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Supervisors weigh raising recordation fee to $3 to bolster real-estate fraud work
Summary
The committee heard a proposal to raise the assessor-recorderrecordation fee from $2 to $3 to increase resources for police and the district attorney to investigate and prosecute real-estate fraud; the budget analyst estimated roughly $240,571 in annual revenue and recommended more consistent annual reporting. Supervisors proposed an amendment to allow the controller to match future state fee increases automatically.
The committee considered an ordinance authorizing an increase in the assessor-recorder recordation fee from $2 to $3 per recorded real-estate document, a measure the district attorneys elder-abuse and real-estate fraud unit supports as a way to restore revenue lost to declining recordings while addressing more complex fraud cases.
Alan Kennedy, who introduced the proposal as head of the DAelder abuse and real-estate fraud unit, told the committee the fee change reflects inflation since the fee's original passage and that the number of filings has dropped while fraud has become more complex. Kennedy said the county's arrangement currently directs 40% of the fee to the police department and 60% to the DA's office for investigations and prosecutions.
A budget analyst, Mr. Rose, told the committee the county could expect about $240,571 annually from the $1 increase, slightly lower than the number included in the budget. The analyst also recommended that the DA comply with administrative-code requirements to file the program's annual reports on a timelier basis.
Supervisors asked technical and timing questions, including why the county had not acted when state law opened the possibility earlier. Supervisor Sean Ellsburn proposed an amendment to let the controller automatically adjust the fee if the state raises the cap again; the committee asked the city attorney to draft appropriate language and then continued the item to allow the amendment and finalize vote next week.
Inspector Greg Ovenessian of the Police Economic Crimes Unit described recent complex real-estate fraud investigations and argued the modest per-document increase would provide essential investigative capacity for labor-intensive cases.
