BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 279
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 279 (Emmerson)
As Introduced February 14, 2011
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :34-0
JUDICIARY 10-0
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|Ayes:|Feuer, Wagner, Atkins, | | |
| |Dickinson, Beth Gaines, | | |
| |Huber, Huffman, Jones, | | |
| |Monning, Wieckowski | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Corrects a drafting error in earlier legislation by
replacing references to "county" with "judicial districts" thus
requiring all advertising of lien sales by self-storage
facilities to be advertised in newspapers of general circulation
in the judicial district of a sale and not the county. This
corrects an error in AB 655 (Emmerson), Chapter 439, Statutes of
2010, which switched "judicial districts" with "county" during
the floor amendment process.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : This technical clean-up bill seeks to replace two
references to "county" in the California Self-Service Storage
Facility Act with "judicial districts" according to the author:
The California Self-Service Storage Facility Act has been
the self-storage industry's primary remedy for dealing with
occupants who are delinquent in paying their rent. Under
current law, if an owner of a public storage facility
enforces a lien on the occupant's property, the owner is
required to provide public notice to the community of an
upcoming lien sale. Existing law requires the owner to
advertise for two weeks in any newspaper of general
circulation that is published in the county where the sale
is to be held.
SB 279 is a clean-up measure to AB 655 (Emmerson, Chapter
SB 279
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439) that would correct this provision and require that a
lien sale be advertised in a newspaper of general
circulation in the judicial district where the sale is
held. When the Legislature consolidated the courts in the
early 1990s, it kept judicial districts in place for the
sole purpose of maintaining the system of providing public
notice in a local newspaper of general circulation. As
part of the consolidation package, Government Code Section
71042.5 was amended to specify that judicial districts
would still apply to public notice requirements.
Last year, when AB 655 was initially introduced it sought to
substitute the requirement to publish notice of lien sales (by
self-service storage facilities) with an obligation to advertise
the sale in a commercially reasonable manner. The California
Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) opposed the change,
claiming newspaper advertisements were the best means of
informing the entire community of an impending lien sale. The
bill was amended on the Senate Floor to reinsert the newspaper
publication requirement. That amendment erroneously changed the
then existing standard, publish notice within the judicial
district of the sale, to require notice be published in the
county of the sale.
The CNPA is now sponsoring this bill to return the geographic
requirements for publishing notices of lien sales to the
historic judicial district standard. The CNPA notes, "notices
are only effective if they reach the intended audience, which in
this case are the people who live in the community where the
sale is to take place and where the personal property is
located. To be effective, public notices publicizing an event
must be published in newspapers that are adjudicated and
circulated in communities that are affected by the event.
Allowing advertisers to publish notices in any newspaper in the
county would produce absurd results." By returning the
publication standard to its historic judicial district
requirement the published notice can best reach the local
community members with an interest in the sale.
The CNPA claims that by leaving "county" in the notice
requirement the potential for malfeasance can occur. For
example the CNPA notes, "a storage facility in Chino could
advertise lien sales in Barstow, a storage facility in the city
of San Bernardino, in Needles. In Los Angeles County, a storage
SB 279
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facility in Santa Monica could notice lien sales in a newspaper
in Claremont; a facility in Santa Clarita could advertise in
Long Beach." This would prevent the information of the sale
from ever reaching the target local audience the law intended
and thus undercut the public notice requirement. By reverting
back to the "judicial district" boundary for notice, the code
language will once again be consistent with its historic intent
of providing notice to the local communities with the greatest
interest in the pending sale.
Analysis Prepared by : Drew Liebert and Nicholas Liedtke / JUD.
/ (916) 319-2334
FN: 0001270