Bannister
Jerry
Kendall County Recorder of Deeds
Paid for by the Friends of Jerry Bannister
Copyright 2011 Jerry Bannister -
WHY SPLIT THE KENDALL COUNTY CLERK & RECORDER’S OFFICE?
If you have ever owned real estate in Kendall County, you have information stored at the Kendall County Recorder’s office.
In 2008, a single decision by the Kendall County Clerk & Recorder put the privacy and security of Kendall County homeowners at risk. Thousands of social security numbers were made available to the general public when the County Clerk & Recorder published every document recorded since 1986 on the Kendall County Government public website. Recorded documents, like the deed to your house and your mortgage, contain private information, including your name, address, prior address, your signature and possibly even your social security number.
The Clerk & Recorder told the Oswego Ledger on 12/24/2009 that the document images on the website did contain social security numbers, and that the public website put people at risk for identity theft. The Clerk said,“The way the economy is people are doing crazy things. They are taking numbers because they think it’s going to help their personal and financial situation somehow”. The Clerk remarked in the same article that she decided to first upload the documents and then remove the numbers in order to expedite getting the documents online. “Otherwise it would take us years to get online”, she said.
The Clerk instructed the Recorder’s staff to go back through 500,000 documents and put a black bar across the social security numbers (a process known as redaction). But, the unredacted documents with social security numbers remained available on the website. According to the 2009 article, the Clerk set a goal to have all the social security numbers removed from the website by 2015.
After I publicized the fact that social security numbers were still widely available
on the website, including social security numbers of former Speaker Denny Hastert,
Illinois Republican Leader Tom Cross, Sheriff Richard Randall, and Coroner Ken Toftoy,
the website was finally taken down in mid-
Social security numbers don’t change. Identity theft will ALWAYS be an issue for the thousands of people whose identity was compromised by the Kendall County Clerk & Recorder. But it never had to happen in the first place. There is no requirement for any Recorder in the State of Illinois to provide online document images, which is proven by the fact that the website is now down!
We need to split the offices of the Clerk & Recorder. For many years, Kendall County was small enough for the Clerk to act both as the Clerk and the Recorder. Illinois law requires that when a county population reaches 60,000 “there shall be an elected recorder”. Kendall County’s population is now 114,736. The Kendall County census page is here.
It’s no surprise that things are falling through the cracks at the Recorder’s office. Our population is nearly double the State requirement to split the offices and the citizens of Kendall County are paying the price. Compromised social security numbers are only part of the problem. The Recorder’s office is also in violation of other laws, including the Illinois Identity Protection Act; the indexing requirements for Sheriff’s deeds and other documents; the bonding provisions for the Office; and is in partial violation of the requirements for oaths and appointments.
On March 20, 2012, you can fix it. There will be a referendum on the ballot asking if the Clerk should continue to act as the Recorder. VOTE NO! Your NO vote will split the offices and give Kendall County a separately elected Recorder.
Please feel free to contact me at recorderjerry@gmail.com with any questions or comments. I look forward to hearing from you, and I hope to earn your vote.
Thanks,
Jerry Bannister