County’s Constitutional Officers Deliver Annual Reports

CREST HAVEN – Cape May County’s three constitutional officers gave annual reports to freeholders Feb. 14. 
The County Clerk and Sheriff increased their revenues to county coffers, the Surrogate decreased the amount, but that was positive, said Surrogate M. Susan Sheppard.
An increase in revenues from her office would translate to more deaths in the county. Hence the $185,005 from the Surrogate’s Office was the lowest sum in four years. Three preceding years produced revenues more than $200,000.
Fees listed in this story were rounded for ease of understanding.
County Clerk
County Clerk Rita Fulginiti reported $5.07 million in revenue on total receipts of $30.2 million. Those sums include fees from 48,410 transactions.
Last year’s total was up from the 2015 figure of $4.9 million in revenue based on 43,389 transactions.
The largest generator of fees was $2.1 million from the 28.6 percent Realty Transfer Fee. Next highest were from “Other Realty Transfer Fees” of $1.3 million.
Fulginiti cited the “big elections” that took place during 2016, including two school elections in January and the presidential election in November. She noted the presidential election, was executed “without issues of problems. There were a lot of issues in the news, and voters were afraid, but we managed to get through all that with a very good election year.”
During 2016, she presided over 130 weddings, which brought her career total to about 1,400.
Her office also administered 386 notary (public) oaths.
Also County Historian, Fulginiti gave a quick overview of some highlights found in the deed books in her office. This year, she noted, the major project will be searching archives about religion and its impact on the county “going back to our earliest days before we were incorporated in 1692.”
Her presentation ended with a brief YouTube video her office produced that underscores the importance of homeowners ensuring their mortgage is cancelled once it is paid in full.
Sheriff
Sheriff Gary Schaffer delivered his final report since he is not seeking reelection. He told the board he is ending 19 years of county service, that last nine as sheriff.
He pointed to 2,729 total transactions that brought in the $8.7 million and county fees that were $609,149. Among those were 554 Sheriff’s Sales, 584 Sales notices, 464 Sales Deeds and 461 sales.
“Everything was up this year,” said Schaffer. He expects this year will follow that same upward trend in fees.
“Even with salaries increasing, this was the least amount of overtime used by the correctional center since I have been sheriff the last eight years,” Schaffer added.
That overtime increased 11.96 percent, about $10,240 over 2015.
“We are also monitoring the judges of Superior Court and the cost associated to their courtrooms when it comes to overtime,” said Schaffer. Through the year, Judge John Porto required 98.5 hours of overtime; Judge Donna Taylor required 44.5 hours, while Judges Julio Mendez and Noah Bronkesh each required 18 hours of overtime.
Surrogate
Sheppard lauded her staff that handles myriad inquiries from often-bereaved residents.
She prefaced her report stating, “We don’t want the numbers to go up.”
Among the services her offices oversees, and of which she is most proud, were the 50 adoptions in 2016.
“I don’t understand why but a lot of grandparents are adopting grandchildren. It’s rewarding and troubling. We seem to have a generation that is missing, that’s sad,” said Sheppard.
Her office is holding $2.8 million in minor trust accounts that are normally released when the minor turns 18.
Someday, Sheppard hopes that documents, such as wills, will “be (stored) in the cloud” so that they can be accessed from computers by the public without the need for visits to her office.
Sheppard admitted such an endeavor would have to be done in conjunction with the Administrative Office of the Court. It would, however, “alleviate a lot of search time and we could get a fee without them (public) having to come into the office.”