California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 487

Introduced by Assembly Member Linder

February 19, 2013

An act to amend Section 1808.4 of the Vehicle Code, relating to vehicles.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 487, as introduced, Linder. Vehicles: confidential home address.

(1) Existing law makes confidential the home addresses of specified governmental officers and employees and certain other persons that appear in the Department of Motor Vehicles records, if the officer, employee, or other person requests that his or her address be kept confidential, with certain exemptions for information available to specified governmental agencies.

This bill would require a person who requests the confidentiality of his or her home address to provide the department with a current employment address for purposes of processing the service and collection of a traffic, parking, or toll road violation. The bill would require that the applicable statutory time periods for processing the service and collection of traffic, parking, or toll road violations be tolled until the department provides the law enforcement agency, governmental agency, or issuing agency with the person’s current employment address. The bill would also require a person who has requested the confidentiality of his or her home address to notify the department of any change in his or her employment address within 10 days.

The bill would require the department to update the form to request confidentiality of the person’s home address to include the requirement that the person requesting confidentiality provide a current employment address and would also require the department to distribute and make available copies of the updated form to the human resources office of each agency that employs any of the eligible persons listed pursuant to these provisions.

The bill would require the human resources office of a new employee requesting confidentiality or an employee who has an existing confidentiality application on file with the department to make the updated form available to new and current employees and to require, on and after January 1, 2014, that all new employees requesting confidentiality or employees who have an existing application on file with the department complete and return the form with their current employment address to their human resources office. The bill would also require the human resources office to forward all new application forms to the Confidential Records Unit (CRU) of the department upon receipt from the new employee and forward the completed updated forms of existing employees who have an application on file with the department to the CRU of the department by April 1, 2015. This bill would require the department to update the record of persons subject to these provisions as his or her vehicle registration becomes due.

By creating new crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 1808.4 of the Vehicle Code is amended
to read:

1808.4.  

(a) For all of the following persons, his or her home
address that appears in a record of the department is confidential
if the person requests the confidentiality of that information:

(1) Attorney General.

(2) State Public Defender.

(3) A Member of the Legislature.

(4) A judge or court commissioner.

(5) A district attorney.

(6) A public defender.

(7) An attorney employed by the Department of Justice, the
office of the State Public Defender, or a county office of the district
attorney or public defender.

(8) A city attorney and an attorney who submits verification
from his or her public employer that the attorney represents the
city in matters that routinely place the attorney in personal contact
with persons under investigation for, charged with, or convicted
of, committing criminal acts, if that attorney is employed by a city
attorney.

(9) A nonsworn police dispatcher.

(10) A child abuse investigator or social worker, working in
child protective services within a social services department.

(11) An active or retired peace officer, as defined in Chapter
4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2 of the Penal
Code.

(12) An employee of the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Facilities, or the Prison
Industry Authority specified in Sections 20403 and 20405 of the
Government Code.

(13) A nonsworn employee of a city police department, a county
sheriff’s office, the Department of the California Highway Patrol,
a federal, state, or local detention facility, or a local juvenile hall,
camp, ranch, or home, who submits agency verification that, in
the normal course of his or her employment, he or she controls or
supervises inmates or is required to have a prisoner in his or her
care or custody.

(14) A county counsel assigned to child abuse cases.

(15) An investigator employed by the Department of Justice, a
county district attorney, or a county public defender.

(16) A member of a city council.

(17) A member of a board of supervisors.

(18) A federal prosecutor, criminal investigator, or National
Park Service Ranger working in this state.

(19) An active or retired city enforcement officer engaged in
the enforcement of the Vehicle Code or municipal parking
ordinances.

(20) An employee of a trial court.

(21) A psychiatric social worker employed by a county.

(22) A police or sheriff department employee designated by the
chief of police of the department or the sheriff of the county as
being in a sensitive position. A designation pursuant to this
paragraph shall, for purposes of this section, remain in effect for
three years subject to additional designations that, for purposes of
this section, shall remain in effect for additional three-year periods.

(23) A state employee in one of the following classifications:

(A) Licensing Registration Examiner, Department of Motor
Vehicles.

(B) Motor Carrier Specialist 1, Department of the California
Highway Patrol.

(C) Museum Security Officer and Supervising Museum Security
Officer.

(24) (A) The spouse or child of a person listed in paragraphs
(1) to (23), inclusive, regardless of the spouse’s or child’s place
of residence.

(B) The surviving spouse or child of a peace officer, as defined
in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part
2 of the Penal Code, if the peace officer died in the line of duty.

(C) (i) Subparagraphs (A) and (B) shall not apply if the person
listed in those subparagraphs was convicted of a crime and is on
active parole or probation.

(ii) For requests made on or after January 1, 2011, the person
requesting confidentiality for their spouse or child listed in
subparagraph (A) or (B) shall declare, at the time of the request
for confidentiality, whether the spouse or child has been convicted
of a crime and is on active parole or probation.

(iii) Neither the listed person’s employer nor the department
shall be required to verify, or be responsible for verifying, that a
person listed in subparagraph (A) or (B) was convicted of a crime
and is on active parole or probation.

(b) The confidential home address of a person listed in
subdivision (a) shall not be disclosed, except to any of the
following:

(1) A court.

(2) A law enforcement agency.

(3) The State Board of Equalization.

(4) An attorney in a civil or criminal action that demonstrates
to a court the need for the home address, if the disclosure is made
pursuant to a subpoena.

(5) A governmental agency to which, under any provision of
law, information is required to be furnished from records
maintained by the department.

(c) (1) A record of the department containing a confidential
home address shall be open to public inspection, as provided in
Section 1808, if the address is completely obliterated or otherwise
removed from the record.

(2) Following termination of office or employment, a
confidential home address shall be withheld from public inspection
for three years, unless the termination is the result of conviction
of a criminal offense. If the termination or separation is the result
of the filing of a criminal complaint, a confidential home address
shall be withheld from public inspection during the time in which
the terminated individual may file an appeal from termination,
while an appeal from termination is ongoing, and until the appeal
process is exhausted, after which confidentiality shall be at the
discretion of the employing agency if the termination or separation
is upheld. Upon reinstatement to an office or employment, the
protections of this section are available.

(3) With respect to a retired peace officer, his or her home
address shall be withheld from public inspection permanently upon
request of confidentiality at the time the information would
otherwise be opened. The home address of the surviving spouse
or child listed in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (24) of subdivision
(a) shall be withheld from public inspection for three years
following the death of the peace officer.

(4) The department shall inform a person who requests a
confidential home address what agency the individual whose
address was requested is employed by or the court at which the
judge or court commissioner presides.

begin insert

(d) (1) (A) A person who requests the confidentiality of his or
her home address pursuant to this article shall provide the
department with a current employment address for purposes of
processing the service and collection of a traffic, parking, or toll
road violation.

end insert begin insert

(B) The applicable statutory time periods for processing the
service and collection of traffic, parking, or toll road violations
are tolled until the department provides the law enforcement
agency, governmental agency, or issuing agency with the person’s
current employment address.

end insert begin insert

(C) Notwithstanding Sections 40500 and 40518 or any other
law, the use of a person’s current employment address, whose
home address is confidential, satisfies the requirement of the
person’s home address for purposes of serving a notice to appear
or a notice of violation pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with
Section 40500) of Chapter 2 of Division 17.

end insert begin insert

(2) A person who has requested the confidentiality of his or her
home address shall notify the department of any change in his or
her employment address within 10 days.

end insert begin insert

(3) The department shall refuse to renew the registration of a
vehicle if the person who has been served pursuant to this
subdivision has been mailed a notice of delinquent parking
violation or a failure to pay a traffic citation and the processing
agency has filed or electronically transmitted to the department
an itemization of the unpaid parking or traffic citation penalty,
including the administrative fee, and the owner or lessee has not
paid the penalty and administrative fee.

end insert begin delete

(d)

end delete

begin insert (e) end insert  A violation of subdivision (a) by the disclosure of the
confidential home address of a peace officer, as specified in
paragraph (11) of subdivision (a), a nonsworn employee of the
city police department or county sheriff’s office, or the spouses or
children of these persons, including, but not limited to, the
surviving spouse or child listed in subparagraph (B) of paragraph
(24) of subdivision (a), that results in bodily injury to the peace
officer, employee of the city police department or county sheriff’s
office, or the spouses or children of these persons is a felony.

begin insert

(f) (1) The department shall update the form to request
confidentiality of the person’s home address to include the
requirement that the person requesting confidentiality provide a
current employment address pursuant to paragraph (1) or (2) of
subdivision (d) and shall distribute and make available copies of
the updated form to the human resources office of each agency
that employs any of the eligible persons listed pursuant to
subdivision (a).

end insert begin insert

(2) The human resources office of a new employee requesting
confidentiality or an employee who has an existing confidentiality
application on file with the department shall do all of the following:

end insert begin insert

(A) Make the updated form available to new and current
employees and require, on and after January 1, 2014, that all new
employees requesting confidentiality or employees who have an
existing confidentiality application on file with the department
complete and return the form with their current employment
address to their human resources office.

end insert begin insert

(B) Forward all new application forms to the Confidential
Records Unit (CRU) of the department upon receipt from the
employee and forward the completed updated forms of existing
employees who have an application on file with the department to
the CRU of the department by April 1, 2015.

end insert begin insert

(g) The department shall update the record of the persons
subject to this section as his or her vehicle registration becomes
due.

end insert

SEC. 2.  

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of
the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within
the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.