 National Association of Counties * Washington, D.C. Vol. 33, No. 9 * May 7, 2001 Previous story | Table of Contents | Next story County workers make wedding come true
Clatsop County (Ore.) Records and Elections workers (l-r) Karen Bechtolt, Andi Sotomayor and Brett Marconeri solved an immigration problem to ring wedding bells for a county resident and her German fiancé. Spring has been blissful for ‘recently weds’ Miriam Rakowski of Seaside, Ore. and Frank Voelker of Germany, thanks in part to Clatsop County, Ore. Records and Elections workers. Andi Sotomayor, along with coworkers Karen Bechtolt and Brett Marconeri, helped Rakowski acquire documentation of her U.S. citizenship, a problem that Rakowski had been unable to resolve for 25 years. Rakowski was born in Dundee, Scotland, and immigrated with her parents to the United States in 1952, when she was 3 years old. She became a naturalized citizen through her parents but didn’t have documentation. She tried countless times over the past 25 years to obtain documentation. Immigration officials didn’t know how to handle her unusual case and always sent her away, telling her she didn’t need the papers, she said. “I kept getting shuffled around, never getting help or answers,” she said. “So I let it go.” Over the years, she voted in elections, obtained a Social Security card and enjoyed other privileges of U.S. citizenship. She worked for the state of Arizona as a Department of Economic Security eligibility interviewer. “They allowed me to do everything as an American citizen.” Last May, she and Voelker met while he and his sons were on vacation. She was working at the registration desk at the motel where the Voelkers stayed. The couple fell in love. They wanted to marry in Germany and then live in the United States. But Rakowski didn’t have a passport and feared she wouldn’t be allowed to return from Germany or that her husband wouldn’t be able to live in the United States with her. Once again, not having documentation of her citizenship could be a problem. She turned to the Clatsop County Records and Elections Division, which processes about 50 passport applications a month. Marconeri, Bechtolt and Sotomayor brainstormed over how to resolve her problem, and after advice from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Sotomayor found a legal way for Rakowski to immediately obtain her U.S. passport, thereby documenting her U.S. citizenship. Without their help, Rakowski said she would have needed to wait two years to become a naturalized citizen and to marry Voelker. Rakowski and Voelker decided not to wait and were married Dec. 28. Rakowski credits Sotomayor, Marconeri and Bechtolt for making her marriage possible. “They went beyond what was expected of them in their ‘job descriptions,’ and they truly reached out and helped someone who needed it. They didn’t shove me under some papers and get back to me. They did their jobs and more.” |
