FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2007

CONTACT:
Carmella Sabaugh 586-469-7939
Paul Sbraccia 586-286-2214
Drew Hahn 336-283-0336
Fred Shapiro 313-341-5797

COUNTY CLERK IMPROVES WEB SITE

Finding information on the county clerk’s web site just got easier as Macomb County Clerk / Register of Deeds Carmella Sabaugh (D-Warren) today announced her office completed the first phase of a project to improve the site.

“By using technology we can make county clerk services convenient for the public,” said Sabaugh. “We offer many services on the web, but still provide personal customer service on the phone and at the counter, and we’re still open late on Wednesdays.”

"I find this site to be easy to navigate, well organized, user-friendly and helpful," said Macomb Community College Professor Paul Sbraccia, in the Information Technology - Web Programming Department. MCC offers web master and web developer certificates aimed at preparing students for positions in service, support, and program development for the World Wide Web. "Clerk Sabaugh's site combines the right amount of imagery and text to convey a message that the County Clerk is service oriented."

“While government has typically been slow to implement e-commerce, Sabaugh has led the way by allowing the community to order birth and death certificates, without having to wait in line,” said Drew Hahn, former Director of Marketing Services and Electronic Publications for New York University and current Vice President for Research and Development at Newsroom Solutions, a software, hardware and content provider for local television stations. “The design of the new site is not only attractive, but highly functional. In a well designed site, form follows function -- which means the content of the site should inform the design. The Macomb Clerk's site is no exception.”

“It looks great,” said Fred Shapiro, Director of Software Development, Consulting Engineering Associates, Inc. “It is very intuitive, well-laid-out and the performance is excellent as well.”

Some of the services Sabaugh offers on her web site are:

• Macomb County Circuit Court Index
• Macomb County Business Search
• Macomb County Campaign Finance Documents
• Macomb County Death Records Search
• Notary Public Search
• Register of Deeds Land Records

You can also order a birth or death certificate on the site, find election results, track the status of your concealed weapons permit, or get a list of fax-on-demand forms. Jurors can order books to be delivered and waiting for them when they arrive for jury duty. You can even click a button to be immediately connected via phone to clerk staff.

“This is just the first part of our web site improvement,” said Sabaugh. “We’ve got something fantastic coming to the web next.”

The Macomb County Clerk / Register of Deeds web site address is http://www.macombcountymi.gov/clerksoffic

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