Monroe County Clerk Adam Bello has released a letter from the State Department to the county attorney, confirming that former clerk Cheryl Dinolfo shouldn’t have been waiving local passport processing fees for some customers.
The letter is to County Attorney Michael Davis, from Jonathan Rolbin, the Director of the State Department’s Office of Legal Affairs. It reads in part “by law, acceptance agents cannot execute an application without accepting an execution fee.”
Cheryl Dinolfo is now the County Executive. In a statement this afternoon, she says she followed a longstanding policy that spanned many former administrations, both Republican and Democratic.
Bello announced last month that his predecessor had been waiving the $25 local processing fee on passports, mainly for local officials and law enforcement. Dinolfo called it “good customer service.”