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Home My Public Portal AboutResolution No. 260-06 03-14-2006 • RESOLUTION 260-06 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RICHLAND HILLS, TARRANT COUNT, TEXAS TRANSFERRING THE DUTIES OF VITAL STATISTICS REGISTRAR TO THE COUNTY CLERK OF TARRANT COUNTY WHEREAS; The City of Richland Hills (herein referred to as "City) desires to transfer the duties of Vital Statistics Registrar to the County Clerk of Tarrant County; and WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 191.023 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, the County Clerk has certified that her office has sufficient resources and finances to assume the duties, which include maintenance of birth and death records of the City; and WHEREAS, the Commissioner's Court of Tarrant County has approved a resolution authorizing the transfer of the duties to the County Clerk; and NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS, THAT: SECTION I. • That the duties of Vital Statistics Registrar are hereby transferred to the County Clerk of Tarrant with the transfer to be accomplished by Apri13, 2003. PASSED AND APPROVED BY THE CITY OF RICHLAND HILLS CITY COUNCIL THIS THE 14TH DAY OF MARCH 2006. CITY OF RICHLAND HILLS ~ ~ n n u~ r~i~~~~i,/i ~ APPROVED: ~ X v ~ ~ N LDA S. STRODER, MAYOR ATTEST': j 4 SLITTER, TRMC CITY SECRETARY • A • STATE OF TEXAS 3 3 COUNTY CLERK CERTIFICATION AND 3 COMMISSIONERS COURT RESOLUTION COUNTY OF TARRANT 3 Pursuant to 3 191.023 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, I, Suzanne Henderson, County Clerk of Tarrant County, Texas, certify that my office has sufficient resources and finances to assume the duties imposed by law relating to the maintenance of Birth and Death records of the City of Richland Hills, Tarrant County, Texas. zanne Henderson • COMMISSIONERS COURT RESOLUTION We, the Commissioners Court of Tarrant County, Texas, have received the above County Clerk Certification which declares that the County Clerk has sufficient resources and finances to assume the duties imposed by law relating to the maintenance of Birth and Death records of the City of Richland Hills, Tarrant County, Texas; Therefore, we resolve that the City of Richland Hills may transfer the duties imposed by law relating to the maintenance of Birth and Death records of the City of Richland Hills, Tarrant County, Texas to Suzanne Henderson, County Clerk of Tarrant County, Texas. We further resolve that this transfer shall be accomplished by Apri13, 2006. We authorize the County Judge to sign this resolution representing the County's agreement to this transfer and this timetable. s • `County Judge Tom n er iff • Memorandum to: Suzanne Henderson cc: David Karns From: Bertha Bible Singleton Dace: March 31, 2006 Re: Transfer of Records The complete files of all records of Births and Deaths within the City of Richland Hills, Texas have been transferred to the Tarrant County Clerk's Vital Records Dept. This transfer is to complete the Consolidation of Records process previously approved by Commissioners Court resolution. • Date of transfer: arch 3 2006 Released by: Received by: • 1 Ci~ TYO CITY OF RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS ~ ~ ~ • (817) 299-1800 • Fax (817) 299-1803 • 3200 DIANA DRIVE •RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS • 761 18 Website: www.richlandhills.com %ti ~`vv SAND Date: March 1, 2006 To: The Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers Pc: James W. Quin, City Manager From: Kim Sutter, City Secretary Re: Transfer of Local Registrar Duties History and Duties of Local Registrar The City of Richland Hills City Secretary has served as a Local Registrar since 1981. Local Registrar duties include the acceptance of death and birth records • for filing, the issuance of certified copies of said records, the responsibility to file the original records with the State's Bureau of Vital Statistics, notification of County elections office of deaths to have deceased voters removed from voter rolls, and the maintenance of all records associated with the duties. Needless to say, the duties of a Local Registrar are very important! Re nest As Local Registrar of Vital Statistics for the city, I respectfully request your approval to consolidate our local registrar duties with those of Tarrant County. Section 191.023 of the Health and Safety Code authorizes the transfer of the duty to maintain Birth and Death records from a municipality to the County Clerk, if the County Clerk agrees to assume the responsibilities and if the Commissioner's Court and the City Council approve. The County Clerk has agreed to assume the responsibilities and the Commissioner's Court approved the transfer at the February 21, 2006, Commissioner's Court meeting. Should the Council decide not to transfer the duties to the County Clerk, and to be in to compliance with the code, a deputy registrar will need to be appointed and must receive the required training, thus causing additional expense to the city. The code (Health and Safety Code § 191.022 (c)) requires that a registrar be available at all times for the registration of birth and deaths. • In the past, prior to my arrival and currently, if the Local Registrar is unavailable the requestor must wait to obtain the necessary copies. 1~1y absence Printed on Recycled Paper • from the office, whether I am out of town or simply at lunch, negatively impacts the duties of a local registrar and the population we serve, i.e. funeral home personnel as well as families. In the case of a cremation or removal of a body from the state, a burial transit permit must be issued by me -this is a timely task. Needless to say, an absence from the office for several days has far reaching effects. Trends The trend for city's to serve as the Local Registrar appears to be directly related to having a hospital facility within the city limits, in addition to the amount of money that can be collected for the issuance of certified copies. The Cities of North Richland Hills, Bedford, Fort Worth and Arlington are good examples of this situation. As most deaths are registered in a hospital facility, the number of records issued by the local registrars is quite significant and each of these cities has staff dedicated to the issuance of these records. Another example of a high issuance is related to Nursing and Rehab Centers within the city limits. A large majority of the deaths recorded in the City of Richland Hills occur in these type facilities. Below is an overview of the number of deaths filed with this office over the past five years: 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 72/50* 81!51 * 80/61 * 86/64* 84/65* • *Nursing and Rehab Center Financial Impact On average, you can expect to issue 4 certified copies of a death record. The cost to obtain these records at the current pricing structure is $32.00 (effective 1 / 1 /06). Averaging 80 deaths a year, and factoring in the increased rates, the annual total collection would be approximately $2,500.00. Now why that may seem like a fair amount of money, you must consider the city's cost to process a certificate. The certified copies must be issued on bank note paper; city equipment and material is utilized such as the typewriter, copier and paper, staff time as well as the maintenance and storage of the records. This revenue will be severely impacted once the state fully implements the state-wide, electronic registration system explained further in the paragraph below. The Future of Vital Records The Bureau of Vital Statistics has designed an electronic system to be used for death registration statewide. This technology was to have gone into place on January 1, 2006. The mechanism to fund the system was developed by the Bureau and triggered the increased fees to obtain certified copies. In a nut shell, the first copy of a certified record must be issued from the state and the state would collect the fee(s). Since the first copy would have to be purchased from the state, it only makes sense that each additional copy would be purchased at the • same time. This change would eliminate the need to purchase copies from the Local Registrar, which in effect would impact our ability to collect funds for the service we provide. As I understand it, the Local Registrar would still maintain • the same level of responsibility of reviewing the certificate for completeness, accepting the filing, numbering and maintaining the records, both electronically and hard copy. It is my understanding that the electronic registration system is in beta testing. What are other Cities doing? The County Clerk serves as the Local Registrar for many of our neighboring cities: - Colleyville (2001) - Haltom City (1995) - Hurst (2002) - Euless (2003) - Watauga (2003) Cities who serve as Local Registrar: - Bedford* - Fort Worth* - Grapevine* - Keller - North Richland Hills* *denotes hospital in city • Although not officially validated by any authority other than myself, the difference appears to be the presence of a hospital within the city limits, which in turn directly impacts the number of deaths recorded and the funds that can be collected by the municipalities serving as a Local Registrar. It is obvious to me that if the state implements and mandates the use of the state-wide, electronic registration system, these cities too maybe soon faced with decreased revenues. In Closing It is my hope that the Council will approve the transfer of these duties to the County Clerk. If approved, the transfer will be accomplished by April 3, 2006, as per the Commissioner's Court order. Thank you. •