GRAFTON COUNTY REGISTRY OF DEEDS
Kelley Jean Monahan Register Annual Report Fiscal Year 2021
To the Citizens of Grafton County, the Honorable Commissioners and Delegation Members:
As Fiscal Year 2021 began and for the first time in 10 years the citizens of Grafton County gave me their full vote of confidence when no one from either party stepped up to challenge my leadership of this office. Citizens belonging to both parties wrote my name in during the Primary which enabled me to direct all of my energy to the navigation of this office through these extraordinary times. In total, 47,467 citizens of Grafton County entrusted me with
this responsibility and for that I am very grateful.
In December I was unanimously elected by my peers to become the new President of the New Hampshire Register of Deeds Association for the coming biennium. As the legislative cycle had already begun, I began work on the fiscal impact statements on legislative service requests that could affect the New Hampshire Registries. The bylaws of our affiliate outline our policy on LSRs and unfortunately this was not followed in 2020-21. I was against the proposed changes to LCHIP that would have given the New Hampshire Registries an additional $10.00 per document, raising the fee for the consumer to $35.00. I am very pleased that after much debate that this effort was defeated.
Our members have studied Remote On-line Notary for many years; bringing in the expert in the field to speak to our affiliate at one of our fall conferences. This effort had finally come together with all stakeholders participating. As the bill language was released a few others Registers and I objected to the outdated definition of electronic signature and sought tighter control. We also asked to have plat law exempted from this legislation. We were able to convince both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees to comply with our requests. My only duty is the protection of the records, however consumer protection is one of my highest priorities.
The issue of Probate was also brought to both the House and Senate this past year. The proposed bill would have had an enormous impact on our offices and we were in strong opposition to this legislation which was ultimately defeated. We are strong advocates for the protection of the older Probate Records as a great deal of ownership in real property that is inherited is located in these records. With the Constitutional role of Register of Probate having been nearly eliminated there is no real advocate for the protection of these valuable records.
Throughout the fall, I worked on the renewal of our software contract and in January I submitted to the Board of Commissioners a request to waive the bidding process and they agreed to a 5 year extension with our software partners Fidlar Technology of Davenport, Iowa and Exeter, New Hampshire. The renewal guaranteed stability for our account holders, all system users and the public. The transition process is brutal on both the staff and the users and costly. We have spent 7 years transitioning recording software, searching programs, billing automation and adopting e-recording. The renewal also transitioned our data base security from excellent to state of the art. The complete digital data base of the Grafton County Registry of Deeds is protected.
I then directed my attention to disaster preparedness and proposed a $172,000.00 plan to micro-film all digital images. Micro-film is a standard archival medium which is commonly used in the land records industry. Our old micro-film had contracted a disease called vinegar syndrome before I took office. I had been building our dedicated equipment fund to accommodate this project. Using this fund would build our infrastructure without affecting the tax-payer. By year’s end we will have 2 complete copies of every record going back to 1774; over 4 million images. One for on-site use in the event of internet or power grid failure and one to be securely stored off-site. With generator power back up we will have maintained the ability to record and search title in the event of an emergency.
In the spring, the long delayed final examination of the condition of our historic paper documents and the storage environment was conducted by the third archival specialist. We were pleased to hear that the results were impressive. We have taken the necessary steps to move forward with our re-packaging, restructuring plan with full confidence.
Covid continues. Being an office that serves the public, the pandemic has created a great deal of unease and conflict. We have attempted many compromises; taking appointments, distancing of public stations, the masking vs unmasking debate. Thought out this difficult time the New Hampshire Registries of Deeds have seen an unprecedented interest in New Hampshire real estate. I worked to keep the public and users informed as to any changes via our website at NHDeeds.org. We have been on-site in service to the public throughout.
Revenue
FY21 Revenue Total $1,535,706.66
RETT Recording Fees Online Services LCHIP Copies Postage Interest Tapestry
$617,720.10 $704,810.56 $34,051.14 $17,605.00 $96,965.49 $3,163.01 $2,843.45 $58,547.91
Our office recorded 22,871 documents to the Official Public Record in FY2021, 5,330.documents over the FY20 count, receiving, processing and redistributing $17,756,527.36 to NH DRA, LCHIP and Grafton County.
FY21 closed with a $513,606,66.00 surplus over our anticipated revenue goal of $1,535,706.66, which is appropriated to the general fund to help offset the tax burden of our citizens. This figure represents a 50.25% increase over the previous year with our staffing reduced by 33%. I could not be more proud of my team.
Respectfully submitted,
Kelley Jean Monahan Register of Deeds
Kelley Jean Monahan Register Annual Report Fiscal Year 2021
To the Citizens of Grafton County, the Honorable Commissioners and Delegation Members:
As Fiscal Year 2021 began and for the first time in 10 years the citizens of Grafton County gave me their full vote of confidence when no one from either party stepped up to challenge my leadership of this office. Citizens belonging to both parties wrote my name in during the Primary which enabled me to direct all of my energy to the navigation of this office through these extraordinary times. In total, 47,467 citizens of Grafton County entrusted me with
this responsibility and for that I am very grateful.
In December I was unanimously elected by my peers to become the new President of the New Hampshire Register of Deeds Association for the coming biennium. As the legislative cycle had already begun, I began work on the fiscal impact statements on legislative service requests that could affect the New Hampshire Registries. The bylaws of our affiliate outline our policy on LSRs and unfortunately this was not followed in 2020-21. I was against the proposed changes to LCHIP that would have given the New Hampshire Registries an additional $10.00 per document, raising the fee for the consumer to $35.00. I am very pleased that after much debate that this effort was defeated.
Our members have studied Remote On-line Notary for many years; bringing in the expert in the field to speak to our affiliate at one of our fall conferences. This effort had finally come together with all stakeholders participating. As the bill language was released a few others Registers and I objected to the outdated definition of electronic signature and sought tighter control. We also asked to have plat law exempted from this legislation. We were able to convince both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees to comply with our requests. My only duty is the protection of the records, however consumer protection is one of my highest priorities.
The issue of Probate was also brought to both the House and Senate this past year. The proposed bill would have had an enormous impact on our offices and we were in strong opposition to this legislation which was ultimately defeated. We are strong advocates for the protection of the older Probate Records as a great deal of ownership in real property that is inherited is located in these records. With the Constitutional role of Register of Probate having been nearly eliminated there is no real advocate for the protection of these valuable records.
Throughout the fall, I worked on the renewal of our software contract and in January I submitted to the Board of Commissioners a request to waive the bidding process and they agreed to a 5 year extension with our software partners Fidlar Technology of Davenport, Iowa and Exeter, New Hampshire. The renewal guaranteed stability for our account holders, all system users and the public. The transition process is brutal on both the staff and the users and costly. We have spent 7 years transitioning recording software, searching programs, billing automation and adopting e-recording. The renewal also transitioned our data base security from excellent to state of the art. The complete digital data base of the Grafton County Registry of Deeds is protected.
I then directed my attention to disaster preparedness and proposed a $172,000.00 plan to micro-film all digital images. Micro-film is a standard archival medium which is commonly used in the land records industry. Our old micro-film had contracted a disease called vinegar syndrome before I took office. I had been building our dedicated equipment fund to accommodate this project. Using this fund would build our infrastructure without affecting the tax-payer. By year’s end we will have 2 complete copies of every record going back to 1774; over 4 million images. One for on-site use in the event of internet or power grid failure and one to be securely stored off-site. With generator power back up we will have maintained the ability to record and search title in the event of an emergency.
In the spring, the long delayed final examination of the condition of our historic paper documents and the storage environment was conducted by the third archival specialist. We were pleased to hear that the results were impressive. We have taken the necessary steps to move forward with our re-packaging, restructuring plan with full confidence.
Covid continues. Being an office that serves the public, the pandemic has created a great deal of unease and conflict. We have attempted many compromises; taking appointments, distancing of public stations, the masking vs unmasking debate. Thought out this difficult time the New Hampshire Registries of Deeds have seen an unprecedented interest in New Hampshire real estate. I worked to keep the public and users informed as to any changes via our website at NHDeeds.org. We have been on-site in service to the public throughout.
Revenue
FY21 Revenue Total $1,535,706.66
RETT Recording Fees Online Services LCHIP Copies Postage Interest Tapestry
$617,720.10 $704,810.56 $34,051.14 $17,605.00 $96,965.49 $3,163.01 $2,843.45 $58,547.91
Our office recorded 22,871 documents to the Official Public Record in FY2021, 5,330.documents over the FY20 count, receiving, processing and redistributing $17,756,527.36 to NH DRA, LCHIP and Grafton County.
FY21 closed with a $513,606,66.00 surplus over our anticipated revenue goal of $1,535,706.66, which is appropriated to the general fund to help offset the tax burden of our citizens. This figure represents a 50.25% increase over the previous year with our staffing reduced by 33%. I could not be more proud of my team.
Respectfully submitted,
Kelley Jean Monahan Register of Deeds