DuPage recorder candidates debate value of the position

The race for the DuPage County Recorder of Deeds office features an incumbent seeking his fourth term and a challenger who hopes to do the job in one term or less.

M. Moon Khan, a Lombard Democrat who secured his party's nomination during a spring write-in campaign, says if he wins on Nov. 8 he'll quickly push to abolish the office.

"I'm working on my own demise," Khan said during an interview with the Daily Herald's editorial board.

Incumbent Republican Fred Bucholz of Wheaton, however, says efforts to abolish the recorder's office would only push his job responsibilities onto the county clerk or treasurer.

The recorder's office is the official land records repository for all real estate in the county. The recorder's primary responsibility is the accurate and timely maintenance of the indexing of documents in the chain of title to land in DuPage.

Khan said in the "age of internet and the cloud," there is no need to have public records dispersed throughout four public offices.

"People have no idea what things are kept at the recorder's office so I ask them if they think the entire job responsibilities of the recorder's office can be transferred to to the treasurer's or clerk's office and then we abolish this one," Khan said. "About 90 percent said, 'Yes, it should be done.'"

Bucholz, whose base salary is $139,835 in addition to a $5,400 vehicle allowance, called Khan's proposal "knee-jerk."

"What you save is my salary. I can go away but what you've done is just merged my duties under another county official in the county clerk," Bucholz said. "I don't mind if they want to consolidate the recorder's office. I can go to the private sector and make more money doing this kind of work there. But you need to take a longer view than the knee-jerk reaction of saying 'Let's just get rid of the recorder.'"