Statement about “security or official paper and ALL applications or forms” in a public notice released by Uvalde County Clerk Donna Williams disputed by former Uvalde County Clerk Valerie Del Toro Romero
A public notice from the Uvalde County Clerk was received by the Uvalde Hesperian on Friday morning, January 13th from Donna Williams. The public notice states the following:
“Please take note that the Uvalde County Clerk’s office is unable to issue birth or death certificates or to issue marriage licenses at this time. We regret to inform you that those services have been temporarily suspended. Upon our first day in office, on January 1st, 2023, it was discovered that ALL security or official paper and all applications and forms were missing or destroyed.”
On Saturday Morning, January 14, 2023, Valerie Del Toro Romero, the former Uvalde County Clerk responded to William’s public notice.
“In response to the recent ”public notices” issued by the Uvalde County Clerk and circulated on the Uvalde Hesperian Facebook page please know that this information is inaccurate and misleading. First and foremost, I DID NOT destroy any “birth or death records”, “official paper” or “marriage application forms”. The banknote paper used to print certified copies of birth and death records containing MY NAME and MY SIGNATURE were legally destroyed in the presence of two assistant auditors during my end of term audit. A finger print based criminal background check is required and the responsibility of the incoming clerk to make arrangements with the state to provide the necessary requirements prior to taking office to avoid a disruption of service. I have attached the statute below for reference. Has this been done?
Marriage applications are automatically generated by the current case management system (LGS) or applications can be downloaded directly from the state website. Marriage Licenses are ordered as a duty of the clerk just as if you were ordering office supplies. It makes me wonder why the current clerk is disputing this procedure when she did the EXACT SAME THING at her end of term audit in 2018. Nowadays, you can never be too careful. Especially, with the current situation of illegal immigration, fraud and smuggling if this banknote paper were to fall into the wrong hands with MY NAME and MY SIGNATURE.
Furthermore, I would like to know why the County Clerk issued two different public notices; one to be posted on the county website and a different one to the Uvalde Hesperian Facebook? This is defamation of character with intent to cause me harm. I extended the County Clerk the exact same professional courtesies that she extended to me when I took office in 2019. Obviously, she holds a double standard. If she needed my help, all she had to do was ask! I assumed she knew the duties and responsibilities required of her job. After all, she held this office prior to my term. One of Donna M. Williams’ campaign promises was to “protect our borders”. I suppose she was too busy “protecting our borders” than to prepare for her first day in office!,” Valarie Del Toro Romero wrote.
with her post, she included the following image (see image on the right)
