Title
A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Mansfield, Tarrant County, Texas, Transferring the Duties of Vital Statistics Registrar to the County Clerk of Tarrant County
Requested Action
Approval of the Resolution by the City Council
Recommendation
Staff recommends apporval of the resolution authorizing the transfer of local registrar duties to the county.
Description/History
The City Secretary's office has been the local registrar for birth and death records for the City of Mansfield since 1987. With the hospital, the number of births and deaths recorded in the City has increased tremendously. We are now averaging 2600 vital records recorded each year. We also sell over 2000 copies of the records to authorized people each year. Currently, Tarrant County Clerk's office is the local registrar for vital records for all in Tarrant County except the cities of Mansfield, Grapevine, and Arlington.
People often go to the county for vital records, and the county will issue "short form" birth certificates for births in Mansfield. However, the "short form" birth certificates are not acceptable for some applications, such as passports. People then have to come to the city and pay to get a "long form" birth certificate. Making the transfer of vital records to the county will eliminate the confusion and extra costs for citizens.
State law (Section 191.023, Health and Safety Code) authorizes the transfer of the duty to maintain birth and death records from a municipality to the county clerk if the county clerk agrees to assume responsibility. The City Council and the Commissioners Court must approve of the action.
If the City Council approves the resolution, the County Commission will need to adopt a resolution accepting the records. The County Clerk's office will then pick up the records from the city and transfer them to Fort Worth, where they will be scanned and stored. The electronic records will be available at all of the subcourthouses ...
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