Asm. Phil Ting

Existing law requires the application for an original driver's license or renewal of a driver's license to contain specified information, including the applicant's name, age, gender category, mailing address, and residence address. Commencing January 1, 2027, this bill would require the application for an original driver's license or renewal of a driver's license to include a statement that the applicant may also need to change their address for purposes of their vehicle registration. Under existing law, a vehicle that enters into or upon a vehicular crossing immediately becomes liable for any tolls and other charges. Existing law requires an issuing agency, as defined, that permits pay-by-plate toll payment to communicate, as practicable, the pay-by-plate toll amount in the same manner as it communicates other toll payment methods. This bill, with respect to a toll bridge, would require an issuing agency that permits pay-by-plate toll payment or that permits payment by a transponder or other electronic toll payment device to send an invoice by mail for any unpaid toll to the registered vehicle owner. The bill would require the invoice to include a notice to the registered owner that, unless the registered owner pays the toll by the due date shown on the invoice, a toll evasion penalty will be assessed. The bill would require that if the toll charge is not paid within a specified amount of time, the nonpayment would be deemed an evasion of tolls and would require the issuing agency or processing agency to mail a notice of toll evasion violation to the registered owner, as specified. These provisions would become operative on July 1, 2024. This bill would require an issuing agency to allow a driver of a rental vehicle to register the rental vehicle to a transponder or other electronic toll payment device account with the issuing agency prior to traveling on the issuing agency's toll facility, for the purpose of paying all tolls, and would require a rental car agency to provide the customer with written or electronic notice regarding information about how to open an account or acquire a transponder for use of each issuing agency's toll facility. These provisions would become operative on July 1, 2024. This bill would require an issuing agency that operates an electronic toll collection system that permits payment by a transponder or other electronic toll payment device to make the transponder or other electronic toll payment device available for acquisition online, by mail, and in person at retail outlets and at the issuing agency or processing agency office, as specified. The bill would prohibit the price of the transponder or other electronic toll payment device from exceeding the reasonable cost to procure and distribute the device. The bill would require the issuing agency's office to be open to the public during specified hours to allow a person to conduct specified transactions, including acquiring a transponder or other electronic toll payment device or paying a toll invoice. The bill would also require the issuing agency to maintain a customer service telephone line during specified hours. These provisions would become operative on July 1, 2024. Existing law authorizes a person, within the later of 21 days from the issuance of a notice of toll evasion violation or 15 days from the mailing of the notice delinquent toll evasion, to contest the notice of toll evasion violation or notice of delinquent toll evasion. Existing law requires the processing agency to investigate, or to request the issuing agency to investigate, the circumstances of the notice with respect to the contestant's reasons for contesting the toll evasion violation. This bill would extend the applicable number of days from the mailing of the notice of delinquent toll evasion to 30 days, and would specify that the contestant is not required to deposit the outstanding penalty. The bill would require the processing agency or issuing agency, at a minimum, to review the evidence on which the alleged violation was based, as specified. The bill would require the issuing agency to waive toll evasion penalties for a first violation with the issuing agency under designated circumstances. These provisions would become operative on July 1, 2024. Existing law requires a notice of delinquent toll evasion violation to include a notice to the registered owner that renewal of the vehicle registration will be contingent upon compliance with the notice, unless the registered owner pays the penalty within 15 days after mailing of the notice, or takes other specified actions. This bill would revise the notice requirements to apply when the toll evasion penalty has not been paid within 30 days after the notice of delinquent toll evasion violation has been mailed, and makes renewal of the person's vehicle registration contingent on compliance with the notice of delinquent toll evasion violation. The bill would require the department to refuse renewal of a person's vehicle registration if notified electronically by the issuing agency or processing agency that the registered owner has failed to pay the toll, toll evasion penalty, and related fees within the designated time period, or is delinquent under a payment plan for more than 10 business days, as prescribed. This bill would establish maximum toll evasion violation penalty amounts for toll bridge violations and toll highway, toll road, and express lane violations, as prescribed. These provisions would become operative on July 1, 2024. This bill would require an issuing agency to establish a payment plan option, as specified, applicable to all outstanding toll evasion penalties. The bill would require the issuing agency to post information regarding the payment plan policy on its internet website. The bill would require these provisions to be operative on July 1, 2023, for toll bridges. With respect to toll highways, toll roads, and express lanes, the bill would require the provisions to be operative on July 1, 2024. This bill, commencing July 1, 2023, would establish a one-time waiver program for outstanding toll evasion penalties for toll evasion violations on a toll bridge occurring from March 20, 2020 to January 1, 2023, inclusive. The bill would make the waiver program available, upon request, to individuals who meet specified income eligibility criteria and satisfy other requirements, including payment of the total amount of all outstanding tolls subject to the penalty waiver, as specified. The bill would require issuing agencies, processing agencies, or their designees to take specified actions to inform the public about the one-time waiver program, commencing January 1, 2023. This bill would make the waiver program provisions inoperative on September 30, 2024, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2025. By imposing new duties on local government issuing agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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.

Under existing law, when a public offense is committed in part in one jurisdictional territory and in part in another jurisdictional territory, or the acts constituting or requisite to the consummation of the offense occur in 2 or more jurisdictional territories, the jurisdiction for the offense is in any competent court within either jurisdictional territory. This bill would establish the jurisdiction of a criminal action brought by the Attorney General for theft, organized retail theft, or receipt of stolen property as including the county where an offense involving the theft or receipt of the stolen merchandise occurred, the county in which the merchandise was recovered, or the county where any act was done by the defendant in instigating, procuring, promoting, or aiding in the commission of the offense. The bill would also, if multiple offenses of theft or other specified crimes all involving the same defendant or defendants and the same merchandise, or the same defendant or defendants and the same scheme or substantially similar activity, occur in multiple jurisdictions, establish that any of those jurisdictions is a proper jurisdiction for all of the offenses. The bill would extend jurisdiction to all associated offenses connected together in their commission to the underlying theft offenses.

Existing law requires any adult person who is arrested or charged with any felony offense to provide buccal swab samples, right thumbprints, a full palm print impression of each hand, and any blood specimens or other biological samples required for law enforcement identification analysis. Existing law requires that a DNA specimen and sample be destroyed and that a searchable database profile be expunged from that databank program if the person from whom the specimen or sample was collected has no past or present offense or pending charge that qualifies that person for inclusion in the database and if that person submits an application, as specified, and gives the court discretion to grant or deny the application. This bill would create procedures for reference samples of DNA from a victim to a crime or alleged crime, and to reference samples of DNA from any individual that were voluntarily provided for the purpose of exclusion, as defined. The bill would require those procedures to include, among other things, requiring that law enforcement agencies use these samples only for purposes directly related to the incident being investigated, prohibiting law enforcement agencies from comparing these samples with samples that do not relate to the incident being investigated, and prohibiting law enforcement agencies from including these samples in databases that allow the samples to be compared to or matched with profiles derived from DNA evidence obtained from crime scenes. The bill would specify that these provisions do not prevent crime laboratories from collecting, retaining, and using specified DNA profiles for comparison purposes in multiple cases. By imposing additional duties on local law enforcement agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 680 of the Penal Code proposed by SB 916 to be operative only if this bill and SB 916 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Existing law imposes various duties relating to the rules of the road, including, but not limited to, traffic signs, symbols, and markings, and pedestrians' rights and duties. Existing law prohibits pedestrians from entering roadways and crosswalks, except under specified circumstances. Under existing law, a violation of these provisions is an infraction. Existing law establishes procedures for peace officers to make arrests for violations of the Vehicle Code without a warrant for offenses committed in their presence, as specified. This bill would prohibit a peace officer, as defined, from stopping a pedestrian for specified traffic infractions unless a reasonably careful person would realize there is an immediate danger of collision with a moving vehicle or other device moving exclusively by human power. The bill would require the Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol, in consultation with the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, to submit a report to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2028, regarding statewide pedestrian-related traffic crash data and any associated impacts to traffic safety, including an evaluation of whether and how the changes made by this bill have impacted pedestrian safety. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 21456 of the Vehicle Code proposed by AB 1909 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1909 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

Existing law, commencing July 1, 2021, establishes the Office of Youth and Community Restoration in the California Health and Human Services Agency to, among other things, identify policy recommendations for improved outcomes and integrated programs and services to best support delinquent youth and identify and disseminate best practices to help inform rehabilitative and restorative youth practices. Existing law requires the office to have an ombudsperson and specifies the duties of the ombudsperson. Existing law requires the Division of Juvenile Justice to close on June 30, 2023, and provides for the transition of youth who are currently housed within a Division of Juvenile Justice facility to the care and custody of counties. Existing law further requires that, beginning July 1, 2021, counties are generally responsible for all youth adjudged wards of the court. Existing law requires the office to have an ombudsperson who has the authority to investigate complaints from youth, families, staff, and others about harmful conditions or practices, violations of laws and regulations governing facilities, and circumstances presenting an emergency situation, or to refer complaints to another body for investigation. Existing law requires the ombudsperson to notify a complainant of the decision to investigate or refer the complaint. Existing law requires the ombudsperson to publish and provide regular reports to the Legislature about complaints received and subsequent findings and actions taken. This bill would require the ombudsperson to notify the complainant in writing of the intention to investigate or refer the complaint for investigation. The bill would also require the ombudsperson to provide written notice of the final outcome of a complaint. The bill would require data published and provided to the Legislature by the ombudsperson to be disaggregated by gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity of the complainants to the extent this information is available. Existing law establishes the Youth Bill of Rights, which includes the right to live in a safe, healthy, and clean environment conducive to treatment and rehabilitation, to contact attorneys, ombudspersons, and other advocates regarding conditions of confinement or violations of rights, and to receive a quality education. Under existing law, the Youth Bill of Rights applies to youth confined in a facility of the Division of Juvenile Justice in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. This bill would make the Youth Bill of Rights applicable to youth confined in any juvenile facility. The bill would further require, as part of the Youth Bill of Rights, that youth have access to postsecondary academic and career technical education and programs and access to information regarding parental rights, among other things. The bill would require the Office of Youth and Community Restoration, in consultation with other specified parties, to develop standardized information explaining these rights no later than July 1, 2023. Existing law requires facilities under the Division of Juvenile Justice to provide care, placement, and services to youth in their custody without discriminating on the basis of actual or perceived race, ethnic group identification, ancestry, national origin, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, mental or physical disability, or HIV status. Existing law requires the Office of the Ombudspersons of the Division of Juvenile Facilities to investigate complaints related to the care, placement, or services, within juvenile facilities, and compile and make available data regarding these complaints, as specified. The bill would additionally prohibit discrimination against youth on the basis of gender expression or immigration status. The bill would make related and conforming changes and update cross-references to the Office of Youth and Community Restoration. To the extent that this bill would impose a higher level of service on local facilities, it would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would additionally make organizational changes to these provisions. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 2200 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by AB 207 and SB 124 to be operative only if this bill and either AB 207 or SB 124 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.