Hosted by the Gilpin County Treasurer/Public Trustee

Gilpin County Court House

CENTRAL CITY, COLORADO

Meeting Minutes

Jack Arrowsmith, Chairman, opened the meeting. Welcome and thanks were given to our host, Alynn Huffman, Gilpin County Treasurer/Public Trustee.

Committee members present were:

Jim Wills – Boulder County Chief Deputy
Jack Arrowsmith – Douglas County Public Trustee
Marilyn Bullard – Douglas County Chief Deputy
Alynn Huffman – Gilpin County PublicTrustee/Treasurer
Larry Castle – CEO Castle Law Firm

Those not present were:

Sandy Hume – Boulder County Public Trustee
Wayne Vaden – Denver County Clerk & Recorder/Public Trustee
Anita Dubas, Denver County Deputy Public Trustee
Angela Dazlich – Larimer County Public Trustee
Roxy Huber, City and County of Broomfield Revenue Manager/Public Trustee
Michelle Miller, Park County Treasurer/Public Trustee
Ginger Dyer, Security Title, Bailey, Colorado

Overview of electronic releases by Jack Arrowsmith:

Jack Arrowsmith distributed a hand out on the release process designed by Jeff Wille from Kuvera. He went over how it will work with the electronic recording of releases. Kuvera will first download the deeds of trust from the clerk & recorder’s database so that this information will be available when releases are submitted for processing electronically. Kuvera will continue this download process until there is a web-based interface available. Douglas County’s IT Department is in the process of developing such a web-based interface, which will make it possible to go directly to the Clerk and Recorder’s data base live to access deeds of trust. Boulder County will have their documents stored in a secure place with Kuvera.

Kuvera estimates the cost for the download and training at $4,000. The charge will then be to the banks at $1.00 to $5.00 per document for submitting releases through Kuvera. If there are submitters that cannot work with Kuvera, Douglas County will consider absorbing the fee, if it is reasonable, probably no more than $2.00 per document.

It was decided that this piece would be presented at the conference in Broomfield.

Review of the 2004 legislation by Jack Arrowsmith:

Handouts were supplied of the Senate and House Bills that are of interest to the Public Trustees.

Senate Bill 219, which was signed on 05/27/04, allows the entire $1 surcharge the Clerk and Recorder’s collect to be kept by the county, the Secretary Of State will no longer get 50 cents. This takes effect on July 1, 2004.

House Bill 1300, which was signed on 05/28/04, allows Public Trustee’s the option of no longer notarizing documents and sets the stage for notarizing documents in the private sector.

Status Secretary Of State eRecording by Jim Wills:

Handouts were provided for all present.

There is currently $1,958,14.54 in the Secretary of State fund for eRecording and there is authorization to spend $1.5 of this fund. Funds are granted to the Clerk & Recorders and not directly to the Public Trustees. The Clerk & Recorders need to realize how important it is to work with the Public Trustees & Treasurers in this area. Jim thinks that Public Trustees should be well represented at the Clerk & Recorders’ meeting (June 9th) to show the Clerks the Public Trustees eagerness to work with them.

The Public Trustees need to register signatures with the Secretary Of State for signing documents that will not be notarized. This is a fairly inexpensive process. For a Level 2 document, we will be registering our actual signature; with Level 3 documents there will be #’s or symbols that will represent the signature. The Public Trustee’s Seal will have the same # as the signature. Each signature will have a separate number for the Public Trustees and each deputy. There will be two separate items on a Level 2 document and only one item for Level 3 documents. Electronic symbols & #’s will be used for Level 3 documents only. These documents won’t exist in a paper form.

Recommendations on release forms by Alynn Huffman:

Alynn had copies of Release forms available as handouts.

Alynn presented some of her ideas for the standard release forms.

Larry Castle suggested that statutory changes would probably have to be mandated on the release forms. It was suggested that we have check boxes to determine what type of release it is and for the type of entity doing the release. The Public Trustee Association has a Forms Committee, and the consensus was to contact the chairman of that committee and/or bring this up at the conference in Broomfield. Larry Castle asked if we could expand the institutions that are allowed to use the indemnification forms, i.e. Insurance companies. We talked about MERS and what we do when they are on the deed of trust. Larry will have Caren Castle send us updated information on this. There was agreement that check boxes would be an easier way to go, but, there may have to be statutory changes made before we can implement any of these changes on the release forms. It was stated that the Public Trustee’s could determine the type of form to be used. There needs to be a standardized form that will work for 80% of the releases that are handled either electronically or in paper form.

This committee will continue to work on the forms and present our recommendation to the Public Trustee Association Conference and the Forms Committee. It was agreed that this should be a single page, standard form. Within the next two weeks, Wayne Vaden, Larry Castle, and Alynn Huffman, will come up with the suggested form and present it at the conference in Broomfield. It was suggested that we have a form for Title Companies and another form for other types of institutions. We can also obtain a list of Title Insurance Companies that are authorized to indemnify Public Trustees.

The question came up as to whether Release Forms can be provided free on our Public Trustee websites? Legal questions need to be resolved. Could we charge for the forms, which would give the association another avenue of revenue? There are some issues that have to be resolved to answer these questions.

Update on the Counties almost ready to accept releases electronically:

Within 30 to 60 days Boulder County and Douglas County will be receiving electronic releases.

Legislation for foreclosures presented by Larry Castle:

Larry supplied handouts of the statutes for all present.

Larry pointed out that there are many inconsistencies in the foreclosure statutes. Also, there are many inconsistencies as to what each Public Trustee considers and will accept as an original document. 99% consider a blue signature on the document as the original document. For filing the Rule 120 forms with the courts, they are scanned in and sent over. This scanned document is considered to be a duplicate original. Larry said that Level 2 electronic foreclosure filings could be done right now by e-mail. Notices of Election and Demand could be sent electronically directly to the PT, who in turn sends it on to the Clerk and Recorder for recording and the recorded document would immediately be returned to the PT and the attorney’s office, where it could be printed and filed in a paper file if necessary. Notice of Sales could be e-mailed to the Public Trustees and they in turn could be e-mailed to the publisher. Bids could also be e-mailed. There was much discussion about the newspapers Public Trustees can use, the cost, and who the cost is going to affect the most. Electronic publications would be more accurate.

It was agreed that there needs to be education provided to the Public Trustee Association as to what is an original, authentic, or duplicate original document. Significant changes in the statutes need to be made in order to move into electronic foreclosure processing.

Electronic bidding on foreclosures was also discussed. Larry Castle thinks having this available would be beneficial for the homeowner and lender as well. There will need to be a lot of changes in the thinking by all Public Trustees and Treasurers before this process could be considered. Kuvera may be whom we need to approach about the bidding process as well as the foreclosure process. There may be other companies that could also provide this service.

This Committee needs to talk to the Public Trustee Association about statute changes that need to be made during the next legislative session. There are things that can improve the process without favoring any one party. We need to work, this summer, on the changes that will align us toward electronic foreclosures so we can move forward toward legislation.

It was decided that Rich Krohn needs to be included and consulted about all of these proposed statute changes for both foreclosures and releases. Larry Castle volunteered to help work on these issues.

At the Broomfield Conference, June 24, 2004, this committee will make a recommendation to the Association that they maintain this eBusiness Committee with the same members, and, we can now become a task force for moving forward with electronic releases and foreclosures. We are ready to take the step toward the electronic foreclosure process. Jack Arrowsmith is willing to stay on the committee, but is ready to retire from the chairmanship and he will contact the Association Leadership to recommend a replacement. It was decided that it should be someone that is already on the committee. We want the momentum to continue with this committee. It was noted that new Association President will make the decision as to whether to keep this committee and who should sit on it.

For the Broomfield Conference, it was decided that Jack Arrowsmith will do a 5-minute presentation on electronic releases and 5 minutes on legislative updates; Jim Wills will do a 5-minute presentation update on the Secretary of State issues; Alynn Huffman will do a 5-minute presentation on the Release forms; and, Larry Castle will do a 5 to 10 minute presentation on changes needed to move ahead with electronic foreclosures.

Our next meeting will be in Broomfield at the conference.

Respectfully submitted,

Marilyn Bullard, Recorder (Secretary)