Flaws in the county clerk's electronic recording of mortgages directed nearly $1 million in receipts to the city that were meant for area towns and villages.

City officials alerted the county to the error after receiving an unusually large mortgage tax payment in December, officials said Thursday.

Further investigation showed the problems began as far back as 2015, when the current system was implemented. Staff turnover last year exacerbated the problem. The city is returning the money.

Greece, Henrietta and Perinton all stand to receive more than $100,000 once the money is reallocated, records show. Village distribution has yet to be determined. The timing for the corrective action also is, as yet, unknown.

Monroe County Clerk Adam Bello attributed the errors to a rushed rollout of the eRecording system under his predecessor, Cheryl Dinolfo, now serving as county executive. But a spokesman for Dinolfo countered that while a pilot, or test program, was in place, full implementation did not occur until Dec. 31, 2015.

Dinolfo left the clerk's office to become county executive in January 2016. Bello was appointed into the clerk's post that March.

Bello, a Democrat, is running against the Republican county executive in her bid for re-election this fall.

BDSHARP@Gannett.com