Agenda 08-14-2001 - 8k - Laserfiche WebLink

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i ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: August 14, 2001 Action Agenda Item No. $- -SUBJECT: Request for Change in Register of Deeds Hours of Operation DEPARTMENT: Register of Deeds PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: None Joyce Pearson, ext 2676 TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968-4501 Durham 688-7331 Mebane 336-227-2031 PURPOSE: To consider a request from the Register of Deeds to approve a change in hours of operation of the Orange County Register of Deeds. BACKGROUND: With regard to the operating hours of a county register of deeds office, Chapter 161-8 of the North Carolina General Statutes provides that `The board of county commissioners may fix by order, to be entered on their records, what days of each week, and at what hours of each day the register of deeds shall attend at his office in person or by deputy, and he shall give his attendance accordingly." Currently the Register of Deeds office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, with the cutoff time for registering instruments at 4:45 p.m. The Register of Deeds requests that the Orange County Commissioners change the office hours to 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with the cutoff time for registering instruments at 4:30 p.m. The Register of Deeds office has experienced a steady increase in the volume of documents presented for registration. The customers in the office requesting service take precedence over other tasks and paperwork; however, that work must still be done in order to ensure the timely and accurate registration of all documents. Currently, some work normally done during business hours is accomplished in the very early morning hours and/or after the office closes. This change in policy will provide the opportunity for the Register of Deeds, supervisors, and staff (between 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.) to organize unfinished work, prioritize workflow in effort to ensure that all documents presented for registration on a given day will be recorded by 5:00 p.m. Many days at 4:45 p.m. twenty five to thirty documents are presented for recording and each must be submitted to Land Records for a PIN (parcel identification number) assignment before registering. It is impossible to process all of these documents by 5:00 p.m.