Barmore seeks re-election as clerk | News, Sports, Jobs – Evening Observer
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Chautauqua County Clerk Larry Barmore has announced his intentions to run for another term.
Barmore has been the County Clerk since 2014 and is just completing his second term. He has been endorsed by both the Republican and Conservative parties.
As County Clerk, Barmore oversees five departments which include the County Clerks office which records and files real estate and Supreme and County court records; the county Records Management Department that manages records for all county departments; Weights and Measures Department that checks the accuracy of every weight and measuring device in the county including bulk scales and gas pumps; the County Historian’s office that preserves historical records and assists in historical, genealogical and citizenship research and documentation; and the most recognized department, the Department of Motor Vehicles.
As County Clerk, Larry Barmore was one of the first County Clerks in the state to implement electronic recording of property records and electronic filing of court records in the clerk’s office.
Electronic recording and filing not only reduced paper handling by 90 percent and reduced staffing saving $70,000 per year, but also provided time and cost saving measures for thousands of residents and attorneys who can submit documents for filing and recording from the convenience of their homes and offices.
While working in the field with the Weights and Measures staff, Barmore noticed that the Unit Pricing Law required checking a store a second time even though the store passed the first inspection with a near 100 percent accuracy rating. Feeling that this was redundant, Barmore re-wrote the regulation that was approved by the legislature, to eliminate the second inspection. The staff is now able to complete more inspections in a timely manner, allowing the staff to keep inspections current.
By cutting department expenses and increasing the number of participating stores, the taxpayer share has decreased by $90,000 a year. Barmore is also working on leasing vehicles for the Weights and Measures department instead of owning them. The overall cost of driving and maintaining vehicles will be lowered, saving additional money for taxpayers.
Barmore moved the Jamestown office of the DMV to a more customer friendly location with available parking and personally designed the interior layout to help traffic flow. By negotiating the lease, Barmore was able to save taxpayers another $10,000 per year from the previous location. In anticipation of the lease expiration in another DMV office next year, Barmore has already begun to negotiate a lease that will be more favorable to county taxpayers.
Continuing on his approach to find more cost-effective ways of doing business, Barmore began a leasing program for equipment in his offices that lowered equipment costs by 25 percent.
The County Clerk’s office had previously billed other departments for their record storage and retrieval creating a time-consuming billing system that simply transferred expenses between departments. Many departments were storing their records in boxes in a spare hallway or closet to avoid the billing charges. In 2016, Barmore stopped the billing system, which encouraged all county departments to utilize the state-of-the-art records storage facility and, with the time saved from the previous tedious billing system, allowed the records department staff to properly support the increased records storage and retrieval workload. Now all the departments get more work done and all records are properly stored, saving taxpayers money and preserving important government records.
Currently, Barmore is working with the court system to find a way to reduce paper handling and printing for the appellate court. When this is accomplished, it will save taxpayers several thousands of dollars each year.
Barmore increased customer service by installing signage in the clerk’s office to help customers locate where they needed to be and had ATM machines installed for customer convenience, which also increased revenue.
Barmore is President of the Valley Historical Society; a member of the Fenton and Barker Historical societies; and a board member of the Sinclairville Free Library.
Barmore has been a member of the Gerry Free Methodist Church since 1994 where he served as Chairman of the Finance Committee, was a Sunday School teacher and was a member of the Church Praise and Worship team.
Prior to being elected County Clerk, Barmore was owner of Gay Mark Tire and Wheel in Cassadaga.
He has more than forty years’ experience in business and staff management. Barmore has the experience needed to operate all the divisions of the County Clerk’s office.
Larry Barmore lives in Gerry with his wife, Carol. They have three grown children and seven grandchildren.