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Recorder asks board to set $75 judicial-protection fee, approves compliance fund expenses and online-records fee changes
Summary
The Clay County Board of Commissioners approved Recorder-office budget items July 8 including $105,000 in Compliance Fund expenses, a $75 judicial-address-protection fee allowed by recent state legislation, and changes to online records and print fees.
Clay County Recorder Kimberly presented several items to the board July 8 and the board approved each by motion.
Kimberly said the Compliance Committee recommended $105,000 for the Recorder's Compliance Fund in the 2026 budget to be used for maintenance of the tax system, corner remonumentation, information services and assessor software. "This comes from the Recorder's Compliance Fund. We do this every year," Kimberly said; she explained the fund is supported by a portion of recording fees and must be used under statute for land-records-related expenses. Commissioner Abinger moved to approve the $105,000 expense; Commissioner Crabbinoff seconded and the motion carried.
Kimberly also asked the board to set a fee of $75 for each real-property notice, consent to access, request to access and consent to terminate under a new statute implementing an address-protection program for district court judges. Kimberly said the statute allows a fee up to $75 and warned that the program will require "an extensive amount of work by many different departments" because documents already public may need to be made private. Commissioner Moschel moved to approve the $75 fee and Commissioner Ebinger seconded; the board approved the motion.
Finally, Kimberly requested changes to online real-estate records fees: a flat $0.20-per-minute overage charge for all plans, increasing the per-page print cost from $0.35 to $0.40 and applying the print fee to search-result prints. She said increased cybersecurity, hosting and storage costs for federally required backups and scanned records justify the change. Commissioner Kravanoff moved to adopt the online-fee changes; the motion passed by voice vote.
Kimberly also presented the Recorder's 2026 budget highlights: a modest expected decrease in recording revenues compared with earlier years, increased revenue from the online-fee changes, and higher computer-software expense lines to cover security and hosting. She said the compliance fund balance is around $100,000 and she prefers to retain that balance to cover potential staffing or compliance contingencies.
The board did not change the compliance fund statute; Kimberly noted the fund must be spent for land records purposes only.
