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TOWN
CLERK RACE
DEVITO
SOUNDS ALARM OVER SECURITY ISSUES IN STAMFORD CLERK'S OFFICE
Steve
DeVito, a decorated Stamford Deputy Police Chief (ret.) with
34 years of crime fighting experience, today called upon the
City and Town Clerk to conduct a formal audit of its security
and disaster recovery shortcomings.
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In
a time when security should be on every public institution's
priority list, Stamford
is faced with a crisis-level lack of security and disaster
recovery preparedness in the Clerk's Office, DeVito
told a crowd gathered outside the Clerk's Office in
the Stamford Government Center. The
Clerk has a civic and legal responsibility to ensure
that all records are safe, secure and accessible and
that just is not happening right now in the Clerk's
Office.
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DeVito
cited security failures of the current Clerk's Office across
five fronts:
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Disaster Recovery:
No adequate disaster
recovery plan in the event of a catastrophic loss of the City's
valuable documents due to natural disasters, fire, theft,
terrorist attacks, etc. In addition, the index files
are kept in a single spiral notebook with no back-up, and
is open with no security.
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Fire Prevention:
The Clerk's Office has a water sprinkler
system to fight fires, which would destroy
the paper documents and electronic records in the office.
Dry fire suppression is the only generally accepted
method.
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Warehouse Storage:
Files have been
transferred to the old police station on Haig Avenue, which
has no appropriate climate control system for Stamford's old
records, and is an old building subject to water leaks.
Piles of irreplaceable records remain scattered in Old Town
Hall the recording and proper storage of those records should
have been accomplished long ago. There is a $3.00 records
fee that the Clerk charges, which should be used to more quickly
secure these records in a safe environment.
•
Office Security:
The Clerk's Office is falling short on physically securing
its office area. With only one security camera on an
emergency entrance and given the sensitive nature of the documents
for which the Clerk is responsible, there is not adequate
protection of personnel and records.
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Cyber-Security:
Once the Clerk's Office finally
modernizes its technological capabilities, it must ensure
that it is cyber-secure, protected from cyber-terrorism, cyber-thieves
and recreational hackers.
DeVito also cited two other areas
where the Clerk's Office must immediately focus to fully modernize
its operations technology and customer
service . On technology, DeVito said key constituencies
of
the Clerk's Office must be able to access certain records
over a secure Internet connection; for example: title searchers
and attorneys should have access to land records via the Internet,
as should funeral directors for death certificates just as
they do in New Hampshire. This would make it more convenient
for users, reduce lines at the Clerk's Office, and cut costs.
On customer service, DeVito cited restrictive hours
and burdensome bureaucratic rules that run counter to his
customer service philosophy The Clerk's Office hours should
reflect the lives of the people it serves; not the other way
around, he said.
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