Recording Clerk

RECORDING CLERK

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF THE CLASS: This position involves meticulous and important clerical work of a specialized nature with responsibility for receiving and processing a variety of legal documents to be entered into the permanent records of the County Clerk’s Office.  Application forms for a variety of permits, licenses, and passports are dispensed, received, and processed.  The processing, collection of appropriate fees, and indexing may be performed manually, by typewriter, or may be assigned to work on computer equipment.  The work involves extensive interaction with the public by telephone, mail, or in person.  A high degree of thoroughness and accuracy is required with often difficult technical, legal, or policy problems; some of which may be referred to a superior for review of judgment determinations or for decision.  Though generally assigned to the Recording Office, the staff member may, at times, be temporarily assigned to the Motor Vehicle Bureau.  Work is performed under the direction of Senior Recording Clerks with general supervision from the Deputy County Clerks.  Supervision of other staff is not a responsibility of this class.  The employee may be required to do related work, as required.

TYPICAL WORK ACTIVITIES:

Assists the public, title searchers, members of the legal community, and other governmental agencies in person, by mail, or by telephone providing guidance, direction, forms, and research assistance as necessary to complete their transaction or resolve their request;

Examines mail and counter transactions for accuracy, recordability, conformity with legal requirements, and completeness, and approves/rejects as applicable;

Computes and collects fees and taxes as they apply with the issuance of receipts and recording stamps both manually and by computer, accounting for all refunds received and changes made;

Conducts searches for filed and recorded information per requests and issues the applicable certificates/certified documents;

Reviews and processes applications for pistol licenses, dealer licenses, notary public qualifications, and passport documentation;

Conducts correspondence and telephone inquiries on matters where policies and procedures are outlined or refers to proper authority for more detailed resolution of complex issues.;

May be asked to obtain Notary Public license and performs notary functions for the public upon demand, maintaining a journal and enforcing strict notary practices;

Prepares bank deposits of monies received, keeps related records, balances computer fee collection system, maintains mortgage tax accounting, and prepares appropriate reports and transmittals for other municipal, state, or federal agencies. Reports may include financial data, transaction material, forms to be annotated, notary public qualifications, state refund applications and scanning of daily checks into the banking account system;

Processes, indexes, files, annotates, and records a variety of legal instruments pertaining to civil, criminal, real property, pistol permit, and other areas following the specific indexing guidelines/procedures for each record series;

Performs microfilming and verification of specified records on a routine basis including documents and camera preparation and processing.  Operates camera for photos’ for passports and the image capture workstation for motor vehicle photo-licensing as necessary;

Scanning of documents in the computer systems for preservation and permanent archival of records. This would also include the scanning of maps of current and archival maps into the system for quick retrieval of records;

Maintains confidentiality of sealed and restricted access records pursuant to New York State law.

The above examples of duties are intended only as illustrations of the various types of work performed.  The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related or a logical assignment to the position.

FULL PERFORMANCE KNOWLEDGES, SKILLS, ABILITIES, AND/OR PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: Working knowledge of the laws, regulations, rules and policies governing the recording, filing, and indexing of legal instruments; ability to type/ keyboard accurately at a satisfactory rate of speed; good knowledge of office terminology, procedures, and equipment; working knowledge of business arithmetic/ computation skills and business/legal English; ability to deal effectively with the public demonstrating tact and courtesy; ability to prepare correspondence and reports; good judgment in solving moderately complex clerical and indexing problems; initiative and resourcefulness; a high degree of accuracy and neatness; integrity and the ability to maintain confidentiality.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit, use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls; and reach with hands and arms.  The employee is required to walk, talk and hear.

The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.