Promises made........Promises Kept

For the past 7 years, many of you have heard me repeat this mantra over and over again:

My priority is to deliver excellent and efficient customer service.

I truly believe that my staff and I have lived and breathed this every single working day by using impeccable service standards.

We work hard to make your visits to my four departments a pleasant experience and to make sure you get whatever service and information you were seeking.

Veterans Discount Cards-"RETURN THE FAVOR" Program

In 2009 I initiated a Veterans discount program called "Return The Favor". Cayuga County was only the third County in NY State to implement such a program.

I partnered with our County's Veterans Office, The Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce and the Auburn Business Improvement District to ensure the information reached the veterans and the local merchants.

This is a win-win for Cayuga County--our Veterans get discounts at more than 100 local businesses and merchants get business from our Veterans.

This program allows business owners a unique opportunity to give a well-deserved thanks to our Veterans! Veterans can find the list of participating merchants by going to the Cayuga County Clerks website: www.co.cayuga.ny.us/clerk or call the office for more information about this program at (315) 253-1271.

Clerk's Website Improvements

County Clerk’s website www.co.cayuga.ny.us/clerk
County Clerks Email sdwyer@cayugacounty.us

I promised that the County Clerk’s website would be user friendly and it would include downloadable forms. I kept that promise.

Customers can now download passport applications, all Department of Motor (DMV) Vehicle Forms, and the County Clerks Fee Schedule for recording documents.

Additionally, the page provides links to the three other departments that I oversee: DMV, Records Retention and the Historian’s Office.

I receive and answer hundreds of email inquiries a year from people looking for information about DMV issues, research, vital records, land records, etc.

Email communication helps our customers to arrive prepared when they come into the office, and decreases the amount of phone calls we get in the office.

Department of Motor Vehicle Improvements

www.co.cayuga.ny.us/dmv

The Department of Motor Vehicles has seen many improvements.

Our DMV revenues are up 15%.

I partnered with our local newspaper to create ads to market our DMV services. Our ads feature local folks touting our great customer service and they encourage the use of our Auburn office to help keep tax dollars local.

We held an Organ Donor Drive for the entire month of April. I partnered with the National Kidney Foundation and the NY Alliance for Donation group and did a kickoff at the Auburn Office which included their Sidney the Kidney mascot and we made created our own Happy the Heart mascot.(Our staff wore this homemade costume).

We were able to get hundreds of people signed up to be organ donors. These new donors have the potential to help thousands of families by saving the lives of their loved ones who are desperately waiting for organs.

We also involved the staff in fun competitions to see how many customers they could get to sign up and at the end of the month they earned prizes.

This was so successful that the NY Alliance group used our ideas at their statewide meeting in New York City in February and I've decided to make this an annual event in our DMV every April.

We are a full service office. We offer Enhanced Driver's Licenses, we process enforcement issues, duplicate titles, registrations, and offer all other DMV services with a personal touch to help simplify what could otherwise be a frustrating experience. Additionally, DMV forms are now available online.

We've worked hard to make our office a pleasant and user friendly place to visit. The office has a new coat of paint, and a television. (I pay for the cablevision myself). We created a Success By 6 children’s book corner with donated books from the Owasco/Fleming Kiwanis.

DMV Supervisor, Shereen Androsko, and I continually educate people of the importance of keeping their hard-earned money in Cayuga County by encouraging people to use our local DMV, explaining that when they use our office, either by mail or in person, Cayuga County retains 12.7% of every transaction processed. Sending renewals to Utica by mail means that Cayuga County gets nothing! It is important to me that people understand this, and it is a goal of mine to get this word out.

In 2004, the staff won the State Commissioner’s Award for excellent customer service, and New York State DMV Commissioner visited our office to personally deliver the award to every staff person.

Bringing Services TO You: County Clerk Goes On The Road

I continuously travel to different sites, bringing services to my constituents.

I visit town and village clerks, schools, businesses, and the mall to promote Passports and other services.

Growing Customers and Revenue

The Cayuga County Clerks Office is Your Passport Headquarters!

Since 2004, I've increased our passport application business by creating a comprehensive marketing plan. We placed a huge banner on the front of the County Office Building to promote our office as the premier Passport Headquarters.

We have our own passport cameras, and a highly-trained and experienced staff, making the process easy and professional.

I found that if a person has a pleasant experience in my office, it results in word-of-mouth advertising for more people to come in and apply for a passport.

I installed an updated County Clerks Fee System that was much more user-friendly and allowed our office to make more records available electronically and online. I also added a third Recording Counter in our office to better serve the public.

This increased revenue goes directly into the County coffers. Ultimately this helps each and every taxpayer in Cayuga County.

Easy Access to Records

I continue to improve access to our records for the benefit of our customers. Per the law, our Land Records (deeds and mortgages) have always been open to the public. Now we have some of our Land Records online.

You can find these at www.nylandrecords.com then click on Cayuga County. There is a small fee for this service.

Frequent online users, such as attorney’s abstractors and title companies greatly appreciate this service.

Historian’s Office

www.co.cayuga.ny.us/historian

Shortly after I was elected, I was given the oversight of the Historian’s office. I am fortunate to have Sheila Tucker as our County Historian.

The Historian’s Office website and its links are a huge success.

Genealogy is America’s new hobby. We have many people who come from afar who love history and want to search their roots.

Between the records in the County Clerks office, the Historians Office and our Records Retention Center, we have an archival treasure of records to help people with their searches.

Records Retention Center

www.co.cayuga.ny.us/records

Located at the old jail on Court Street, the Records Retention Center is a safe haven for all of the County’s records.

I am also responsible for the storage of Supreme and Surrogate Court Records.

Bill Hulik Jr. is the Records Coordinator along with two other full time staff. Mr. Hulik’s expertise in records management was key to obtaining a grant for $38,000 for the back scanning of land records in my office.

Every year a half million pages are scanned by our records center, ensuring the preservation of our County's records.