Dueling Bills Focus on Auto Auction Rules

A local controversy may prevent a head-on collision between two opposing legislative proposals for regulating public auto auctions in the state.

Auctions are a popular alternative to traditional lots for buying used cars, but California regulators have criticized them, citing hundreds of complaints from buyers about defective vehicles, missing titles and oversized fees.

This spring, state Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Daly City) introduced a bill to regulate auctions like car dealerships, holding them liable for their cars’ condition, smog compliance and title and registration paperwork.

Assemblyman Lou Papan (D-Millbrae) introduced a competing measure that would regulate auto auctions like other types of bid-offs, freeing them from many responsibilities to consumers imposed by the Speier bill.

Papan’s bill--supported by Industry-based Nationwide Auction Systems, the state’s biggest auction business--survived multiple committees and two floor votes, but late last month, he moved it to the inactive file.

Why the switch?

Consumer advocates proclaimed the Assembly bill dead, ascribing its disappearance to a flap involving Nationwide’s owner, Donald G. Haidl of Newport Beach. Allegations have surfaced that Haidl got his post as a volunteer Orange County assistant sheriff by raising money for Sheriff Mike Carona’s election campaign.

Haidl and Carona have denied there was a quid pro quo, but the whiff of scandal has soured support for the bill, consumer advocates said.

Papan, however, said on Monday that reports of his bill’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Only an overloaded legislative agenda forced him to back-burner the auction bill, he said.

“This is alive,” he said. “Auctioneers and car salespeople are two different breeds.”

Speier’s bill has received Senate approval and is now being heard in the Assembly.