HBA-CMT H.B. 370 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 370
By: Hinojosa
County Affairs
3/18/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently, a number of county records are deteriorating and are in need of
preservation.  House Bill 370 provides for a fee to be imposed for filing
public documents in county clerk offices for the purpose of preserving,
restoring, and managing certain county records.  

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 370 amends the Local Government Code to authorize the
commissioners court of a county to adopt by order in a public meeting a
records archive fee of not more than $5 for the preservation and
restoration services performed by the county clerk in connection with
maintaining a county clerks record archive.  The fee is required to be paid
at the time a person, excluding a state agency, presents a public document
to the county clerk for recording or filing.  The fee is to be deposited in
a separate records archive account in the general fund of the county.  The
bill requires the county clerk to prepare an annual written plan for
funding the preservation and restoration of the county clerk's records
archive, and sets forth provisions regarding approval by the commissioners
court of the plan and the county clerk's compliance with the plan.  The
bill establishes procedures for the posting of notice that a fee has been
established and the form in which the notice is to be written.  The fee is
to be used only for the preservation and restoration of the county clerk's
archive and is prohibited from being used to purchase, lease, or develop
computer software to geographically index public records, but can be used
to index public records by lot and block description on microfilm.  Any
excess funds generated from the collection of a fee remaining after
completion of a county records archive preservation and restoration project
are to be used only for specific records management and preservation
purposes. 

H.B. 370 requires that the records management and preservation fee be
deposited in a separate records management and preservation account in the
general fund of the county.  The bill provides that the fee may be used
only to provide funds for specific records management and preservation,
including automation purposes.  The bill requires the county clerk to
prepare an annual written plan for funding the automation projects and
records management and preservation services performed by the clerk and
sets forth provisions regarding approval by the commissioners court of the
plan and the county clerk's compliance with the plan.    

The provisions of this bill expire on September 1, 2008.

EFFECTIVE DATE
 
September 1, 2001.