Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2003 | 10:58 a.m.
Embattled Clark County Recorder Fran Deane wants the county government to appoint an advisory committee to recommend ways to improve services in her department.
But if that's her answer to the problems at her office she may be incapable of handling the job, one county commissioner said Tuesday.
Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates told Deane "that office has functioned for years. If you can't do it, maybe you need to resign."
During public comment at the Clark County Commission's regular meeting Tuesday, Deane asked for an advisory committee to include people from the real estate industry, members of the recorder's staff, county management and the public. County officials said they would need time to consider the request, which could be decided after a full county audit is completed next month.
Atkinson Gates said the audit would consider staffing and other needs. She also said: "It is not a citizens' committee that is elected to do the job."
"We've implemented our best efforts," Deane said after the meeting. "Clearly, if someone has other ideas, let's find a way to best present them. ... Wouldn't it be prudent to have a task force establish solutions?"
Deane said she would be amenable to waiting until after the six-week audit is completed for the creation of the citizen's committee. The audit is scheduled to begin next week, and is targeted at allegations of performance problems and improper priority given to commercial clients of the recorder's office.
Deane is an elected Clark County official. Her office brings in millions of dollars in fees for the documentation of property; marriage, death and birth certificates; and other official records.
The County Commission and management this spring unsuccessfully asked the Legislature that the administrative job be appointed, rather than elected.
Clark County Manager Thom Reilly said the audit would not only identify deficiencies in the office but would suggest remedies, so a separate task force would duplicate that effort.
Reilly said he would look at Deane's request after the audit, but he suggested the nonbinding recommendations of a citizens' committee might not be enough for the managers.
"She has not shown a willingness to work with other county officials and departments," Reilly said.
Deane said she has attended some of those meetings but has not recently because of family issues.
Scrutiny and criticism of Deane and her office intensified after she acknowledged last month an abortive effort to set up a company that would have sold access to the official documents over the Internet.
That company could have been in competition with a free service, still under construction, that would be built by a Virginia-based company. That company, AmCad, has charged that Deane has obstructed its effort to establish the computerized service.
Deane has said she is concerned about the possible escalating cost of the AmCad service and the company's ability to deliver its product to the public.
The county commission is scheduled to consider the AmCad contract, and a possible extension of that contract's terms, Sept. 16.
Since the AmCad scrape surfaced, county management has expanded its criticism to charge that Deane gives priority service to title companies, which determine the ownership of property, a necessary step in a real estate transaction.
In a five-page letter from the District Attorney's Office to Deane, released by the county Tuesday, District Attorney David Roger told Deane that many of her activities are not, in his opinion, kosher.
Among his conclusions:
"The monthly lunch paid for by a title company may have been instituted for an innocent or worthwhile purpose, but it creates the perception of favoritism," Roger said.
Deane said the lunches were an important way for title companies, which she estimated bring in 75 percent of the documents for her office to process, to work with the recorder's staff. But Deane also said that upon receipt of the opinion, she has immediately halted the catered lunches.
In-person service needs are usually handled the same day. Deane said mailed-in requests usually face a three to five week backlog.
"If this doesn't work," she said, referring to the staff dedicated only to mailed request, "we'll try something else."
She said the beneficiaries of the waiver policy are almost always members of the general public, who often hand-write information on standard forms. Under new Nevada law, those forms need to be completed in "10-point font."
Deane said that most people do not write in 10-point font. She also quoted Roger's letter, which said the law allows the recorder "to waive the fee for minor inconsistencies that do not decrease the quality of the scanned document."
In Deane's letter requesting the citizens' committee to look at her office, the recorder included a two-page defense of the performance of her staff. She blamed many of the problems on her predecessor, former county Recorder Judy Vandever.
Deane also said, as she has in the past, that the volume of service requests has overloaded her staff. But since January, when Deane took office, the "typical turnaround time with this document workflow is three-four weeks instead of nine months."
Mailed-in requests are handled in four to six weeks instead of nine months, Deane said. Both references nine-month references were for the turnaround time under her predecessor, according to Deane.
"I continue to welcome any suggestions of how I can better meet the needs of the public, taking into consideration the lack of staffing, due to the members of the county management position review committee, the tremendous volume of documents that are received daily as well as the physical space constraints of the recorder's office," Deane said in her letter to Reilly.
Her requests are getting a cool response from at least one other Clark County commissioner besides Atkinson Gates.
Commissioner Rory Reid said he received a call late last week from Deane asking him to serve on the committee. He said at this point, it isn't time to form or serve on a committee.
"I've heard a lot of things going on in that office," Reid said. "I have concerns, but I don't know if me serving on this committee is part of the answer."
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