ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The Monroe County Clerk's office said it has an enormous task ahead of it in the coming months.

"These are file drawers full of forms that still need to be sent to the courts," Monroe County Clerk Adam Bello said.

There are about 20,000 forms from pistol permit holders requesting their names and address be removed from public record. Bello said about 13,000 still need to be processed.

"That's what's troubling about the situation is we don't know who's opted out and who hasn't," he said.

Bello said his office won't release any pistol permit owner's information until all the forms are processed. He said it's matter of privacy rights and public safety, but admitted it does create some transparency issues.

"My concern is the county's been exposed to a legal challenge because the process really stalled out awhile ago," he said. "The last time the pistol permit opt out forms had gone to judges were over a year ago."

"We would be successful in any such lawsuit, should there be one," County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo said.

The Governor appointed Bello in March and he inherited the task from the then-clerk, Dinolfo.

"It's certainly not a mess," she said. "It was a clear decision on my part to make sure that we had a process where those who had opted out had the ability to do so."

Dinolfo said after the state passed the SAFE Act in 2013, counties across the state were inundated with these opt out forms. While other counties immediately passed those forms onto the courts for approval, she said her administration was working cooperatively with the courts so nobody was overwhelmed.

"I just think that the issue is certainly one which could've easily been resolved with a better understanding of why I chose to handle the pistol permits the way we did," Dinolfo said.

Bello said it wasn't his intention to make the Republican county executive look bad. He said he made the issue public to explain why he couldn't fulfill a reporter's request for information.

"I didn't go out and broadcast this and come out and immediately attack the former county clerk either," Bello said. "When we found out about this issue, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work."

The clerk's requesting $25,000 in next year's budget for two part-time staffers to help sort through the forms. He said it could take as long as a year to resolve.