Editorial: Only Deane can repair the damage

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003 | 8:56 a.m.

In campaigning for the job of Clark County Recorder, Fran Deane promised that her priorities would be to serve the public, meet the needs of businesses using the office, end the filing backlogs and forge positive working relationships with other county offices. Nine months after she took office, it's obvious Deane has managed to fulfill just one of those priorities, that of looking after businesses who use her office, mainly title companies. She has given the public a low priority, has alienated herself from other county officials and has presided over filing backlogs that are as bad, if not worse, than ever.

While literally hanging up on the public -- she ordered her staff to stop taking citizens' calls for several weeks earlier this year -- she was planning to personally cash in by setting up a private company that would have charged the public for online access to records maintained by the recorder's office. Meanwhile, she blocked a company the county hired last year to upgrade the office's computer system (one upgrade was free online access for the public) and began enjoying free monthly lunches catered by title companies, to which she gave preferential treatment. These are just a sampling of the problems at the recorder's office under Deane's management.

The problems led us to call for Deane's resignation last month. We favor that course of action over her own suggestion, which was for the county to form a committee to solve all the problems in her office. We were glad Tuesday when the County Commission rejected that notion. A county audit is under way to determine the full scope of problems in the office, and the district attorney has ordered her to stop taking the free lunches and to stop providing preferential service. These are the types of steps necessary to restore the public trust in the recorder's office. Deane, however, could take the best step of all by announcing that she is stepping down. Then the County Commission could appoint a competent person to lead the office, one who wouldn't need a committee to cleanse her ethical and managerial lapses.