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Recorder has primary challenger
YOUNGSTOWN
The Democratic primary for county recorder is the only contested candidate race for Mahoning County office on the March 15 election ballot; and the status of technology in the recorder’s office is a major issue in the race.
Noralynn Palermo of Youngstown, who has been county recorder for the past 81/2 years, is being challenged by James Bertrando of Struthers, who has been Struthers tax commissioner and public records commission chairman since 2008.
This race is Bertrando’s first run for elected office.
“I basically thought my skill set was appropriate for this position” of county recorder, he told The Vindicator’s editorial board.
Palermo, who prides herself on her knowledge and experience in the recorder’s office, has worked there since 1974.
Palermo served as deputy recorder and administrative assistant in that office before being appointed recorder in 2007, when Ron Gerberry left to fill a vacancy in the Ohio House of Representatives.
Having become the first female recorder in the county’s history, she then was elected to that post in 2008 and re-elected in 2012.
“I know the office. I’m at work every day. I wait on the counter. I answer the phone,” Palermo said.
The recorder’s office maintains permanent records of all documents pertaining to conveyance and encumbrance of land in the county and makes them accessible to the public.
The recorder also serves on the county records commission, which authorizes retention and disposal of county records.
The job pays $65,262 annually.
Palermo said she believes she runs an efficient recorder’s office with a staff of six, including herself, and prides herself on offering good customer service and accountability.
The recorder’s office operates on $408,000 annually from the county’s general fund, plus $116,000 in filing fees for her equipment fund.
Palermo said not replacing herself as administrative assistant and not replacing two employees who retired illustrates her good stewardship of funds.
Bertrando said he’d evaluate and modernize the recorder’s office.
“There’s room for improvement, I think, if you look at how data-management is being done” in the recorder’s office and in the accessibility of the documents, he said. “It’s the kind of thing that digitalization can do for you,” he added.
Bertrando said he wants to revise data management and provide better access to records, expand communication with other county officeholders and better educate county residents and the business and professional community concerning the operation of the recorder’s office.
A glance at an Ohio map on the Ohio Recorder’s Association website shows that the Mahoning County Recorder’s Office offers online searches only for its indexes, whereas the Trumbull County Recorder’s Office offers online searches of both its indexes and document images, together with e-filing of certain documents.
Bertrando said he’d like to see the Mahoning office offer the same online and e-filing access as is offered in Trumbull.
“It’s a part of leadership. I think you’ve got to want to go out there and be competitive,” Bertrando said. “I’d like to take this office into the 21st century,” he said.
In Trumbull County, during the oil- and gas-drilling boom, the Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley paid $253,877 in 2012 for imaging of all of the recorder’s documents dating back to 1795.
“We missed the boat on that,” Bertrando said of Mahoning County.
However, Palermo said she declined Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s offer to do the same for Mahoning because that offer would have entailed removing documents from the county courthouse for imaging.
Offering document images on the Internet requires costly and time-consuming redaction of Social Security numbers, Palermo noted. “I didn’t have the money to redact,” she said.
“We’ve backscanned all of the deed indexes since I’ve been there,” Palermo said. “I think we’ve done fine. We’re looking to e-filings,” she said of technology.
“I initiated the veterans’ document-identification cards. We were one of the first recorders to do that. I was honored to do that for them,” she added.
So far, she said her office has issued about 1,600 of the cards, which provide a convenient wallet identification of veteran status and entitles veterans to discounts offered by some local merchants.
Palermo said her only job-performance evaluation was performed in 2002 by Gerberry, who gave her an overall rating of 3.7 on a 1 to 5 rating scale, with 5 being superior.
She received scores of 4 on courtesy, office integrity, cooperation with co-workers, responsibility and proficiency with office systems.
Her lowest scores were 3.5 for creativity and 3.0 for written communications.
The county human resources office has no personnel file on her, and her benefits file is confidential, said Karen D. U’Halie, county human-resources director.
Bertrando was human-resources director for the Mahoning County Engineer’s Office from 1997 to 2004, when then county Engineer Richard Marsico fired him for purported insubordination.
Bertrando told the editorial board he was fired because he refused to take actions he believed were inconsistent with the Teamsters union contract. “I did what I felt was right,” he said.
In the editorial board interview, Bertrando erroneously said the recorder’s office is the keeper of marriage-license records, something which is actually a function of the probate court.