October 30, 2009

Dear Easton Resident,

It has been a privilege and pleasure to serve as your Town Clerk for the last eight years. As a public official, resident and taxpayer I have stressed the importance of making the best use of our tax dollars to provide efficient and responsive services.

In 2001, I inherited an office in great disarray. My hard working predecessor, sadly, did not have the financial, technical, or human resources to handle the ever increasing volume of state mandated paperwork. Despite opening long hours and volunteering late into the evening, it was impossible to stay current. My financial and technology background and experience as a corporate President allowed me to achieve the following:

• Define a prime objective as to “complete a day’s work in a day”, so as to arrest further increases in backlog. Address operational efficiency and the cost of daily operations.

• Design a computer operating system for the entire office, acquire the hardware and personally create and maintain the software. This provided efficient customer service, recording, indexing, accounting, auditing, imaging and the efficient processing of marriage, civil union, and dog licenses, search and retrieval of records, maps, minutes and agendas and included the ability to print index books. In short this constituted the most comprehensive technology upgrade in the town’s history at no cost to the taxpayer. I also provided database management. Overall this continues to save the taxpayer approximately $75,000 annually.

• Reduce the cost and time of processing a record by approximately 80% due to technology and operational enhancements. Consequently, Office operations changed from a tax burden to a revenue source.

• Defer the cost of building a new vault [$750,000] for at least 20 years by acquiring a state grant to upgrade the shelving and map cabinets and redesign the vault. Change the way the documents were produced and bound which increased shelf capacity by 75%.

• Allocate the last hour of the business day to complete, as required by statute, indexing and auditing by two qualified staff. Records are now promptly transmitted electronically to our outside auditors so that they will be available to residents the next day.

It has been a challenging and rewarding eight years, but the task is not yet finished. Additional operational efficiency improvements and cost savings have been identified which need to be implemented. Specifically the creation of an online office, open “anytime from anywhere” [ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week] and enhanced services for seniors and homebound residents.

I look forward to continuing to serve as your Town Clerk and ask for your support on November 3.

Derek Buckley, Easton Town Clerk

Return to News & Opinion page.