Chippewa County Commissioners to Determine Fate of Register of Deeds Office

The Register of Deeds Office in Chippewa County is in jeopardy as county commissioners determine whether or not to merge it with the clerk’s office.

Board of Commissioners Chairman Jim Martin believes it could be a way to save some money.

“We have to have competitive wages and benefits and those things cost money,” said Martin. “So any place where we can keep our level of service and save the taxpayers and the county money, then we really feel we have a duty to do so.”

However, President of the Michigan Association of Register of Deeds, Brandon Denby, said other counties that have combined both offices haven’t seen those results. “Every fiscal analysis we’ve ever seen came up with, if anything, a meager amount of savings and in most cases they had no savings,” said Denby.

Denby spoke at Thursday’s meeting, warning the board of commissioners against combining the offices. “We always have a concern over the effectiveness of the offices,” he said. “When you combine them, we have concern over efficiencies and of course accountability of elected officials in general is important.”

There’s also concern surrounding the county clerk getting a bigger workload when many of them around the state are focused on elections.

“More and more of the clerks are having to focus just on elections and if you speak to any clerk across the state, they’re going to give you a very similar answer,” said Denby. “Where is your main focus right now? They’re going to say ‘elections’. That is a big, big issue.”

Chippewa County is in the beginning stages of figuring out what to do and are making sure they get all the information they need.

“We’re not in a rush,” Martin stated. “We’re going to make sure this is done right because whenever you lose an elected official. We don’t make the decision lightly.”

The Register of Deeds is responsible for archiving all of land records for their counties.