Dellera, Hessey battle for recorder

In perhaps the most visible local election, a pair of challengers for Churchill County Recorder detailed their qualifications and experience last week at the LVN’s Candidates Night at the Fallon Convention Center.

The position is responsible for the maintenance and safe keeping of county records.

Jaime Dellera and Tasha Hessey outlined what each would bring to the office. The two have splattered campaign signs throughout Fallon and Churchill County in an attempt to sway voters for their support.

Joan Sims, the current county recorder, did not seek re-election, leaving the door open for Dellera or Hessey.

Hessey, who has been the deputy recorder for nearly eight year, and is responsible for following state law when she’s recording, indexing and scanning documents.

Hessey, who spoke first, said she has assisted Sims the past two years with the department’s budget and has completed numerous reports required to present to the county commission and others. She said she will upgrade software and technology as needed.

“I am the only candidate with experience in the recorder’s office,” Hessey said. “I am privileged to have the support of the current recorder Joan Sims, the entire Churchill County Commissioners, Norm Frey and Lynn Pearce.”

Dellera started with Churchill County in 1993 and worked for the county for 13 years. She left in 2006 and has been employed with the administration staff as the supervisor in the records division in Washoe County for the past eight years.

In her tenure with Churchill County, Dellera said she trained herself in various aspects of the entity with document management, computed elections, collected tax payments, reconciled county bank statements and assisted in District Court.

She left for Washoe County because Dellera realized she needed to grow her skill set to become an elected official.

She said her job requires editing, accuracy, filing, scanning, microfilming and review for compliance.

“Experience is an important factor, but there are also other qualities such as dedication, work ethic, community involvement, maturity, professionalism and integrity,” Dellera said in her opening remarks. “I understand the demand on elected officials to provide quality customer service with limited resources.”

As for supervisory experience, Hessey said she became the office’s supervisor five years ago during the recession, although she only supervises one employee in the three-person office. Her experience since 2006 includes sending monthly reports to the state, indexing all documents, checking back-up protocols and software maintenance.

“I took on all those duties without the title and pay due to where we were with the economy,” Hessey said.

Dellera, meanwhile, said she her experience in Washoe County has seen her office dwindle in size. She oversees two people, although the number was at four.

She reviews her employees work, sits in for the county clerk at times, head of the leadership team and sends reports to commissioners and the state and handles agendas.

The pressing issue with record keeping, though, is the safety of microfilm.

Dellera said if proper conditions are not met, the film will be corrupted.

“We keep two separate records, one on site and one off site,” she added. “We are tying to find a viable way to retain these documents. We are working very diligently to try to find a good solution so they are retrievable in the future.”

Hessey said Churchill County’s recorder’s office checked all documents about six months ago for proper conditions.

“We just currently, in the last month, have addressed the issue,” she said.