[Derived from L.L. No. 8-1967]
Pursuant to the provisions of § 533 of the County Law, Suffolk County hereby assumes the liability to save harmless and protect its County Clerk and employees of the County Clerk's office from financial loss arising out of any claim, demand, suit or judgment by reason of alleged negligence of said County Clerk or employees, provided that each act was committed in the discharge of their duties and within the scope of their employment.
[Added 6-28-1994 by L.L. No. 16-1994; amended 9-16-1997 by L.L. No. 33-1997]
A. 
Designation of records management officer.
(1) 
A records management program is hereby established under the auspices of the County Clerk, to be headed by the Records Management Officer.
(2) 
The County Legislature shall designate the County Records Management Officer to serve at the pleasure of the County Legislature.
(3) 
The Records Management Officer shall be responsible for administering the current and archival public records in storage areas for the County in accordance with local, state and federal laws and guidelines.
B. 
Definitions. As used in this section, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
ARCHIVES
Those official records which have been determined by the County Clerk to have sufficient historical or other value to warrant their continued preservation by the County.
RECORDS
Official files, minutes and documents, books, papers, photographs, sound recordings, microforms or any other materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received pursuant to law or in conjunction with the transactions of official County business.
RECORDS CENTER
A central storage area maintained by the County Clerk and the Records Management Office for the storing, servicing, securing and processing of records which must be preserved for varying periods of time.
RECORDS DISPOSITION
The removal by the County, in accordance with approved records control schedules, of the records no longer necessary for the conduct of business by the County through removal methods, which may include the disposition of temporary records by destruction or donation or the transfer of records to a central storage facility for records with scheduled retention periods or permanent storage of records determined to have historical or other sufficient value warranting continued preservation or the transfer of records from one County agency to another County agency.
RECORDS MANAGEMENT
The planning, controlling, directing, organizing, training, promotion and other managerial activities involved in records creation, records maintenance and use and records disposition, including records preservation, records disposal and the records center or other storage facilities.
SERVICING
Making information in records available to any agency for official use or to the public.
C. 
Powers and duties of Records Management Officer.
(1) 
The Records Management Officer shall have all the necessary powers to carry out the efficient administration, determination of value, use, preservation, storage and disposition of the public records kept, filed or received by the departments, agencies and offices of the County.
(2) 
The Records Management Officer shall continually survey and examine public records to recommend their classification so as to determine the most suitable method to be used for maintaining, storing and servicing them under the following guidelines:
(a) 
Disposition: Records deemed obsolete and unnecessary according to the New York Education Law are subject to disposition.
(b) 
Archival retention: information containing administrative, legal, fiscal, research, historical or educational value which warrants their permanent retention.
(c) 
Active retention: records not yet subject to disposition according to state law.
(3) 
The Records Management Officer shall establish guidelines for proper records management in any department, agency or office of the County in accordance with local, state and federal laws and guidelines.
(4) 
The Records Management Officer shall report annually to the County Legislature on the powers and duties herein mentioned, including but not limited to the development and progress of programs to date and planned activities for subsequent years.
(5) 
The Records Management Officer shall operate a central records management storage facility for storing, processing and servicing all County records for all County departments, agencies and offices.
(6) 
The Records Management Officer shall also:
(a) 
Develop a comprehensive records management program.
(b) 
Conduct an initial survey and analysis of all records, to be followed up annually with a report of records stored.
(c) 
Encourage and coordinate the continuous legal destruction of obsolete records through the adoption and use of the New York State Archives Record Retention and Disposition Schedules.
(d) 
Develop suitable retention periods for records not covered by the New York State Records Retention and Disposition Schedules. Subsequently, the Records Management Officer must secure approval of such retention periods from the New York State Commissioner of Education and gain adoption from the Legislature of any proposed change before the retention period takes effect.
(e) 
Assist each County department, agency or office for the establishment of a records management system, to support the overall County records management program and encourage the continued efficient management of records within respective departments, agencies or offices.
(f) 
Set up and oversee a center for the storage area.
(g) 
Maintain archival materials which are not official County records but which have historical value to the community or close relationship to the existing archival collection, subject to archival space, staff and cost limitations and to the potential endangerment of such materials if they are not collected by the archives.
(h) 
Coordinate and carry out or participate in the planning for development of advanced records management systems and equipment.
(i) 
Prepare special and annual reports on the progress of the records management program, cost savings, cost avoidance problems and additional issues.
D. 
Custody and control of records.
(1) 
Active records: The originating department, agency or office shall have full custody, both legal and physical, over records still in active use.
(2) 
Inactive records: The originating department shall be the legal custodian of its records and shall retain the power to retrieve and use records deposited in inactive storage in the Records Center. The Records Management Officer shall have physical custody of inactive records and shall determine the method and design of storage.
(3) 
Archival records: Records transferred to or acquired by the archives shall be under the full custody, both legal and physical, of the archives, as directed by the Records Management Officer, rather than the department, agency or office which created or held them immediately prior to being transferred to the archives.
(a) 
Records shall be transferred to the archives upon the recommendations of the Records Management Officer, with the approval of the head of the department, agency or office which had custody of the records.
(b) 
Records may be removed temporarily or permanently from the archives at the request of the Records Management Officer or the head of the department, agency or office which had custody of the records immediately prior to the transfer of those records to the archives.
E. 
Disposition of records.
(1) 
No records shall be destroyed or otherwise disposed of by a department, agency or office of the County until it has met the time limit on the State Records Retention and Disposition Schedule or unless approved by the Records Management Officer. Following required consents and prior to actual destruction, the Records Management Officer shall allow the County Historian to review and/or remove any single document or sampling of documents that are of historic value to the community.
F. 
Enforcement. The County Department of Law may take steps to recover local government records which have been alienated from proper custody and may, when necessary, institute actions of replevin to recover such records.[2]
[2]
Editor's Note: Former Subsection G, which immediately followed and which established a Records Management Advisory Committee, was repealed and the Committee abolished 12-6-2005 by L.L. No. 37-2005.
[1]
Editor's Note: Former § A18-2, County Tax Map designation required on all subdivision filings, derived from L.L. No. 22-1976, was repealed 9-28-1988 by L.L. No. 31-1988.
[Derived from L.L. No. 7-1979]
A. 
The County Clerk is hereby authorized and directed to require that all instruments presented for filing or recording in his office which affect or pertain to the title of land in Suffolk County shall have endorsed thereon a verified number or combination of numbers which identify such land in relation to district, section, block and lot number, or other appropriate indicia, shown on the Real Property Tax Service Agency maps.
B. 
Types of instruments which affect or pertain to the title of land shall be deemed to include:
(1) 
Agreement.
(2) 
Amendment of indenture of easement.
(3) 
Amendment of lease.
(4) 
Amendment of lease memorandum.
(5) 
Appropriation.
(6) 
Assignment of agreement.
(7) 
Assignment of contract.
(8) 
Assignment of lease.
(9) 
Assignment of mortgage.
(10) 
Assignment of rents.
(11) 
Assignment of lessor's interest in lease assignment.
(12) 
Cancellation of contract.
(13) 
Certificate canceling tax sale.
(14) 
Collateral deed.
(15) 
Contract.
(16) 
Court order.
(17) 
Covenant or restriction.
(18) 
Declaration.
(19) 
Deed.
(20) 
Easement.
(21) 
Grant.
(22) 
Judgment.
(23) 
Lease.
(24) 
Lis pendens.
(25) 
Memorandum of extension of option to purchase.
(26) 
Memorandum of lease.
(27) 
Miscellaneous.
(28) 
Modification of covenant or restriction.
(29) 
Mortgage.
(30) 
Option.
(31) 
Order.
(32) 
Patent.
(33) 
Power of attorney as to specific property.
(34) 
Receipt and release.
(35) 
Receipt, release and satisfaction.
(36) 
Release.
(37) 
Release of covenant or restriction.
(38) 
Release of easement.
(39) 
Release of part of mortgaged premises.
(40) 
Release of right of occupancy.
(41) 
Release of water main or appurtenance.
(42) 
Revocation of power of attorney as to specific property.
(43) 
Satisfaction of collateral deed.
(44) 
Satisfaction of mortgage.
(45) 
Termination of assignment.
(46) 
Termination of lease.
(47) 
Will.
(48) 
Such other instruments as the County Clerk may determine should be endorsed with verified numbers.
C. 
The County Clerk shall provide space in his office for personnel and equipment of the Real Property Tax Service Agency assigned to verify, and shall collect and account for the appropriate fees for verification.
D. 
It is intended, because of the importance of priority in the filing and recording of certain instruments, that the verification process will take but a few minutes at most. If the instrument offered for filing or recording described property in such a way that it is not readily identifiable in relation to existing maps, a temporary or dummy number will be assigned consisting of district, section, Julian date and a sequence number suffixing the Julian date, so as to conform with § 316-a, Subdivision 5, of the Real Property Law. In instances where multiple parcels are involved, a numbering device may be employed to show inclusive sequential numbers or, in the same district, section and block, nonsequential numbers without the repetition of the district, section and block. A correction docket shall be maintained for temporary numbers in which space will be provided for the entry of corrected numbers after map changes are made and appropriate certificates, affirmations or affidavits are filed.
E. 
The Director of the Real Property Tax Service Agency is authorized and directed to endorse on instruments offered for filing or recording in the office of the County Clerk, as determined by such Clerk to affect or pertain to the title of real property, numbers identifying such property in relation to the Agency's maps and to verify such endorsement by an appropriate stamp or other notation.
F. 
The act of endorsement by the Director of the Real Property Tax Service Agency, as stipulated above, shall not be construed as to cause validation or invalidation of any conveyance of real property or to impair any title founded on such conveyance or record, should the appropriate map designation not appear or have been erroneously stated on such conveyance.
G. 
The Director of the Real Property Tax Service Agency is entitled, for the verification of Tax Map numbers on instruments presented for recording or filing, to a fee of $200 per parcel; for each additional parcel a fee of $200 for each parcel, up to a dollar amount not to exceed $5,000, payable to the County Clerk at the time of recording or filing. In addition, the Director of the Real Property Tax Service Agency is entitled, for the verification of Tax Map numbers on all mortgage instruments, including but not limited to mortgages, supplemental mortgages, refinance of mortgages, reverse mortgages, consolidations of mortgages, modifications of mortgages, assignment of mortgages, extension of mortgages, collateral mortgages, correction mortgages, substitute mortgages, subordination of mortgages, satisfaction of mortgages, alternative mortgages, miscellaneous mortgages, spreaders, splitters, nomination agreements, building loan agreements, as well as any other form of security agreement affecting real property, presented for recording or filing, a separate and additional fee of $200 per instrument, payable to the County Clerk at the time of recording or filing.
[Amended 8-29-1989 by L.L. No. 30-1989; 1-2-1991 by L.L. No. 2-1991; 11-30-2001 by L.L. No. 24-2001; 12-20-2011 by L.L. No. 11-2012[1]; 5-8-2012 by L.L. No. 35-2012; 11-17-2015 by L.L. No. 34-2015; 9-7-2016 by L.L. No. 26-2016; 12-20-2016 by L.L. No. 36-2016; 4-9-2019 by L.L. No. 19-2019; 4-12-2022 by L.L. No. 22-2022]
[1]
Editor’s Note: This local law was vetoed by the County Executive 12-27-2011, which veto was overridden by the County Legislature 2-7-2012.
H. 
For the purposes of the application of the foregoing fee schedule, a parcel consisting of contiguous lots within the same district, section and block shall be deemed as one parcel if so indicated in the instrument.
I. 
The Legislature contemplates the possibility that the administration of this section may give rise to the need for the adoption of rules and regulations to change existing procedures in the respective offices of the officials concerned. To harmonize interdepartmental operations and to facilitate the use of the data by the public, the County Clerk, the Director of the Real Property Tax Service Agency and the systems analysis supervisor in the Data Processing Division of the office of the County Executive are hereby constituted as a body and empowered to make rules and regulations pertaining administratively to the implementation of the verification process. No such rule or regulation shall change or affect any function of the County Comptroller. Upon their adoption, such rules and regulations shall be filed in the offices of the County Executive, the Clerk of the County Legislature, the County Clerk and the Director of Real Property Tax Service Agency.
[Amended 6-17-2014 by L.L. No. 32-2014]
J. 
The County Clerk is hereby authorized and directed to make postrecording and postfiling marginal notations on instruments relating to the correction and updating of land parcel identifiers.