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Local News

Barry County Register of Deeds accused of improper policy change

The second Barry County township supervisor in two weeks came to the Board of Commissioner’s meeting on Nov. 1, urging them to end the ongoing situation with the Barry County Register of Deeds, Barbara Hurless.

 

Jim  Carr, supervisor of Rutland Township, followed Hastings Township Supervisor Jim Brown’s appearance last week, both  urging a solution to a Sept. 22 policy change denying township assessors open access to the register’s department property records.

 

Giving assessors unlimited access to the records may lead to unauthorized use of its records and a loss of income that should go to the county, Hurless has said. Citing legal advice from Bonnie Toskey, an attorney with Cohl, Stoker, Toskey and McGlinchey, P.C., Hurless said she would provide all the information an assessor needed by e-mail once a month.

 

That brought complaints from supervisors and assessors that they don’t have the information needed to do their jobs. Carr told the commission that Hurless can’t carry out that decision “without your permission,” and doesn’t have the power to change assessor’s access to information.

 

Also, charging assessors fees for copies of records is “just insanity” he said. “This is one government agency paying taxpayer money to another." Further, he said the Rutland Township attorney is “all fired up” saying the law Hurless cites doesn’t allow what she did.

 

“You have an attorney, why hasn’t he done something? You can sanction her, you can withhold funds. This is a three-week incident; it should have been taken care of a long time ago. You should show a little more oomph on this, you shouldn’t let this go on.”

Commissioner Craig Stolsonburg said they were waiting for a call back from Stoker.

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