Beaufort County Commissioners vote not to record paper copies of deeds | Eastern North Carolina Now

 BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

During the October 2, 2023, Beaufort County Commissioners meeting a motion was made by Stan Deatherage and seconded by Hood Richardson to demand the Beaufort County Register of Deeds to resume filing deeds (and powers of attorney and deeds of trust and other documents historically kept in hard copy books) in hard copy form.  The motion was defeated 5 to two.   Only Richardson and Deatherage voted for the motion.

According to a report and investigation conducted by Richardson the last day deeds were filed in hard copy in the Court Hose was January 4, 2023.  That is the third day the newly appointed Register of Deeds held office.  Since that time all recording that would have been placed in hard copy books have been filed on the internet.

Jennifer Leggett Whitehurst retired on the last day of December 2022.  The Register of Deeds is an elected office.  The Republican Party nominated Carolyn Garris to fill the position.  The Beaufort County Board of County Commissioners appointed Garris amid much controversy.  Garris is and was at that time Chairman of The Beaufort County Executive Committee.  Garris secretly held the Register of Deeds vacancy without informing the Republican Party or the Executive Committee so she could set herself to get the job.  It pays $70,000 per year.  Several people inquired about the job and were effectively told the position was to be filled by Garris.  Garris was publicly accused of being deceptive and without the standard of ethics necessary to be a Register of Deeds.  However, her political allies, insisted she was entitled to the job because the Republican Party wanted her to have it.  Garris had no resume that pointed to her level of ability, education, responsibility and competence to perform the duties of Resister of Deeds.

Republicans, Frankie Waters, Randy Walker and John Rebholz insisted that Garris was entitled to the job, regardless of her lack of qualifications, simply because the Republican Party nominated her.  I along with Stan Deatherage insisted the Board of County Commissioners has the responsibility to make sure all County employees are qualified and competent.  Democrats Jerry Langley and Ed Booth joined with the Republicans in their bipartisan way.

The recording of deeds and other vital documents is one of the important functions’ governments do to protect property ownership and provide for an orderly society with regard to real estate and other legal functions.  When the internet is not operating, no property owner can prove ownership of real estate except by producing a hard copy deed.  The internet is not reliable, can be hacked and provides an opportunity for hackers to change recorded documents.  Can you imagine trying to protect your property with your deed?  How does law enforcement know the deed presented is valid.  Not guaranteeing a repository of land deeds means one would have to fight off (possibly with guns) those who would want to move into any property.

The Beaufort County budget provides the Register of Deeds with the money and personnel to record deeds in the same fashion as we have historically done.  There is no excuse to stop recording other than woke Carolyn Garris and the five woke commissioners who support her are a part of the group who are trying to destroy our national historical fabric by making as many drastic changes to as possible.  There is no better way than to attack and make questionable our system of property ownership.

The five commissioners who refused to demand the register of deeds do her job are the same group that has banded together to support each other and try to drive out conservatives.  The honor character and ethics of all elected officials are important.  Hopefully the public will make the appropriate changes in the upcoming elections.

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In an interview with the Beaufort Observer this morning (10-3-23) Richardson made clear that he is not opposed to the electronic system for filing these documents, but rather the fact that county commissioners do not know whether the electronic system is secure and sound in preventing improper use.  “Any electronic system that does not have adequate entrance requirements and redundancy in case of electronic malfunctions and unauthorized use should be backed up manually until we know the electronic system is foolproof.  And I doubt that any electronic system is foolproof. 

That is exactly what we have seen with our elections systems.  Nefarious actors can defeat even the best system today.  We can’t have that where peoples’ businesses, homes, farms and other property are at stake.”  But all of this has not been hashed out by this Board of Commissioners in public meetings sufficient for the public to understand what is being changed,” he said.

The second thing I’m concerned about is how this was done.  The previous Register of Deeds keep the dual system while she was in office.  The new Register of Deeds comes in with no experience and makes a major change by dropping the manual system and going totally with the electronic system.   She did this without ensuring that the Commissioners and the public knew what was going on.  I just don’t think that was a wise move.  People no longer just blindly trust government officials anymore and this kind of action adds to the distrust.  Instead, we need to be restoring public trust and that is what the Commissioners’ oversite authority should be doing,” he said.