A County Surveyor has been making changes and additions to plats he filed in the County Survey Record Books. This is AFTER these originally filed plats were filed by book and page with the original date (of filing). He did this because he hand drafts all of his plats and does not have digital/cad capabilities to simply generate and file a new document reflecting these changes or additions. No way to find references to these changes since they were made after indexing and archiving.
I first brought this to his (the Surveyor) attention in 2014. I wrote a letter to the County Commission in 2015 documenting these incidents. Recently (2016) I wrote again to the County Commission, the Surveyor, and the Prosecuting Attorney that a simple solution would be for him to merely file new plats reflecting these changes. Again no action or response from anyone. This is a small 3rd class county and pursuit of matters like this are unpopular. I contacted the Prosecuting Attorney and was told I would need to file a Police report that a crime was committed. State statutes do address tampering with the Public Record, but are loose at best. I will eventually file a complaint with our BOR, but I have had clients "stonewalled" on previous issues.
Looking for guidance on filing a police report.
Trying to get county personnel to investigate or prosecute another county official sounds like an uphill battle. It would be around here. Good luck and you're also going to need impeccable documentation.
My angle would probably be to initiate an investigation by the appropriate State Board that oversees licensed surveyors. If that doesn't work flaming bags of dog poo on his porch might make you feel better.
Has anyone suggested he describe the changes in a document (" Notice of Map Amendment" or "Certificate of Correction"?) he then records with deeds, etc, then reference that doc on the map original or official copy?
paden cash, post: 386295, member: 20 wrote: Trying to get county personnel to investigate or prosecute another county official sounds like an uphill battle. It would be around here. Good luck and you're also going to need impeccable documentation.
My angle would probably be to initiate an investigation by the appropriate State Board that oversees licensed surveyors. If that doesn't work flaming bags of dog poo on his porch might make you feel better.
it's not about me "feeling better", it's about the integrity of the public record...and our profession.
I do welcome all replies.
BajaOR, post: 386299, member: 9139 wrote: Has anyone suggested he describe the changes in a document (" Notice of Map Amendment" or "Certificate of Correction"?) he then records with deeds, etc, then reference that doc on the map original or official copy?
I suggested that he simply copy the old document and file a new one indicating the changes...same difference.
No response!
I've drawn a line thru an error and inserted the correct volume or page number before.
Really bad to make additions to drawings and other recorded info.
The way to do that is to file a corrected form.
Most pubic records have an original in the basement or on file somewhere or with some company that has scanned the info and what is shown to the public is actually a copy.
A Harris, post: 386311, member: 81 wrote: I've drawn a line thru an error and inserted the correct volume or page number before.
Really bad to make additions to drawings and other recorded info.
The way to do that is to file a corrected form.
Most pubic records have an original in the basement or on file somewhere or with some company that has scanned the info and what is shown to the public is actually a copy.
I found a mistake in a 19th century hand written index. I can't write on the page so I got one of the scrap papers they have in the public area and wrote something like "<- Jones should be Johnson" and stuck it in the book, the names are different because I can't remember them. A couple of years later I looking through that book, the County Recorder had put the pages in plastic sleeves and they stuck my note in there :-).
these incidents do not involve errors, the surveyor added new "split" parcel lines to prior parent tract boundary surveys. Some of these changes are on surveys dating back to 1994, on plats sealed by the previous co surveyor, but not signed or sealed by THIS surveyor. This surveyor just does not want to prepare a new plat, he would rather just change his (plats) or even someone else's.
CHICKASAW, post: 386332, member: 12007 wrote: these incidents do not involve errors, the surveyor added new "split" parcel lines to prior parent tract boundary surveys. Some of these changes are on surveys dating back to 1994, on plats sealed by the previous co surveyor, but not signed or sealed by THIS surveyor. This surveyor just does not want to prepare a new plat, he would rather just change his (plats) or even someone else's.
yikes. Stay on this and keep us posted. Do you feel like sharing county and state location with us?
I would not recommend sharing the specific location on this board.
It would be good to know the state. ( I'll guess the Magnolia State)
This is the kind if stuff that happens sometimes in "Small
Town, USA".
Every state has an ethics board for misconduct for public servants and government officials and employees.
Filing a complaint is not necessarily a criminal complaint but it can lead to
one by investigation.
The county attorney would probably
not go forward without a police report.
The police will not go forward without knowing a specific law that was violated.
You can try to "play"the police and the county attorney against each other. If it's a small county, go directly to the top of command. Let them know that there will be an unpleasant outcome by the surveyor's actions. Ask them...where do they want to be as far as the record and future testimony.
Give em hell
In a tactful
Way
Grand Jury if your really interested in pursuing it.
What is the "Prosecuting Attorney" prosecuting here?
Jim in AZ, post: 386426, member: 249 wrote: What is the "Prosecuting Attorney" prosecuting here?
good question... what are the statutes?
obviously the first assumption is the changes are made with some kind of deception in mind, but I doubt that. And subjective intent is always hard to prove.
(what state is this in?)
Where I practice, it would be most appropriate to file a complaint through the Board of Registration.
Regardless of who you file your complaint with: Be sure to cite the exact statute(s) or regulation(s) that is/are being violated and demonstrate how this is a violation - provide evidence.
Provide information (in layman's terms) as to how this harms the public.
Every state has different levels of Board effectiveness. If the BOR isn't effective in your jurisdiction, talk with a local attorney about what route is most effective for you to pursue.
Odds are that the folks (other than the Surveyor) don't really understand what the issues are... these things are just noise to most folks and it's not easy to get them excited about things that don't have an immediate impact.
This is the only state specific statute I could find:
"A person commits the crime of tampering with a public record if with the purpose to impair the verity, legibility or availability of a public record:
(1) He knowingly makes a false entry in or falsely alters any public record;"
Bold, underlined text is shown for discussion. I have an issue with altering a record AFTER it has been filed, given a book and page number, and archived.
If he 'amended' one of my Plats or Surveys I would take it straight to the Board. You don't change the product of another Professional. Doing it on a recorded document is double stupid. Yes, Stupid.
I certainly wouldn't want to have a question to come up about one of my surveys, return to a record document I used to perform said survey, and find that it is not the same document that was on file when I did the survey.