed to any person, except a court, law enforcement agency, or other governmental agency, or as authorized in section 1808.22 of the Vehicle Code. (Vehicle Code §§ 1808.21 - added in 1989.)

Existing law states that any person may seek suppression of any DMV registration or driver’s license record if he or she can show that he or she is the subject of stalking or a threat of death or great bodily injury. The suppression will be for a period of one year renewable for two more one year periods. (Vehicle Code § 1808.21(d).)

Existing law provides that the home address of specified persons which appear in the records of DMV is confidential upon the request of the person and that it not be disclosed except as specified. Included in the list of specified persons a child abuse investigator or social working in child protective services within a social services department. (Vehicle Code §§ 1808.4 and 1808.6.)

Existing law provides that the willful, unauthorized disclosure of this information as it relates to specified law enforcement (peace officers, employees of city police departments, and county sheriffs’ offices and their families) that results in the bodily injury to the individual or individuals whose specified information was confidential, is a felony. (Vehicle Code §§ 1808.4.)

Existing law provides that the release of such confidential information, for all other persons specified, is a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and/or by up to one year in a county jail. (Vehicle Code § 1808.45.)

This bill would add code enforcement officers and parking enforcement officers to those who can request an additional layer of confidentiality from the DMV.

COMMENTS

1. Need for This Bill

According to the author:

Existing law prohibits the disclosure of the home addresses of certain public employees and officials that appear in records of the Department of Motor Vehicles, except to a court, a law enforcement agency, an attorney in a civil or criminal action under certain circumstances. The home addresses of everyone else may be disclosed, in limited circumstances, to financial institutions, insurance companies, attorneys, vehicle manufacturers, and persons doing statistical research.

This bill will extend the option for a Code Enforcement Officer, Parking Control Officers and Non-Sworn Investigators at the Department of Insurance to enroll in the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) confidentiality protections, specifically to protect their home addresses.

Code enforcement officers are on the front line of code compliance, and sometimes drug trafficking and gang-related enforcement efforts in local governments and are frequently required to deal with hostile, non-compliant persons. It is not uncommon for citizens to become angry when a Code Enforcement Officer takes action to enforce regulations as they see it as an unnecessary intrusion of their private property.

Ironically, if a Code Enforcement Officer or Parking Enforcement Officer is employed under their local police department, their information will fall under the DMV confidentiality requirement.

Parking control officers also face clear and present danger in the fulfillment of their job duties and have received credible threats and have been victims of physical assaults.

Non-sworn investigators at the Department of Insurance regularly conduct investigations of licensees and non-licensees which may result in administrative action. About 50-60% of their cases is criminal casework, and so these investigators have frequent contact with those involved with criminal activity. Many times these investigations result in license revocation or possible incarceration and therefore there is a potential for violence or retribution.

These Investigators should be afforded the same protections from potential retaliation.

2. Background of DMV Confidentiality

Vehicle Code section 1808.4 was added by statute in 1977 to provide confidentiality of home addresses to specified public employees and their families.

In 1989, Vehicle Code section 1808.21 was added to make all residence addresses contained within the Department of Motor Vehicle files confidential. Vehicle Code section 1808.21(a) states the following:

The residence address in any record of the department is confidential and cannot

be disclosed to any person except a court, law enforcement agency, or other governmental agency, or as authorized in Section 1808.22 or 1808.23.

This section was further amended in 1994 to allow individuals under specific circumstances to request that their entire records be suppressed. Any individual who is the subject of stalking or who is experiencing a threat of death or great bodily injury to his or her person may request their entire record to be suppressed under this section.

Upon suppression of a record, each request for information about that record has to be authorized by the subject of the record or verified as legitimate by other investigative means by the DMV before the information is released.

A record is suppressed for a one-year period. At the end of the one year period, the suppression is continued for a period determined by the department and if the person submits verification acceptable to the department that he or she continues to have reasonable cause to believe that he or she is the subject of stalking or that there exists a threat of death or great bodily injury to his or her person.

DMV has long maintained that all residence addresses are suppressed and only persons authorized by statute can access this information.

Under sections 1808.4 and 1808.6 the home addresses of specific individuals are suppressed and can only be accessed through the Confidential Records Unit of the Department of Motor Vehicles while under section 1808.21, the residence address portion of all individuals’ records are suppressed but can be accessed by a court, law enforcement agency, or other governmental agency or other authorized persons.

3. The Department of Motor Vehicles

There have been a number of bills adding or attempting to add various public employees to the enhanced confidentiality provisions of the Vehicle Code.

According to a Senate Committee on Public Safety analysis for June 11, 1996 of AB 1941 (Bordonaro):

According to a letter dated June 9, 1995 from the Department of Motor Vehicles concerning related measures initially set for hearing last year (AB 191, AB 688,

AB 1396) on this issue, AB 1941 “is just one of four bills slated for the Criminal Procedure Committee hearing on June 13 which seek to include various professions within the category of confidential records that have historically been reserved for law enforcement personnel. When names are added to this special category, they cannot be accessed except through a telephone procedure utilized in one particular file security area in the DMV’s Sacramento headquarters location. Currently, we estimate that this file contains close to half a million individual records which must be manually entered and individually retrieved when access is authorized.

The DMV has stated that approximately 1000 requests for confidentiality of home addresses are made each week. The Confidential Records Unit of the DMV consists of 12 people and only two of these people review these forms to determine whether the individuals requesting confidentiality are in fact qualified to do so.

According to the DMV, a majority of these requests are granted due to the fact that the DMV restricts the release of the request forms to qualifying agencies and individuals only. The Confidential Records Unit of the DMV updated “5900 records in May 1995 and only 273 applications were rejected.”

4. Addition of code enforcement officers, parking enforcement officers and non-sworn investigators at the Department of Insurance

This bill would add code enforcement officers and parking enforcement officers to those who can request an additional layer of confidentiality from the DMV. This bill is identical to SB 1131 (Galgiani) 2016 and SB 3362 (Galgiani) 2017 both of which were held in Senate Appropriations Committee.

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