Thursday, April 2, 1998 | 9:54 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Without fanfare, the long-promised, money-back guarantee program has been started by Secretary of State Dean Heller who is pledging quick service for the public.
Two weeks ago, Heller sent letters to lawyers, resident agents and others stating that his office would perform certain jobs within 10 days or they would not have to pay the fees.
"This is the only government agency in America that provides a money-back guarantee," Heller said. "I've heard of some others, such as in Georgia, that make guarantees, but they don't offer money back."
The office handles a tremendous amount of paperwork processing more than 500,000 transactions a year in corporations, limited partnerships, the uniform commercial code, trademarks and limited liability companies.
A six-month pilot project, money back will be offered on filing of corporations, registering of brokers to sell securities and verifying signatures for notaries public. The guarantee is that a document will be processed within 10 days from the time it is received in the secretary's office until it is sent back.
It's a modest approach. At present, new incorporations are processed in five days, broker registrations in three days and signature verifications in three to five days. In October, it took up to 18 days to process a request to incorporate a business in Nevada.
Heller wanted to start the money-back guarantee in 1996 but was told by the state attorney general's office it may not be legal to return taxpayer money if the service is not performed by the deadline. The 1997 Legislature changed the law to allow the guarantee.
In late 1997, the office was in turmoil because there were complaints from customers that the service had deteriorated. Heller called it an "aberration" that occurred during an overhaul of the office.
Elizabeth Brogan, one of Heller's harshest critics last year, said the office's service has "improved immensely," adding the number of mistakes have dropped and when they do occur, they are "corrected immediately and cheerfully."
"And the staff morale appears to be good," said Brogan, president of State Agent and Transfer Syndicate Inc., which has dealt with the office for more than 16 years.
A large part of the credit, she said, goes to Scott Anderson who took over the commercial recordings division, replacing Mike Lee, who was highly criticized by the staff.
To help speed up the system, the Legislative Interim Finance Committee allowed Heller to hire five more workers earlier this year. He said they have been trained as floaters who are able to jump into any job in the office when the need arises.
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