Recorders office staffing request stalls as commissioners seek more data

County Recorder Andrea Allen presented a staffing plan requesting 17 new positions (15 operational staff plus two IT roles) to address a processing backlog and to meet statutory processing goals. Allen told the board the office recorded 210,719 documents in 2020 and is currently staffed with roughly 30 filled positions (34 on the staffing plan). She said the requested hires would help the office get compliant with processing requirements and index legacy records.

Commissioners pressed the underlying math. One commissioner used a benchmark of 5,000 documents per employee to argue Utah County would need as many as 42–58 employees to meet the year's processing obligations once carryover work is accounted for; staff and the recorder's office noted carryover from 2020 could push 2021 processing demand to roughly 290,000 documents and thus would require more employees if the county were staffed for the whole year.

Some commissioners said they had not been provided the latest spreadsheet and asked for the Word (editable) version of the draft policy and additional analysis; others cautioned that delaying action could jeopardize recruitment for already open registers. After debate, the commission voted to continue the staffing request for one week to allow circulation of the requested documentation and further review.