Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder

So I decided to travel to the Clerk-Recorder's new digs for a two-part purpose. Number 1, I have a client who has a nice judgment against a certain horse-trainer and I wanted to see if anything had changed since I last checked his property (such as new liens being placed, nothing better than just getting in line). Number 2, its new, and from the infomercial I saw on basic cable, it looked nice. I was curious to see the electronic imaging of records, ease of use, ordering, etc.

I thought to myself, what a wonderful facility, finally someone is getting in line with the Technological Boom. Then I saw their fees. Recorder Fees and Clerk Fees.

So "plain" photocopies are $1.00 each? According to the Recorder's published fees, they are. They cite California Government Code section 27366 as their authority. So let's take a look at Gov. Code section 27366 which states, "The fee for any copy of any other record or paper on file in the office of the recorder, when the copy is made by the recorder, shall be set by the board of supervisors in an amount necessary to recover the direct and indirect costs of providing the product or service or the cost of enforcing any regulation for which the fee or charge is levied."

So I decided to check the Contra Costa County Better Government Ordinance since it is one of the Sunshine Ordinances in the Bay Area.

"For documents assembled and copied to the order of the requester, a fee not to exceed 10 cents per page may be charged, plus any postage costs." Contra Costa County Code, Title 2 Administration, Chapter 25-4, section 25-4.610(d).

I decided to ask Stephen L. Weir, Clerk-Recorder for his thoughts and authority to arbitrarily charge $1.00 per plain page copy.

My letter dated July 5, 2007 was faxed and mailed. The facsimile transmission shows it was received without error.

A response dated July 16, 2007 was signed by Barbara Chambers, Assistant County Recorder. Interestingly they attached a copy of my July 5, 2007 letter, yet it was date stamped, "Received July 10, 2007". I guess they ignore the faxed request. The response stated, "I am enclosing a copy of the board order that was done in 1994 pursuant to Government Code 27366 regarding the board setting the copy fees for the Recorder's office."

Does it sound odd that they are relying on a 1994 order? What about OPEN GOVERNMENT. What about the Sunshine Ordinance?

So I decided I need to look into this a bit more. Here is my July 23, 2007 Public Records Act Request to Barbara Chambers.