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Fleming County Clerk brings in $1 million in excess fees over 10 years

Fleming County Clerk

Fleming County Clerk Jarrod Fritz is celebrating 10 years as an elected official and bringing in $1 million in excess fees.

Fritz was elected to office in 2006 and officially began working in 2007.

“I was in banking before this,” said Fritz. ”I had a growing interest in the county government and I was already interested in the history of the area and the historical documents they had.”

Fleming County has records dating as far back as 1798 and the years since. The office spends $10,000-$15,000 per year to preserve documents and books because of the deterioration that can occur with them.

Since taking office, Fritz and his office is responsible for bring in over $1 million since 2007.

“Every year we have excess fees that go into the general fund of the Fiscal Court,” he said. “This can be used however is needed for the county at the time. This isn’t something that only I have done, but the clerks before me did too.”

The office is in charge of a variety of tasks that includes, but not limited to, collecting taxes, collecting on delinquent taxes that are turned over from the sheriff’s office, license registrations, title transfers and paying districts with whatever is collected on. Fritz tries to bring in $100,000 in excess fees every year.

“This office is a fee-based one,” he said. “This is where our income comes from as well. After all the taxes and payments have been made, whatever is left over is the excess.”

Frtiz spoke about how he felt his job was not only about the fees but to provide excellent customer service to the county.

“There is no I in team,” he said.” Everyone has a role in this office. We try to make sure that the customer is taken care of. You can actually renew your tags online now but that takes the face to face out of it. Our computers and technology are more updated than they have ever been but I don’t want to lose that custom care that we have. We spoil people here. They come in and have a problem and the staff does everything they can to help. A lot of places make you do as much as they can but not here.”

Fritz also talked about how he feels the system could improve.

“Currently, truck drivers have to go all the way to Frankfort to get their tags,” he said. “We can give them temporary tags, but they mail the plates from Frankfort and that can take longer than expected to get done.”

His office believes that if the county could handle the truck driver tags as well, it would be better for the state as well as the drivers.

“I feel like Kentuckians like to get the job done,” he said. “If they walk into an office or something, they just want to get things done and move on. Giving temporary tags doesn’t really help that.”

The clerk’s office works with the Kentucky Revenue Department, Kentucky Transportation Department, Secretary of State’s Office, Board of Elections, Wildlife and Game and the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives.

“We do the same thing as 30 years ago in a lot of ways,” he said. “The people in Frankfort that we answer to don’t fully understand what we do and need because they aren’t here. They know how it works and all that, but it would be nice for everyone to be on the same wavelength.”

Fritz intends to run again for office and would be happy to serve for many years as long as the people want and elect him.

The Ledger Independent is online at: http://www.maysville-online.com