Genesee County Clerk's Office

Employees of the Genesee County Clerk and Department of Motor Vehicles are knee-deep in work as they continue to deal with COVID-19 mandates that have resulted in longer wait times for those seeking pistol permits and have relegated the DMV office to appointment-only status.

That’s the latest word from County Clerk Michael Cianfrini, who provided an update of the departments on Wednesday at the Genesee County Legislature’s Ways & Means Committee meeting at the Old County Courthouse.

Cianfrini, in dividing his report into two sections – recording office and DMV, said that on a daily basis, pistol permits are “probably our biggest operation.”

Because of COVID-19 restrictions on the number of people in one place at one time, Cianfrini said he has had to modify the way pistol permit issuance classes are conducted. Instead of one group class per month, he is providing the necessary information on an individual basis in the clerk’s office.

“This is fairly time consuming, but at the end of the class, the applicants receive their permits,” he said. “We want to get people their permits as quickly as we can.”

Cianfrini said the turnaround time in Genesee County from submission of the permit application to the issuance of the permit is about three months. While that may seem like a long wait, he said it is much better than other counties, singling out Monroe County “where it takes 12 to 15 months at a minimum.”

Pistol Permits are in Demand

And residents continue to apply for pistol permits at an increasing rate, he said, advising that he expects his office to handle about 400 permits this year – the same or more than the number in 2019. From 2009 through 2012, Genesee County handled an average of 206 permits each year.

Numbers: 2009-2012 – averaged 206 permits per year – about 1,400 amendments per year; 2019 – almost 400 permits, and 2,628 amendments – on pace for about 400 permits in 2020.

In response to a comment from Legislator Gary Maha about supply, Cianfrini agreed that currently there is a shortage of guns and ammunition.

Handling motor vehicle transactions at the DMV office is “an even bigger challenge,” Cianfrini said.

“We basically had to change the way we do business,” he said. “Per Gov. (Andrew) Cuomo’s mandate (which took effect on June 22), it’s by appointment only and only for Genesee County residents.”

As would be expected, the amount of phone calls coming into the local DMV is staggering.

“Hundreds per day, requesting appointments, requesting information,” Cianfrini said. “We’re getting calls from other counties, people just going through the phone book. We’re getting calls from Westchester County and Suffolk County, Long Island. We’ll say (to them), “What are you calling here for and they’ll say, ‘I’m just going down the list, we got to the Gs and you answered.’ ”

Listing of In-Office Transactions

Transactions being handled in the office include standard, REAL ID and Enhanced License renewals and transfers from out of state; first-time applications to upgrade to REAL ID or Enhanced licenses or non-driver ID cards; first-time applications for non-driver Identification Cards; applications for passenger, motorcycle or CDL permits; conditional or restricted licenses; vehicle registration reciprocity from another state, and testing and issuance for learner’s permits and commercial driver’s licenses.

Cianfrini said any registration transaction is limited to the drop boxes in Le Roy and Batavia, and he encourages residents to use the drop boxes, which are checked twice a day and are overflowing with paperwork.

“New registrations with license plates issued are limited to Genesee County residents only. Those go into the drop box and we process those as fast as we can,” he said. “We’re currently running 10 days to two weeks to get those processed and get the plates issued. We call the customer and they come in to pick up their plates.”

Vehicle registration renewals and license plate surrenders are pulled from the drop box and processed the same day they are received, with the registrations and/or receipts mailed back to the customer upon completion, he added. 

Cianfrini acknowledged that people do get upset -- calling it an “unfortunate situation,” but signaled that if these transactions were done in the office, the wait for an appointment could be a month.

“Right now, we’re scheduling license transactions out about two weeks, while that some counties are scheduling appointments now for December,” he said.

Other key points of his presentation:

Department of Motor Vehicles

• Deb Igoe has replaced Leslie Krajewski, who retired, as deputy clerk for the DMV. Cianfrini said Krajewski is missed, but Igoe has “jumped in with both feet and has even exceeded my expectations.”

• Dealer work at the DMV is through the roof. The local office has taken in more than $150,000 in revenue through dealer work in 2020, just a bit less than 2019, but an impressive total considering that the office took in no dealer transactions for three months. Cianfrini said the five-year average for dealer transactions is $163,000 per year.

• The county DMV’s procedure for answering the phone is the most efficient, with Cianfrini claiming that online appointment systems have no customer service help and they run the risk of “crashing” and losing previously set up appointments.

• Overall, DMV revenues are better than anticipated. Vehicle use tax revenue is projected at $400,000 for 2020; the 2019 total was $402,000. Motor vehicle online transactions will reach close to $30,000 this year; the 2019 total was $17,600.

• The county is requesting the state to provide equipment to add another station at the DMV office, which would be linked to the state DMV server to process transactions. The additional stations could be used to run dealer or drop-box transactions in the near future, and possibly open to the public once the appointment mandate is lifted. Currently, the DMV office has eight full-time and two part-time employees.

Clerk’s Recording Office

• The process of back scanning land records and civil records to facilitate online searches of these records on a subscription basis continues. Deed indexes, the actual deeds and mortgage index books are accessible back to 1927, while and the actual mortgage documents are scanned back to 1966. Plans call for those to be scanned back to 1927, but it is an expensive task. Miscellaneous records go back to 1974 and that index goes back to 1926.

• Through the clerk’s office user accounts for online records, more than $30,000 in revenue is expected for this year.

• COVID-19 has forced attorneys and title companies to do more electronic filing of legal documents, which has led to a large increase in the office’s electronic-recording. “It is much more efficient to accept these documents electronically versus bringing them in and handing them to us,” he said, adding that the office is encountering a huge increase in E-filing of civil records as well, going through the NYS Courts Electronic Filing program.

Genesee County Clerk Michael Cianfrini said he is expecting a major traffic jam when the Department of Motor Vehicles office on the lower floor of County Building I opens its doors once again for walk-in service.

“I do anticipate that when we reopen, we’re going to be inundated,” Cianfrini said on Wednesday as he provided an update on DMV/clerk’s office operations to the Genesee County Legislature’s Ways & Means Committee.

While a specific date for a full reopening has yet to be determined, Cianfrini said he believes it could happen early next month.

“The last I’m hearing is that we should be part of Phase Two (of the four-phase New York State reopening plan) and the date I hear kicked around, but it’s by no means set in stone, is June 8^th,” he said.

Cianfrini said that throughout the COVID-19-induced person-to-person lockout, the DMV office in Batavia has kept busy with reduced staffing that also includes Deputy Clerk Leslie D. Krajewski and two or three customer service representatives.

He said that processing transactions for auto dealers has been steady and that citizens have been utilizing drop boxes in Le Roy and Batavia to a greater degree after his office publicized that option.

“Dealers are actually selling a lot of cars right now … and we have been able to maintain a pretty good dealer work flow,” Cianfrini said. “My goal is to try to get caught up on all the dealer work by the time we reopen. We’re close and the dealer work continues to come in.”

He said his office has been processing vehicle registration renewals, registration transfers, driver’s license renewals (if people submit valid eye test results), vehicle plate surrenders and, more recently, issuing license plates for new purchases.

“Originally, we were told we were forbidden from doing that (issuing plates), but the more I was hearing other DMVs were doing it, we started also issuing license plates to Genesee County residents only,” he said. “We have a limited supply of plates and we have not gotten resupplied on that, so we don’t want to run out.”

Financially, revenue is not far off of 2019 levels, he said, with $300,000 coming into the county for the first four months of this year, compared to $353,000 for the same time period in 2019.

Cianfrini said that the office is “ready to go” as far as social distancing and other safety protocols are concerned, but did admit that answering the phone may be placed on the back burner at the outset.

“We may have to temporarily turn the phones off when we first reopen … and we may try to change our message to include all the information that we typically get asked when people call -- to just include that in the message -- but on a temporary basis to focus on the people who come in,” he advised.

He pointed out that there will be a lot of 16-year-olds who haven’t been able to get their permits, as well as many, many others seeking service. He also mentioned that employees will continue to encourage people to use the drop boxes.

“If we have the 500 people in line that I anticipate once we reopen … we can’t do the phones and answer the customers that are waiting in line,” he said, noting that the office has received hundreds of calls per day – nonstop from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. – mostly from out-of-county residents unable to get through to their DMV offices.

Cianfrini also reported on activity at the County Clerk’s office upstairs, citing the effectiveness of e-recording (land documents) and e-filing (civil filings) software that was implemented last year.

“We’ve been fairly busy … attorneys have made the transition to e-recording very smoothly,” he said.

He said the office receives a couple dozen calls a day about pistol permits, a service that he hasn’t been able to provide.

“But when we do reopen, that’s going to be the thing that really drives us,” he said.

Cianfrini also said he is not worried about a permanent loss of revenue.

“I don’t anticipate a big drop-off beyond the national economic downtown … (as) pretty much anything that would have been recorded is going to be recorded and anything that would have been filed is going to be filed – and anybody that planned on doing a passport or pistol permit transaction will probably still come in anyway once we reopen.”

Press release from Genesee County Clerk Michael Cianfrini:

Due to the risks associated with the novel coronavirus, and after consultation with relevant health professionals, the County Clerk’s Recording Office will be closed to the public effective Wednesday, March 18^th.

We will unfortunately not be able to process pistol permit amendments, passport applications, DBA filings or in-office real estate recordings.

All users are strongly encouraged to use the eFiling, eRecording and online search capabilities that our office offers. 

Please be advised that the office will maintain minimal staff in the office to process mail transactions and electronically submitted transactions. For any paper filings or searches that are not time sensitive, please hold off on filing or recording until this necessary restriction can be lifted.

Please visit our website for information on obtaining a subscription to access our records online. Civil filings can continue to be submitted through the NYSCEF eFiling system. Real estate documents and other recordings can still be submitted electronically through either Simplifile or CSC.  

In addition, the Genesee County DMV will also be closed to the public effective Wednesday, March 18^th.

While we will not be open to the public, the office will continue to process certain transactions submitted either through the drop box or U.S. Mail. For registration renewals, please sign the back of the registration invite and make your check or money order payable to the “Genesee County Clerk."

Driver’s License renewals can be submitted via mail and will require the following:

• An eye test report (MV-619) or you may visit any Vision Registry Location and the results will be electronically forwarded to the DMV.  
• Enclose the paper invitation sent to you in the mail, or you may obtain a form MV-44 on the MY DMV website.  Make the check or money order payable to the “Genesee County Clerk.”

License plate surrenders can be dropped off with $1 cash and a written address to return the receipt to.

A clear and complete copy of a CDL Medical Examiners Certificate may also be deposited in the drop box with a valid phone number on the back.  We will fax the certificate and notify you when it is processed in the DMV system (takes approximately two weeks).

We also remind everyone that during this period the public can utilize the DMV services available online to complete many DMV transactions.

As County Clerk, I recognize the inconvenience that these restrictions place on the public, but please understand that the interests of public health and the health of the County Clerk staff are of utmost concern. It is our sincere hope that these measures can be lifted as soon as the public health officials deem prudent.