BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 679| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 679 Author: Travis Allen (R) Amended: 8/18/15 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE GOVERNANCE & FIN. COMMITTEE: 7-0, 7/8/15 AYES: Hertzberg, Nguyen, Beall, Hernandez, Lara, Moorlach, Pavley SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8 ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 52-14, 6/1/15 - See last page for vote SUBJECT: Documents: recordation SOURCE: Author DIGEST: This bill requires a county recorder, upon recording any instrument, paper, or notice as authorized by law, to endorse upon the instrument the number of pages. ANALYSIS: Existing law: 1)Requires county recorders (or, in some counties, clerk-recorders) to accept and record certain documents and archive them for public access upon payment of proper fees and taxes. AB 679 Page 2 2)Requires county recorders to indicate, on each document they receive for recordation, the year, month, day, hour and minute of its reception and the amount of fees for recording and the name of the person at whose request it is recorded. This bill: 1)Deletes the requirement that the recorder endorse the name of the person at whose request an instrument is recorded. 2)Requires a county recorder, upon recording any instrument, paper, or notice as authorized by law, to endorse upon the instrument the number of pages in addition to the year, month, day, hour and minute it was received. Background Sometimes, pages of recorded documents become lost. When it is unclear how many pages were originally in a recorded document, lost pages can result in lengthy and expensive court processes to restore the document to its original status, or to obtain new copies. To avoid this scenario, some county clerks' offices, such as San Diego County's, indicate not only when they received each document, but also its total number of pages, by affixing a label with this information to the front of the document. To save consumers and taxpayers time and money, the author of AB 679 asserts that state law should be changed to require all county clerks to indicate "the number of pages to be recorded" on each document they receive, in addition to the year, month, AB 679 Page 3 day, hour and minute it was received. Comments 1)Purpose of the bill. AB 679 will make it easier for individuals who are submitting documents to be recorded by the county, to ensure all pages of a given document are present, thereby reducing the incidence of lengthy and expensive court procedures to restore or verify recorded documents. Endorsing a document's total number of pages up front, rather than after a discrepancy arises, will also reduce the administrative burden and cost of verifying recorded documents and making copies. 2)What's new? Existing law permits county clerks to note the number of pages in recorded documents and at least some county clerks are already doing so. Many county clerks also charge by the page and therefore have to count the number of pages they record as a practical matter. It is unclear why a change to state law is necessary, if counties already can reflect the page numbers in recorded documents in the manner suggested by this bill if they so choose. 3)Mandate. The Legislative Counsel's Office says that because this bill imposes new duties upon the county recorder, this bill imposes a state-mandated local program. But, this bill disclaims the state's responsibility for reimbursing counties for compliance with AB 679; this disclaimer is consistent with the California Constitution, which provides that the state does not have to reimburse local governments where local agencies or school districts have the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program mandated by the law (Article XIIIB). FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:YesLocal: Yes SUPPORT: (Verified9/4/15) AB 679 Page 4 None received OPPOSITION: (Verified9/4/15) None received ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 52-14, 6/1/15 AYES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Calderon, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Dababneh, Dahle, Beth Gaines, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Kim, Lackey, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Melendez, Mullin, Obernolte, Olsen, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Thurmond, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins NOES: Alejo, Cooley, Cooper, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Levine, Medina, Mark Stone, Ting, Weber NO VOTE RECORDED: Bonilla, Burke, Campos, Daly, Gallagher, Gipson, Gordon, Jones-Sawyer, Mayes, McCarty, Nazarian, O'Donnell, Rendon, Rodriguez Prepared by:Toren Lewis / GOV. & F. / (916) 651-4119 9/4/15 17:25:08 **** END ****