Recorder Calls for Slashing Fees

SANTA ANA —  Most bureaucrats plead for more money in tight financial times.

But Gary L. Granville, the county’s clerk and recorder, is proposing just the opposite: He wants the county to cut basic recording fees almost in half because his department doesn’t need the money.

For 13 years, each time someone paid to record a document, a portion has gone for so-called enhancement fees, money set aside to pay for upgrading the office’s equipment and technology. The collection--currently $3 of the $7 recording fee--was authorized by the Legislature in 1984.

The county fund has grown to a healthy $10.3 million. That’s more than enough to complete the office’s modernization plan, Granville said, including converting all document retrieval to CD-ROM computer disks and a state-of-the-art imaging system.

He’s asked the Board of Supervisors to end the enhancement fees when the board meets June 17.

“I think this is a good-government principle, to not collect money that isn’t going to be used,” Granville said. “It’s dangerous for any government to leave little pockets of money from the citizens just sitting there. We’ll still be collecting about $500,000 a year to pay for maintenance contracts on our technology and other enhancements. We really have what we need.”

Bill Ward, a member of the Committees of Correspondence, a watchdog group that emerged after the county bankruptcy, said Granville should be applauded.

“The idea of giving the money back is so foreign to the concept of government,” Ward said. “I think the guy ought to get a medal. It may not be a lot of money, but it’s the principle of the thing.”

Board of Supervisors Chairman William G. Steiner said cutting costs is not such a novel move, noting that supervisors recently dropped fees for dumping trash in county landfills by 18%.

“The good news is that these [fees] are heading in the right direction,” Steiner said.

The fee drop is not Granville’s only cost-cutting idea. A more controversial plan he’s submitted for board approval calls for studying the cost savings of combining his office with the assessor’s office, a move he said could save as much as $700,000 a year.

Granville first proposed the idea in late 1995 but it languished as county officials grappled with the bankruptcy. Reviving the merger now would allow candidates to run for the new position of clerk-recorder-assessor in June 1998.

“There’s a lot of duplication of work between the two offices,” Granville said. “We can reduce $330,000 from this office with the combination immediately. The positions are empty now and I’m willing to forfeit them. But if we have to operate separately, I can’t do that.”

If successful, the department merger would be the second for Granville, a newspaper reporter and editor before being elected clerk in 1986.

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In 1994, supervisors approved combining Granville’s clerk functions with those of Recorder Lee Branch. Branch had been censured by the board earlier that year for mismanagement and sexual harassment. He was a candidate for the combined office but voters chose Granville.

Jacobs, the assessor since 1974, has been under fire by supervisors in recent years for his handling of ballooning property tax appeals. In late April, supervisors chastised Jacobs for refusing to apply for state grants of up to $14 million to help relieve the appeals backlog.

Jacobs didn’t return a call for comment. Granville said he tried to discuss a feasibility study on the merger with Jacobs, who hasn’t returned his calls.

Steiner, a frequent critic of Jacobs, said he supports a future merger of the offices.

“Gary Granville showed what he could do when the clerk-recorder merged and I would imagine he would achieve a great deal if the assessor were under his responsibility,” Steiner said.

The clerk-recorder’s office employs 103 people, down from 134 workers when the office was combined. Its budget is $10 million, though the office contributes about $4.5 million from fees to the general fund each year. The recorder’s office processes documents such as birth and death certificates, marriage licenses and business forms; the clerk’s office handles clerical duties for the court system.

The assessor’s office has 308 employees and a budget of $17 million. Of that, about $3 million is paid by fees and the rest comes from the general fund. The office handles property appraisals and sets assessments.