Comparison of Adil Baguirov vs. his opponent for County Recorder

County Recorder is a custodian of mostly real estate paper and digital records, thus the two most critical skills and experiences are Real Estate and Technology.

It is especially important when the county is technologically backward and high-taxed, which is the case for Montgomery County. Expertise in real estate and technology will allow to improve services, increase customer and business satisfaction, lower costs on taxpayers, and speed up the real estate transactions recording process. Which is why over 2,000 counties in the U.S. have long implemented this.

Adil Baguirov's vision is to implement an e-Recording and e-Notary land records system already in his first year in office, at zero cost to taxpayers, and to start reducing the budget of the Montgomery County Recorder's office. You can find out more about the clear benefits of e-Recording from the Property Records Industry Association (PRIA). Once e-Recording is implemented in Montgomery County, Adil will continue to innovate and improve the office of Recorder to lower costs, improve efficiency and speed, and implement more cutting edge technologies - such as blockchain land title records - to position Montgomery County as an innovation leader, not a laggard it is today.

Dr. Adil Baguirov Brandon McClain
AdilBaguirovFlag.jpg
checkmark - Adil can do the job Licensed Realtor. Residential and commercial real estate investor for 10 years opponent cannot do it or unqualified

No relevant real estate experience or license. Appointed to County Recorder position on March 22, 2018, so only seven months of real estate experience

checkmark - Adil can do the job Previously elected to the largest Board of Education in the region and even served as its President, leading 2,700 employees and a $500 million consolidated budget, and some 40 accomplishments opponent cannot do it or unqualified

Previously an appointed magistrate whose only "real estate experience" was handling "eviction procedures" per Dayton Municipal Court official description

checkmark - Adil can do the job Takes mandatory Ohio real estate licensing continuing education classes opponent cannot do it or unqualified Has not taken even one mandatory Ohio Recorder's Association continuing education class (5)
checkmark - Adil can do the job Technology implementation leader (1) opponent cannot do it or unqualified No technology experience or background whatsoever
checkmark - Adil can do the job Transparency leader (2) opponent cannot do it or unqualified No transparency leadership or background
checkmark - Adil can do the job Fiscally responsible who saved $8 million at DPS and will always reduce costs, fight waste, fraud, abuse (3) opponent cannot do it or unqualified Not fiscally responsible, plans to waste estimated $750,000 of taxpayers' money on an in-house software while claiming it will "save" money (3*)
checkmark - Adil can do the job Small business owner and job creator in Montgomery County opponent cannot do it or unqualified

Appointed political employee. Previously also appointed municipal government employee. Created a job in county office on public dime

checkmark - Adil can do the job Bold, independent, visionary and innovative leadership (4) opponent cannot do it or unqualified Owes government appointments to political power brokers
checkmark - Adil can do the job Never solicited political campaign contributions or "volunteers" from his former or current employees opponent cannot do it or unqualified

Accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Recorder's office and other county employees and has them as "volunteers" at campaign events (6)

checkmark - Adil can do the job Cut bureaucracy and reduced expenses when elected to a public office opponent cannot do it or unqualified

Once appointed immediately created a new "PR" job position in the Recorder's office despite the County experiencing a $9 million budget shortfall in 2018 and raising the sales tax to plug that hole

checkmark - Adil can do the job Never pretends that simply meeting the legal requirement for the position is somehow special, unique or "innovative" opponent cannot do it or unqualified

Positions two-year late issuance of veteran IDs - required function of Recorder office by ORC 317.241 - as something that he uniquely developed and deserves election for (7)

checkmark - Adil can do the job Being a technology expert works with programmers and does not take credit for their work, or misuse it as yet another example of "innovation" voters should elect him for opponent cannot do it or unqualified Takes full credit for computer programmers' work on property fraud alerts - as something that he uniquely developed and somehow deserves election for - despite other Ohio counties having such systems for seven (7) years - and not trying to pass it as manna from heaven (8)

To better visualize the two different approaches to the same problem by the two candidates for County Recorder, review this helpful infographic:

Infographic_BaguirovMcClainCountyRecorder

Notes

1) Adil Baguirov implemented the largest technology project in Montgomery County while serving as President of the Dayton Board of Education, and chairman of its Technology Committee, in 2016, where his campaign promise and idea of outfitting the largest school district with the one-to-one technology. Thus, 14,000 students and 1,000 teachers in 29 buildings, requiring hundreds of pieces of networking devices and equipment, and thousands of yards of cables, got brand-new laptops pre-loaded with specialized top-ranked software to improve educational outcomes and offer individualized learning. This massive class-leading technology upgrade was unveiled in just one year, and has been benefiting the students for several years now, improving college and career readiness, as well as preparedness for a variety of state tests which are all online.

Additionally, as a result of Adil's idea and under his direct command, a DPS app was introduced for iPhones and Androids which allowed school bus tracking for parents - a feature that many parents wanted, but only 3 districts out of 608 offer in Ohio.

You can watch a video prepared by DPS on the one-to-one technology initiative and the DPS app here: https://dpstv.viebit.com/player.php?hash=tQkEYmQJSvF9

As a former web developer, with multiple technology certifications, Adil Baguirov is the clear technology leader.

2) Fulfilled campaign promise to bring unprecedented transparency to DPS, by being the first urban school district in Ohio in joining the state’s OhioCheckbook.com initiative and establishing the office of independent Internal Auditor to catch waste, fraud and abuse.

Also fulfilled campaign promise to improve fiscal accountability at DPS by more than doubling cash reserves to over 10%, improving finances, reducing state audit deficiencies, and preventing a bond rating downgrade to near junk status.

3) According to Internal Auditor’s calculations, in just two years of Adil Baguirov’s term DPS saved over $6.5 million and recovered over $1.3 million of taxpayers’ funds. This is a conservative tally.

Meanwhile, Adil's opponent wants to spend a conservatively estimated $750,000 (*) over two years (requested development of such system in April 2018) to create an e-recording system in-house from scratch in 2020 by Montgomery County's programmers - despite availability of several time-tested industry-standard off-the-shelf third-party solutions that are available right now and have been successfully used by dozens of counties in Ohio and other states. At least 28 Ohio counties use off-the-shelf proven commercial solutions per the Ohio Recorder's Association. This is fiscal waste by a technologically unsophisticated government bureaucrat, who does not account the man-hours spent by seven (7) county programmers Ashley Jenkins, Kat Lemmert, Joe Hummer, Niko Infanto, Chris Boyd, Gail Hicks and Melissa Carito (whose annual salaries and benefits range from $63,419 to $102,595, each (plus benefits), according to the DDN Payroll Project), does not think about various incompatibilities and technical issues plaguing in-house software applications, and does not worry about how staff turnover along with underpinning technology changes will affect maintenance, upgradeability and training of the in-house system in the years to come.

Incidentally, appointed recorder's plan to take two (2) years to develop this system and unveil it only in mid-2020 coincides with the next election when the County Recorder would be up for the full term. Our recently appointed County Recorder is already thinking and acting like a career politician. Mr. McClain wants to delay the introduction of e-Recording so that he can ride the wave of free publicity from the introduction of the e-Recording in mid-2020 to the election. Adil Baguirov will not play such political games - and will unveil the best system in just several months in his first year in 2019.

This is the actual technology request from Montgomery County Recorder's office to County's Data Processing Department:

20180906 Request Debra Harden Gail Hicks Chuck Scott Researching and implementing a Land Record System that is compatible with all existing software. Note: This was submitted by Brandon McClain but he's not showing up in the helpdesk system yet. 133009 147:30:00 4/6/2018
20180906 Request Debra Harden Chris Boyd Chuck Scott Researching and implementing a Land Record System that is compatible with all existing software. Note: This was submitted by Brandon McClain but he's not showing up in the helpdesk system yet. 133009 147:30:00 4/6/2018
20180906 Request Debra Harden Niko Infanto Chuck Scott Researching and implementing a Land Record System that is compatible with all existing software. Note: This was submitted by Brandon McClain but he's not showing up in the helpdesk system yet. 133009 147:30:00 4/6/2018
20180906 Request Debra Harden Ashley Jenkins Chuck Scott Researching and implementing a Land Record System that is compatible with all existing software. Note: This was submitted by Brandon McClain but he's not showing up in the helpdesk system yet. 133009 147:30:00 4/6/2018
20180906 Request Debra Harden Kat Lemmert Chuck Scott Researching and implementing a Land Record System that is compatible with all existing software. Note: This was submitted by Brandon McClain but he's not showing up in the helpdesk system yet. 133009 147:30:00 4/6/2018
20180906 Request Debra Harden Joe Hummer Chuck Scott Researching and implementing a Land Record System that is compatible with all existing software. Note: This was submitted by Brandon McClain but he's not showing up in the helpdesk system yet. 133009 147:30:00 4/6/2018
20180906 Request Debra Harden Melissa Carito Chuck Scott Researching and implementing a Land Record System that is compatible with all existing software. Note: This was submitted by Brandon McClain but he's not showing up in the helpdesk system yet. 133009 147:30:00 4/6/2018

3*) The $750,000 estimate is derived from a similarly discredited in-house e-recording initiative by a County Recorder in Utah, who wasted well over $750,000 on designing and developing an in-house web application system, for which he was slammed by the 2016 Performance Audit done by the County Auditor, and was then rejected by voters by losing the re-election.

From Auditor's findings: "Costs for DARWIN [their in-house land records management and e-recording system - ed.] were not properly capitalized according to the County's fixed asset capitalization policy. Because the costs of the DARWIN project were not accounted for accurately, the Recorder's Office could only provide an approximate total cost of the project of roughly $752,000. Instead of separating out the costs for the development of DARWIN, the Recorder's Office has commingled the costs of the IT project with the Recorder's daily operational costs."

Further questions posed by the County Auditor: "Determine if the costs for County IS development of DARWIN would have been more or less than the Recorder's development costs. Did the Recorder's Office pursue the most economical choice when deciding whether or not to develop DARWIN in-house or outsource the project?

Determine the cost of other significant applications (an application that allows the Recorder to meet statutory requirement(s)) used in comparable county recorder offices, and compare the cost of those applications with the in-house development and implementation costs of DARWIN."

Read more from the official report: https://slco.org/uploadedFiles/depot/fAuditor/2016_audit_reports/2016-03_RecordersOffice.pdf

4) Adil has an actual vision and a plan to innovate as a County Recorder. Adil Baguirov wants Montgomery County's Recorder office to be first in Ohio, not last as it is now. That's why Dr. Baguirov has been the only candidate to be able to talk about true innovation and a pledge to make Montgomery County first in Ohio to implement blockchain land title records. His opponent does not have any clear vision nor any track record of innovation. And frankly without technology and real estate background it is a tall order.

Moreover, Adil has proven to be a bold leader, unafraid of going against the most politically powerful groups. Case in point is how Adil fought against ECOT abuses by adopting first-ever Board resolutions against such failed schools in 2015 and establishing the online Dayton Innovation Virtual Academy (VirtualDPS.com) to save Dayton kids from ECOT.

5) Ohio Revised Code requirements for Recorders: "Each county recorder who is newly elected to a full term of office shall attend and successfully complete at least fifteen hours of continuing education courses during the first year of the recorder's term of office and complete at least another eight hours of such courses each year of the remaining term."

Ohio Revised Code requirements for Realtors: "All real estate licensees, sales associates and brokers are required to certify completion of thirty hours of continuing education courses every three years."

6) According to campaign finance reports (see here and here), Mr. McClain, who was only appointed to the position of Recorder in March 2018, and as a Dayton magistrate has not dealt with the Recorder's office before, has accepted political contributions from his own county Recorder's office employees. He also benefited from having these employees "volunteer" at his campaign events such as during multiple parades and candidates forums.

7) Per Ohio Revised Code (ORC) 317.241, which has been the law since September 2016, a County Recorder's office can issue Veteran Identification Cards. Montgomery County Recorder, perennially late, finally started issuing these IDs in September 2018. Despite a two year wait, already in the first week Montgomery County Recorder had to temporarily stop the issuance of IDs to figure out how to fit long names onto the ID card and properly configure printer equipment.

This is the actual technology request from Montgomery County Recorder's office to County's Data Processing Department:

ID TYPE CONTACT NAME ASSIGNED TO ASSIGNED BY ISSUE OCA TIME LOGGED CREATED UPDATED
20182162 Request Debra Harden Niko Infanto Russ Aber Veteran ID Card Printer broke down. Veterans with long last name would not fit on ID Card. Problem with vets that dont have middle initial. Contacted Card Press to fix ID field and format date fields. 133009 8:00 9/7/2018 9/21/2018

Since then, despite heavy media, county and personal promotion, only 750 total IDs were issued and military discharge DD 214's were recorded. This is less than 1% of total volume of documents that Montgomery County Recorder's records each year - with 98% of all documents recorded being real estate related, and another 1% being business related UCC-1's. Despite being late to implement this state law, despite not configuring their printers and equipment correctly in spite the 2 year wait time, and despite Veteran IDs being less than 1% of total recording activities by the County Recorder office, the appointed politician touts his record of "innovation" and how he "developed" this program (which other counties implemented long ago). All this as a "reason" to elect him.

8) Other counties in Ohio, as well as all over the U.S., have had free property fraud alerts for many years. Montgomery County finally introduced these free alerts only in May 2018 - a whopping seven years behind. Despite finally catching up by being among last at the finish line, other counties, big and small, had it for years. For example, Colombiana County has had such a free property fraud alert system since 2011 - seven long years ago. Many others, including surrounding counties like Warren and Miami, have had it for years, too. Indeed, when Montgomery County Recorder's office finally decided to let County programmers create the free property fraud alerts - despite being seven years behind - they used Miami County Recorder's system as a blueprint and example for Montgomery County's programmers. Despite being seven years late, despite missing many opportunities, despite reports from experienced real estate professionals that the system malfunctioned when they tried to sign up, two obvious questions arise:

I) considering how easy it was to introduce such an alert system - required no actual work by the County Recorder's office employees, they simply referenced Miami County Recorder's free property fraud alert system and gave the written go-ahead to County programmers to "create a fraud alert system" - why were Montgomery County Recorder's office and the County as a whole, such as Auditor, Treasurer and Commissioners, waiting so long? If other counties had it for seven years, why did Montgomery County miss the boat for so long?

II) since it was so late yet so easy to do, and all the work was actually done by county programmers, while blueprint was Miami County's free property alert system, why is the appointed politician Montgomery County Recorder taking all credit and adds this to his political resume as a shining example of why voters should elect him as the Recorder? Why should he get any political credit for simply requesting his chief Deputy Recorder Debra Harden to file a ticket with the Montgomery County's Data Processing Department to create an alert notification system like the one available at Miami County for years?

This is the actual technology request from Montgomery County Recorder's office to County's Data Processing Department:

ID TYPE CONTACT NAME ASSIGNED TO ASSIGNED BY ISSUE OCA TIME LOGGED CREATED UPDATED
20180907 Request Debra Harden Gail Hicks Chuck Scott Create a fraud alert system. See attachment. this is a priority, thank you so much! (Pages 1-3) Also attached example from Miami County Recorder. Note: This was submitted by Brandon McClain but 133009 166:15:00 4/6/2018
20180907 Request Debra Harden Niko Infanto Chuck Scott Create a fraud alert system. See attachment. this is a priority, thank you so much! (Pages 1-3) Also attached example from Miami County Recorder. Note: This was submitted by Brandon McClain but 133009 166:15:00 4/6/2018
20180907 Request Debra Harden Chris Boyd Chuck Scott Create a fraud alert system. See attachment. this is a priority, thank you so much! (Pages 1-3) Also attached example from Miami County Recorder. Note: This was submitted by Brandon McClain but 133009 166:15:00 4/6/2018