Domestic violence: marriage license fees.

Existing law requires the collection of fees for issuing marriage licenses and for confidential marriage licenses. Existing law requires the collection of a fee in addition to the basic fee for the issuance of a marriage license and for the issuance of an authorization for the performance of marriages without a license, in the amount of $23. Existing law requires the additional $23 fee to be collected by the county clerk for deposit into county domestic violence shelter-based programs special funds. Existing law requires fees collected in the special funds to be disbursed to approved domestic violence shelter-based programs that meet certain requirements on a yearly or more frequent basis. This bill would authorize a county board of supervisors to authorize an increase of the above-described fee from $23 to $33. Existing law provides that proposed or existing domestic violence shelter-based programs that meet the aforementioned requirements shall receive funding from the county domestic violence shelter-based programs special funds. This bill would, instead, provide that only existing domestic violence shelter-based programs that meet the requirements shall receive funding. Existing law allows specified local jurisdictions to retain fees received at the time of issuance of a marriage license in excess of the $23 fee. This bill would add Sonoma County as a jurisdiction to whom this provision applies. Existing law requires the money in the special funds to be disbursed using a request for qualification (RFQ) process. This bill would require the RFQ process to involve a determination of whether a domestic violence shelter-based program meets the aforementioned requirements. If a domestic violence shelter-based program meets those requirements, the bill would provide that the program has successfully completed the RFQ process. The bill would provide that an RFQ process shall not be construed to mean a competitive bidding process. Existing law authorizes a county to establish a program for reducing the incidence of domestic violence in the county by establishing or funding domestic violence shelter-based programs that meet the aforementioned requirements. Existing law authorizes geographically adjacent counties to combine their respective domestic violence shelter-based programs funds in order to establish one or more domestic violence shelter-based programs, in order to provide services to the clients of each county that combines its funds with another county. This bill would provide that a county may only fund a domestic violence shelter-based program that is located outside of the county if the funding county is funding all domestic violence shelter-based programs located within its borders that meet the aforementioned requirements and the program located outside of the funding county provides services to residents of the funding county.