New Orleans Parish clerk of court Dale Atkins might have felt like the worst was behind her when she was able to conclusively state that 20 months of conveyance and mortgage records temporarily lost in a computer meltdown in October of 2010 had been recovered. However, it turns out that now that the all-nighters are over for staff desperately trying to replace and verify the data and get the real estate market up and running again in the parish, Atkins herself will be in the crosshairs[1]. During the recovery process, media and area officials focused mainly on the efficacy and speed of the process itself. Now, though, city council members are starting to wonder just exactly why it took a disaster that literally shut down the real estate market for three months to bring issues with city records to light.
At the time of publication, all city records are backed up but many remain unverified. Atkins claims that when she became clerk of court in 2009 she did not receive access or control of digital data, rendering her impotent when it came to managing or backing up vital title information on properties in the parish. She also points out that she did not have the funds for this task, even if she had the access. Some city council members, however, are not buying. “This is your responsibility,” stated council vice president Jackie Clarkson. “If there were these problems from the outset, why did it take a disaster to bring it to the surface?” Clarkson called poor management in the past “water under the bridge,” but then added that “that water is coming over the bridge and drowning us all.”
Adkins has also been criticized for leaving real estate agents in the dark about the entire timeline and recovery process, and some agents accuse her of not having “any urgency to expedite recovery.” However, city internet technology chief Allen Square and representatives from the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Title Attorneys have applauded her efforts and praise her selection of technology chief Peter Haas to handle the recovery and the system in the future.
Do you think that Adkins should lose her job over this debacle? Council members also are interested in suing the company responsible for backing up the records. They failed to do so effectively. Do you think this lawsuit is legitimate?
Thank you for reading! Your comments and questions are welcomed below.
[1] http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/clerk-blasted-by-council-real-estate-agents/Content?oid=1508113
