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In This Memo: • County Leaders Prepare for NYSAC Conference • County's Records Management Improves Efficiencies & Reduces Costs • Help Support 4-H |
MAYVILLE, NY --
County Leaders Prepare for NYSAC Conference
Monday, Tuesday, and part of Wednesday, I will be in Albany with the largest gathering of County Leaders ever assembled at the New York State Association of Counties' 2012 Legislative Conference.
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Over 800 County leaders, County Executives, Board of Supervisors, Legislators, and County Managers will engage in over 18 separate sessions that offer multiple workshops to review, discuss, inform, and develop the means to deal with issues affecting all counties across our State.
A few examples of the matters that I will be involved in are the NYSAC Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Future of Farming, Native American Affairs, Legislative initiatives for NYSAC member counties, and New York's Health Insurance Exchange.
Bill Daly, Director of Chautauqua County Planning and Economic Development, will also be in Albany at the NYSAC Conference as he was asked to be the moderator for the session on the formation of Land Banks to improve development opportunities.
NYSAC has proven to be the most effective and instrumental group not only representing the interests of New York Counties in the Albany and Washington D.C. arena, but also the best avenue for the exchange of ideas and successful efforts by individual Counties to all 62 of the Counties in NYS through one to one communication by leaders to leaders.
As has been my practice, I will be sharing with my Department leaders the information and results of the efforts of NYSAC at this conference. I will also use the Monday Morning Memo to share some of those ideas and opportunities with all of you who are interested in helping me and other leaders across the State move forward with our important initiatives to improve the quality of life in the Empire State.
County's Records Management Improves Efficiencies & Reduces Costs
One of the County Clerk's responsibilities is to keep historical, legal, and fiscal records for our County and to make them available upon request to the public and county staff.
Last year, Sandy Sopak continued to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and bring the County Clerk's Office from the 19th to the 21st Century. Under the clerk's direction, the Records Management Department began working with County Departments to digitize important records.
Digital records, or records available by computer, are much more efficient than paper files as they can be viewed by several people simultaneously, are inexpensive to store, can be accessed immediately from a computer, reduce staff time spent retrieving and refilling, and eliminate the need for file cabinets, folders, and shelving.
The Records Department was able to implement several successful digitalization projects for the Finance Department, Real Property Tax Department, Human Resources, Mental Hygiene, District Attorney, and the Sheriff that reduce paper usage and storage, improve staff efficiencies, and save money.
For example, the Finance Department usually has 20 boxes of payroll registers they produce each year, which are required to be stored for 55 years. By moving to a paperless payroll register, it eliminated the printing of voluminous registers which generally cost $11 per a box to store for one year.
Through grant funds, the Real Property Tax Department had its tax assessment rolls, which require permanent filing, to be microfilmed. As a result, over 2 million pages of tax rolls were digitized, which eliminated 500 cubic feet of paper stored in the archives. This saves them $5,500 annually in storage fees and allows the tax department staff to access the assessment records without having to leave their office.
Also digitized last year were 230 boxes of permanent employee payroll files, 27,000 Human Resources personnel cards, 150 cubic feet of Mental Hygiene files, 150 cubic feet of chemical dependency files, 40 cubic feet of SPOA files (Mental Health), 170 cubic feet of District Attorney files, 80,000 reference cards for the District Attorney files, and 250 cubic feet of permanent jail records.
Grant funds were also acquired to digitalize 2.3 million pages of court records and 50 years of land records. These records were uploaded to a new web-based software system that is accessible from anywhere in the world and allows individuals to look for a deed or mortgage without leaving their home or office. For a one-time user fee of $15, residents can have 30 minutes of looking over records and printing what they need. Individuals, who use the system a lot, can also subscribe for $100 per a month.
The elimination of these paper files has also enabled the County Clerk to recycle file boxes, folders and binders by offering them to other county departments at no cost and by storing files in a new way she was able to convert a former file room into an office space that is now rented out to an abstract company.
This is just one more way that Chautauqua County is working to cut costs, reduce taxes, and improve efficiencies in the delivery of services to our residents.
Help Support 4-H
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Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County's 4-H Program will be holding a "Have a Heart for 4-H Dinner" on February 19, 2012 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Falcons Nest Banquet Hall on 2001 E. Main St. in Falconer.
The buffet dinner will benefit the 4-H youth development program, which serves over 500 youth with the assistance of over 150 volunteers. 4-H is a fun, high quality and researched- based educational program that has an enormous impact on our County's youth as they learn to develop life skills and contribute to the betterment of their community.
This year, the 4-H program is no longer receiving funds from the Chautauqua County Government so members and volunteers are working harder than ever to reach out to county residents to help their program continue.
Participants will enjoy a meal by 3 C's Catering, music by Dan Warren of Media One Broadcasting, and have the opportunity to win prizes.
Pre-sale tickets will be on sale until February 6, 2012. Tickets are $15 for an adult, $8 for children 12 years old and under, and free for children 2 years old and under. After February 6th, adult tickets can be purchased for $18 and children tickets for $12. Tickets can be purchased in Jamestown at the 4-H Office on 3542 Turner Rd. and at the Lakeview Gardens on 1259 N. Main St. Tickets will also be available at the door.
Takeout dinners are also available and the purchase of a dinner ticket is not necessary to get in and participate in the raffle.
Chautauqua County 4-H is also accepting monetary, food, and raffle item donations. For more information or to find out more ways you can help, contact the 4-H Office at 664-9502 ext. 214.
