BILL ANALYSIS
AB 827
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 827 (Yamada)
As Amended May 6, 2009
Majority vote
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 5-2
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|Ayes:|Caballero, Arambula, | | |
| |Davis, Krekorian, Skinner | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Knight, Duvall | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Authorizes a county board of supervisors to impose a
fee, not to exceed estimated reasonable costs as well as not to
exceed $3 for the first page and $1 for any subsequent page, for
the archiving of historical county records, including, but not
limited to, records pertaining to real property, local agency
meetings and actions, roads and other public works, and other
records of general public or historical interest.
EXISTING LAW establishes a fee for recording documents with the
county recorder at $4 for the first page and $3 for each
additional page. From those fees, $1 from each page is required
to be available solely to support, maintain, improve, and
provide for the operation of a modernized creation, retention,
and retrieval of all recorded documents filed with the county.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : The author states that local governments are required
to permanently preserve specific documents, such as
property-related documents. County employees and the public
frequently handle the documents, which damages them. The author
says that Yolo County, for example, does not have a stable
source of funding to ensure these legal archives are properly
preserved because it ranks second to last among the 58 state
counties in property tax retention and has limited sales tax
revenue streams.
The author states that archives have special storage needs that
AB 827
Page 2
require heating, ventilation, and cooling systems that control
temperature and humidity. Archives also need appropriate
storage containers. The author states that Yolo County's
archives have rapidly deteriorated due to improper environmental
conditions and few well-trained archival staff.
This bill would provide a revenue source for the archival of
county documents, including property-related documents. The
fees assessed on all documents that are housed in the county
archives would directly offset the costs associated with the
housing of the documents and the training of staff on how to
properly handle and store the documents. Ultimately, county
agencies that are using the archives for the storage of their
documents would be the ones assessed the fee.
Analysis Prepared by : Jennifer R. Klein / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958
FN: 0000753