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By DAWN SHURMATIS Times Leader Correspondent
Sunday, October 05, 2003 Page: 3A
ELECTION 2003: RECORDER OF DEEDS WILKES-BARRE – The name is an anomaly.
Recorder of deeds. Sounds simple, right? Process a few deeds, file ’em on
the old computer and job done. Think again – and consider the numbers.
Lower interest rates have been great for home buyers and Realtors, but it
also has piled the work on the 21-person staff in the Luzerne County Recorder
of Deeds Office.
In 2001, the office, headed by Republican incumbent Mary Dysleski, oversaw
the filing, scanning, copying and indexing of 54,000 documents – deeds to be
sure, but also mortgages, powers of attorney, rights of way, easements,
satisfactions and the like.
In 2002, Dysleski’s office processed roughly 64,000 documents – an increase
of 10,000.
As a direct result of a dramatic increase in fees generated by realty
transfer taxes, last year Dysleski’s office turned over $5 million to the
state and $6 million to municipalities and school districts, a total increase
of roughly $1 million.
Ultimately, the office did more work – and made more money.
In a low-visibility race such as recorder of deeds – a title Democratic
challenger Stanley Strelish hopes to win in the general election Nov. 4 – the
numbers count, says Terry Madonna, government professor at Millersville
University in Lancaster County.
He characterizes row offices as those largely run by professionals whose
ability to manage a staff and tackle the numbers is the issue. “Administration
is not a political job. A row office has virtually no visibility among voters.
Voters barely know their commissioners.”
Strelish acknowledges there are no real issues in his race, which is why he
stresses his management experience – and ability to tackle those numbers.
Strelish has managed the family business, Strelish Trucking Co., since
college. Six years ago, his family sold a home heating oil business. The
trucking company leases equipment to such companies as American Asphalt, and
employs four full-time and two part-time employees. While he has an
accountant, Strelish said he handles payroll and billing, as well as hiring
and scheduling.
He would not release financials, but Strelish describes his small business
as successful. “Let’s put it this way: we pay the bills. To run a small,
successful family-run business in these economic times is an accomplishment.
We’ve never lost money.”
Also of paramount concern to Strelish is preservation of old county
records, some which date back to the 1700s. If he wins, he says, he will
continue computerization of the office and work toward enacting the lowest
possible fees for those who use the office most, such as real estate agents
and attorneys. “I’d make sure everyone was charged a fair price.”
As Dysleski likes to say of the recorder of deeds office: “This office pays
for itself.” Instead of upping fees after taking office, Dysleski changed
accounting procedures and aggressively pursued payments of fees for such
services as photo copying, faxing and certifications.
The proof, she says, is in the bottom line.
Before Dysleski took office in 2000, the recorder of deeds turned over to
the county general fund $7,100 annually in service fees. In her first year in
office that number jumped to $54,141. Today, that figure is roughly $120,000
per year.
To the attorneys and real estate agents who use the office, efficiency is
what counts. Any time an attorney takes on a case involving real estate,
they’re in for a “paper-intensive” experience, says attorney Elizabeth
Bartolai, who has come to rely on the recorder of deeds staff to make that
experience a good one. “When I need guidance, I’m not afraid to say `help.’
“They’re always asking me what I need and every experience I’ve had in that
office has been wonderful.”
Bartolai says the computerization of county records has helped immensely.
“You can’t be in this century and not have an office like that computerized.
It’s improved a lot.”
As an attorney in Pennsylvania, Girard J. Mecadon is licensed to practice
in each of the state’s 67 counties. As such, he has conducted business in
recorder of deeds offices in Philadelphia as well as Luzerne, Lackawanna,
Wyoming and Susquehanna counties. If he had to rank them in order of
preference, Luzerne County would easily capture No. 1 status.
“No one is more efficient than Luzerne County in getting you deeds,” says
Mecadon, of Pittston. “It’s virtually done instantaneously. Lackawanna County
is light years behind Luzerne.”
If Mecadon has to mail in documents to be filed in other counties, it can
take months before that mail is even opened. In Luzerne County, there is no
backlog in recording mailed documents – one of the few counties in the state
to make such a boast. “In other counties, sometimes they can’t even tell me if
it’s been received, let alone recorded. They’re usually a month or two
behind,” Mecadon says. “Luzerne County should give lessons on how to run that
office.”
Mecadon, who offered no opinion on which candidate he supports, says that
ultimately it’s the office’s staff that counts.
“After an election, it’s the management at the top that’s different.
Sometimes there are different philosophies. But it’s always the same staff.”