RESTRICTIVE COVENANT MODIFICATION PLAN FOR AB1466

    Unlawful restrictive language can be contained in many documents within our office. As the type of unlawful restrictive language can include discrimination against race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry, familial status, source of income, disability, veteran or military status, or genetic information, it is important to not focus on a specific time period or one type of document. In our early search within our records, we have found unlawful restrictive language in documents such as Restrictions, Leases, Options, and Deeds. To make sure we are doing our due diligence per the law, it is imperative we examine all documents with these titles, and any that may be of the same nature as these documents, and all others that could contain unlawful language.

    Our plan will be in place by July 1, 2022, per the requirements of Government Code 12956.3. Beginning after July 1, 2022, with the implementation of our plan, we will begin the process of examining documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology and manual examination as needed.

•     In order to track the subdivisions, parcels, maps, and/or owner names of each Restrictive Covenant Modification (RCM) prepared, we will create a database to store relevant details. This database will also contain an image of the prepared document, the date it was submitted to County Counsel for review and the last day County Counsel must finish their review. Once we receive the reviewed document back, we will be able to add the information regarding the date it was returned from County Counsel, the decision made by County Counsel, document number if it is recorded, or the date it was returned to submitter (if a member of the public).
•     There are various methods we will utilize to find the documents within our records which contain unlawful discriminatory language. The methods we use will vary depending on where certain documents are located and the age of the records.
  •     Documents were reproduced using handwriting until approximately 1907. There are some handwritten documents that can be found after that time. These records are located within our Digital Reel program. Handwritten documents must be manually examined. However, restrictive language/Restrictive covenants became lawful after the Supreme Court validated their use in 1926. But that does not mean they don’t exist before that time.
  •     After 1907, documents are mostly typewritten. With this change, we can use OCR technology to search for unlawful language in documents. We have a list of commonly used unlawful terms we will be able to search for in Digital Reel. Each record will have to be examined after the words are located to make the decision whether those words are discriminatory or not. Very often the words are descriptive (i.e. Oriental rug, Japanese Vase, Black Oak tree). Those terms can be ignored.
  •     In Tyler our imaged records start at May 24, 1955. To utilize a method of OCR with Tyler, the documents will have to be extracted out of Tyler and we will use Adobe Acrobat to OCR records. The search results will have to be scrutinized similar to those in Digital Reel.
•     Our first stage of discovery will be the typewritten records found in Digital Reel. Each word will be searched separately, and each document looked at separately. We will likely find most of our unlawful restrictive covenants in this phase of our searching. As the documents are identified they can be downloaded and saved to a folder for further scrutiny by a member of the senior staff. Once the final determination is made regarding the document, an RCM will be prepared and transmitted to County Counsel for final review.
•     Stage two will be those documents located within Tyler. As stated above, they will need to be extracted from Tyler and converted to a format that can be used by staff with Adobe reader to locate the unlawful language. Once a document has been identified it will be moved to a folder for further review and processing by senior staff, like the process mentioned above.
•     The final phase of discovery will be the most time consuming. This portion will require manual examination of all handwritten documents that could contain unlawful restrictive language. And much like the above, the document copies will be put into a folder to be processed further by senior staff.
•     In this whole process we will have the assistance of the public and title companies who may also find the unlawful language that requires redaction.