Open Letter Regarding Union County Register of Deeds' Crystal Crump's Budget Request, FY 05-06
Former Union County Register of Deeds Judy G. Price brings up discrepencies in current Register of Deeds Crystal Crump's budgetary request for Union County, North Carolina
(PRWEB) June 14, 2005 -- Editors note: Judy Price was the Register of Deeds
in Union County, NC from 1992-2004. She was the first elected Republican to the
post.
To Whom It May Concern:
RE: Register of Deeds
Budget
The reasons for requesting three (3) additional employees - one
being bilingual have been misrepresented. This request only tells us that Mrs.
Crump has not done her "homework" in preparing her budget properly and it also
tells us she cannot keep up with the volume of work even though the volume has
declined.
I would like to address several statements she have made
concerning the need for additional employees.
1. Recorded 4,700 documents
a month. FACT: During my term, the office was recording, indexing, scanning, and
mailing back to customers over 5,000 documents a month with a one (1) day turn
around regardless of vacations, sickness, or other emergencies.
2. Cannot
cross train staff - too busy. FACT: Employees in the office were cross-trained.
In order to continue the work process of being current and helping the
customers, staff members were asked to go to other departments in the office to
work when volume was extremely heavy or a staff member was out. Mrs. Crump hired
two former employees, who were also cross-trained, and one new employee. I can
honestly tell you just about every employee including the two Mrs. Crump
re-hired, were cross-trained.
3. Replaced employees -saying she is hiring
experience. FACT: All the employees in the computer room were replaced. These
people, data entry operator who indexed documents for legal research, and
scanner operator, scanned documents for permanent record, produced a one (1) day
turn around in work and returning documents to the customers. Example: Documents
recorded today would be indexed, scanned, and mailed tomorrow. These people were
replaced by so called more "experienced people". these people could not handle
the job before; therefore, when given these positions again, the same results.
The computer room was two weeks behind with these supposed more experienced
employees and they still are not current. The Experienced data entry operator
was the person that Mrs. Crump rehired in December. The scanner was again
transferred from land records to do this job again. Also Mrs. Crump replaced a
recorder with a former employee.
Indexing and scanning
2001 (Under
employee re-hired)
46,974 documents recorded a year, 3,914 a month with a
10-14 day turn around. (Could not handle this light load)
2002 (Under
employee who was replaced)
51,721 documents recorded a year, 4,310 a month
with a 1-2 day turn around.
2003 (Under employee who was
replaced)
63,142 documents recorded 1 year, 5,261 a month with a 1-2 day turn
around.
This information can be furnished upon request by letter from
Logan Systems, the index vendor. No information for 2004 is available. However,
the volume of work was still high.
Today, under employees with supposedly
more experience and Mrs. Crump's management style, they are recording 4,700
documents and return of documents is 1-2 WEEKS behind.
4. They are
constantly killing themselves trying to keep current. FACT: My question is WHY!
Volume of work is less than before and the staff number remains the same as
prior years. I was Register of Deeds during the years when Union County was the
fastest growing county and the work load was phenomenal with recordings,
cancellations of Deeds of Trust with marking cancel on the oriinal legal
documents, vital records, and land records. We cancelled more than 500+ Deeds of
Trust a week along with conducting business as usual. Mrs. Crumps' argument just
doesnt hold water.
5. Need Bilingual staff member. FACT: Mrs. Crump had
the opportunity and made a statement in the paper that she was going to hire
this person when she had three positions that opened in her office. Why did she
not hire a bilingual person then, only now to request one again? How many times
will this request come up?
6. When Mrs. Crump compared Union County to
Cumberland and Buncombe, she failed to state the population. She only gave a
small portion of
the picture. The Register of Deeds office is not solely
comprised of recording but there ae many heavy areas of the office including
vitals records and land records. Cumberland County has a population of 274,566
and Buncombe County just short of 200,000. Why did she not compare us with
counties similar in volume, population, and work? Population is important in the
consideration of activity produced in the Register of Deeds office.
How
did Mrs. Crump know in just THREE (3) short months (December to March) to make
the decision that she needed three (3) extra employees. Please remember she
never worked as an employee in this office. Did she consider the folllowing
important factors?
1. Volume of work decreasing
2. Effects of moratorium
on development as to decrease of volume
3. Interest rates
Would it have
been wiser to see the "future" then request additional personnel as needed. She
would only have to justify the need before the County Manager.
In my
opinion, Mrs. Crump should not be given additional help. Mrs. Crump should do
her job and have the staff do their job because additional staff is unnecessary,
and a waste of taxpayers money. In her campaign speeches, she spoke on making
the office run more efficient, but the truth is, this office has become less
efficient and by adding three additional employees, it will make it even more
inefficient and costly to the citizens of Union County.
I would like to
ask, in all fairness to the citizens, the board of commissioners vote no to this
budget request. Please realize those three additional salaries with a minimum
salary of $24,000 plus benefits means over $150,000 in the budget; therefore,
increasing the need to raise taxes even more in the county. What is going to
happen when the work load keeps decreasing and we still have to pay the
additional tax through unnecessary excessive salaries? Will Mrs. Crump fire all
of these campaign volunteers turned employees of the county?
It is not
our problem to fund additonal help in this office so that Mrs. Crump can fulfill
her promises of giving jobs to people that worked on her campaign. It was her
decision to remove the experienced pople who could would work hard in the office
and also take pride in a job well done.
My questions to you are: Do we
want to be like other counties in NC which are over-staffed? Do we want a
Register of Deeds office with values, doing the duties efficiently, effectively,
not wasting money, or padding payroll?
I have called many Register of
Deeds offfice, surveying population, similar factors, and staffing (including
the Register of Deeds). Here
is my survey:
Cleveland
Over
100,000
8
staff members
Catawba
149,000
11 staff
members
Cabarrus
Between 147,000 - 150,000
11 staff
members
Onslow
153,118
7 staff
members
Randolph
129,000
8
staff members
Union
150,000
11 staff members
As
you can see, Union County is well staffed as it is.
Respectfull
submitted,
Judy G. Price
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb250884.htm