A debate is emerging over whether Fresno County should charge a $2 real estate documentation fee to fund removing "redlining" covenants from deeds. Illustration by Cynthia Padilla

A California law to correct racist covenants in real estate documents has Fresno County’s recorder at odds with County administration over the cost to delete that language.

At the end of the 2021 legislative session, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1466, which directed racially-restrictive covenants to be removed from ownership deeds and other documents filed with county recorder offices.

It was not uncommon for property covenants to include clauses that prevented certain races from purchasing property. The practice — known as “redlining” — was widespread in the U.S.

One deed restriction discovered on a home built in 1952 in Reedley reads “this property is sold on condition it is not resold to or occupied by the following races: Armenian, Mexican, Japanese, Korean, Syrian, Negros, Filipinos or Chinese.”

Starting with a 1948 Supreme Court decision, courts have made enforcement of the covenants illegal.

AB 1466 requires county recorder offices to create implementation plans to remove such language.

Some county recorders have shared their plans online.

Monterey County’s recorder estimates it will take up to five years to go through the nearly 7 million document images filed between 1850 to 1977. In addition to using staff time and resources, the plan relies on title companies and homebuyers to identify racist covenants in housing contracts.

AB 1466 authorized recorder offices to add a $2 fee to document filings. Those fees would sunset in 2027.

 

Fresno County Assessor-Recorder Paul Dictos says he needs the extra money to fund the labor required to identify and remove the language. The funds generated would depends on the amount of documents filed with his office. In strong economic conditions, Dictos said that could be $500,000-$600,000 per year. In a recession, it could be $100,000.

But he says Fresno County Counsel won’t approve the additional fee.

“Nothing is preventing the Assessor-Recorder from performing the redactions and moving ahead with the process,” a statement from Sonja Dosti, public information officer with Fresno County stated. “It is not a requirement of the program that the County adopt an additional fee.”

Dosti said that it is not the County Counsel who is refusing to approve the proposed fee.

“The ball is in the Assessor-Recorder’s court,” Dosti said. “If he wants the proposed fee, he must bring that forward to the Board of Supervisors for approval.”

Dosti said Napa, Alameda and Calaveras counties have begun the process and not implemented the additional fee. Los Angeles County has implemented the fee, according to their website.

Dictos estimates there could be as many as 6.6 million documents like these filed in Fresno County’s archives. He doesn’t know how much it would cost his office to scour through them.

He said because of immigration to the Central Valley, racist covenants were far more prevalent here than in Northern California.

Dictos’ office has so far identified 150 instances of racist language as part of a preliminary search.

Tara Freitas, Tulare County assessor-recorder, is currently meeting with third-party vendors to complete the redaction work. In a statement, she said her office “always prefers to not increase recording fees when it can be avoided.”

Freitas’ plan would use a combination of her own staff and a vendor.

Dictos said he received one quote from a firm for $350,000 a year, but he would rather “hire local,” meaning using his own staff.