Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2003 | 8:45 a.m.
The mounting administrative and ethical problems emanating from the Clark County Recorder's office all have a common source -- the recorder herself, Fran Deane. After only eight months on the job, Deane has proven that she has an atrocious lack of understanding when it comes to ethical and efficient public service. Many newly elected officials experience a learning curve in their first months, a time in which a mistake or two can be expected. But the nature of Deane's mistakes, the quantity of them, and her frightening refusal to acknowledge them are so far beyond the norm that it's obvious she is not qualified for the job.
The 2003 Legislature failed to approve Clark County's request that the recorder's position be appointed, not elected. Clark County Manager Thom Reilly had sensibly argued that the recorder is an administrator, not a policy maker, and therefore should be appointed. Reilly told the Sun on Tuesday that he would have replaced her by now if he had the authority to do so. By law, Reilly can direct neither Deane nor her staff of 77 county employees in their day-to-day duties. All he can do is provide space and resources and add or subtract employees. The county provided seven new employees earlier this month to help with filing backlogs. Transferring her employees to another department would only exacerbate the problems. His hands are essentially tied when it comes to Deane's managerial flaws.
And the flaws are plentiful. In March, she shut off the office's phones for weeks so she could direct resources away from the bothersome public and toward title companies, which are heavy users of the recorder's office and which had helped finance her campaign. The incident was part of a pattern under Deane's management to provide special access to title companies. Since then her lapses have been legion.
She blockaded a private company that the county had hired a year ago to upgrade the office's computers, an act that may cost taxpayers millions due to the delays. Meanwhile, she was scheming to set up a private company, with herself as a partner, that would have charged taxpayers for providing records, a service that will be free to the public if the private company can ever get on with its work. She filed for incorporation papers and even asked at least one member of her staff to join with her in this venture, an overture that was properly rejected. Only after her business plan came to light did she abandon it. In another outrageous affront to ethics, she is allowing title companies to provide her and her employees with catered lunches every month. She sees no problems with these obvious conflicts of interests, meaning she is not likely to ever understand the role of a public official.
A routine county audit of her office was expanded to investigate credible allegations that title companies are getting preferential services, penalties for misfiling documents are being selectively enforced, that mail is not being efficiently processed, that the office's error rate is excessive and that funds are being mishandled. The district attorney's office, which uses records from her office when investigating cases involving parents who do not pay child support, has complained about poor service.
Employees of the recorder's office are complaining about Deane to their union and the county's Human Resources Department. The assistant recorder has complained in writing about the "50-plus buckets of unprocessed mail" sitting in an office vault. He also has complained about the "retaliatory, hostile and nonproductive working environment" created by Deane. The recorder has admitted that she lies to employees "to test their loyalty." She has isolated herself from other county department heads and elected officials, behavior that has reduced the office's service to the public.
For all of these reasons and more, Deane should resign from her position as Clark County Recorder and let the County Commission, under the law, appoint a qualified person to fill out her term.
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