Dear Mr. Secretary: Tell Mike Coffman How to Do His job

Today, Colorado Confidential outlined the myriad of problems in the Secretary of State’s office under Gigi Dennis’ supervision.

Incoming secretary Mike Coffman has pledged to make significant improvements to the office – from reasonable proposals like working cooperatively with Sen. Ken Gordon, his Democratic opponent, on legislative remedies to the absurd notion of cracking down on non-existent fraudulent voting.While the election issues have received the most attention, keep in mind that the office has several responsibilities all of which have had their own serious accountability problems:

  • Business Division: Files documents relating to various business organizations and business names; files trade names for certain business entities; registers trade marks; files financing statements, notices of security interests in agricultural products; federal tax liens; and other miscellaneous statutory liens; performs searches of those records; provides copies of filed documents; issues related certificates; and provides pertinent educational services.
  • Licensing Division: Issues Bingo/Raffles licenses and inspects facilities and operations of these games to ensure compliance with Bingo/Raffle laws, commissions notaries public and administers the Notary law, collects and disseminates information filed by charitable organizations that solicit contributions in Colorado and their professional fundraisers, manages the Colorado Administrative Rules Code, and provides rulemaking and guidance for state agencies under the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) Program.
  • Elections Division: Supervises elections, maintains statewide voter registration file, verifies initiative petition signatures, and administers the Campaign Finance Laws; serves as the filing office for unincorporated municipalities and for conflict of interest disclosure statements; and registers lobbyists.
  • Administration Division: Provides management and central support services for the Department of State such as budgeting, accounting, and human resources; monitors the use of the State Seal; certifies the interest rate on appealed money judgments; files Acts passed by the Legislature; and conveys information within our office to the public; plans and monitors legislation that affects the Department of State; and responds to inquires from the press and public.
  • Information Technology Division: Supports the information systems needs of the entire Secretary of State’s office. Maintains the Departmental infrastructure consisting of multiple servers, personal computers, networking equipment, firewall, telephony, peripherals, and other information technology equipment to support the data and imaging needs of the Department. Also supports the web presence of the Secretary of State.

So let ‘er rip, CoCo readers. What should Mike Coffman concentrate on once he takes office next month?

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