BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 450 N Street, Room 121 Sacramento, California REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT JANUARY 22, 2009 LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE Reported by: Beverly D. Toms No. CSR 1662 1 1 2 P R E S E N T 3 4 For the Committee: Judy Chu Chair 5 Betty T. Yee 6 Member 7 Bill Leonard Member 8 Michelle Steel 9 Member 10 Marcy Jo Mandel Appearing for John 11 Chiang, State Controller (per Government Code 12 Section 7.9) 13 Diane Olson Chief, Board 14 Proceedings Division 15 Board of Equalization Staff: Gil Haas 16 Investgations Division 17 ---oOo--- 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 2 Sacramento, California 3 January 22, 2009 4 ---oOO--- 5 DR. CHU: So, we will call the Leg. Committee 6 into session. And then we have one item left. And 7 let's see, we have a speaker, Hellan Roth Dowden of SEIU 8 Local 1000. 9 MS. DOWDEN: It's on item 5.2. I'm just here 10 to answer any questions. 11 MS. SHEDD: Madam Chair and Members of the 12 Committee, yesterday the committee was recessed and we 13 were discussing item number 5-2, which would add the 14 Board's limited Peace Officers to the list of public 15 employees and officials whose home addresses are granted 16 enhanced confidentiality by the Department of Motor 17 Vehicles. 18 MS. YEE: Madam Chair. 19 DR. CHU: Yes, Ms. Yee. 20 MS. YEE: Pursuant to the discussion yesterday 21 I believe there was some direction back to the staff to 22 look at some steps that could be taken administratively 23 to obviously try to provide whatever added protection 24 security for limited Peace Officers, and I believe Mr. 25 Haas had circulated an e-mail this morning, and I 26 apologize, I didn't print it out, but maybe you can 27 comment on. 28 MR. HAAS: Certainly, Ms. Yee. Gil Haas, 3 1 Investigations Division. We did circulate a few of the 2 different agencies that have law enforcement agents. We 3 contacted some Federal agencies, some local agencies and 4 a couple of our State agencies. All of them currently 5 just use the blocking device, this -- this measure do 6 it. Some of them use some alternatives, but most of 7 them are just they either provide them vehicles or our 8 Federal agency did mention to us that they do have some 9 sort of blocking device for the Google aspect of it. 10 The agent we talked to wasn't so familiar with 11 it. We will have staff take a look at that to determine 12 whether or not there is that capability of doing that. 13 But other than that, basically all that's available to 14 them is the blocking with the license plates, at this 15 time is the only -- what they use to protect their 16 agents. 17 MS. YEE: This was in response to a suggestion 18 Mr. Leonard had had with regard to having the limited 19 Peace Officers utilize their office address -- 20 MR. LEONARD: Correct. 21 MS. YEE: -- as the -- 22 MR. HAAS: We did check into the insurance 23 issue that was -- we did contact three insurance 24 companies. They did come back to us and tell us that 25 would not be an issue with the concern that the rates 26 would go up. They indicated to us the place that you 27 garage the vehicle is where they would assess the rates 28 upon, and that can be different than the billing. They 4 1 would just treat it as a mailing address. 2 MR. LEONARD: And while I remain opposed to new 3 legislation because I don't think we have addressed some 4 of the abuses that it's subject to by a rare, small 5 number of Peace Officers, and I doubt if any of ours 6 would do it, but nevertheless it's an ongoing issue. 7 Even if this Board supports this legislation, I 8 would urge that we've -- we offer to our investigators 9 tomorrow, first of the week, to help them re-register at 10 their business address, if they so choose. If they want 11 to be masked in that fashion. Because it will -- the 12 fastest you're talking about law is a year. 13 So we might as well -- might as well take that 14 step and -- and give them one minor step removed from 15 being at risk by violent and wrongful recipients of 16 investigations. 17 DR. CHU: Well, I certainly support this and I 18 think that this -- this proposal will give the 19 Investigation Division staff piece of mind. 20 So, with that I -- I would make a motion to 21 approve this proposal. 22 MS. MANDEL: Second. 23 DR. CHU: Call for the vote. 24 MS. OLSON: Madam Chair. 25 DR. CHU: Aye. 26 MS. OLSON: Mr. Leonard. 27 MR. LEONARD: No. 28 MS. OLSON: Ms. Steel. 5 1 MS. STEEL: No. 2 MS. OLSON: Ms. Yee. 3 MS. YEE: Aye. 4 MS. OLSON: Ms. Mandel. 5 MS. MANDEL: Aye. 6 MS. OLSON: Motion carries. 7 DR. CHU: And that was a motion by Chu and a 8 second by Mandel. 9 ---oOo--- 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 6 1 REPORTER'SCERTIFICATE 2 3 State of California ) 4 ) ss 5 County of Sacramento ) 6 7 I, BEVERLY D. TOMS, Hearing Reporter for the 8 California State Board of Equalization certify that on 9 January 22, 2009 I recorded verbatim, in shorthand, to 10 the best of my ability, the proceedings in the 11 above-entitled hearing; that I transcribed the shorthand 12 writing into typewriting; and that the preceding 6 pages 13 constitute a complete and accurate transcription of the 14 shorthand writing. 15 16 Dated: March 4, 2009. 17 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 BEVERLY D. TOMS 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 7