Monroe County Clerk A
dam Bello says he’s found more than $35,000 in fees which should have been
collected by the clerk’s office were waived for certain “privileged” individuals before he took over the office.
Those include the portion of some 600 passport applications, a notary public and more than 50 pistol permit application fees which should have been retained by the county. Bello says this is a violation of state and federal laws which he’s reported to the appropriate government agencies. He says the individuals involved in waiving the fees are no longer working for the clerk’s office. Bello says he’s identified some 600 separate violations.
In the case of a passport, Bello says the fee would be $110 to the federal government plus a $25 local execution fee. The local execution and photo fee would be waived or not recorded.
Bello says under the previous administration, staff had apparently been trained to look for certain individuals and make sure they weren’t charged. He spoke of a “culture of fee waiving in the Monroe County Clerk’s Office.” At the time, the office would have been run by the current County Executive, Cheryl Dinolfo.
Bello says “it was intentional, and the previous administration would have known it was occurring.”
In a statement released this afternoon, County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo says some employees in the clerk’s office had discretion to waive local fees to improve customer service… and to push back against state and federal initiatives to take the local fees for themselves.
She also says some people such as military personnel and law enforcement are exempt from paying fees. She says Bello needs to provide the context along with his statements if people are to evaluate them fairly .
County Communications Director Brett Walsh says the County Clerk’s Office returned more than $30 million to Monroe County taxpayers under Cheryl Dinolfo’s leadership and kept a strong focus on customer service.
Bello is a Democrat, appointed county clerk by Governor Cuomo after Dinolfo was elected county exec last fall. He’s running for election in his own right and Republicans want the seat back, but Bello says this has nothing to do with politics. He says it violates the sense that everyone should be treated equally by government.
Bello says he’s ordered his staff not to waive any fees for individuals or businesses unless specifically required by law. He’s moving to bill those who had fees waived for the amount he says is owned and he’s also asking federal permission to reveal the names of those whose passport fees were waived. State and federal law requires names of those who apply for permits to be kept confidential.