Year-end Report from Your
County Clerk

After campaigning to bring better service at less cost, I would like to let you
know what we have done since you elected me Tarrant County Clerk
a year ago.     

• Cut our operational budget 3.5%, helping keep our county government
  one of the few anywhere living within its means: no debts, no deficits.
     
• Extended office hours to 5 p.m. to allow greater convenience
  to the public.
   
• Reduced the number of positions in the Clerk’s office.
   
• Introduced technology that reduced waiting time for returning original documents to customers from two weeks to handing them back in a matter of minutes – at substantial savings in postage, envelopes and
  staff time it previously took to return thousands of originals by mail.
  
  
• Set up a feedback system on my Web site to encourage taxpayer-customers to let us know how we are doing and how we can improve service.
  
  
• Completed (under budget) the first phase of a project to add over one million land records to the Web for public access.

• Initiated a project to convert over five million film and microfiche files to digital images for simpler public access, allowing us to reduce equipment and increase efficiency.

• Established a backup site in the Northwest Sub-Courthouse enhancing the ability of the Clerk’s Office to continue serving the public during natural or man-made disasters.

• Stepped up promotion of our Property Fraud Alert program to help protect customers from property and mortgage fraud, one of the fastest-growing crimes in the country, according to the FBI.

Visit www.propertyfraudalert.com to sign up.

• Expanded the availability of vital records at our sub-courthouses.

Our hard work is paying off!
And more innovations are under way,  including a program to make more vital documents available to customers over the Internet—saving them time, driving and gasoline.     

My recent appointments include Chair of the Tarrant County Business Disaster Recovery Committee, Co-Chair of the Tarrant County EGov Committee and Co Chair for the Property Recording Industry Association (PRIA). 

I look forward to staying in touch with you from time about our plans and progress to deliver better, more efficient service for fewer taxpayer dollars.  I would be happy to hear from you at any time.       

Thank you for the trust you placed in me to serve Tarrant County.  We’re working hard for you in the County Clerk’s office and appreciate your support.

Sincerely yours,   

.

Mary Louise Garcia
County Clerk
Tarrant County, Texas