Administration of Justice 08/16/2013
Local Government Liability
AB 265 (Gatto) – Support
Chapter No. 74, Statutes of 2013
AB 265, by Assembly Member Mike Gatto, relates to dog parks and local governmental liability. Specifically, the measure – in new Government Code Section 831.7.5 – provides that local governments that own or operate a dog park have civil immunity from harm or death that result solely from the actions of a dog in the dog park. CSAC supported this measure. Governor Brown signed the measure into law this week.
Judgment Interest Rate
AB 748 (Eggman) – Support
As amended July 8, 2013
AB 748, by Assembly Member Susan Talamantes Eggman, would amend the current calculation of the judicial interest rate charged to public entities. This measure now is set for hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee on August 19. It is sponsored by the Urban Counties Caucus, with CSAC, a number of individual counties, and a range of other public entity advocacy groups supporting.
As counties are aware, under current law, the interest rate for judgments against public entities is 7 percent. By way of comparison, the interest rate on federal judgments is indexed to a Treasury yield, which currently sits at less than 1 percent. At a time of historically low interest rates, we believe it is appropriate to revise the mechanism by which judgment interest rates are calculated.
As now drafted, AB 748 would specify that for any tax or fee claim that results in a judgment against a public entity, the judicial interest rate would be set at the weekly average one-year constant maturity U.S. Treasury yield. The bill has been clarified to ensure that in no case would the calculation exceed the existing rate of 7 percent annually.
CSAC believe this measure is appropriate and fair, as it merely seeks to modernize the interest rate calculation to reflect current market conditions. The change comes at no cost to the taxpayer and, importantly, would free up resources for the public benefit. It is our understanding that for counties alone, interest payments associated with tax and inverse condemnation claims over the last three years exceed $14 million. The state would certainly benefit from this modest and, in our view, reasonable adjustment as well.
Identity Theft
AB 1149 (Campos) – Oppose
As introduced February 22, 2013
AB 1149, by Assembly Member Nora Campos, would require local agencies to notify consumers of a breach if unauthorized persons access specified personal information. CSAC – as part of a broad coalition of public agency advocacy groups – is in opposition to the bill for fiscal and operational reasons. AB 1149 is similar to AB 2455, also authored by Assembly Member Campos in 2012. That measure did not advance past the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
To be clear, none of the public agency groups takes exception to the policy being advanced in AB 1149. It is merely a question of resources. There will be a cost to implementing the provisions of the bill, and we note there is no identified mechanism to cover these costs. CSAC and others in the coalition take seriously our responsibilities in safeguarding personal identifying information within our control. And while we do not question the policy objective behind AB 1149, we also believe it is our responsibility to raise the fiscal and operational concerns that would flow from its implementation.
In addition to the time and cost associated with developing and implementing a breach notification protocol so we would be prepared to take the required steps at the time a breach transpires, we anticipate additional costs for staff training.
As we have previously, we also are compelled to raise concerns regarding the feature of the bill that would make local agencies subject to certain provisions of the Information Practices Act of 1977 (IPA). To date, counties, cities, and special districts are expressly exempted from the IPA. We have a concern that – either in practice or in precedent – AB 1149 would be the first step in imposing additional and potentially costly new responsibilities on local agencies at a time when we are challenged to deliver core public services given difficult fiscal conditions.
It is difficult to predict the costs associated with our members’ compliance with AB 1149, if enacted. The fiscal impact would be driven by the size and frequency of security breaches, but could be substantial – certainly if experienced across the thousands of individual entities represented by the associations jointly opposing this measure.
At the August 12 Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, the bill was referred to the committee’s suspense file.