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Proven Experience
Proven Leadership
A Commitment To Excellence
Under the experienced guidance of Terence Farrell, Chester County’s
Office of the Recorder of Deeds has been consistently at the
forefront of new technology and innovative solutions offering
improved services. Terence has taken on many leadership roles, some
on a national level, in order to bring attention to issues affecting
the document recording sector. Farrell has:
- Participated on a nationwide committee
creating document standards and spearheaded adoption of the standards
in Southeastern PA. These standards have been adopted by the
Chester County Office of the Recorder of Deeds.
- Spearheaded
Chester County’s adoption of the Uniform Parcel Identifier
Ordinance (UPI), generating over $2 million for the County’s
General Fund. The Office of the Recorder of Deeds won the prestigious
Urban & Regional Information Systems Association's Exemplary
systems in Government Award for implementing the UPI program.
- Initiated
property records education partnership with the title industry
and other surrounding County Recorders.
- Participated
in a national panel drafting model legislation to keep personal
information off of public documents. To further protect individual
privacy, Farrell is researching automatic redaction software
designed to mask any personal information contained on older
recorded documents.
- Initiated
education seminars at the Pennsylvania Recorder of Deeds Association
Meetings.
- Participated in a national panel drafting
standards for eRecording of land records documents.
- Obtained
security for Recorder’s Office, Tax Assessment, and the
Bureau of Land Records.
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During his two terms as Recorder of Deeds, Terence
has been dedicated to improving and modernizing the office. Under
his leadership, upgrades were made to the all computer systems
and software, office procedures were defined and implemented, while
the staff was cross-trained and afforded a mission statement to
better understand their role in public service to the County. Some
of the innovations and advances attained under Farrell’s
leadership include:
- Upgraded the Recording and Imaging
System, saving Chester County taxpayers $200,000 in the first
year of these improvements.
- Made public records available online.
Records from January 1994 to the present day are available, over
the Internet, at no cost to the user.
- Converted
and uploaded twelve years of images to the production database
and internet website. This is an ongoing project and, at its
conclusion, thirty years of images will be available online.
- Adopted triple-key index verification to insure
accuracy of public records.
- Initiated
Good Deeds, an eNewsletter distributed to over 3,000
members of the title community and others with an interest in
the recording industry.
- Implemented a
more efficient filing and retrieval system for County subdivision
plans and maps.
- Created in-house back scanning of
County subdivision plans and maps. This created a savings of
many thousands of dollars for County taxpayers.
- One of four County recorders chosen by the
Pennsylvania Department of State to head the State’s eNotarization
initiative begun in 2005.
- Initiated electronic recording
of land records in Chester County.
- First Pennsylvania
Recorder to initiate a multi-state electronic recording portal.
- Incorporated
the Bureau of Land Records public counter into the Recorder’s
Office, with no increase in staff, to insure accurate and timely
UPI verification for the public.
- Compiled a legal manual
containing all statutes, ordinances, and case law affecting the
Recorder’s office.
- Created a remote access subscription
service for the title community which generates additional income
for the County’s general fund.
- Funded a $174,000
restoration of historic deed books using Record Improvement Funds
(not tax dollars).
- Implemented disaster recovery procedures
in the event of a catastrophic event.
- Introduced digitalized
index software in the Research Library (Infodex). This software
minimizes the need to handle fragile historical indexes.
- Introduced
digitalized film software (eFilm Reader) in the Research Library.
This enables the public to view historical film digitally (1956
back through 1688). In the future, this may be made available
to the Public on a subscription basis.
- Drafted and implemented
the Office of the Recorder of Deeds Mission Statement.
Reviewed job classifications, creating a job manual outlining the
specifics of each staff position. Cross-trained staff so that
every employee learned each of the tasks required in operating
the department. Initiated monthly staff meetings
to keep staff informed of legal and technological advances affecting
office procedures. Set testing standards for staff to ensure
job competence and a focus on continuing education.
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When Terence Farrell entered the Recorder
of Deeds office in 1999, he had a clear vision for the future.
He envisioned an office where anyone who visited would have the
greatest variety of choices as to how, when, and where to obtain
records information being sought. He wanted to make records available
in hard copy, while putting as many records as possible online.
He also wanted to insure that copies of public records (including
computer data) were available for sale.
Terence
has reached each of these goals, guiding the office to a new level of professionalism
and provision of service to the County.
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