BC 2012 11 29 Special Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Movember 29, 2012 (Special Meeting) Page 1305 that the office is declared vacant at that point and then the commissioners would appoint a new office - holder. White: The instance that I'm thinking is that if on day - well on January 5th of whatever the year in the next four years - the bonding company says we're dropping you, we're not going to bond you anymore. There's going to be a lag time from January 5 th until whenever day a bond is made; January 6 January 10 - business is going to be conducted from January 5 th until that new bond is made. My question is does business get conducted during that time or can we shut down the register of deeds office in order to make certain that we're insured or that there is a bonding, that there is no lapse. Koch: I think 161 -6 addresses that. Let me just look at it again. White: When I read 161 -6 that means - to me that meant that if the register of deeds steps down and a deputy steps in then the bond of Western would cover that deputy. What I'm saying is- Koch: Yeah, that's a holdover situation, yes. White: Right and I'm not talking about a holdover situation. I'm saying if the bonding agency says we're not going to bond any longer - we're not going to stay on this bond as of January 5, 2013, 2014 - name the day. If there is a lapse, how do we conduct business during that lapse? Koch: Well, I was gonna go back and look at Mr. Small's bond. Let me start out by saying that - that no business can be conducted unless a bond is in place. We'll start from that, that's in the statutes and I can find it, but so - but under the bond, the bonding company has to give 30 days' notice before they can cancel or revoke the bond. So there is a 30 day window in which the bond would still be in place even if their intent was to revoke it or terminate it, for some reason. And certainly, in that period of time there would be, presumably be sufficient time to determine whether another bond could be put into place by one of those methods I just described. White: Is the county listed as a party that is supposed to be noticed if they come off this bond? Koch: The way it was originally issued was to Cabarrus County, and then yes, the county is to be notified by certified mail. Now if you go back to the letter that I talked about the technical deficiencies, statute says that the bond is to be payable to the state, it doesn't say anything about the county even though it's up to the county - this board to approve and also this board is the one that is potentially at risk if there's some issue. And I think that was the reason because of that discrepancy, if you will, among those statutes, that the - that we typically have it made payable jointly to the state, to comply with that statute; and to the county, as their interest may appear in order to make sure that we're the beneficiary of any notice that was to be sent. So but there is - right now that's the way it was originally issued, it runs strictly to the county. And so we would - White: That's on liability. Koch: That's on- White: Everything. Koch: That's on everything. White: So we will get notice under what you have. Koch: Yes. White: Okay. Do you know if that's changed? Koch: I do not. White: If we do not - if we do not make a decision today to approve or deny, what happens next? In other words, by the end of this meeting if we still have more information - or we're still trying to get more information - so no decision is made to approve or deny the bond - or no decision is made to approve the bond, what happens? Koch: On the issue of whether Mr. Small can be sworn in or not, then I couldn't really tell - give an opinion on whether that has to be - whether the bond has to be in place before he is sworn in. He cannot conduct any official duties unless there is an approved bond in place, so he does have a document that on its face appears to be a bond that has certain defects in it - which, you know, presumably can be corrected. But before he can assume the duties of the office there has to be an approved bond and that approval is the function of this board. Burrage: How long is it gonna take to correct the defects? Koch: Well, the ones that are listed in the letter would be I think a question properly directed to Mr. Small. I said I've had no communication with him since that letter was sent. My understanding was that he was going to address the Board concerning those items. The other that I was speaking of, I couldn't answer how long it would take to - to deal with any issues that, that this Board may have aside from what's in that letter. It would certainly depend on what they are, but I really don't know for sure. That would really be up to what those issues were, if any, and how fast the surety or Mr. Small could respond to. White: You know what I'm getting at is, if we were to ask for a copy of the application for the bond and Mr. Small did not have that today, and was not able to get that until after the 3 what happens? Koch: There is a - well I think we would go back to the holdover provision of Chapter 161 that we were talking about earlier that makes provision for