Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2003 | 11:22 a.m.
Clark County employees are charging that Recorder Fran Deane has created a hostile work environment and that potentially critical documents are not being recorded.
Deane is facing complaints from county management, the deputy administrator for Deane's office and the union representing the rank-and-file workers in the office.
The issues raised are the latest in a series of problems at the recorder's office or for Deane individually in the last three weeks.
The recording of documents is an often critical step for proving identity through birth certificates, ownership through land titles, even marital status through marriage certificates.
A memo from Assistant County Recorder Dan Hoffman, obtained by the Sun on Monday, is only one of several employee-related issues percolating through an office that is, according to various sources, increasingly troubled and, in some cases, not getting its important job done. The issues raised this week include:
County Manager Thom Reilly said the scope of audit is still being determined.
"We have talked to employees and asked them if they have been subject to a hostile workplace," he said. "We have engaged an internal audit to look at that. County employees can't be subject to illegal actions."
Deane said that issues between the county management and her office spring from the county's efforts to make the recorder position one that is appointed, not elected. But she said she welcomes any audit and asked for a review of the performance of her office.
"I'm looking forward to it," Deane said. "I think it will be my vindication."
Reilly noted that Deane cut off phone access to her office for the general public for more than three weeks in March, but continued regular service to the title companies, which come into the office. And Deane also floated a controversial proposal to set up a company to sell access to recorder's documents, and that arrangement would have been in concert with the title companies.
Reilly said he also has reports from recorder staff that Deane is giving the title companies credits or refunds for fines levied for improperly filed paperwork, a benefit that may not be available to the general public. Reilly said the audit is looking into the charges.
Reilly said one of the biggest issues is that representatives of title companies who appear in person are given preference over people who mailed in documentation. Not everyone can come in and stand in line at the office, the procedure followed by the companies, he said.
"That is the pattern." he said. "Clearly she sees she is beholden to the title companies at the expense of the public. It's not that I don't think the title companies should be served, I just don't think they should get special treatment at the expense of the public.
"Many people can't come to the desk for whatever reason."
Deane has said she ran for her office last year with the support of the title companies. Title and realty companies contributed about half of the $31,000 she raised for her campaign.
Deane said her office must have a close relationship with the title companies because of the importance of their documents. She said the lunches are important to continue a working relationship with the title companies, that the general public and title companies work under the same rules, and that in-person filing at the office takes precedence over mail documents because of short staffing.
"We're recording mail and people, but should I turn people away?" Deane asked. "We constantly are addressing the mail but we are getting six to eight tubs of mail a day. We are unable to address the volume with the current staffing levels.
"We are not delaying, we just don't have the resources. I had to set priorities by, not assumption, but intuition or reason. If a person comes into the office they absolutely have to be serviced."
One company received a refund after it was improperly charged fines for bad paperwork, Deane said.
"That's not a story," she said.
Deane said she has corrected the problem by directing her staff to immediately process any documents received from other county agencies, including the family support division.
"The employees are really concerned," Salm said. "We're considering it a hostile work environment. "We are meeting with employees and deciding what the next step should be."
Salm declined to discuss the specific problems in the office, adding that those issues and the union response have yet to be fully determined.
Deane said her employees appear to be happy and have thanked her for improving the working conditions in the office, which was the center of employee-management disputes under the watch of her predecessor, Judith Vandever.
"I have received nothing but 'keep up the good work' " from employees, Deane said.
Hoffman, who declined comment on the memo to his boss, said in the electronic message that employees are complaining that mail is piling up within the office. He said the documents need to be processed and recorded.
"In fact, several employees under my supervision have complained to me about the 50-plus buckets of unprocessed mail that (are) sitting in the vault," Hoffman said. "As you stated to (Sun columnist) Jon Ralston (during a recent television interview) the county recorder's office has an obligation to promptly process and record all documents presented to this office 'even if they are presented by mail.'
"Because the mail has been sitting in the vault for many weeks ... this office is not fulfilling its obligation to record them in a timely manner."
Hoffman also complained that Deane has stripped him of all "interaction with the employees and my daily responsibility as the assistant county recorder."
"I firmly believe you have created a retaliatory, hostile and and nonproductive working environment by not allowing me to do my job," he said.
Deane said she values Hoffman's contributions to the recorder's office and is trying to work out issues between her and her deputy.
"You have to forgive the sinner," she said. "People make mistakes. ... I'm not out to get him. I promoted him to the assistant recorder position.
"He's proven, in the past, (to be) skilled."
Deane's professional and in some cases personal life has been the subject of close media scrutiny following the revelation that she filed paperwork to create a company that would sell access to recorder's documents to the public. A company with a $4.9 million contract to computerize the same records and provide that information over the Internet for no cost charged that Deane has blocked the installation of new hardware and software needed to complete the process.
The company, Virginia-based AmCad, also charged that since January, documents have not been properly and legally recorded because the recording staff has failed to double-check the documents. That backup check would be performed as part of the computerization process.
Deane said she is concerned about AmCad's demand for more money from the county -- $2.3 million more than the original contract -- and the company's ability to bring documents online. Deane said her alternative, now abandoned, might have profited her personally but would have provided access to the public to the recorder's documents.
Controversy first hit the office in March, when Deane for three weeks blocked incoming calls to her office from the general public. She said at the time that the office staff needed time away from the phones to process thousands of unrecorded documents dating to before she was sworn in last January.
As the issues have unfolded over the last eight months, county management has said the controversies show why the recorder's position should be appointed, not elected.
Reilly said the issues, especially the allegations of problems for employees in the office, are particularly troublesome for county management. While the recorder's employees actually work for the county, they answer to Deane.
"That's the whole challenge," Reilly said. "Our hands are tied and our ability to intervene is limited."
Absent some legal action by the Nevada Ethics Commission, "only the public can remove her" through a recall, he said.
Reilly and lobbyists for the county unsuccessfully worked during the last legislative session to change the state law that requires recorder's to be elected. The union and Reilly agree that the recorder should be hired, not elected.
Both cited an interview Deane gave over the weekend where she said she deliberately disseminated incorrect information about herself to see if the information would leak to the public.
Reilly, who has taught public administration, said it was an unusual way to prove the loyalty of employees.
"That type of strategy is absent from the professional literature."
Deane said only two employees, both with access to confidential information about other office workers, were subjected to her test, and both passed.
She said reports that she consults a psychic were taken out of context.
"That was tongue-in-cheek," Deane said. "I do not consult with a psychic for my day-to-day, office duties.
"I have not gotten a reading from her in years. We're just friends."
Another issue of her driving on a suspended license because of unpaid traffic fines has been settled, she said. The fines are paid and the warrant for her arrest for the traffic citations has been closed, she added.
Deane said despite the issues that have focused attention on her and her office she would not resign.
"No. Hell, no," she said. "There is nothing being revealed that did not come up during the campaign.
"Have I learned from these things? You betcha. I'm a better person because of the trials and tribulations I've been through."
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