Service Suffering Under New Secretary of State
Ohio bloggers are talking this week about Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's big budget supplemental request. Read a summary of some of the stories here.
Here's hoping that the department uses some of those tax dollars to improve services for the public.
Here at The Pullins Law Firm, we file documents on a weekly, and sometimes a daily basis, with the Ohio Secretary of State on behalf of clients from around the country. Under Secretary of States Bob Taft and Sherrod Brown, the state office took from six weeks to six months to process and return important filings like the formation of new businesses.
Secretary of State Ken Blackwell had his faults, and filing fees increased dramatically under his tenure. But the results spoke for themselves. When Blackwell left office, filings were being processed and returned usually in 3 or 4 days. But since Brunner's swearing in, processing time has slowed dramatically. Business filings are now taking a week or more and sometimes several weeks to be processed.
Is this a partisan issue? No, Republican Bob Taft was as equally incompetent or more in this area than his Democrat predecessor.
In today's instant internet world, there is simply no reason for it to take a week or longer to set up a new business in Ohio. Ohio's would be entrepreneurs don't care whether the current occupant of the Secretary of State has an R or a D behind her name. They only care that the job is done competently, quickly, and inexpensively. Ohioans will give Secretary Brunner some time to settle in and get to work, but the clock is ticking.
Thank you.
Scott A. Pullins, Esq.
Publisher,
The Pullins Report
Here's hoping that the department uses some of those tax dollars to improve services for the public.
Here at The Pullins Law Firm, we file documents on a weekly, and sometimes a daily basis, with the Ohio Secretary of State on behalf of clients from around the country. Under Secretary of States Bob Taft and Sherrod Brown, the state office took from six weeks to six months to process and return important filings like the formation of new businesses.
Secretary of State Ken Blackwell had his faults, and filing fees increased dramatically under his tenure. But the results spoke for themselves. When Blackwell left office, filings were being processed and returned usually in 3 or 4 days. But since Brunner's swearing in, processing time has slowed dramatically. Business filings are now taking a week or more and sometimes several weeks to be processed.
Is this a partisan issue? No, Republican Bob Taft was as equally incompetent or more in this area than his Democrat predecessor.
In today's instant internet world, there is simply no reason for it to take a week or longer to set up a new business in Ohio. Ohio's would be entrepreneurs don't care whether the current occupant of the Secretary of State has an R or a D behind her name. They only care that the job is done competently, quickly, and inexpensively. Ohioans will give Secretary Brunner some time to settle in and get to work, but the clock is ticking.
Thank you.
Scott A. Pullins, Esq.
Publisher,
The Pullins Report
First things first. Let's be accurate about the funding Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner wants to tap to tide her over until her new budget is approved. It's not taxpayer dollars at all; it's business service fee money that's already been paid to the agency that's being stored in a separate business division account. General Revenue Fund dollars, or taxpayer dollars, is puny at about 13% or so, and it goes to fund election activities not the papers you seem to be talking about. It's already the agency's money, but to transfer it (like a line of credit at a commercial bank) she has to win approval from the Ohio Controlling Board, a financial gatekeeper still controlled by Republicans, who, led by Rep. Kevin DeWine, want to make life tough for her, for all the wrong reasons.
In a perfect world, the Internet is a wizard, and corporate filings like you do should be addressed quickly. Our new secretary of state has maintained the same processing speed as did her predecessor, which is between 4-5 days. Given that your situation is indeed real, it's the rare exception not the rule.
Brunner, who's been in the headlines of late due to her role as election chief, understands the pivotal role her business service's division plays in powering the agency. And as you might expect, when one administration leaves to make way for another, there are natural adjustments that need to be made. One of her campaign and now operational goals, is to bring more efficiencies to business service processes; maybe more and better technology is one solution; maybe better organization and the refocusing of existing, albeit it, sparse resources is another solution; or maybe both. Either way, there's a cost associated with management improvements and as the first woman to hold the post, she's doing a good job at "husbanding" the resources left by Mr. Blackwell.
New people with new ideas, that's what Ohioans demanded and voted for last year. In a little over 90 days, Brunner's team has shown they can hit the ground running, overcoming the potholes and obstacles left strewn here and there by Mr. J. Kenneth Blackwell. Actually, it's a testament to her business management skills -- which her Republican challenger immediately denigrated -- that she's kept the agency afloat financially in spite of the funds that leaked out of her control in the form of 11th hour bonuses and the payment of unexpected, steep legal bills she got stuck with. She's got it going, that's for sure.
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