State Department Stamps County Passport 'Excellent'

The top passport official in the United States presented San Diego County with a leadership award last week during an afternoon visit and tour of the County’s passport services.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Passport Services Brenda Sprague was in San Diego to visit the San Diego Passport Agency, one of the State Department’s 29 own passport facilities. But Sprague also asked to visit the County’s passport services at the County Administration Center, where she presented it with the award.

Sprague said the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs — which oversees the U.S. passport system — is always concerned that passport services are safe and that American citizens are getting great customer service when they travel.

“So today it is a pleasure to be somewhere where they are doing extraordinary (work),” Sprague said to an intimate gathering in the Board of Supervisors’ offices. “And we want to give you a leadership award. This is something we take very seriously in the Bureau of Consular Affairs.”

County Clerk Thomas Pastuszka returned the favor, presenting Sprague and members of the San Diego Passport Agency with a proclamation from the Board of Supervisors honoring her visit and declaring Tuesday “San Diego Passport Agency Day,” to thank the agency for its help.

The Passport Agency prints the passports for the applications the County processes. It also works with the County and its staff to make sure they can detect and prevent possible passport application fraud.

Pastuszka said the County Board of Supervisors authorized the Clerk’s office to become a passport application center in 1999, and that since then, working with the San Diego Passport Agency, the County has processed more than 100,000 applications.

The State Department has needed help to accept passport applications because the number of Americans seeking passports has increased dramatically in 25 years. According to the New York Times, just 7 million Americans had passports in 1989. In a U.S. Postal Commission hearing last year, Sprague said 113 million Americans have passports, that the State Department issues roughly 13 million passports each year and that they expect that number to increase to 16 million a year by 2017.

Pastuszka praised County staff during the presentation Tuesday, saying they’ve worked hard to help the State Department meet its goal of providing excellent customer service to travelers.

“As you know,” Pastuszka said, “the only way it happens is because they (county staff) are dedicated folks who greet people with a smile and do exceptional work.”