 Hello, welcome to this week's legislative update. I'm Jim Baumgart your host. Thank you very much for joining us and by us I mean we have with us Ellen Schleicher Who's the Shiboyan County Register of Deeds and that is a very important job? Welcome to the program. Thank you It's also work. It's yes. I've been in that office There's just books and stuff that goes back into the mid-1800s that every record in there is your responsibility Correct. Yeah, I think some of the people watching probably should Maybe understand that you're an elected position. That's the way their forefathers wanted to do it Because that's a good check and balance because when a treasurer or a sheriff or a register of deeds is elected they are really Obligated only to the people that elected them and while they have to be respectful of the county that Houses them, but You are really a servant of the people. That's correct. I am They are my bosses And every time they come in I think you're rushing around to take care of them before we get into discussing the importance of some of the duties of the Register of Deeds you have another life. We have husbands and the farm and why don't you get the viewers a little background You've done things before you became a registered deeds person, right? Well, my husband and I will be married 38 years on November 24th. So we can half away We have four children and two grandchildren Wow so And you live you live on a little farm and your husband works with your son on a Hog operation not a big one or a little one. It's it's not huge, but actually they Breed for show hogs and we also sell market for Folks who want to have homegrown raised pigs. Yeah, like a pork chop. Yep anyway We all have have secondary lives and husbands and wives and and Besides the job that's an important job dealing with the Register of Deeds, but you do more than register of deeds, but we'd like to get in there. You have a property Fraud alert. That's a new Responsibility that's put on the register of deeds office. It's not really a new responsibility we offered that many years ago and at that time around a couple years ago though Because of budget constraints. We had to we had to discontinue that but our software company now is is allowing us to Get back into that program for at no cost so pretty much what it is is Someone is trying to do something fraudulent with your property Many larger cities they're having issues where people are recording deeds in Milwaukee. It's a good example right and That what this property fraud alert does is if anything is done with your property with your you know then you are notified and It actually is it's run through our office, but our software company is who is who deals with it so you you sign up with them at www.fiddler.com and Look for the property alert. You can just pick your county Put your name and information in you can get either notified email or a phone call and If anything is done and that means even if it's legitimate like if you pay off your mortgage or You take out a loan anything that is tied to that property You will get an alert on and that's which is wonderful You know what's going on and and you could react to Anything that's unusual and to make any corrections that need to be especially if you're going to sell the property and you haven't looked at that Information for a while that might be helpful, right? I mean and it it is a it is a good I'm glad we can bring it back to the people and it's at no cost to to us We like no car we like no car. Yeah, we do you don't get very much free No, and and you know any time you talk about raising You know the taxes and prices of cars and other things go up But it's you know It's a tough thing to do and even when you the car prices go up a thousand nobody wants to buy a car sometimes First certificates you take care of that first certificates marriage marriage certificates death certificates and As that's sort of a final thing though, it is kind of well, it's a circle of life I guess sure and as of January 2017 we also now can issue divorce certificates Me if somebody's going to get divorced they can come and get one if they are divorced Oh, I think no, I knew with the answer They can so I Suppose you have to sometimes prove that If you are married at one time and I'll divorce that if you're gonna Buy a house or a car something sometimes you have to prove that you are independent, I suppose It is I think more for when they want to get remarried. Oh, I see Then they have to show that they are divorced you have to show that That is that big of me is not allowed in with right there. Well, I think federal Yeah, no, I'm sure yeah, but that's good for somebody to know the One of the things that you deal with is also veteran that our Leave service they can record their veteran DD for 2 14 to 14. Mm-hmm. They're discharge papers are filed in our office And I had talked we worked together with the veteran services as far as Folks getting there getting their information when they need it I Have been told by the veteran service at Wisconsin is the only state one of the only states that the DD 2 14s are Confidential, so they're not open to the public And so they're protected because they have a lot of information on them You know personal information so that is a good thing that they're confidential and we also issue free a Free birth certificate or for the veteran for when they retire for whatever reason That is state by state statutes. We we are allowed to do that So if somebody comes in and they're a veteran and they're about to retire they can get a free one Yes, so we usually tell them to go through veteran services and then veteran services will request it And part of that is because there's a lot of programs that they may be eligible for so like I said we work with the veteran services office in the county and That's the best way to go. Well, every county has to have a veteran service officer Either a full-time or part-time some counties are very Small population-wise and I think they have half-time people But they do have in Wisconsin, which is one of the great things about the state They make sure that every county has a person That if there are service men and women that are having problems they can get that information from from them and of course the different Down the offices like yours work in tandem with with everybody. Correct. Yeah now the Types of other things that you do is what at the you have a staff of how many six all right and And I recall From about 1848 until 2007-8 the records weren't It's solid because back in the early days people would live on a farm and somebody would pass away or child would die and During birth they would just go back in the in their By their house and have their own little cemetery. So there were some gaps in the information, but now It's pretty much required that That all of this is reported out of that work that you get all of these records some of those are old right and it's actually 1848 to 1907 okay is where they're sporadic because Because they're still there it was 1907 when it was when there were state statutes that said, you know, they had to they had to record birth deaths of marriages in a County office or city at that time because city of Sheboygan You know did the city of Sheboygan just like city, Milwaukee does but when they got rid of their health department All those records came to our office. So now they're all just located in our office You're doing some updating large. We are We have Those are old books. I've seen their old books and we have old old records that we Were so brittle Marriage birth and death records that we did scan them get them scanned in and digitized and we're working on They're all in the computer so, you know, we can access those records without having to damage You don't have to go in and turn pages anymore because you're right some of that paper. They used was You know probably good paper, but not paper that was intended to last 200 or 300 years Correct, correct, but I'm not sure if digital they're make the last that while we hope, you know, and that's part of my Responsibility is to ensure that if they're what records we do now have Scanned in and in the computer that when programs change as a technology advances we have to ensure that we Move that into the new new technology as we did run into some glitches with that But you know, we were able to Make sure that we had our records and they'll always be in paper form But the damage is now with people paging through the books, you know, what genealogy and other things, right? Yes Yes, well one of the things that Some people look at and say well, we got registered days. We got sheriffs. Why don't we appoint those people? Well our forefathers? wisely, I think realize that if All of these offices, which you really are directed by the state fall under the county then the registered deeds and the Clerk and all of those are Beholding to the power of only the county the elected person like you are you're obligated to be responsible to the county and the the committee that Overs oversee you, but you're also independent by the elected person. You don't have to Jump to a tune necessarily if somebody is going to try to do something that maybe looks wrong Right happen it does happen and it I'm happy that I can Look out for my constituents for the voters that they they really are my concern My loyalty is to them and to and to try and do the best for their interests not just one person It's I have no problem working with my peers helping them out but I don't have to if I don't feel that what they want to do is Right for my purposes or my office. I have the right to say no Well, and that's the way it should be because if we don't have checked and balances then people That our voters need to understand that just because you can do Put everybody in one pot doesn't make necessarily the pot better and So we have to protect our democracy by having checked and balances and having independent sheriffs and and treasures and registered deeds and others is a blessing rather than a curse and Chances are you're doing things that are economically very good for the county anyway Right, but we do have to close down and I have to sort of end it. I want to thank Salon Schleicher register of deeds for coming in and talking about The complex thing that takes place in our office. Thank you very much. Thank you. Have a good day