Speaker For 9/15/14 - Chris Jacobs, Erie County Clerk

Our  Speaker for 9/15/14 was Chris Jacobs,Erie County Clerk. Jacobs’ has taken a solutions-oriented approach to the Clerk’s Office. He has demonstrated the power of partnership in tackling long term problems plaguing the office. Most notable was his effort to correct the crisis in the Clerk’s Land Records Division-where all real estate transactions are recorded in Erie County. Upon taking Office, he quickly discovered a crisis, resulting in over one hundred thousand critical deed and mortgage documents un-returned to citizens and over $3 million dollars of un-cashed checks languishing in un-opened mail bins. To resolve this crisis, Jacobs’ immediately created a task force to identify short and long term solutions to the crisis. He closed his first year in office with a $2 million dollar surplus.

Some other things he spoke about were;

Veterans benefits provided be Erie County such as an identification card used for store discounts.

County DMV offices and the need to register at local offices to receive part of the fee rather than the NY State office

The ability to close mortgages via the internet rather than having to go downtown.

The cooperation between the clerks office Auto Bureau) with UNYTS.