State Recognizing Improvements at Town Clerk’s Office
By Robin Vinci | Editor at May 6, 2024 | 8:15 am | Print
The New Britain Town Clerk’s Office has made a lot of changes under Mark Bernacki, who has been town clerk for three years. The State of Connecticut has recognized what is being done and selected New Britain to assist in piloting two different programs for their election management system.
In the presidential primary election, which occurred last week. Towns used to do everything on paper calling for errors.
The new system which gets quicker election night results, can enter data much quicker.
“We were out of there by 10 p.m. on Election night,” said Bernacki. “In the past it was 11, 12 or even 1 a.m. in the morning. It worked out great.”
Once it is submitted, the State has it automatically. They don’t have to sit by their fax machine and put info in by hand. It now has instantaneous live results.
“The staff has been phenomenal in picking up the new system and packages,” said Bernacki. “We went on site tours to see other town clerk offices. It helped us see the different types of processes. It increased our learning curves.”
The City did find some problems, which will be reported to the State, but in general the system was smooth.
The second program was campaign finance filings. If you are running for office you must file your finances. In municipal filings the files are large and are done often. The ECRIS system ran a pilot so it did not have to be done by the town.
“We have been on the cutting edge and we are the pilot for 2017. We are getting the training right now,” said Bernacki. “They will go over the computer system. We are starting to see a lot more innovation coming down the road. We want things off the wall and onto computers. We need to better automate the system.”
Bernacki said when he first came in, the town clerk’s office was using DOS.
Doing tasks quicker cuts down on overtime costs and a part-time position was removed.
Bernacki said one way to improve the system in the future and save more money is to cut down on the number of polling places in the City.
The Town Clerk office collects about $2 million for the State and the City. It went up from $1.5 million when Bernacki began his position.
“People now by more land records from us as it can be done online. It is a convenience factor,” said Bernacki. “People use it from all over the State. If they print a 6 or 8 page document it costs money. Since it is done by the Internet, we don’t have to print them here so costs come down.”
“A lot of people from out of State can use it now,” added Marie Haze, who works in the office.
The City saved over $19,000 in copying costs alone.
“We are saving taxpayers money,” Bernacki said.
Credit cards can now be used at the town clerk office. Previously, if people did not have cash, town clerk officials had to decline them and tell them to go to the bank.
“We are doing that for smaller ticket items like $20 now,” said Bernacki. “We will be able to do it for dog licensing as well which is coming up. It has helped a lot for customer service.”
Bernacki also gave up his large office and took a smaller one so that the office can be used for three computer stations. This allows employees to concentrate and do things quicker rather than being in the front office and being distracted.
Almost everything used in the town clerk office can now be online. Other City departments are now trying to put their programs online as well.
“It saves time and makes everyone more productive,” said Bernacki.
