Utah County recorder reports surge in recorded documents and fees, warns staffing and dashboard limits strain operations

The Utah County recorder’s office told county commissioners during a budget presentation that a recent jump in recorded documents and a mid‑2019 flat fee increase have raised fee revenue but also strained staff capacity.

Jeff Smith, the county recorder, said the office usually spends just over $3 million annually but has collected a little more than $6 million in fees year‑to‑date and expects to reach roughly $7.5 million by the end of 2020. "We finally got that increase in the middle of last year to $40 from 10," Smith said, referring to the flat recording fee that he said has simplified billing and boosted revenue.

The presentation focused as much on operations as on dollars. Smith told commissioners the office employs 31 people across recording, mapping and customer support and set performance goals that include making recorded documents available online within 48 hours and completing mapping within two weeks of proofing entry. The office had aimed for an average of about 100 documents entered per person per day in 2020 but raised that planning target to 150 documents per person as volumes climbed.

A recorder's office staff member who spoke about daily operations described new dashboards developed with the county IT team that track who touched a document, routing status, assigned versus completed work and queue lengths. The staff member said the dashboards are still being refined and some screenshots shown to commissioners contained stale date labels; IT and recorder staff meet weekly to correct filters and make the data live.

Staff explained a large "fodder" category of non‑conveyancing filings (mortgages, UCCs, foreclosures, judgments) is handled differently from deeds and subdivisions and therefore inflates some counts; routing logic can include multiple recipients which is why assigned and completed columns do not arithmetically sum.

Commissioners pressed for context on productivity and staffing. "The average is about 100," an office staff member said when asked how many documents per day staff were processing; commissioners were told that some employees hit the target while others did not, and the office is restructuring performance expectations to respond to spikes in workload.

Smith and staff cited a recent surge in subdivision filings—one week included about 147 new lots—that contributes to large swings in daily work. They also said the office is understaffed by roughly four full‑time positions compared with the 2019 staffing plan and that COVID‑era hiring freezes and remote‑training challenges have slowed recruitment and onboarding.

On remote work, the staff member said productivity has not fallen and in some mapper functions has improved. The office also credited a recently added quality‑control analyst with more timely delivery of mapping data to the assessor's office and with reducing prior backlogs.

No formal motions or votes were taken on the recorder’s presentation. The commission had no further questions and adjourned until the following day.

Why it matters: The recorder’s capacity affects how quickly property transactions and land records are available to title companies, assessors and members of the public. Staff said continued high volumes and the uneven distribution of work across document types will require ongoing dashboard refinement, hiring and operational adjustments.