The Colorado County Clerks Association today recognized three lawmakers who sponsored a bill to make it easier for clerks to maintain or upgrade equipment used to record documents.

The effort to pass the bill actually began two to three years ago, CCCA director Pam Anderson told clerks at their summer conference, which began Monday.

A lot of people put a lot of effort into getting Senate Bill 115 passed, she said, including the sponsors. The bill was sponsored by two Republicans, Rep. Kathleen Conti of Littleton and Sen. Beth Martinez Humenik of Thornton, and Rep. Dominick Moreno, a Commerce City Democrat.

“With perseverance you can get things done at the Capitol,” Humenik told the clerks. “Sometimes it just takes several years.”

The clerks association also honored outgoing Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, a Boulder Democrat who is only the second woman to lead the House. She carried House Bill 1303 in 2013, which made major changes in Colorado’s election laws.

“In 2015, her first legislative session as speaker, she worked to advance the Democratic agenda while minimizing the head-on collisions that occur between a Democratic-controlled House and a Republican-controlled Senate,” said Anderson, a former Republican clerk from Jefferson County.

“I have personally witnessed her acuity, and skill in the room for contentious issues.”

Hullinghorst received the CCCA Lifetime Service Award. She said it is one of the favorite awards she has received during her 40 years in public service.

Anderson also praised the clerks’ lobbying team, Mike Beasley and Michelle Batey, and Secretary of State Wayne Williams’ lobbying crew, Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert and legislative liaison Tim Griesmer.

They worked for the passage of Senate Bill 115, which tacks a $2 surcharge on recorded documents to help pay for and maintain technological upgrades. The legislature in 2002 passed a $1 surcharge, but the money it collected wasn’t sufficient, Anderson said, “particularly for our rural counties.”

To read more posts by Lynn Bartels, visit her official blog at the Colorado Secretary of State website.